"That the said Robert ought to come upon his Horse of Service, with 20 men at arms, mounted, harnessed with mail or iron, even to the great door of the Minster of St. Paul, with a Banner of his Arms displayed before him. And when he has thus come, then ought the Lord Mayor of London, with the Sheriffs and Aldermen, come on foot out of the Minster to the said door, with his banner in his hand, and the banner ought to be gules, an image of St. Paul d'or, the feet, hands, and head, argent, with a sword argent, in the hand of the said Image.
"And as soon as they shall have come forth, the said Robert shall alight from his horse and salute the Mayor, as his companion, saying, 'Sir Mayor, I am come to do my Service which I owe to the City,' and the Mayor shall answer, 'We allow you here as our Banner-Bearer, this banner of the City to carry and govern to your power, to the honour and profit of our City.' Then shall the said Robert take the banner in his hand, and the Mayor, Alderman, and Sheriffs shall present him with a horse of £20 value, with a saddle, garnished with the arms of the said Robert, and covered with a sendal of the same arms, and deliver £20 to his Chamberlain for the charges of the day.
"The said Robert shall then mount the horse, banner in hand, and desire the Mayor, forthwith, to cause a Marshall to be chosen out of the host of London, which being done, he shall then cause the signal to be sounded through the City, for the commons to assemble, and follow the banner carried by the said Robert to Aldgate, and a Council of two sage persons from each ward be chosen, in the Priory of the Holy Trinity, to look to the safe keeping of the City in case the said Robert should have to absent himself for the purposes of war. And if the said Robert with the army of London shall continue for the space of a year at the siege of any town or castle, he shall have 100 shillings from the commonalty of London, and no more. These are the rights of the said Robert in times of war; in times of peace they are as follows: —
"That is to say, the said Robert shall have a soke or ward in the said City, viz., from the wall of the canonry of St. Paul, as a man goes by the Bracine (brew-house) of St. Paul to the Thames, and so to the side of the mill standing by the water that runs down by Fleet Bridge, and thence by the wall, round about the Friers preachers to Ludgate, and so return by the back of the said Fryers' House, to the corner of the said canons' walls of St. Paul. That is to say, all the parish of the church of St. Andrew, which is in his gift in right of his lordship. Appendant to his soke he hath all these things under-written: —
"That he shall have a Soke-man of his own choice, provided he be of the Sokemannery of the Ward, and if any of the Sokemannery be impleaded at the Guildhall, his sokeman may demand a court of the said Robert, which shall be granted by the Mayor and Citizens. And if any thief be taken in his soke, he shall have stocks and prison in the soke and be taken hence to the Guildhall before the Mayor of judgment, but which shall not be pronounced until he is brought into the court of the said Robert and Franchise; and if the judgment be death for treason he shall be tied to a post in the Thames for two tides, and if he be a common Larcin he shall be hanged at the Elms and there suffer his judgment, as other thieves. Also the said Robert and his heirs have a great honour in holding such a franchise in the said City, where the Mayor and Citizens ought to do him right, that is to say, that when the Mayor is minded to call a great council he shall call the said Robert or his heirs thereto, and he shall be sworn thereof against all people saving the king and his heirs. And when the said Robert cometh to the Hustings of the Guildhall of the said City, the Mayor or his Lieutenant shall arise against him and set him down near to him; and so long as he is in the Guildhall all the judgments shall be pronounced by him, according to the records of the Recorders of the said Guildhall. And all the waifs which shall happen whilst he is there he shall give to the bailiffs of the City or to whomsoever he pleases, by advice of the Mayor of said City."
Robert, second baron, died in 1328, three years after his father.
Sir John, Kt., third baron, died in 1361, who was knighted for his bravery in war.
Walter, fourth baron, died in 1386. In the 44th Edward III., he was captured when fighting in Gascony, and was obliged to mortgage one of his castles for £1,000 to raise money for his ransom. He held many other military employments.
Walter, fifth baron, died in 1407, having married Joane, sister and heiress of John, second Baron Devereux, who died in 1379, when the Baronies of Fitzwalter and Devereux became united, Walter Fitzwalter becoming Baron Devereux, jure uxoris, his heir succeeding in his own right.
Humphrey, sixth baron, died s.p., a minor, in 1422. Walter, his brother, seventh baron, was summoned from 1429 and died in 1432, the last of the line of the Fitzwalters. He fought under Henry V. in the French wars with great distinction, and for his services had a grant of lands in Normandy. His daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, conveyed the baronies by marriage to Sir John Radcliffe, Kt., an eminent military commander, who became Baron Fitzwalter, jure uxoris. Dying 39th Henry VI., he was succeeded by his son, Sir John, Kt., who was beheaded in 1495 for implication in the Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy, attainted, and the barony forfeited. Nevertheless, his son, Robert, finding favour at the court of Henry VII. was restored in blood and estates; and in the 1st Henry VIII. to the forfeited barony. For bravery in the French Wars, and other services to the State, he was created Viscount Fitzwalter in 1529, and four years after further elevated in the peerage to the Earldom of Sussex, and was decorated with the order of the Garter. He was thrice married, having issue by all his wives, and died in 1542, when he was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Henry, K.B. and K.G., who died in 1556, from whom descended Sir Edward, sixth Viscount and Earl, who died, s.p., 1641, when these honours became extinct, the barony falling into abeyance, as it remained during the civil wars and after the Restoration, until 1669, when it was called out, in the person of Benjamin Mildmay, descended from Frances, second daughter of Sir Henry, second Earl of Sussex, who married Sir Thomas Mildmay, of Mulsho, Essex. He died in 1679, was succeeded by his eldest son Charles, who died s.p. 1728, to whom followed his brother Henry, who in 1730 was created Viscount Harwich and Earl Fitzwalter; but dying, in 1753, without surviving issue, the two latter titles became extinct, and the barony fell into abeyance, which was terminated in 1868, in the person of Sir Brook William Bridges, fifth baronet, who was called to the House of Peers as Baron Fitzwalter, of Woodham Walter, in the county of Essex, and who died in December, 1875. Having thus disposed of the Barons, Viscounts, and Earls Fitzwalter, it becomes us to inquire into the subsequent history of the old Norman castle, which, flinging its shadow over the then silvery Thames, was the home of the Castellans of London. We have no record of what the Castle of Ralph Baynard was like, but may presume that it was in the usual Norman style, heavy and ungainly, and in its general features not unlike that given in Aggas's Map, temp. Elizabeth, as it appeared after its restoration in the 15th century. A view of it was published in 1780, and its site is indicated in the map of Baynard Castle Ward in Northouk's History of London. It appears to have been a huge, quadrangular block, the body presenting five gabled divisions, with sextangular corner towers, each division and the towers containing two lofty stories, with narrow slits for windows, and rooms in each gable. Little is known of the castle after its alienation to the Dominicans in 1275, until the reign of Henry VI. It appears to have come to the Crown, and was in the possession of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, fourth son of King Henry IV., to whom it had probably been granted by that king. In 1428 it was partially destroyed by fire, but was re-edified by the duke, who continued to reside within its walls until his death. Incurring the jealousy and hatred of Margaret of Anjou and her faction, the duke, who was arrested on a charge of high treason when attending the Parliament of St. Edmundsbury, 1446, at the instance of the queen was committed to prison, and there murdered by suffocation or strangulation, when the castle reverted to the Crown.