The feuds of those days continued to agitate the city for some years, but at last the differences between the various trades cooled down somewhat. In 1391, however, a proclamation was issued that ‘no person shall speak or give his opinion as to either Nicholas Brembre or John Norhamptone’ on pain of imprisonment for a year and a day. The preamble is as follows: ‘Whereas many dissensions, quarrels and false reports have prevailed in the City of London as between trade and trade, person and person, because of divers controversies lately moved between Nicholas Brembre, knight, and John Norhamptone, of late Mayors of the same city, who were men of great power and estate, and had many friendships and friends within the same; to the great peril of the same city, and maybe of all the realm.’[234]
The names of many other Mayors who have conferred distinction on their office might be mentioned here, but the space at our disposal will not allow of any statement of the claims to honour of these men who have made their mark in the history of London.
It is a curious fact that we have no authority whatever for fixing a date for the first use of the title ‘Lord Mayor,’ and there can be little doubt that it was originally assumed without any positive right. Dr. Sharpe thinks that possibly the expression ‘domino maiore,’ strictly ‘Sir Mayor,’ may account for the origin of the Lord Mayor’s title.[235] A claim has been set up for Thomas Legge, Mayor the second time in 1354, that he was the first Lord Mayor, but there is positively no authority whatever for this claim, although it is boldly stated that he was created Lord Mayor by Edward III. in this year.
One point is worthy of special attention, although it does not throw any actual light on the matter. Bishop Stubbs says that the Mayor of York was known as Lord Mayor in 1389 [1389]. Richard II. had in that year presented his own sword to the Mayor, who was thence-forward known as the Lord Mayor; and in 1393 he had given the Lord Mayor a mace.[236]
If this were so, we can scarcely believe that the Londoners, who had always been very tenacious of their pre-eminent position, would be content to allow their chief magistrate to continue without a title possessed by the Mayor of York. Still, there is not the slightest evidence that the title of Lord Mayor was used in London at this early period, and it is possible that Bishop Stubbs’s statement is too definite. There is no doubt that the title ‘Lord Mayor’ was used at an early date in York, but the prefix ‘Lord’ was not always applied, and as late as 1565 there is reference in the Chamberlain’s account book ‘to Mr. John Bean, Mayor.’[237]
A correspondence of some interest was printed in The Times in November and December 1901 on this point; but although Legge’s claim was disproved, few if any positive facts were brought forward. The most satisfactory letter was one from Mr. W. H. St. John Hope, of the Society of Antiquaries, who, as the result of a search in the city books, gave some definite information as to the use of the title. ‘Down to about 1540 the chief magistrate was invariably styled Mayor.... There are, however, instances as early as 1519 where he is referred to as “my lorde mayr,” but seemingly in the same way as we speak of “my lord bishop” or “my lord the King,” for the same entry that refers to him as “my lorde mayr” nowe beyng, continues “as well as all other mayres his successours.” After 1540 the use of the term “Lord Mayor” becomes general—e.g., 1542, “every lorde mayer’s house”; 1545, “the lorde mayers of the same cytie”; 1546, “the lorde mayor,” &c.’
We have seen how important was the office of Mayor in mediæval times, and how like a king the holder’s dignity was upheld.
The Mayor has certain very remarkable privileges, which prove the high esteem in which he was held by the sovereign. These privileges are of considerable antiquity, and have not yet been traced to their source. The four principal are:—
| I. | The closing of Temple Bar to the sovereign. |
| II. | The Mayor’s position in the city, where he is second only to the King. |
| III. | His summons to the Privy Council on the accession of a new sovereign. |
| IV. | His position of Butler at the Coronation banquets. |