The time when the city wall was first erected, is very uncertain, some authors ascribing this work to Constantine the Great, and others to his mother Helena; but Mr. Maitland brings several arguments to prove, that it was erected by Valentinian, about the year 368, and that it entirely surrounded the city, to secure it from being invaded by water as well as by land.
This wall was composed alternately of layers of flat Roman brick, and rag stones, and had many lofty towers. Those on the land side were fifteen in number. The remains of one of these is still to be seen in Shoemaker row, fronting the passage into Duke’s Place; and there is another a little nearer Aldgate, twenty-one feet high. From the remains of the Roman work in the city wall, Mr. Maitland supposes, that, at the time of its erection, it was twenty-two feet in height, and that of the towers about forty feet. See London Wall.
During the Saxon heptarchy, London was the metropolis of the kingdom of the East Saxons, and was then, as we are told by Bede, a princely mart-town, governed by a magistrate called a Portreve, that is, a governor or guardian of a port. We find this city then first called London-Byrig, which they soon after changed into Lunden-Ceaster, Lunden-Wye, Lundenne, Lunden-Berk, or Lunden-Burgh. At length Augustine the Monk, having introduced christianity into England, in the year 400, he was made Archbishop of Canterbury, when he ordained Mellitus bishop of the East Saxons, who had a church erected for him in this city by Ethelbert, King of Kent. Thus London first became the seat of a bishop; but this prelate was afterwards expelled, and paganism again for some time publicly established.
The history of the heptarchy is so very defective, that no mention is made of this city from the year 616, to that of 764. After this last period we find that London frequently suffered by fires, and was twice plundered by the Danes; the last time they transported an army in 350 ships up the Thames, and landing near London, soon reduced and plundered it; when looking upon it as a convenient fortress, whence they might at pleasure invade the kingdom of Wessex, made it a place of arms, and left in it a considerable garrison; but the wise and brave Alfred recovered the city, drove out the invaders, and then not only repaired the wall and towers, but embellished the city with additional buildings. But we have no account of the nature of the buildings or the edifices erected, only that in the year 961, there were but few houses within the city walls, and those irregularly dispersed; most of them being without Ludgate, so that Canterbury, York, and other places, contained more houses than London. The city having no bridge, the citizens cross’d the Thames by means of ferries.
But between the years 993, and 1016, a wooden bridge was erected. This great work was performed in the reign of Ethelred, and in the last mentioned year, Canute King of Denmark sailing up the river, in order to plunder the city, and finding that he could not pass the bridge with his ships, caused a canal to be cut through the marshes on the south side of the river, which probably began at the place now called Dockhead, and extending in a semicircle by Margaret’s Hill, entered the Thames about St. Saviour’s Dock, a little above the bridge. This work being accomplished, Canute brought his ships to the west of London bridge, and attacked the city on all sides; however the citizens exerting themselves with extraordinary bravery, he was repulsed with considerable loss, and obliged to raise the siege. Yet he afterwards renewed it with greater vigour than before, but with no better success. At last a peace was concluded between King Edmund and Canute, by which the kingdom was divided between them, when Mercia, of which London was the capital, falling to Canute’s share, the city submitted to him; and Edmund dying a few months after, Canute summoned a parliament to meet in London, who chose that prince sole monarch of England.
Canute now, resolving to win the hearts of his new subjects, disbanded his army, and threw himself entirely upon the affections of the English, at which the above parliament were so pleased, that they granted him 83,000l. a prodigious sum at that time! for, according to the price of land and provisions then, it must have been equal to nine millions at present; and of this immense sum, London alone raised 11,000l. which is a convincing proof of the opulence of the city, since it must be possessed of above one seventh part of the wealth of the whole kingdom.
But we are not writing a history of England, but of its capital, we shall therefore pass over the following reigns, till we come to the invasion of William the Conqueror, who laid Southwark in ashes; but the Londoners afterwards submitting to him, he, in the year 1067, granted them his first charter in their own language, which consists of little more than four lines, beautifully written in the Saxon character on a slip of parchment, six inches long, and one broad, and is still preserved in the city archives.
In 1077 happened the greatest casual fire, that till this time ever befel the city, by which the greatest part of it was laid in ashes; and about two years after, the Conqueror beginning to suspect the fidelity of his subjects, caused the present square tower of London to be erected, to keep them in awe. See the Tower of London.
In this reign were several other dreadful fires, and London bridge was in 1091 carried away by a land flood; but a few years after another wooden bridge was built in its room. In 1099 a high flood caused the Thames to overflow its banks, by which a great number of villages were laid under water, and many of their inhabitants drowned: at this time part of the lands belonging to Godwin Earl of Kent, were swallowed up by the sea, and are now denominated Goodwin’s Sands; and this being a reign of prodigies, there happened fifteen years after such a defect of water in the river Thames, that numbers of people crossed not only above and below London bridge, but even through some of the arches, without wetting their feet.
We have already mentioned the first charter granted by William the Conqueror to the city; he afterwards granted them another; but London obtained one much more extensive from Henry I. by which the citizens not only had their ancient customs and immunities confirmed, but the county of Middlesex added to their jurisdiction, on paying the quit rent of 300l. a year; with a power of appointing not only a Sheriff but a Justiciary from among themselves. This was granted to prevent that county’s being any longer an asylum for bankrupts, and fraudulent persons, who having deserted London with the goods and effects of their creditors, lived there in open defiance of those they had injured.