Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 2.djvu/684

Rh LONDON. 676 LONDON. which was granted to them; and all who had been arrested were sent home upon an undertaking that for the future the foreigners should remain unmolested. Notwithstanding this promise, however, aliens traded in the City under great disadvantages, and in 1527 several citizens were actually disfranchised for dealing in the property of foreigners. When the king required money for his wars, the Londoners were as usual the principal contributors, and were forced to raise large sums by threats of severities pronounced against them by Wolsey, who appropriated a considerable portion of the money to himself, and built York Place, now White- hall, and Hampton Court palace, with the proceeds. The City was also remarkable during this reign for the scenes which it witnessed in connection with Church matters. Before Henry threw off openly his allegiance to Rome, a sermon was preached every Sunday at St. Paul's Cross, denouncing the temporal authority of the pope ; but the king, not wishing to incur the anger of that potentate, did not venture at once to adopt the principles of the Reformation. Accord- ingly, although Tindal's translation of the Bible was publicly burned in Cheapside, and Protestants were executed for denying certain Roman Catholic points of doctrine, yet members of the latter Church were equally persecuted for denying the king's supremacy in temporal government. Afterwards, when the Reformation gained greater hold upon the country, and the religious houses were suppressed, a great alteration took place in the City, owing to the extensive abolition of these establish- ments. It has been computed that about two-thirds of the area within the City walls was occupied by churches, priories, and convents, while there were large dwelling- houses and gardens belonging to bishops, abbots, and various ecclesiastical dignities in the Strand and Hoi- born, as well as in other parts of the town and its suburbs. When these, or most of them, were abolished, there was more room for the laity in the City, and it became gradually more and more filled with persons engaged in the pursuits of trade and commerce. In this reign Westminster was made an episcopal see, but the bishopric was suppressed in the reign of Edward VI., and Dr. Thomas Thiiiby, the bishop, was translated to Norwich. St. James's Palace was now built ; the Trinity House Corporation formed; St. Paul's school and the College of Physicians founded ; and the first secretary of state appointed. During this reign the inhabitants built their houses to a greater height, parish registers were established, and trade flourished in the City. Fresh provisions were made for paving the streets, the re- moval of nuisances, the better regulation of the public markets ; and in general, notwithstanding the severities practised in the name of religion, the condition of Lon- don improved, and its citizens increased both in number and in wealth. Edward VI. was crowned at West- minster in 1547, and during his reign Christ's Hospital, which had been founded by Henry III., was refounded by the king as a place of education, under the title of the " Blue Coat School," from the colour of that gar- ment which is still worn by the pupils ; and Bethlehem and St. Thomas's hospitals were founded. The Protector Somerset, during this reign, built for his residence the house still called by his name in the Strand. For this purpose he pulled down two churches, and the houses of three bishops in the Strand, and a chapel in St. Paul's churchyard, and employed their materials in the erec- tion of his own palace. Ho also appropriated to his uses large sums of money raised from suppressed reli- gious houses, and defrauded the Guildhall library of three cartloads of valuable books and manuscripts. These and other tyrannical proceedings produced so much hatred against him that he was imprisoned in the Tower, and ultimately executed in 1552. In 1553 the taverns of London were, by Act of Parliament, limited to the number of forty in the City and liberties, and three in Westminster ; if more than twelve persons met and refused to disperse upon a magistrate's order, the assembly was held to be treasonable ; interest was for- bidden to bo taken for money lent ; and native traders were protected by certain disabilities imposed upon th Hanse merchants. Religious persecution was less sever than it had been in the preceding reign, and the Flei prison and the Tower were comparatively empty. St. Sti phen's chapel was in this reign first used by the Cornmoi as their place of meeting; the "Book of Common Prayer" was now set forth by royal authority ; and the sweatin sickness, which had at intervals been so prevalent in th City, entirely disappeared in 1551. In 1553 Lady Jan Grey was proclaimed in London ; and Bishop Ridley, during the ten days of her reign, was earnest in preach- ing in her favour at St. Paul's Cross. When 3i however, arrived, the citizens received her with gi joy, and bonfires were lit, banquets given, and the bells rung to welcome her. She was crowned at A minster, and soon after her accession went to the T< > and set at liberty the Duke of Norfolk, bishops Boniic-r, Gardiner, and Tunstall, with several other pris"! In 1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt endeavoured to depose Mary in favour of Lady Jane Grey, and the queen, seeing the danger she was in, went in person to Guildhall to ask the assistance of the citizens. This they most energetically afforded her ; and Wyatt and iiis followers, alter marching through Knightsbridge and along the > which is now Piccadilly, arrived at the village of Charing. They then proceeded down the Strand to Temple Bar and Ludgate, where an encounter took place, in which Wyatt was captured, and having been con- veyed to Whitehall, he was sent ultimately to the To' and there executed. During this reign the Protestants were burned in great numbers in Smithfield, fi loans were levied, and the queen compelled the city to become security for her to Antwerp for 30,000 she had borrowed there. She also took 50,000 as a bribe from the London merchants for prohibiting foreign merchants from exporting English cloth, and she exacted 60,00% from the City in order to carry out the objects of an alliance which she had formed with Spain against France. The progress of Elizabeth from the T to Westminster at her coronation was a remarkable pageant. An immense variety of devices were displayed along the line of her route, and at the Standard in Cheapside she was presented with 1,000 marks of by the recorder, as a token of the City's love and re.-; for her. In 1556 the Royal Exchange was opened b queen; in 1560, Westminster school was founded; in 1561 the Merchant Taylors' school, by the compa;; that name. In 1600 the queen granted a charter company to trade to the East Indies, and it existed as Hie East India Company until 1858, when its powers v transferred to the crown. During the Tudor period t!n> city was in a very dirty state, and the inhabitants not over cleanly either in their dwelling-places or 1 habits. The houses of the commoner sort of people wattled and covered over with clay. The Hours wn clay, or plaster strewed with rushes, and except in larger mansions there were no chimneys, but llie s;i escaped through a hole in the roof. These and sir. circumstances, such as the want of draina greatly to foster the plague and all kinds of levers ; London abounded not only in nuisances, but, unlit, was infested both by night as well as ' by immense quantities of thieves and vagabonds, population of London during the reign of Eli/ah was about 160,000, and the people were much ; shows and theatrical representations ; and the i Shakspeare, Burbage, and their fellow-actors, and the Globe on ISankside, the Curtain in Sh." and the theatres in the Black and White FJ i ever be associated with Elizabethan London. The greater part of the City in Elizabeth's time was cc tained within the old City walls. Only one sitl Minories was built. Goodmaii's-fields was a giazing ground, and Spitalfields were fields indeed. Th" but a very few houses in J'.ishnpsgatc: and N!i- Chiswell-street was not built, and Holborn, St. Uiles, Charing, and Kensington were villages contl- London. The Strand consisted of a few clusters o i on the N. side, but on the S. side ran a fine lino of man- uses ; aan-