OUR notices of the sports of mediÆval London must commence with a reference to the curious essay of the monk Fitz-Stephen, who was the first to describe the chief features of London history.

‘Moreover, to begin with the sports of the boys (for we have all been boys) annually on the day which is called Shrovetide, the boys of the respective schools bring each a fighting-cock to their master, and the whole of that forenoon is spent by the boys in seeing their cocks fight in the schoolroom. After dinner all the young men of the city go out into the fields to play at the well-known game of football.[103] The scholars belonging to the several schools have each their ball, and the city tradesmen, according to their respective crafts, have theirs. The more aged men, the fathers of the players, and the wealthy citizens come on horseback to see the contests of the young men, with whom, after their manner, they participate, their natural heat seeming to be aroused by the sight of so much agility, and by their participation in the amusements of unrestrained youth. Every Sunday in Lent, after dinner, a company of young men enter the fields mounted on warlike horses--

of which

The lay sons of the citizens rush out of the gates in crowds equipped with lances and shields, the younger sort with pikes from which the iron head has been taken off, and there they get up sham fights and exercise themselves in military combat. When the King happens to be near the city most of the courtiers attend, and the young men who form the households of the earls and barons, and have not yet attained the honour of knighthood, resort thither for the purpose of trying their skill.’

Then Fitz-Stephen tells of the sports on the river, but these remarks have already been referred to in the fourth chapter. The description of the sports of summer and winter are then continued. We find a curious account of the Londoner’s delight both in sliding and skating, and his contempt for the dangers of the sports.

‘During the holydays in summer the young men exercise themselves in the sports of leaping, archery, wrestling, stone-throwing, slinging javelins beyond a mark, and also fighting with bucklers. Cytherea leads the dances of the maidens, who merrily trip along the ground beneath the uprisen moon. Almost on every holyday in winter, before dinner, foaming boars and huge-tusked hogs, intended for bacon, fight for their lives, or fat bulls or immense boars are baited with dogs. When that great marsh which washes the walls of the city on the north side is frozen over, the young men go out in crowds to divert themselves upon the ice. Some having increased their velocity by a run, placing their feet apart and turning their bodies sideways, slide a great way; others make a seat of large pieces of ice like mill-stones, and a great number of them running before, and holding each other by the hand, draw one of their companions who is seated on the ice; if at any time they slip in moving so swiftly, all fall down headlong together. Others are more expert in their sports upon the ice; for fitting to and binding under their feet the shin-bones of some animal, and taking in their hands poles shod with iron, which at times they strike against the ice, they are carried along with as great rapidity as a bird flying, or a bolt discharged from a cross-bow. Sometimes two of the skaters having placed themselves a great distance apart, by mutual agreement come together from opposite sides; they meet, raise their poles, and strike each other; either one or both of them fall, not without some bodily hurt; even after their fall they are carried along to a great distance from each other by the velocity of the motion, and whatever part of their heads comes in contact with the ice is laid bare to the very skull. Very frequently the leg or arm of the falling one, if he chance to light upon either of them, is broken. But youth is an age eager for glory and desirous of victory, and so young men engage in counterfeit battles that they may conduct themselves more valiantly in real ones. Most of the citizens amuse themselves in sporting with martins, hawks and other birds of a like kind, and also with dogs that hunt in the wood.’

It was one thing to go out into the fields to play these games, but when there was a large population within the walls it must have been very inconvenient to the inhabitants to find the streets occupied by footballers. The practice seems to have been allowed until it became a public nuisance. In the year 1406 proclamation was issued forbidding hocking in streets of London: ‘Let proclamation be made that no person of this city, or within the suburbs thereof, of whatsoever estate or condition such person may be, whether man or woman, shall, in any street or lane thereof, take hold of or constrain any person, of whatsoever estate or condition he may be, within house or without, for hokkyng on the Monday or Tuesday next, called Hokkedayes, on pain of imprisonment, and of making fine at the discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen.’[104]

Hock Monday and Tuesday were the Monday and Tuesday following the second Sunday after Easter day, and Spelman describes the sport of hocking as consisting ‘in the men and women binding each other, and especially the women the men.’ Hone writes (Every Day Book): ‘Tuesday was the principal day, Hock Monday was for the men and Hock Tuesday for the women. On both days the men and women alternately, with great merriment, intercepted the public roads with ropes and pulled passengers to them, from whom they exacted money to be laid out for pious uses. Monday probably having been originally kept as only the vigil or introduction to the festival of Hock-day.’

The proclamation of 1406 does not seem to have been effectual, and therefore three years afterwards another proclamation was issued against ‘Hokkyng, Foteballe and Cokthresshyng.’ The prohibition of hocking is expressed in the same terms as in the proclamation of 1406, and to this is added the following: ‘And that no person shall levy money, or cause it to be levied, for the games called “foteballe” and “cokthreshyng” because of marriages that have recently taken place in the said city, or the suburbs thereof, on pain of imprisonment, and of making fine at the discretion of the Mayor and aldermen.’[105]

Cock-throwing and football were specially in season at Shrovetide, and at that time it was difficult for the authorities to hold the Londoners in hand, and prevent them from making the streets their playground.

The cases of punishment already referred to are connected with prohibitions, but in 1389 a curious case of a fine inflicted for stopping a procession on the festival of Corpus Christi is recorded. A citizen was brought before the Mayor, and the sheriffs, recorder, and aldermen, to answer for having prevented a procession from passing through his house, which the parishioners believed to be their right.

It is one thing for the inhabitants of a small town like Helstone, in Cornwall, to pass through houses without hindrance on Furry day, and quite another for the same right to be claimed in London, even in the Middle Ages. The case is so remarkable that it seems well to quote the whole statement:—

‘Because that by the reputable men of the parish of St. Nicholas Acon, Nicholas Twyford, Knight, Mayor of the City of London, was given to understand that whereas they, time out of mind, had been wont and accustomed to have free ingress and egress with their procession, on the befitting and usual days, through the middle of a certain house belonging to John Basse, citizen and draper of London, situate in the parish of St. Mary Abbechirche, in London; the aforesaid John, together with John Creek, draper, and others of their covin, on Thursday, the Feast of Corpus Christi last past, armed with divers arms, guarded the house before mentioned by main force, and would not allow the parishioners of the Church of St. Nicholas aforesaid to enter the house with their procession, as they had been wont to do, but grievously threatened them as to life and limb; in breach of the peace of our Lord the King, and to the manifest disturbance of the tranquillity of the city aforesaid:—for the said reason the same John and John were arrested.’

‘Afterwards, on the 26th day of June, in the thirteenth year, etc., they were brought before the said Mayor and the sheriffs, recorder, and aldermen, in the chamber of the Guildhall, and were there questioned as to the matter aforesaid, and were asked how they would acquit themselves thereof; whereupon they acknowledged that they were guilty of all the things above imputed to them, and put themselves upon the favour of the court as to the same; and counsel having been held hereon, according to the usage of the city in like cases, it was adjudged that the said John Basse, as being the principal and the prime mover in the contempt aforesaid, should have imprisonment for one year then next ensuing, to commence from the Friday next after the Feast of St. Botolph [17th June], namely, Friday the 18th day of June then last past; and that on his leaving prison he should pay to the Chamberlain of the Guildhall 200 marks, to the use of the commonalty, for the contempt aforesaid; unless he should meet with increased favour in the meantime. And that the aforesaid John Creek, for the contempt so by him committed, should have imprisonment for half a year after the said Friday next ensuing; and that on his leaving prison he should pay to the aforesaid Chamberlain 100 marks to the use of the commonalty, unless he should meet with increased favour in the meantime’[106]

These were truly exemplary damages, and we find that the imprisonment was remitted on the same day, and the fines were respectively reduced to £15 and 100s.[107]

Besides sports in the streets, there was a constant succession of pageants, processions and tournaments in the Middle Ages, which made the streets gay, and brought out most of the inhabitants to see the sights.

The royal processions arranged in connection with coronations were of great antiquity, but one of the earliest to be described is that of Henry III., in 1236, which was chronicled by Matthew Paris. After the marriage at Canterbury of the King with Eleanor of Provence, the royal personages came to London, and were met by the Mayor, aldermen, and principal citizens, to the number of 360, sumptuously apparelled in silken robes embroidered, riding upon stately horses.

A very interesting point is mentioned by Matthew Paris, viz., that each man carried a gold or silver cup in his hand, in token of the privilege claimed by the city, of the Mayor being Chief Butler of the kingdom at the coronation. Something further respecting this claim will be found in the eighth chapter of this book. On this occasion the streets of the city were adorned with rich silks, pageants, and a variety of pompous shows; and the citizens attending the King and Queen to Westminster had the honour of officiating at the Queen’s coronation. At night the city was illuminated with an infinite number of lamps, cressets, etc.

After the death of Henry III. (1272) the country had to wait for their new King, who was then in the Holy Land. Edward I. came to London on the 2nd of August 1274, where he was received with the wildest expressions of joy. The streets were hung with rich cloths of silk, arras and tapestry; the aldermen and principal men of the city threw out of their windows handfuls of gold and silver, to signify their gladness at the King’s return; and the conduits ran with wine, both white and red. The coronation took place on the 19th of August.

The happy married life of Edward I. and Eleanor of Castile came to an end in 1290, and in connection with her death was arranged the most striking and most beautiful expression of a husband’s and a nation’s love in our history.

The Queen died in Harby, Lincolnshire, and the funeral procession came slowly to London and Westminster. Beautiful crosses were afterwards placed on the various spots where each night the body stopped. Two of these stopping-places were in London—at Cheapside, beneath the shadow of old St. Paul’s, and at Charing Cross, on the way to Westminster, where the Queen’s beautiful tomb remains as one of the chief glories of our wonderful Abbey Church.

Cheapside Cross was ‘re-edified’ in 1441, and afterwards newly gilt and newly burnished. Defaced and repaired at different times, little was left of the original when the cross was cleared away in 1647, at the same time as Charing Cross.

Only three of the original Eleanor crosses remain: two in Northamptonshire—one at Geddington, and the other at Northampton, and the third at Waltham Cross. Every Englishman should be proud of these glorious records of a past age, which not only tell of the devoted love of two sovereigns, of whom we all must be proud, but also because they prove the high state of English art at this time. Until late years, when certain documents were discovered containing the names of the artists, the historians of art attempted to believe that the designs were too good for Englishmen, and must have been made by foreigners.

In order to establish peace between England and France, King Edward married Margaret of France, sister of the French King, at Canterbury in 1299, and in the following year she first came to London.

The citizens, to the number of 600, rode in one livery of red and white, with the cognisance of their mistress embroidered upon their sleeves, and received her four miles without the city, and so conveyed her to Westminster.[108]

Edward I. was buried at Westminster on October 27, 1307, and his son on coming to the throne recalled Piers Gaveston from banishment; he made him Regent of the kingdom when he crossed to France to be married to Isabella, the daughter of Philip IV. In February 1307-1308 Edward II. returned to England with his bride, and was joyfully received by the citizens. On the 24th they were crowned at Westminster. The King, we are told by Stow, offered on the altar first a pound of gold made like a King holding a ring in his hand, and then a mark of gold (8 ounces) made like a pilgrim putting forth his hand to receive the ring. The crush was very great at this coronation, and in it Sir John Blackwell was killed.

In November 1312, Queen Isabel announced to the Mayor her safe delivery of a son in the following letter: ‘Isabel, by the grace of God, Queen of England, Lady of Ireland, and Duchess of Aquitaine, to our well-beloved, the Mayor and aldermen and the commonalty of London, greeting. Forasmuch as we believe that you would willingly hear good tidings of us, we do make known unto you that our Lord of His grace has delivered us of a son’ [afterwards Edward III.]. The Mayor and aldermen and commonalty, on hearing the news, ‘assembled in the Guildhall at time of vespers and carolled, and showed great joy thereat; and so passed through the city with great glare of torches, and with trumpets and other minstrelsies. And on the Tuesday next, early in the morning, cry was made throughout all the city to the effect that there was to be no work, labour, or business in shop on that day; but that everyone was to apparel himself in the most becoming manner that he could, and come to the Guildhall at the hour of prime, ready to go with the Mayor, together with the [other] good folks, to St. Paul’s, there to make praise and offering to the honour of God, who had shown them such favour on earth, and to show respect for this child that had been born.’

At the beginning of the next week all went richly costumed to Westminster, riding on horseback, and there made offering. After dinner in the Guildhall, ‘they went in carols throughout the city all the rest of the day and great part of the night.’ The conduit of Chepe ran with nothing but wine, and a pavilion extended in the middle of the street near Brokencross (at the north door of St. Paul’s), in which was set a tun of wine, for all passers-by to drink of. In the following February the Fishmongers Company caused a boat to be fitted out in the guise of a great ship, to be drawn to Westminster and presented to the Queen. The Fishmongers, very richly costumed, escorted the Queen through the city on the same day, on her way to Canterbury on pilgrimage.[109]

In 1330 there was an accident during the progress of a great tournament in Cheapside, which was part of an entertainment offered by the citizens to the young King (Edward III.) and Queen at the birth of their first son. The Queen Philippa displayed the same good qualities which on a later occasion she showed after the surrender of Calais, and thereby secured a lasting fame as a good woman. Stow relates the event as follows: ‘There was a very solemn justing of all the stout earls, barons and nobles at London in Cheap, betwixt the great Cross and the great Conduit nigh Soper Lane, which lasted three days, where the Queen Philippa, with many ladies, fell from a stage, notwithstanding they were not hurt at all, wherefore the Queen took great care to save the carpenters from punishment, and through her prayer (which she made on her knees) she pacified the King and Council, whereby she purchased great love of the people.’

This accident was the cause of Edward III. ordering the construction in stone of a shed (seldam) on the north side of Bow Church, so that the royal party might in future be able to view the joustings and other shows with safety. Edward III. was for some years the most popular of our monarchs, for he was constantly conquering his enemies, and his people were proud of him. In 1343 a great triumph was organised in his honour, which is described in Sir William Segar’s Honour Militarie and Civil. The King commanded that the tournament should be proclaimed in France, Henault, Flanders, Brabant and other places, ‘giving passport and secure abode to all noble strangers that would resort into England.’ The triumph took place in London, and continued for fifteen days.

Dr. Jessopp gives us a vivid picture of what occurred four years afterwards ‘when King Edward III. entered London in triumph on the 14th of October 1347, he was the foremost man in Europe, and England had reached a height of power and glory such as she had never attained before. At the Battle of Creci, France had received a crushing blow, and by the loss of Calais, after an eleven months’ siege, she had been reduced well-nigh to the lowest point of humiliation. David II., King of Scotland, was now lying a prisoner in the Tower of London. Louis of Bavaria had just been killed by a fall from his horse, the imperial throne was vacant, and the electors in eager haste proclaimed that they had chosen the King of England to succeed. To their discomfiture the King of England declined the proffered crown. He “had other views.” Intoxicated by the splendour of their sovereign and his martial renown, and the success which seemed to attend him wherever he showed himself, the English people had gone mad with exultation.’[110]

Two years later (in 1349) the fearful pestilence, known of late years as the Black Death, was destroying half the population of the country.

One of the most interesting of London processions was that which took place when the chivalrous Black Prince brought his prisoners to England in 1357. Stow’s account of this historic scene is so vivid that it needs must be transferred to these pages without paraphrase: ‘Edward, Prince of Wales, returning into England with John, the French King, Phillip, his sonne, and many other prysoners, arrived at Plimmouth on the fifth of May, and the foure-and-twentieth of May entered London with them, where he was received with great honour of the cittizens, and so conveyed to the King’s pallace at Westminster, where the King, sitting in his estate in Westminster Hall, received them, and after conveyed the French King to a lodging, where he lay a season; and after the sayd French King was lodged in the Savoy (which was then a pleasant place, belonging to the Duke of Lancaster). In the winter following were great and royal justs holden in Smithfield at London, where many knightly sights of armes were done to the great honour of the King and realme, at the which were present the Kings of Englande, France and Scotland, with many noble estates of all those kingdomes, whereof the more part of the strangers were prisoners.’

The King of France remained a prisoner for three years, but in 1360 King Edward marched upon Paris, and peace was made to the joy of the French, although the English gained a third of that kingdom by the Peace of Bretigny. When the peace was confirmed Edward III. came to England, ‘and so straight to the Tower to see the French King, where he appointed his ransome to bee three millions of florences, and so delivered him of all imprisonment, and brought him with great honour to the sea, who then sayled over into France.’[111]

On the 8th of June 1376, that ‘flower of chivalry,’ the Black Prince, died in the Archbishop’s Palace at Canterbury. His young son Richard was then created by the King Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, and Prince of Wales. At Christmas the Londoners formed a torchlight procession from the city to Kennington in honour of the Prince:—

‘On the Sunday before Candlemas, in the night, one hundred and thirty citizens, disguised and well horsed, in a mummery with sounds of trumpets, large trumpets, horns, shealms, and other minstrels, and innumerable torchlights of wax, rode from Newgate through Cheap over the Bridge, through Southwark, and so to Kennington, besides Lambeth, where the young Prince remained with his mother.... In the first rank did ride forty-eight, in the likeness and habit of esquires, two and two together, cloathed in red coats, and gowns of say or sandale, with comely vizors on their faces. After them came riding forty-eight knights in the same livery of colour and stuff. Then followed one richly arrayed like an Emperor, and after him at some distance one stately attired like a Pope, whom followed twenty-four Cardinals, and after them eight or ten with black vizors not amiable, as if they had been legates from some foreign princes.

‘These maskers, after they had entered the manor of Kennington, alighted from their horses, and entered the hall on foot, which done, the Prince, his mother, and the Lords came out of the Chamber into the Hall, whom the said mummers did salute, shewing by a pair of dice on the table their desire to play with the Prince, which they so handled that the Prince did always win when they cast them. Then the mummers set to the Prince three jewels one after another, which were a bowl of gold, a cup of gold, and a ring of gold, which the Prince won at three casts.

‘Then they set to the Prince’s mother, the duke [John of Gaunt], the earls, and other lords, to every one a ring of gold, which they did also win. After which they were feasted, and the music sounded; the Prince and the lords danced on the one part with the mummers, who did also dance, which jollity being needed they were again made to drink, and then departed in order as they came.’[112]

On the 21st of June following (1377) Edward III., deserted by his mistress, Alice Perress, and his courtiers, and attended by a solitary priest, died at Shene (now Richmond). Before the breath was out of his body the citizens waited upon the young Prince Richard, and offered their allegiance, requesting him to come to London. In Walsingham’s Chronicle there is an account of a pageant in honour of the young King in the following month. On the Feast of St. Swithin the Mayor and citizens assembled near the Tower, when King Richard, clad in white garments, came forth with a great multitude in his suite, also dressed in white. The streets were hung with cloth of gold and silver and silken stuff, and the conduits ran wine for three hours. At the upper end of Cheapside was erected a castle with four towers. In the towers were placed four beautiful virgins, of stature and age like to the King, apparelled in white; these damsels on the King’s approach blew in his face leaves of gold and threw on him and his horse counterfeit golden florins. When he was come before the castle they took cups of gold, and filling them with wine at the spouts of the castle, presented the same to the King and his nobles. On the top of the castle, betwixt the towers, stood a golden angel, holding a crown in his hands, and so contrived that when the King came he bowed down and offered him the crown.

There was infinite variety in these pageants, and they were very frequent during the Middle Ages, and long after, but the too full description of them is likely to become monotonous. It will therefore be sufficient to refer to some of the other rejoicings in a more succinct manner.

On Friday after the Epiphany, 1382, the Mayor, aldermen and Commons rode to meet the new Queen, Anne of Bohemia, and conducted her through the city. All the crafts were charged to wear nothing but red and black.

In 1392 Richard II. wanted to borrow £1000 from the Londoners. However, they not only refused, but killed a certain Lombard who would have lent the sum. The King was very angry and deposed the Mayor, imprisoning him in Windsor Castle, and the sheriffs and various prominent citizens in other prisons. Finding that they were in a bad case, the citizens repented and offered the King £10,000. Richard, learning that the Londoners were ‘in heaviness and dismayed,’ said to his men, as Stow tells us: ‘I will go to London and comfort the citizens, and will not that they any longer despaire of my favour.’ On leaving Shene he was met on Wandsworth Common by four hundred of the citizens on horseback, clad in one livery, who in the most humble manner, craving pardon for their past offences, besought him by their recorder to take his way to his palace at Westminster through the city of London. The request having been granted, the King pursued his journey to Southwark, where at St. George’s Church he was met by a procession of the Bishop of London, and all the religions of every degree, and above five hundred boys in surplices. At London Bridge a white steed and milk-white palfrey, both saddled, bridled and caparisoned in cloth of gold, were presented to the King and Queen. The citizens received them standing in their liveries on each side of the street, crying: ‘King Richard, King Richard.’ Handsome presents were made to the King and Queen, who proceeded to St. Paul’s; after the offerings had been made there the Mayor accompanied the King to Westminster. On the following day the citizens again went to the palace with presents, and received a new confirmation of their liberties. They had, however, to present a golden tablet of the story of Edward the Confessor for the shrine of that royal saint, and were further mulcted in a heavy tax.

Seven years after this the principal actors were changed, and Henry, Duke of Lancaster, approached London with Richard as a captive. He was received in great pomp by the Mayor, aldermen and sheriffs, and all the several companies in their formalities, with the people incessantly crying: ‘Long live the good Duke of Lancaster, our deliverer!’

On the 13th of October, in the same year (1399), Henry went in great pomp from the Tower to Westminster, and there was crowned.

In 1413 Henry V. passed in procession from the Tower through London to Westminster, where he was crowned. But though there was a brave show on this occasion it was as nothing to what was provided to do honour to the King’s return from the glorious field of Agincourt in 1415. The Mayor and aldermen, apparelled in Orient-grained scarlet, and four hundred Commoners in murrey, well mounted, with rich collars and chains, met the King at Blackheath; and the clergy of London, in solemn procession, with rich crosses, sumptuous copes and many censers, received him at St. Thomas of Waterings, a place on the Old Kent Road, which Chaucer’s pilgrims passed when they had gone about two miles from the Tabard. At the entrance of London Bridge, on the top of the tower, stood a gigantic figure, bearing in his right hand an axe, and in his left the keys of the city hanging to a staff, as if he had been the porter. By his side stood a woman of scarcely less stature, intended for his wife. Around them were a band of trumpets and other wind instruments. The towers were adorned with banners of the royal arms, and in the front of them was inscribed—Civitas Regis Justicie.

Henry V. made another triumphant entry into London with his bride Katharine of France, who was crowned at Westminster Abbey on the 14th of February 1421. On the 31st of August following the King died in France. On the 14th of November 1422 the infant, Henry VI., was carried through the city to the Parliament at Westminster on the lap of his mother, who sat in an open chair.

On the 6th of November 1429 the young King was crowned in Westminster Abbey. The coronation was a very imposing ceremony. At the commencement of the proceedings the Archbishop of Canterbury made proclamation at the four corners of the scaffold on which the King sat. He spoke as follows: ‘Syrys, here comythe Harry, Kyng Harry the V. ys sone, humylyche to God and Hooly Chyrche, askynge the crowne of thys realme by ryght and discent of herytage. Yf ye holde you welle plesyd with alle and wylle be plesyd with hym, say you nowe, ye! and holde uppe youre hondys.’ Then all the people with one voice cried, ‘Yea, yea.’[113]

Henry VI. was crowned in France on the 7th of December 1431 by Cardinal Beaufort his uncle (Bishop of Winchester), and on his return to England he was met at Blackheath by the Mayor and citizens on the 21st of February 1431-1432. The Mayor and aldermen were dressed in scarlet, and the members of the gilds in white, with the cognisances of their crafts on their sleeves. The figure of a mighty giant, with a drawn sword, stood at the entrance of the bridge. When the King had passed the first gate and was arrived at the drawbridge, he found a goodly tower, hung with silk and cloth of arras, out of which suddenly appeared three ladies, clad in gold and silk, with coronets upon their head; of which the first was Dame Nature, the second Dame Grace, and the third Dame Fortune. On each side of these dames were seven virgins, all clothed in white; those on the right presented the King with the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost—sapience, intelligence, good counsel, strength, cunning, pity, and dread of God; those on the left with the seven gifts of grace—the crown of glory, the sceptre of clemency and pity, the sword of might and victory, the mantle of prudence, the shield of faith, the helmet of health, and the girdle of love and perfect peace.

On Cornhill was a tabernacle of curious work, in which stood Dame Sapience, and around her the seven liberal arts—Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy.

At the conduit in Cornhill was set a circular pageant, on the summit whereof was a child of wonderful beauty, apparelled like a King, upon whose right hand sat Lady Mercy, on his left Lady Truth, and over them stood Dame Clemency embracing the King’s throne.

At the conduit in Cheap there were formed several wells—the Well of Mercy, the Well of Grace, and the Well of Pity, and at each a lady standing who administered the water to such as would ask it, and then the water was turned into good wine. A little further west was a tower ornamented with the arms of England and France. By its side stood two green trees, one bearing the genealogy of Saint Edward and the other that of Saint Louis.

On entering St. Paul’s Churchyard Henry VI. was met by a procession of the dean and canons, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and six bishops, who conducted him to the Cathedral, where he made his oblations. He then took horse at the west door of St. Paul’s, and so rode to Westminster, where he was received by the abbot and taken to St. Edward’s shrine. His lords then conveyed him to his palace, and the Mayor and citizens returned joyously to London.[114]

This was probably the most elaborate and beautiful pageant ever performed in the streets of London.

The King married Margaret of Anjou in 1445, and on approaching London, on the way to her coronation, the Queen was met on Blackheath by the Mayor, aldermen and sheriffs and the principal members of the gilds, attired in ‘browne blue,’ with embroidered sleeves and red hoods on their heads, every craft having its cognisance, who brought her with great triumph to Westminster. There were on this occasion several pageants of a similar character to those described before.

In 1461, after the Battle of Mortimer Cross and the second Battle of St. Alban’s, Edward Earl of March came to London with his forces and was chosen King in St. John’s Field, Clerkenwell, on March 2. King Edward’s title was set forth in a sermon at Paul’s Cross by the Bishop of Exeter. After the sermon the king was conveyed in procession to Westminster Abbey, and after having offered at St. Edward’s shrine he went to Westminster Hall and, sitting in the royal seat, was greeted with shouts of ‘Long live the King!’ He then returned to St. Paul’s, and was lodged in the bishop’s palace.[115] On the 26th of June the Mayor and aldermen in scarlet, and the Commons in green, brought Edward IV. from Lambeth to the Tower, and on the 28th inst. he was crowned with great solemnity at Westminster.

‘And on the morrow, after the King was crowned againe in Westminster Abbey in the worship of God and S. Peter, and on the next morrow he went crowned in Paules Church in London, in the honor of God and S. Paule, and there an angell came downe and censed him, at which time was so great a multitude of people in Paules as ever was seene in any dayes.’[116]

On Whitsunday 1465 Queen Elizabeth Grey was crowned at Westminster Abbey, having on the preceding day ridden in a horse litter through the chief streets of London, preceded by the newly-created Knights of the Bath, four of whom were men of London—the Mayor and three others.

Shortly after the murder of Henry VI. in the Tower (1471) Edward was met by the Mayor, aldermen and citizens, about a mile from the city, between Islington and Shoreditch, and in the highway he knighted the Mayor, eleven aldermen and the recorder.

Edward IV. died on April 9, 1483, and his young son, Edward V., was brought from Ludlow by the Greys, his relations on the mother’s side. Richard Duke of Gloucester, fearing the action of the Greys, overtook the procession, and sent Earl Rivers and Sir Richard Grey prisoners to Pontefract. Edmond Shaa, the Mayor, the sheriffs and the aldermen in scarlet, with 500 horse of the citizens in violet, met the King and the Duke at Hornsey, and, riding from thence, accompanied them into the city, which was entered on the 4th of May. The King was lodged in the bishop’s palace, where a great Council was held, at which the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham and other great lords were sworn. Edward V. was deposed soon after this, and on the 5th of July, the day before his coronation, Richard rode from the Tower through the city, with his son, the Prince of Wales, three dukes, nine earls, twenty-two viscounts and barons, eighty knights, esquires and gentlemen ‘not to be numbered,’ besides the great officers of State.

After the Battle of Bosworth, Henry VII. was met at Hornsey on the 28th of August 1485 by the Mayor (Sir Thomas Hille) and the aldermen in their scarlet robes, accompanied by a great number of citizens on horseback, in violet-coloured gowns, whence they conducted him to Shoreditch, where he was received by the several companies, and then conducted to St. Paul’s, where he offered three standards, one with the image of St. George, another with a red, fiery dragon, and the third with a dun cow. After the singing of the Te Deum he went to the bishop’s palace. Less than a month afterwards Sir Thomas Hille died of the sweating sickness.

The coronation of Henry VII., in 1485, was hurried over with less ceremonial than usual and without any procession through the city, but that of the Queen (Elizabeth of York), in 1487, was attended with all the pomp customary on similar occasions. On Friday before St. Katherine’s Day the Queen came from Greenwich by water. The Mayor, sheriffs and aldermen, with citizens chosen from every craft in their liveries, were waiting on the river to receive her and attend her to the Tower. On the following day she went through London to Westminster in a litter. The houses were dressed with clothes of tapestry and arras, and in Cheap with rich cloth of gold, velvet and silk. Along the streets, from the Tower to St. Paul’s, stood in order all the crafts of London in their liveries, and in various places were placed singing children, some arrayed like angels, to sing sweet songs as the Queen went by.

The Battle of Bosworth we have agreed to consider as the period of the break up of the Middle Ages, but it was many years after this before the shows and amusements of the people exhibited any great change. The Tudors (especially Henry VIII.) showed a particular delight in pageantry, and the Stuarts carried on the tradition. In fact, it was in Elizabeth’s reign that special attention was given to the arrangements of the Lord Mayor’s pageant.

George Peele, the dramatist, is the first on the list of the city poets, although we have already seen that Lydgate was employed to write poetry in honour of King Henry VI. The pageants prepared for the triumphant passage of ‘King James and Queen Anne, his wife, and Henry Frederick, the Prince,’ from the Tower through the city on the 15th of March 1603-1604 were of a magnificent character. Seven beautiful arches of triumph were designed by Stephen Harrison, joiner and architect. These were erected at the expense of the livery companies and the foreign merchants. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the art of pageantry was almost entirely lost. The decoration of our streets on joyful occasions has lately considerably improved, but there is still room for a more artistic treatment. With our knowledge of the past and the possession of artists who are enthusiastic for the revival of a true taste in pageantry there ought to be no difficulty in the production of pageants that would do honour to our city. It would be well if the authorities would consult with artists for the improvement of the Lord Mayor’s Show.[117]

We have treated of out-of-door amusements, and must now say a few words on one of those enjoyed indoors. Music and poetry were cultivated by certain foreign merchants in England, who established in London, at the close of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century, a society or brotherhood of the ‘Pui,’ ‘in honour of God, our Lady Saint Mary, and all Saints, both male and female; and in honour of our Lord the King, and all the Barons of the country; and for the increasing of loyal love. And to the end that the city of London may be renowned for all good things in all places; and to the end that mirthfulness, peace, honesty, joyousness, gaiety and good love, without [with?] infinity may be maintained.’[118]

The majority of the members were foreigners, but Englishmen were not excluded, for we find that John de Cheshunt was the third prince or president.

Statutes and full particulars of proceedings are given in Liber Custumarum, and curiously enough no other evidence of the existence of such a fraternity in England is known. From this document we learn that the society had received from the city great privileges in respect of the Chapel of St. Mary, in Guildhall, which was building towards the close of the reign of Edward I. Hence the donation in its favour for a chaplain by Sir Henry le Waleys, 1299,[119] who had been Mayor both of London and Bordeaux, and in the latter capacity would be likely to feel an additional interest in this musical society of French merchants and their English friends.

The Regulations are very full and explanatory of the various proceedings at the Festival of the Pui, as the following extracts from Mr. Riley’s translation of the Latin original will show:—

As to the yearly election of a Prince.—‘The Prince ought to be chosen as being good, and loyal, and sufficient, upon the oath of eleven companions, or of the twelve, to their knowledge, upon their oath, that the Pui may be promoted thereby, and maintained and upheld. And he who shall be chosen for Prince, may not refuse it, upon his oath. And when the old Prince and his companions shall leave to make a new Prince, at the great feast, the old Prince and his companions shall go through the room, from one end to the other, singing; and the old Prince shall carry the crown of the Pui upon his head, and a gilt cup in his hands, full of wine. And when they shall have gone round, the old Prince shall give to drink unto him whom they shall have chosen, and shall give him the crown, and such person shall be Prince.’

Marriage, death and burial of the Members.—‘If there be any one of the companions who marries in the city of London, or who becomes a clerk-priest, he ought to let the companions know thereof, and each shall be there according to his oath, if he have not a proper excuse. And the married person ought to give them chaplets, all of one kind; and all the companions ought to go with the bridegroom to church, and to make offering, and to return from the church to the house. And if there be any of the companions of the brotherhood who departs this life and dies, all the companions ought to be there, and to carry the body to church, by leave of the kindred, and to make offering.’

Common hutch.—‘There shall be a common hutch of the company of the Pui, in which the remembrances and the revised provisions of the company shall be placed in safe keeping; of which hutch, in the first place, the new Prince, each year after he is chosen, shall have one key; and two companions, by assent of the companions, for such custody chosen, each one key. And that this hutch shall stand in such safe place as the companions shall ordain within the city of London.’

Clerk and Chaplain.—‘There shall be a clerk, intelligent, and residing in London, chosen by the companions, to serve the company, and that he be willing and able to be attendant upon, and obedient unto the Prince, and to the twelve companions, in all matters that concern the company.’

‘That there be a chaplain, at all times singing [Mass] for the living and the dead of the company, [and] a chapel, founded in honour of God and our Lady, so soon as the improved means of the company, by the aid of God and good folks, may thereunto suffice. And if the companions of the Pui who are of sufficient means, be pressed by illness, so much as to wish to make their testaments, the Prince is to go, with two of the twelve companions with him, to visit the sick persons; and is to remind them of their faith which they have pledged unto the company, and to admonish them to devise somewhat of their property towards supplying the chapel and chaplain aforesaid, and supporting the same.’

The Grand Feast.—‘Whereas the royal feast of the Pui is maintained and established principally for crowning a royal song, inasmuch as it is by song that it is honoured and enhanced, all the gentle companions of the Pui by right reason are bound to exalt royal songs to the utmost of their power, and especially the one that is crowned by assent of the companions upon the day of the great feast of the Pui. Wherefore it is here provided, as concerning such songs, that each new Prince, the day that he shall wear the crown, and shall govern the feast of the Pui, and so soon as he shall have had the blazon of his arms hung in the room where the feast of the Pui shall be held, shall forthwith cause to be set up beneath his blazon the song that was crowned on the day that he was chosen as the new Prince, plainly and correctly written, without default.’

‘As to the serving up the feast, it is also ordained that all the companions shall be served amply, as well the poorest as the richest, in this form; that is to say, they shall be served with good bread, good ale, and good wine; and then they shall be served with pottage, and with one course of solid meat; and then after that with double roast in a dish, and cheese, without more.’

No ladies present.—‘Although the becoming pleasance of virtuous ladies is a rightful theme and principal occasion for royal singing, and for composing and furnishing royal songs, nevertheless it is hereby provided that no lady or other woman ought to be at the great [sitting] of the Pui, for the reason that the [members] ought hereby to take example, and rightful warning, to honour, cherish and commend all ladies, at all times, in all places, as much in their absence as in their presence.’

Costume and Procession.—‘The Prince ought, at his own cost, to be costumed with coat and surcoat, without sleeves, and mantle of one suit, with whatever arms he may please, at his own free will; so that at the election of a new Prince, at the great feast of the Pui, he give his mantle and his crown to the new Prince, so soon as he shall be chosen.’

‘He who shall be crowned for his song upon that day may ride between the old Prince and the new one in the procession on horseback which they shall make throughout the city, after the feast, that they may have knowledge of the one Prince and of the other by the suit of the costumes.’

‘Forthwith, after they have given the crown to him who shall sing the best, they shall mount their horses and make their procession through the city, and shall then escort their new Prince to his house; and there they shall all alight, and shall have a dance there, by way of hearty good-bye; and they shall then take one drink and depart, each to his own house, all on foot.’

The fraternity took its name from Le Puy en Velay, in Auvergne, the celebrated statue of the Virgin Mary in the Cathedral of which place was long a popular object of pilgrimage and devotion during the Middle Ages.

M. Aymard, Administrator of the city of Le Puy en Velay, and the historian of the ConfrÈries of Notre Dame du Puy, is of opinion that the document in the Liber Custumarum is at once more full and more ancient by far than any set of regulations of a similar French fraternity which is known to have survived to our times. Societies of the Pui flourished in Normandy and Picardy. The place of meeting of the ‘companions’ is not known, but Mr. Riley suggests that it was possibly in the Vintry. There is some uncertainty as to how the fraternity came to an end.[120]

Londoners were better supplied with eating-houses than their neighbours on the Continent, as we learn from the description of the street of cookshops on the Thames side by Fitz-Stephen:—

‘There is also in London, on the bank of the river, amongst the wine shops, which are kept in ships and cellars, a public eating-house; there every day, according to the season, may be found viands of all kinds, roast, fried and boiled, fish large and small, coarser meat for the poor, and more delicate for the rich, such as venison, fowls and small birds. If friends, wearied with their journey, should unexpectedly come to a citizen’s house, and, being hungry, should not like to wait till fresh meat be bought and cooked ... meanwhile some run to the riverside, and there every thing that they could wish for is instantly procured.

‘However great the number of soldiers and strangers that enters or leaves the city at any hour of the day or night, they may turn in there if they please, and refresh themselves according to their inclination; so that the former have no occasion to fast too long, or the latter to leave the city without dining. Those who wish to indulge themselves would not desire a sturgeon, or a bird of Africa, or the godwit of Ionia, when the delicacies that are to be found there are set before them. This, indeed, is the public cookery, and is very convenient to the city, and a distinguishing mark of civilization.’

Mr. Riley points out in his Introduction to the Liber Custumarum that the Coquina of Fitz-Stephen was in reality a Cook’s Row, not merely a solitary cookshop. In Fitz-Ailwyne’s Second Assize (1212) the cookshops on the Thames were ordered to be whitewashed and plastered and the inner partitions to be removed, from which it would appear that lodging-rooms had been ‘constructed for the harbouring of guests and travellers in contravention of the city regulations, which at all times during the thirteenth and two succeeding centuries strictly forbade cooks and pie-bakers to keep hostels for the entertainment of guests. In the fourteenth century, however, most of these cookshops had made way for genuine hostels and herbergeries,—to be kept only by freemen, and on no account by foreigners,—though we find mention made of one or two cookshops lingering on the city margin of the Thames so late as the reign of Edward the Third.’[121]

Mr. Riley adds in his glossary: ‘To the celebrity which London gained at an early period for its cookshops its citizens were not improbably indebted for their nickname of ‘cockney,’ one which they have retained throughout England to the present day. The earliest recorded instance of its use is probably of this same period; the rhyme uttered, according to Camden, by Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, in reference to Henry II., the capital of whose English dominions was London:—

‘Keepers of wine taverns and ale-houses and victuallers (who merely sold provisions) do not appear to have lodged their guests any more than the cooks.’ ‘The persons whose business it was to receive guests for profit, appear to have been divided into two classes, the “Hostelers” and the “Herbergeours.” The line of distinction between these two classes is not very evident ... but it seems not improbable that it consisted in the fact that the former lodged and fed the servants and horses of their guests, while the latter did not. At all events, hostelers are mentioned as supplying hay and corn for horses, but herbergeours never.’ Hostelers were also forbidden to sell drink and victuals to any other than their guests.[123]

The established charge for a night’s lodging about the time of Henry IV. was one penny per night.

‘In the times of our early Kings, when they moved from place to place, it devolved upon the Marshal of the King’s household to find lodgings for the royal retinue and dependents, which was done by sending a billet and seizing arbitrarily the best houses and mansions of the locality, turning out the inhabitants and marking the houses so selected with chalk; which latter duty seems to have belonged to the Serjeant-Chamberlain of the King’s household. The city of London, fortunately for the comfort and independence of its inhabitants, was exempted by numerous charters from having to endure this most abominable annoyance at such times as it pleased the King to become its near neighbour by taking up his residence in the town.’[124]

By an Act (7 Edw. VI.) 1553 forty taverns and public-houses were allowed in the city and three in Westminster.