Bygone London

by Frederick Ross

A special commission of oyer and terminer was issued to the Duke of Norfolk and other lords, with the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and justices, to try the prisoners. The court was held in the Guildhall, on the 2nd of May, whither the delinquents, to the number of 278 persons, were brought, tied together with ropes, and escorted by 1,300 men. On the 4th, thirteen of them were condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, in divers parts of the City; which sentence was carried out with great barbarity, in the presence of Lord Edward Howard, "a knight marshal, who shewed no mercie, but extreme crueltie to the poore younglings in their execution."

A few days after, Lincolne, Shirwin, and Bets, instigators of the affray, with divers others, were dragged on hurdles to be hanged at the Standard in Cheapside. They were placed under the gallows with the ropes round their necks, when a reprieve arrived. The people shouted "God save the king," and the condemned were taken back to prison. On the 14th, the Recorder and some aldermen waited upon the king at Greenwich, to solicit pardon for the rest of the prisoners, which he bluntly refused, but ordered them to be brought before him at Westminster on the 22nd. On that day the king sat in state, attended by "the cardinal and many great lords," and the mayor and aldermen of London. "The king commanded that the prisoners should be brought forth, so that in came the poore yonglings and old false knaves, bound in ropes all along, one after the other, in their shirts, and everie one a halter about his necke, to the number now of foure hundred men and eleven women. And when all were come before the king's presence, the cardinall sore laide to the maior and commonaltie their negligence; and to the prisoners he declared that they had deserved death for their offence. Then the prisoners cried 'Mercie, gratious lord, mercie!' Herewith the lords altogether besought his grace of mercie, at whose sute the king pardoned them all. Then the cardinall gave unto them a good exhortation to the great gladnesse of the hearers. Now when the generall pardon was pronounced, all the prisoners shouted at once, and altogether cast up their halters into the hall roofe, so that the king might perceive they were none of the discreetest sort. Then were all the gallows within the Citie taken downe, and many a good prayer made for the king."

And thus came to an end the proceedings in connection with the frolic of the Cheapside 'prentices, on what was long afterwards called "Evil May Day."

When King John, in 1215, granted a mayor, it was stipulated that he should present himself before the king or his justices for approval, whence arose the annual procession on Lord Mayor's Day. At first it was a very simple matter, the mayor riding on horseback accompanied by the aldermen, and preceded by the beadle and a company of minstrels. It gradually, however, added new features, such as banner bearers, standards emblazoned with arms, trumpeters, "men apparelled like devils and wild men to clear the way with squibs," "savages or green men" with fireworks for the same purpose, wild animals of various kinds, emblematic figures and devices, many exceedingly quaint and grotesque, and some with punning allusions to the mayor. But the most conspicuous features of the shows of the 16th and 17th centuries were the pageants, a species of emblematical stage representation provided by the company which had the honour of giving the mayors. These pageants displayed a great deal of imagination and mechanical skill, and sometimes cost nearly a thousand pounds.

Sir John Norman is supposed to have been the first mayor who went to Westminster by water, whither he was rowed with silver oars, in 1621, for which he was lauded in verse as "The Sun in Aries," by Middleton, the Laureate.

From 1639 to 1655 the prevalence of Puritanism and the civil war together abolished the show, as did the Plague and the Fire from 1664 to 1671. In 1703 the pageants were discontinued, much to the regret of the people, who looked upon them as the best part of the show, and were especially delighted with some time-honoured representations which were repeated year by year, and never lost their interest, such as that of the Goldsmiths, in which St. Dunstan, their patron saint, seized the devil by his nose with the tongs, and made him roar with pain.

As an illustration of this olden-time mode of celebrating the inauguration of a new mayor, we have selected a pageant of the Fishmongers' Company, in the procession of Sir John Lemon, 1616, of which company he was a member. The pageant consisted of several sections: 1. The trade pageant, "A Fisshing Busse," ornamented with carvings of fish and other devices, the company's crest at the head and St. Peter's keys at the stern, with three fishermen aboard, one casting the net and the others distributing live fish among the crowd. 2. A dolphin, argent, naisant and crowned, part of the company's arms. "Arion, a famous musician and poet, rideth on backe." 3. The Emperor of Morocco, in regal costume, with crown and sceptre, "gallantly mounted on a golden leopard, and hurling gold and silver everywhere about him." He is attended by six tributary Moorish kings "carrying ingots of gold and silver and each a dart." 4. A lemon tree, in reference to the name of the Lord Mayor, with a pelican at the foot feeding her young with the blood of her own breast, emblematic of the love the chief magistrate has for the citizens. Around sit the "five senses, picturing flower, fruit, rind, pith, and juice." This portion is preceded by a winged figure, seated on a white horse, and bearing a sword, eight men in armour bearing emblazoned banners, and two trumpeters. 5. A man in armour, on a white horse, carrying the head of Wat Tyler on a spear, and five men in armour bearing truncheons. 6. A merman and mermaid, heraldically habited with gold chains, and riding on the sea waves. These are the supporters of the company's arms. 7. "The Fishmongers' Pageant Chariot," pyramidal in form, with thirteen allegorical figures, the upper part forming a throne, and seated thereon a winged and crowned figure, over which is a canopy with the Fishmongers' crest. In front of the throne sits King Richard II., in golden armour, whose life was preserved by Walworth, the winged figure above being his guardian angel, who inspired Sir William to use his dagger. There are also numerous children seated in rows above each other, splendidly dressed, representative of the Royal virtues. The stages of this part of the pageant are made to appear as if passing over the sea waves. 8. "The Fishmongers' bower." An arched recess with double columns, adorned with shields of arms of former mayors of the company. This is supposed to have been to a certain extent a copy of the tomb of Sir William Walworth, who lies thereon, dressed in a purple robe trimmed with ermine, and a hat and feather, after the style of the Jacobean period, an anachronism considered at that time of but little consequence. Above him stands an angel, "the genius of London," who bids him arise from his tomb. Forthwith he stands up, makes a congratulatory speech to the new mayor, and then "ridd on horsebacke with the rest of them," accompanied by representatives of the five citizens who were knighted along with him for their services against the rebels in Smithfield. From the time when the pageants were discontinued in 1702, the show sank down into a mere procession, with banners, music, the companies in their liveries, and the men in armour, as they have come down to our day. Hogarth gives us, in his series of Idleness and Industry, a graphic representation of the show of 1750, with the Prince and Princess of Wales seated under a canopy at the end of Paternoster Row.

A.D. 1643. Cheapside was one of the nine resting-places of the body of Eleanor of Castile, Queen of Edward I., on its progress from Lincolnshire to Westminster for burial, and here, opposite Wood Street, was erected, by Master Michael, a Canterbury mason, one of her beautiful memorial crosses. It fell to decay, and in 1441 was rebuilt with a conduit or fountain connected with it, but was not completely finished until the accession of Henry VII. The fanaticism of the Puritans after the Reformation caused them to look upon it and its statues of Jesus Christ, the Virgin, the Apostles, and a figure which they presumed to be, and which probably was, the effigy of a pope, with feelings of superstitious horror, and on several occasions they defaced the images and otherwise mutilated the cross. At length the reign of the Puritans commenced, and in 1643 the Parliament decreed its destruction, deputing one Robert Harlow to see it carried out. Accordingly in May of that year he filled Cheapside with a troop of horse, two companies of foot, and a body of workmen with ladders, picks, crowbars, and hammers, and as the official report informs us:—"On the 2nd of May, 1643, the cross in Cheapside was pulled down. At the fall of the top cross, drums beat, trumpets blew, and multitudes of caps were thrown in the air, and a great shout of people with joy. The 2nd of May, the Almanack says, was the invention of the cross, and the same day, at night, were the leaden popes burnt in the place where it stood, with ringing of bells and great acclamation, and no hurt at all done in these actions."

There is a print extant of the demolition of the cross, with workmen on ladders, hammering at the statues, and two men pulling down the finial cross with ropes, with a surrounding of horsemen, and beyond a body of troops with banners and uplifted weapons. A copy of the print is given in Old and New London, vol. i., p. 331.

In connection with that event a multitude of pamphlets appeared on both sides of the question, which may be seen in the Guildhall Library. From the mass we select two for notice, the former especially as showing that the Cheapside 'prentices were then a power in the city worthy of being courted by flattery and adulation. Generally they adhered to the Puritanical side, but it would appear that there were some amongst them who held opposite views, from their coming forth with their clubs to prevent the demolition of the Cross; or it may be that they looked upon their Cross as a sort of palladium; had come to venerate it, and not being so bigoted as some of the Puritans, did not care to see it demolished. The title of the pamphlet runs thus:—"The Doleful lamentation of Cheapside Crosse: or, Old England sick of the Staggers: Together with the hearty thanks, which I, Jasper Crosse, hath lately returned to those noble-minded and gentele-bred 'prentices thereabouts, for rescuing my honour from being ravished, especially to Robert York, who was my chief protector at that time. London, 1641."