A rising against the Lombards in the city, May, 1456.
Just when the country was settling down to enjoy a period of comparative quiet, there occurred (May, 1456) in the city one of those sudden outbreaks against the "merchant stranger" residing within the city's walls which too often appear in the annals of London. On this occasion the young mercers of the city rose against the Lombards; why or wherefore we are not told. We only know that these foreigners received such bad treatment that they meditated leaving the city in a body and setting up business elsewhere. The fault was not altogether with the citizens, it appears; for two Lombards were ordered to be hanged.[866]
The king, who was at the time at Coventry—whither the queen had caused him to be removed, owing to her suspicion that the Londoners were in favour of the Yorkist party—sent for alderman Cantelowe,[867] a mercer, and promptly committed him to Dudley Castle for safe keeping, as having been implicated in the attack on the houses of the Italian merchants.
This outbreak was followed by another "hurlynge" between the mercers of the city and those Lombards who had consented to remain in the city on the understanding that they should be allowed to ply[pg 293] their business without molestation until the council or parliament should determine otherwise. In consequence of this second outbreak no less than 28 mercers were arrested and committed to Windsor Castle.[868]
Letter from the king for safe-guarding the city, 3 Sept., 1456.
On the 3rd September, 1456, the king wrote from Lichfield to the Mayor, reminding him of the dangers which had recently threatened the city—"the king's chamber"—the government whereof ought to serve as an example to the rest of the kingdom, and enjoining him that thenceforth he should allow no one to enter the city but such as came peaceably, and with moderate retinue, according to his estate and degree, and should take precautions against gatherings of evil disposed persons which might lead to a breach of the peace.[869]
The citizens offer to man and victual ships to punish France, 1457.
Notwithstanding the precautions taken to protect the coast, the French made a descent in 1457, and plundered Sandwich and Fowey, capturing over 30 ships, great and small, and doing much damage. The citizens of London, to whom the protection of their commerce in the "narrow sea," as the channel was then frequently called, was everything, thereupon took counsel among themselves, and made a proposal to the king and to Bishop Waynflete, the chancellor, to find 2,000 men and provisions for certain ships then lying in the Thames, at their own expense, to join an expedition to punish the enemy for their boldness. The king thanked them for their patriotic spirit and gave orders for a naval force to join the city contingent from Hull.[870]
A general reconciliation at St. Paul's, 25 March, 1458.
In 1458 Henry tried his hand at effecting a reconciliation between the two rival sections of the nobility, and to this end ordered a great council to meet in St. Paul's on the 27th January. Warwick left his post at Calais, and came over to London to attend the meeting; but he did not arrive until more than a month after the appointed day, and when he came it was with a body of 600 men at his back, "all apparyled in reed jakkettes, with whyte ragged stavis."[871] He took up his quarters within the city, where he found the Duke of York and the Earl of Salisbury. The young Duke of Somerset and other lords, who, like him, had lost their fathers at the battle of St. Albans, were refused an entrance to the city for fear of a breach of the peace, and had to find accommodation outside the city's walls.[872] During the conference the mayor patrolled the streets by day, whilst at night a force of 3,000 men was kept in readiness to assist the aldermen in preserving the king's peace.[873] The times were critical, but at length all ended well. A grand pacification took place in March, and was solemnized by an imposing procession to St. Paul's, in which York led the queen by the hand. The reconciliation thus effected was more apparent than real, and neither party relaxed their efforts to prepare for renewed hostility.