Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/681

Rh LONDON. 673 LONDON. means of a canal cut either from Greenwich or through the Surrey marshes. At length, after several en- counters, in which Edmun'd was successful, he was himself murdered, and Canute succeeded to the throne, by virtue of a treaty. The Dane revenged himself for the defeats he had sustained by inflicting heavy pecu- niary penalties upon the whole kingdom one-eighth of which, amounting to 11,000, he levied from the inha- bitants of London. On the death of Hardicanute, in 1042, Edward the Confessor, who had married Editha, the daughter of Godwin, Earl of Kent, ascended the throne, and made London his chief place of residence. Under this monarch the city rapidly increased in wealth and importance. In 106.5 Westminster Abbey was re- built by him, and dedicated to St. Peter ; and his death, which occurred soon after, put an end to the Saxon sway in England. Upon William the Conqueror's advance to London, some opposition was shown by the inhabitants ; but Southwarlc was burned by him, and the citizens then made their submission. William, after he was crowned at Westminster Abbey, on Christmas Day, 1066, gave a charter to the city ; but, at the same time, he took care to disarm the inhabitants, and employed Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, to enlarge and strengthen the Tower, the original building of which is asserted by tradition to have been commenced by the Romans, in order to awe the people into obedience in the event of any insurrection occurring amongst them. William Rufus further strengthened the Tower, built Westmin- ster Hall, and rebuilt London Bridge. On the death of the kiii!,', in 1100, his brother Henry hastened from Win- chester to London, and was crowned by Bishop Maurice. He granted a charter to the citizens, which exempted them from Dane-geld and the obligation of quartering soldiers, and conferred upon them many privileges which they had sought in vain from his predecessors. Notwithstand- ing all these concessions, however, Henry oppressed the English and favoured the Normans so much, that when Stephen ascended the throne, in 1135, the former were so pleased at the prospect of better times that the Londoners gladly opened their gates to him and welcomed him as their rightful king. Stephen granted the citizens a fresh charter, in return for which they espoused his cause against his rival. When the king was taken pri- soner, deputies from the City of London demanded his liberation, and the re-establishment of the laws of Kdward the Confessor in the place of those of Henry, which they found to be unjust and oppressive. These demands were ignored, and for a time they were com- pelled to submit to the Empress Matilda. At length, however, when they found that all their representations were treated with contempt, the Londoners, being joined hy the Bishop of Winchester, took up arms in defence of i i-ights, and restored Stephen to the throne in 1141. ing this reign (A.D. 1136) the city was burnt down Aldgate to St. Paul's, and London Bridge was also ' iyed by the fire. Stephen first made the Tower a . residence ; and it was used for this purpose so late as the reii;n of James II. St. Katharine's Hospital was d< d near the Tower by Uucen Matilda. Since then icks have been formed upon its site, and the hos- 1ms been transferred to the Regent's Park. The i of the Plantagenets was the commencement of renewed system" of oppression to the Londoners, and and tallagcs, and levied forced loans from the City to a vast extent ; and the Jews, in particular, were sub- i not only to cruel exactions, but even to torture and massacre. In Henry's time the Temple Church ! built by the Knights Templars, and tho effigies of veral of the members of that illustrious body who fell "ng the Crusades, and are buried in tho church, may 'n in the vestibule, or porch. During the the latter till national distinctions 1" nd foreigners became obliterated, a fresh ited to the city, and the name of its msgi / d from portreeve to that of mayor. ivnown which Richard acquired in the Holy i
 * Ah Jlenry II. and Richard I. (1154 1199) imposed
 * m popular at homo, and tho Londoners con-

tributed a large sum towards his ransom. After his return from captivity he sold a new charter to tho Corporation for 1,500, by which he granted them tho conservancy of the Thames and various other privi- leges. Notwithstanding all this, his excessive taxation drove the citizens to revolt, under William Fitz-Osbert, surnamed Longbeard, who, however, was defeated and hung upon a gibbet. John, on his accession (27th May, 1199), confirmed all former rights and privileges to the citizens on their payment of 3,000 marks, and gave them the power of electing ono of their own body annually as mayor, as also of appointing the sheriffs and common councilmen. During this reign there was a fire at London Bridge, in which 3,000 people were burned or drowned. On the 6th January, 1218, the barons in London demanded a renewal of Henry's charter, and a confirmation of that granted by Edward ; and in Magna Charta the franchise of the City was declared inviolable. Foreign merchants were allowed to trade freely therein, and no imposts except the three feudal aids were to bo levied without the consent of parliament. Tho Court of Common Pleas was fixed at Westminster, and the City was to remain in tho hands of the 25 barons who were appointed to maintain the articles of Magna Charta, and of whom the Mayor of London was one. ' The Tower was committed to the keeping of Langton, and the stone bridge over the Thames which had been begun by Matilda was completed. Continual collisions took place between Henry III. and the citizens (1216 1272) inconsequence of his exactions ; and when he was obliged to sell his plate and jewels in consequence of parliament refusing him a subsidy, tho City incurred his anger by buying them. In order to revenge himself, he granted to the Abbot of Westminster, whose house the citizens de- stroyed, an annual fair to continue for 15 days, in Tot- hill Fields, and during this period all business in the City was by his order suspended. In 1263 another massacre of the Jews took place, and a raid was made upon the Lombard bankers, a great number of whom saved their lives by taking sanctuary in the churches. Tho queen was pelted on her way up the river from the Tower to Windsor, and as stones were collected to sink her barge if she attempted to pass under London Bridge, she was forced to return to the Tower. During the civil war the Earl of Leicester took up his headquarters in London, and the first indisputable meeting of knights, citizens, and burgesses, as representatives of the king- dom, and sitting as a general parliament, took place on 20th January, 1265. After tho battle of Evesham, where Leicester was killed, and an end put to the power of the barons, London was exposed to the hatred and vengeance of the royalists. The liberties of the City were for a time suspended, and its privileges, even when restored, much curtailed. It was mulcted in 20,000 marks, and its mayor was fined and imprisoned. Edward I., who was crowned at Westminster, 19th August, 1274, massacred 280 Jews in the City, and seized their pro- perty. In order to maintain his wars against Scotland and France ho courted tho Londoners, and restored to them tho right of electing their own magistrates, of which they had been deprived by his father. This monarch disafforested the forest of Middlesex, and, in 1285, finished Westminster Abbey, which had been_ 60 years in tho course of erection. The gross favouritism shown by Edward II. to the two Spensers exasperated tho Londoners greatly, and in the rebellion of his queen and son against him they sided with tho insurgents, slew the Bishop of Exeter, and seized the Tower. In this reign the House of Commons began to put annexed petitions to the bills by which they granted subsidies, and bills of exchange were first adopted. The next king, Edward III. (1327 1377), granted two new charters to the City, by one of which he enlarged and confirmed its former privi- leges, and by the other annexed to it the borough of South- wark. In this reign the wars against Scotland and France led to the imposition of large taxes ; but the battles of 1 .n Hill in 1333, of Crccy in 1346, and Poitiers in 1356, terminated so gloriously that the people scarcely grudged the inconveniences to which they had been put.