In 1460 the Earl of Warwick defeated the Lancastrians at the second battle of St. Alban's, the result of which was a deputation to Edward, Earl of March, now Duke of York, and living in Baynard Castle, to request him to assume the Crown; and it was from its portals that he went in procession to St. Paul's to hear the Te Deum sung for the Yorkist Victory, and hence to Westminster, to be vested in the mantle of Royalty, after which he summoned a great council of barons and ecclesiastics to Baynard Castle, to consult with them on the state of the realm. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was residing in Baynard Castle, after the murder of his nephews, when he was waited upon by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, for the purpose of requesting him to assume the Crown. Shakespeare delineates the scene with wonderfully graphic power in his drama of King Richard III., act 3, scene 7.
King Henry VII. occupied the castle as a place of residence some three or four years; and Henry VIII. expended large sums of money in repairs and embellishment, and entertained there the King of Castile, but appears to have granted it to the Earl of Pembroke, a gentleman of the bedchamber, who had married Anne, sister of Queen Katherine Parr. On the death of Edward VI. he favoured the pretensions of Lady Jane Grey to the Crown, but almost immediately changed his opinion; and in his City castle a council was held, where it was determined that Mary, King Edward's sister, should succeed, and she was at once proclaimed Queen at Cheapside Cross. In the reign of Elizabeth it appears to have been occupied by Sir John Fortescue, master of the wardrobe, close by, and the Queen is said to have supped there occasionally. It afterwards became the town residence of the Earls of Shrewsbury, coming to that family, probably, through the marriage of John, the tenth earl, with Mary, daughter of Sir Francis Fortescue, and so remained until the Great Fire of 1666, when the venerable old castle, which had witnessed so many important and tragical events connected with the City of which it was the guardian, was finally, and for ever, destroyed, not a vestige now remaining.
Sir Nicholas Brember, Knight, Lord Mayor of London.
Edward III. was one of the greatest of English kings, and the progenitor, by Philippa of Hainault, of a family of stalwart sons, brave warriors and able statesmen, whose names will long live in the annals of England and the poetry of romance. They were Edward the Black Prince, the hero of Creci and Poictiers; Lionel, Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt, "time-honoured Lancaster," titular king of Castile, father of King Henry IV. and of two queens, and the most conspicuous figure in the pages of Froissart; and Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, the most persistent opponent of his nephew, King Richard, and his government by favourites.
Unfortunate was it for England that the Prince of Wales died prematurely, and equally unfortunate was it that he left behind him a son, by the quondam "fair maid of Kent," who succeeded to the throne of his grandfather as Richard II. at eleven years of age, A.D. 1377. In his nonage a council was appointed for the government of the realm, from which all his uncles, the best fitted by affinity and great abilities for the office, were excluded; a measure which gave rise to jealousy and antagonism on their part to his government, with disastrous results to the king's favourites, and ultimately to the king himself. Richard was spoilt by adulation and flattery, and became the tool of intriguers; never displaying much ability, caring more for the display of his grandeur than for the good government of his people; desiring to rule absolutely, but lacking the power; impetuous, fierce, revengeful, and weak-minded, and attempting to accomplish by crooked ways what would have been better carried out by straightforward measures. His chief favourites were Robert de Vere, ninth Earl of Oxford, created Marquis of Dublin in 1336, and Duke of Ireland the following year: Michael de la Pole, a Hull merchant, created Baron de la Pole 1366 and Earl of Suffolk 1385; Alexander Nevill (a younger son of Ralph, second Baron Nevill), Archbishop of York; Sir Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice; and Sir Nicholas Brember, Knight, alderman of London.
Sir Nicholas was a merchant of London of considerable wealth and influence. He is styled by Froissart, "King's Draper," but seems rather to have been a wholesale merchant. Towards the end of the reign of Edward III. the ancient trade-guilds, crafts and mysteries which had hitherto been confined, each to one special trade, were reconstructed as Livery Companies, by charter, and endowed with certain privileges and immunities; as the means of developing commerce.
From Rot Parl. ii. 278, it appears that at this period, certain wholesale merchants established the "Grossers' Company," which threatened to ruin some of the smaller crafts. In a petition, 36 Edward III., it is stated that "great mischief had arisen, as well to the king, as to the great men and commons, from the merchants called Grossers, who engrossed all manner of merchandize vendible, and who suddenly raised the price of such merchandize within the realm, putting to sale, by covin and by ordinances, made by themselves, and keeping goods in store till times of dearth, etc.," suggesting as a remedy that these merchants should not be permitted to deal in more than one class of these commodities; and an Act based upon this suggestion was passed 37 Edward III. Although Brember was one of the original members of this monopolizing company, he enforced the penalties provided by the Act with great strictness, as, when he was Lord Mayor in 1385, he disfranchised several freemen for carrying on trades other than their own.