Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/668

 658 N. M. Trenhohne nity for expenses incurred by the abbot and convent ; and, finally, the townsmen were to give surety for future good behavior, both on their own part and on the part of their successors.' The burgesses themselves drew up these conditions. The abbot did not immediately assent to them, and the consequence was that the next day the representatives of the townsmen came to him again and surrendered unconditionally.- Their submission was accepted by the abbot, and although they soon repented of their hasty act, he kept the upper hand, and the submission was made unanimous.' After surrendering their liberties to the abbot, thirty of the chief men of the town went to the royal chancery and there on their own behalf, and on behalf of the rest of the townsmen, they delivered up the royal confirmation and grant of liberties that had been conceded to them in 1327, and prayed that it might be can- celled, and the enrolment of it in the chancery records be blotted out.* Accordingly the keeper of the rolls destroyed the charter and cancelled the enrolment of it. The silver seal of the borough was also surrendered and destroyed — the fragments being handed over to the monks to go towards restoring a ruined shrine.^ All the hand-mills in the town were surrendered to the abbot, and he, in token of the restoration of good will, gave a feast to the chief men of the town." Thus ended one of the greatest and most prolonged of efforts towards gaining borough rights and privileges, that was ever made by any monastic town in England. Beginning in the year of tumult and rebellion, 1327, it had lasted for three years or more, and had finally ended, in 1332, in the total discomfiture of the popular party at St. Albans. After having gained almost every- thing they sought for, the burgesses found themselves, in the end, outmatched by their powerful opponents, and they were forced to resign their dearly bought liberties. The power of the abbot and the convent over the town was re-established more firmly than ever, and it was not until almost half a century later that the towns- men again ventured to rise in rebellion, in sympathy with the great agrarian revolt of 1381. ^ Gesta Abbaiiim, II. 250-251. ^Ibid., 251-254. ^ Ibid., 254-255. ' Gesta Abbatum, II. 260; Madox, Firma Biirgi, p. 140. Madox, though he gives an account of the surrender of the charter, totally misunderstood the motive of such action, as he thinks the burgesses were seeking to free themselves from the abbot's con- trol. ' Gesta Abbatum, II. 260-261.
 * Close Roll, 6 Edw. III., m. 26d.