[28] Andrew Marvell, the poet, who sat for Hull in the reign of Charles II., was paid by the mayor and aldermen of the borough. In return Marvell wrote letters describing passing events in London. There are stray cases of the payment of members in the early years of the eighteenth century. Four shillings a day, including the journey to and from London, for the knight of the shire, and two shillings a day for the borough member were the wages fixed by law in 1323.
[29] Stubbs, Constitutional History.
[30] Bagehot, The English Constitution.
[31] See Stopes' British Freewomen for a full examination of this matter.
[32] Stubbs, Constitutional History.
[33] For the last fifty years the political influence of London has been less than that of the manufacturing districts.
[34] "The project was clearly to set up a new order of things founded on social equality—a theory which in the whole history of the Middle Ages appears for the first time in connection with this movement."—Dr. Gairdner, Introduction to Paston Letters.
[35] Four centuries later and this doctrine of all men having been born free at the beginning was to be preached again in popular fashion by Rousseau and find expression in American Independence and the French Revolution.
[36] Froissart seems to be chiefly responsible for the notion, found in the writings of later historians, that this John Tyler was the leader of the revolt, and for the confusion that mistakenly identifies him with Wat Tyler, of Maidstone, the real leader. Three other Tylers are mentioned in the records of the Peasant Revolt—Walter, of Essex, and two of the City of London.
[37] Hallam, Middle Ages.