The Story of London

by Henry B. Wheatley

After the Battle of Bosworth, Henry VII. was met at Hornsey on the 28th of August 1485 by the Mayor (Sir Thomas Hille) and the aldermen in their scarlet robes, accompanied by a great number of citizens on horseback, in violet-coloured gowns, whence they conducted him to Shoreditch, where he was received by the several companies, and then conducted to St. Paul’s, where he offered three standards, one with the image of St. George, another with a red, fiery dragon, and the third with a dun cow. After the singing of the Te Deum he went to the bishop’s palace. Less than a month afterwards Sir Thomas Hille died of the sweating sickness.

The coronation of Henry VII., in 1485, was hurried over with less ceremonial than usual and without any procession through the city, but that of the Queen (Elizabeth of York), in 1487, was attended with all the pomp customary on similar occasions. On Friday before St. Katherine’s Day the Queen came from Greenwich by water. The Mayor, sheriffs and aldermen, with citizens chosen from every craft in their liveries, were waiting on the river to receive her and attend her to the Tower. On the following day she went through London to Westminster in a litter. The houses were dressed with clothes of tapestry and arras, and in Cheap with rich cloth of gold, velvet and silk. Along the streets, from the Tower to St. Paul’s, stood in order all the crafts of London in their liveries, and in various places were placed singing children, some arrayed like angels, to sing sweet songs as the Queen went by.

The Battle of Bosworth we have agreed to consider as the period of the break up of the Middle Ages, but it was many years after this before the shows and amusements of the people exhibited any great change. The Tudors (especially Henry VIII.) showed a particular delight in pageantry, and the Stuarts carried on the tradition. In fact, it was in Elizabeth’s reign that special attention was given to the arrangements of the Lord Mayor’s pageant.

George Peele, the dramatist, is the first on the list of the city poets, although we have already seen that Lydgate was employed to write poetry in honour of King Henry VI. The pageants prepared for the triumphant passage of ‘King James and Queen Anne, his wife, and Henry Frederick, the Prince,’ from the Tower through the city on the 15th of March 1603-1604 were of a magnificent character. Seven beautiful arches of triumph were designed by Stephen Harrison, joiner and architect. These were erected at the expense of the livery companies and the foreign merchants. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the art of pageantry was almost entirely lost. The decoration of our streets on joyful occasions has lately considerably improved, but there is still room for a more artistic treatment. With our knowledge of the past and the possession of artists who are enthusiastic for the revival of a true taste in pageantry there ought to be no difficulty in the production of pageants that would do honour to our city. It would be well if the authorities would consult with artists for the improvement of the Lord Mayor’s Show.[117]

We have treated of out-of-door amusements, and must now say a few words on one of those enjoyed indoors. Music and poetry were cultivated by certain foreign merchants in England, who established in London, at the close of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century, a society or brotherhood of the ‘Pui,’ ‘in honour of God, our Lady Saint Mary, and all Saints, both male and female; and in honour of our Lord the King, and all the Barons of the country; and for the increasing of loyal love. And to the end that the city of London may be renowned for all good things in all places; and to the end that mirthfulness, peace, honesty, joyousness, gaiety and good love, without [with?] infinity may be maintained.’[118]

The majority of the members were foreigners, but Englishmen were not excluded, for we find that John de Cheshunt was the third prince or president.

Statutes and full particulars of proceedings are given in Liber Custumarum, and curiously enough no other evidence of the existence of such a fraternity in England is known. From this document we learn that the society had received from the city great privileges in respect of the Chapel of St. Mary, in Guildhall, which was building towards the close of the reign of Edward I. Hence the donation in its favour for a chaplain by Sir Henry le Waleys, 1299,[119] who had been Mayor both of London and Bordeaux, and in the latter capacity would be likely to feel an additional interest in this musical society of French merchants and their English friends.

The Regulations are very full and explanatory of the various proceedings at the Festival of the Pui, as the following extracts from Mr. Riley’s translation of the Latin original will show:—

As to the yearly election of a Prince.—‘The Prince ought to be chosen as being good, and loyal, and sufficient, upon the oath of eleven companions, or of the twelve, to their knowledge, upon their oath, that the Pui may be promoted thereby, and maintained and upheld. And he who shall be chosen for Prince, may not refuse it, upon his oath. And when the old Prince and his companions shall leave to make a new Prince, at the great feast, the old Prince and his companions shall go through the room, from one end to the other, singing; and the old Prince shall carry the crown of the Pui upon his head, and a gilt cup in his hands, full of wine. And when they shall have gone round, the old Prince shall give to drink unto him whom they shall have chosen, and shall give him the crown, and such person shall be Prince.’

Marriage, death and burial of the Members.—‘If there be any one of the companions who marries in the city of London, or who becomes a clerk-priest, he ought to let the companions know thereof, and each shall be there according to his oath, if he have not a proper excuse. And the married person ought to give them chaplets, all of one kind; and all the companions ought to go with the bridegroom to church, and to make offering, and to return from the church to the house. And if there be any of the companions of the brotherhood who departs this life and dies, all the companions ought to be there, and to carry the body to church, by leave of the kindred, and to make offering.’