London and the Kingdom - Volume I | Page 4

BUSINESS AT ROYAL EXCHANGE. GRESHAM
COLLEGE. THE CITY FLOODED WIH POLITICAL REFUGEES.
THE FIRST PUBLIC LOTTERY. SEIZURE OF SPANISH VESSELS.
THE DUKE OF ALVA'S ENVOY IN THE CITY. MEASURES OF
RETALIATION AGAINST SPAIN. THE RISING IN THE NORTH.
THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO. FURTHER CALLS FOR MONEY
AND MEN. COUNT CASIMIR ENTERTAINED BY GRESHAM.
CHAPTER XVIII.
PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. JESUITS IN THE CITY. SPECIAL
PREACHERS FOR THE CITY. PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. THE
FALL OF ANTWERP. THE BABINGTON CONSPIRACY.
PREPARATIONS TO MEET THE ARMADA. THE ADVENT OF
THE ARMADA. RICHARD TOMSON AND HIS EXPLOIT.
THANKSGIVING SERVICE AT ST. PAUL'S. THE CAMP AT
TILBURY. THE CITY AND DISBANDED SOLDIERS. THE CITY
AND THE EARL OF ESSEX. PRIVATEERING AGAINST SPAIN.
ALDERMAN SIR JOHN SPENCER. THE CAPTURE OF CADIZ.
THE CITY REFUSES FURTHER SUPPLIES. THE TYRONE
REBELLION. INSURRECTION OF EARL OF ESSEX. MOUNTJOY
IN IRELAND. THE LAST DAYS OF ELIZABETH.
CHAPTER I.

(M1)
The wealth and importance of the City of London are due to a variety
of causes, of which its geographical position must certainly be

esteemed not the least. The value of such a noble river as the Thames
was scarcely over-estimated by the citizens when, as the story goes,
they expressed to King James their comparative indifference to his
threatened removal of himself, his court and parliament, from London,
if only their river remained to them. The mouth of the Thames is the
most convenient port on the westernmost boundary of the European
seaboard, and ships would often run in to replenish their tanks with the
sweet water for which it was once famous.(1)
After the fall of the Western Empire (A.D. 476), commercial enterprise
sprang up among the free towns of Italy. The carrying trade of the
world's merchandise became centred for a time in Venice, and that
town led the way in spreading the principles of commerce along the
shores of the Mediterranean, being closely followed by Genoa,
Florence, and Pisa. The tide, which then set westward, and continued
its course beyond the Pillars of Hercules, was met in later years by
another stream of commerce from the shores of the Baltic.(2) Small
wonder, then, if the City of London was quick to profit by the
continuous stream of traffic passing and repassing its very door, and
vindicated its title to be called--as the Venerable Bede had in very early
days called it the Emporium of the World.(3)
But if London's prosperity were solely due to its geographical position,
we should look for the same unrivalled pre-eminence in commerce in
towns like Liverpool or Bristol, which possess similar local advantages;
whilst, if royal favour or court gaieties could make cities great, we
should have surely expected Winchester, Warwick, York, or Stafford to
have outstripped London in political and commercial greatness, for
these were the residences of the rulers of Mercia, Northumbria, and
Wessex, and the scenes of witena-gemóts long before London could
boast of similar favours. Yet none of these equals London in extent,
population, wealth, or political importance.
(M2)
We must therefore look for other causes of London's pre-eminence, and
among these, we may reckon the fact that the City has never been
subject to any over-lord except the king. It never formed a portion of

the king's demesne (dominium), but has ever been held by its burgesses
as tenants in capite by burgage (free socage) tenure. Other towns like
Bristol, Plymouth, Beverley, or Durham, were subject to over-lords,
ecclesiastical or lay, in the person of archbishop, bishop, abbot, baron
or peer of the realm, who kept in their own hands many of the
privileges which in the more favoured City of London were enjoyed by
the municipal authorities.
In the early part of the twelfth century, the town of Leicester, for
instance, was divided into four parts, one of which was in the king's
demesne, whilst the rest were held by three distinct over-lords. In
course of time, the whole of the shares fell into the hands of Count
Robert of Meulan, who left the town in demesne to the Earls of
Leicester and his descendants; and to this day the borough bears on its
shield the arms of the Bellomonts.(4) The town of Birmingham is said,
in like manner, to bear the arms of the barons of that name; the town of
Cardiff, those of the De Clares; and Manchester, those of the Byrons.
Instances might be multiplied. But the arms of the City of London and
of free boroughs, like Winchester, Oxford, and Exeter, are referable to
no over-lord, although the borough of Southwark still bears traces in its
heraldic shield of its former ecclesiastical connection.
(M3)
The influence of an over-lord for good or evil, over those subject to his
authority, was immense. Take for instance, Sheffield, which was
subject, in the reign of Elizabeth, to