XII. Inspeximus Charter of July 26, 6 Edward IV (1466), confirming and expanding that of XIII. Confirmation of the Drapers' Right of Search. XIV. Ordinance of the Mayor confirming the Right of Search of Woollen Cloths, October 6, 26 XVI. Letters Patent of Richard III releasing the Drapers from all forfeitures for offences committed before February 21, 1484. May 21, 1 Richard III, 1484 236 XVII. The Oath Book or Book of Ordinances, originally drawn up in 1405 and entered in the book in 1460, with later additions up to 1531 XVIII. Transcript of the earliest Wardens' Accounts from XX B. Transcript of the earliest Renters' Accounts for LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME I The Original Arms of the Drapers, 1439. Seal of 1439. From a cast in the British Museum PAGE facing page 221 INTRODUCTION LONDON AND HER GILDS FROM THE NORMAN (1) quest and in HE theory that the civic struc- London at From the scanty Charter 3 of 1 The initial comes from Charter No. I. 2 The suggestion of Mr. Loftie that the Cnighten Gild formed a part of the government of the City in Anglo-Saxon or Norman times is refuted by Mr. Round. Loftie, London, i. 98; Round, Commune of London, pp. 103, 221. Mr. Loftie makes much of the fact that Leofstan, who had been Portreeve in the Confessor's day, was head of the Cnighten Gild in the reign of Henry I. But this proves nothing; the same man might be Portreeve and head of the Gild at the same time, without there being any connexion between these two offices, just as we know that several of the members of the Gild were Aldermen at the time of its dissolution. Nor again had London then or at any time a Merchant Gild. Gross, Gild Merchant, i. 105. For an account of the Cnighten Gild and Merchant Gilds cf. pp. 15, 16 of this volume. Cf. also Petit Dutaillis, Studies Supplementary to Stubbs, p. 67; Maitland, Township and Borough; Bateson, Mediaeval England, Borough Customs. So too, abroad, the origin of the civic government is to be looked for not in the Gild system but in the rural organization of the Manor. The Merchant Gild abroad had even less 3 Cf. Stubbs, Charters, 8th ed., p. 108. had 'a certain unity under its portreeve and its Bishop', and that the The Charter burghers were to be held 'Law worthy'. The Charter of Henry I of Henry I. is much more explicit, but, although it makes some changes, it probably did not alter materially the basis of the civic constitution. The City at that date is organized on the analogy of a rural shire. It is independent of any other county; and Middlesex, the county in which it lies, is held of the Crown at a ferm of 300 pounds. It is given the privilege of electing a Sheriff and a Justiciar of its own, who have the sole jurisdiction over the burghers. The folkmoot of London, answering to the shiremoot of a shire, is recognized as well as the 'Husting Court', which was a general meeting of the citizens for judicial purposes.' Although the charter does not appear to mention the Wards, there can be little doubt that they already existed.3 2 connexion with the municipal organization than in England; and the Craft Gilds, although they seriously modified the later development and in some cases, as in London, became subsequently an integral part of the town administration, were not so at first. On the Foreign Gilds generally, cf. Gross, Gild Merchant, 282; Pirenne, Belgique, i. 169 ff., 255 ff., 366 ff.; Revue historique, 53, 1893, 57, 1895, Les Origines des institutions urbaines; Lavisse, Histoire de France, iv. 341 ff., v. 397 ff., vi. 76; Luchaire, Communes françaises; Giry, (a) Histoire de la ville St. Omer, (b) Études sur les origines de la commune de St. Quentin; Flach, Origines de l'ancienne France; Lecaron, Les Origines de la municipalité parisienne (Mémoires de la Société de l'histoire de Paris, vii, viii, 1880-1); Fagniez, Études sur l'industrie à Paris aux xiiie et xive siècles; Hegel, Städte und Gilden der germanischen Völker im Mittelalter; Gierke, Das deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht; Below und Keutgen, Urkunden zur städtischen Verfassungsgeschichte; Schanz, Gesellenverbande. For the Hanseatic League cf. article in Encyclopaedia Brit. and authorities quoted; Doren, Entwickelung und Organisation der florentiner Zünfte im xiii.-xiv. Jahrhundert, in Schmoller, Forschungen, P. 59. Ashley, Surveys Historic and Economic, p. 67, gives a useful survey of the most important writers on the subject. On the Hustings Court, cf. Sharpe, Calendar of Wills, i, p. 11. 2 The word 'wardemotum' in the passage should probably be read vadimonium' (debts owing). Cf. Round, Commune of London, Appendix P, p. 370. He shows that the word 'vadimonium' occurs in the Charter of Henry II, which was framed on the model of that of Henry I, and points out that the singular, wardemotum', is meaningless, since there were many Wardmoots, not one Wardmoot. 3 The most ancient list of the Wards that has been found is in Liber L MSS., Library of St. Paul's, and is probably of the date of A.D. 1115 or thereabouts. The number there recorded is twenty. Of these one is called the Bishop's Ward. Three have local names-Warda Fori (Cheap), Alegate (Aldgate), Thus the municipal unity granted by the Charter is of the same sort as that of the county and hundred'. But, as in the shire, the churches, the barons, the citizens, retain their 'sokes' or jurisdictions and their privileges; and the City is only as yet 'a bundle of communities, townships or villages, parishes and lordships'. Brocesgange (Walbrook or Dowgate). Sixteen are called by the names of citizens who, though not yet called Aldermen, evidently enjoy that position. Two at least of these are among the fifteen members of the Anglo-Saxon Cnighten Gild who surrendered their lands and their soke of Portsoken to the Prior of Holy Trinity in 1125 (cf. p. 16). This would make twenty-one. Three more were added at some date previous to 1227-8, when we find twentyfour Wards. In 1393 Farringdon Ward, previously called Warde de Lodgate et Neugate, was divided into two, Within and Without. This brought up the number to twenty-five. No further increase was made till the middle of the seventeenth century, when Cripplegate was divided, although the same Alderman to this day presides over the two Wards. The heads of the Ward, who become known as Aldermen in the thirteenth century, in all probability originally held their position by hereditary right as being the possessors of estates and courts, like the rural manorial courts in the City. They held views of frankpledge in their Wardmoots, set the watch and kept the gates of the City, and their jurisdictions were specially safeguarded in the Charter of Henry I, which promised that all churches, barons, and citizens should enjoy their "sokes " and customs in peace'. This hereditary position was, however, soon changed for an elective one. The first notice of an Alderman being elected is in 1299, when Alexander Le Ferrun was chosen by the Ward of Walbrook. By the close of the thirteenth century the Wards are all known by local names. See Beaven, Aldermen, i. 363, ii. p. xv; Baddeley, Aldermen of Cripplegate, p. 213; Letter Book A, p. 209; C, pp. 11, 12; Stow, Survey, ed. Kingsford, ii. 286. Pirenne, Belgique, i. 284, ii. 44, note, shows the same change with regard to the Echevins. 1 Cf. Select Charters, 8th ed., p. 108; Stubbs, Constitutional History, ed. 1874, i. 405. Three points have been much disputed: (1) The grant of the 'ferm' of Middlesex. (2) The relation of the Sheriff to the earlier Portreeve. Mr. Sharpe, London and the Kingdom, i. 41, holds that the grant made the shire subject to the City. But Mr. Round (Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 140, and Appendix F, p. 347) argues with great force that Middlesex included London as it had before. They had been held by Geoffrey de Mandeville. Henry granted them to the citizens of London. But Stephen revoked this grant and bestowed the 'ferm' of Middlesex and London on the grandson of Geoffrey. It was not till 1199 that London regained the 'ferm' as well as the right of appointing the Sheriff. Henceforth Middlesex and London are united and the 'ferm' paid to the King is sometimes called that of London, sometimes of Middlesex, sometimes of |