Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/302

 280 NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. as a body, for the port of London was long rivalled by that of Southampton, and Winchester, a more opulent city, had almost carried off the honour of being the capital of the realm. Among the chief merchants then settled in London many were of foreign extraction : of one of them, Arnold Fitz- Thedmar, a romantic pedigree is given in the work under notice. The landed proprietors and the great traders sharing among themselves all the civic offices, as the mayoralty, sheriffwick, and aldermanries, constituted the party styled in all contemporary writings the " magnates" of the city; for although it is clear that aldermen were elective, even at the period to which we are referring, the individuals chosen were for the most part members or dependants of the soke-lords or aristocracy. It is of this body that the writer of our chronicle always speaks as discreet men, of good memory, who had acquired all the privileges of the city; and in his eyes the rest of the population, so noisy and turbulent in the folkmotes, were wretched beings, "sons of divers mothers, many born without the city"*, and very many of servile estate." Among other oppressive measures employed by Henry the Third to raise money was that of demanding arbitrary contributions, called talliages, from the Londoners, as though they were tenants of the royal demesne. The sums thus demanded were levied by assessors, according to the re- spective means of the inhabitants ; but the magnates or city aristocracy had paid fines to the Crown, for the grant of charters which exempted their own body from being assessed to such talliages with the commonalty or poorer inhabitants of the city. These privileges were rendered more invi- dious owing to the fact that they, by deputies chosen from their own class, being also the assessors, could and did, as the commons asserted, spare their own purses at the cost of the lower order of townsfolk, whom "they grievously and beyond measure overcharged and vexed." The truth of this statement is proved by numerous charters of exemption which are still preserved by enrolment ; it was fully believed by the populace, and led to results which for a time affected the ascendency of the magnates in city affairs. The curious story narrated in this Chronicle, of the roll sealed with green wax, which was mysteriously deposited and found in the king's wardrobe at Windsor", should be perused in connection with this subject. The secret of the popularity of Walter Hervey with the commons", was his attempt to compel the city magnates to pay up the arrears of talliages due by them ; for not content, it appears, with the advantages they gave them- selves as assessors, they had always paid their own share of those imposi- tions irregularly p. It was a natural consequence of these grievances that the commons of the city should side with the party of Simon de Montfort during his memorable rebellion, and as long as his cause remained successful '" From this expression it would almost " Page 30. iippcar that birlli was a recognised quali- " See ]). 148. fixation for the franchise. i' Rot. Hundr., p. 104.