"For eny favour or frenship the comins with yowe fynde,
But pyke awey our thryfte & make us all blynde;
And ever ye have nede to the Cominalte,
Such favour as ye shewe us, such shall ye see.
We may speke feir & bid you goode morowe,
But luff with our herts shull ye hav non.
Cherish the Cominalte & se that they have ther right,
For drede of a worse chaunce be day or be nyght,
The best of you all litell worth shuld be,
And ye had not help of the Cominalte."[446]
Matters remained for some time at a standstill; then at last, early in November, Laurence's "labour and busy suit" brought two privy seals, containing full directions, to Coventry.[447] The mayor was required to release the prisoner after taking surety in £100, so that he might appear before the King and council and state his case; while two or three of the mayor's brethren sufficiently instructed in the matters to be laid to his charge were to bear him company. At a meeting of the council on November 14, certain citizens, among whom was John Boteler the steward, were appointed to ride to London. There, joined by the recorder and others of the city, who no doubt had already entered on various negotiations connected with this suit, they were to lay an account of Laurence's "demeasner" before the King. Another privy seal had been received, addressed to four friends[448] of Laurence, who were summoned to London "to th' entent that they shuld testyfie with hym in such matier as he wold allege for his greves." And now the business went quickly forward. "Accordyng which appoyntement the day was kept at London," says the Leet Book, "befor the Kyngs Counceill in the Sterr Chambre, the Friday next after Seynt Martyn day, and ther continied dayly vnto the Tewesday next befor the fest of Seynt Andrew ... at which day befor my lords of Caunterbury, London and Rochestre, the chief Justice Mr ffyneux, and many other lords, the hole matier was hard at large, both the compleynt of the seid Laurence, the answer therunto, the replicacion of the seid Laurence, and the rejoynder theruppon, with the disposicions of the witnesse, and proves of the seid Laurence, wheruppon the seid Laurence was ther and then comyt vnto the Flete, ther to abyde unto the tyme the kyngs pleasur was knowen."
So Laurence Saunders vanished into the Fleet, while Boteler and the rest returned in triumph to Coventry. The corporation remained clearly masters of the field. In a privy seal,[449] received by the mayor and sheriffs the next December, Laurence's complaints were pronounced "feined and contrived," and himself a "seducioux" man, who had "of his great presumpcion and obstinacie not seldom but often tymes disobeyed the liefell ... precepts of you the said mair ... to the right evil and pernicioux example of other, therby embolded and encouraged to offende in like wise." But the King willed that the laudable and prosperous governance of the city should not "surceasse or be sette aparte by the sinistre or crafty meanes of any privat personne," and so the folk of the city were commanded "for the pretense of any right herafter by thaim ... to bee claymed" to make no conspiracies and unlawful assemblies.
As for the details of the trial, of them we know nothing.[450] Boteler kept the complaint and the answer, the replication and the rejoinder, in papers, "whereof the tenor," says the Leet Book, "her ensuen ..." but just at this place occurs an unlucky break. The careful and zealous town clerk was called away, no doubt, at that moment on business of the first importance; there are no further entries made; so there can be nothing told of the trial in the Star Chamber that Martinmas and of the long agony of Laurence Saunders.
FOOTNOTES:
[360] Ashley, Econ. Hist. i. pt. ii. 53. The act was repealed in 1511-12. In 1522 an order of leet was passed in Coventry to the effect that the mayor should warn any baker, who had offended twice against the assize, not to bake any more in the city unless he could find surety that his fault should not be repeated, and further, no victualler or butcher was allowed henceforth to be on the jury of leet (Leet Book, 682).
[361] The loaf varied in weight, but not in price, with the price of corn (Green, ii. 35).
[362] Harl. MS. 6,388 passim. It is difficult to determine the date of these risings, so great is the variation between the different lists of mayors; and so often do Coventry historians antedate events, owing to the confusion between the old and new styles. It is noticeable that the mayor in 1381 was Thomas Kele, one of the founders of the Trinity guild.
[363] Corp. MS. F. 3. It is here said that the mayor, bailiffs, and commonalty "was seized in their demesne as of fee" of the common lands in right of the community. There was much uncertainty among the lawyers of that time as to the entity possessing rights over the common lands.
[364] Cicely de Montalt, in her grant to the prior of the manorial "waste" attached to the Earl's-half, reserves for all cottiers their reasonable pasture (Harl. MS. 6,388, f. 2). Walter de Coventre bequeathed to his fellow-townsmen and their heirs for ever his rights of pasture for all the cattle in all his lands (Ib.).