In the following March (1462) he confirmed the charter granted to the City by Henry IV, whereby the citizens obtained the right of taking toll and custom at Billingsgate, Smithfield and elsewhere, as well as the right of tronage or weighing wool at the Tron.[913]
City Loans, 1462.
In August, 1462 Calais was again in danger, and the king wanted money. The Earl of Worcester and others of the council were sent into the city to ask for a loan of £3,400. After considering the matter, the civic authorities agreed to lend him £1,000. The money was to be raised by assessment on the wards, but Dowgate ward being at the time very poor, was not to be pressed.[914] In the following October the City again came to the king's assistance with a further loan of 2,000 marks,[915] and on the 9th November the City obtained (in return, shall we say?) a charter confirming its jurisdiction over the Borough of Southwark,[916] originally granted by Edward III. Again, the coincidence of a charter granted by the king to the City, with a loan or gift from the City to the king, is remarkable.
The king's reception in the city on his return from the North, Feb., 1463.
When Edward returned in February, 1463, from the North, where he had succeeded with the assistance afforded him by the Londoners in re-capturing most of the castles which the restless Margaret had taken,[pg 309] the City resolved to give him a befitting reception. Preparations were made for the mayor, aldermen and commons to ride forth to meet him in their finest liveries, but the king having expressed his intention of coming from Shene to the city by water, the citizens went to meet him in their barges, with all the pomp and ceremony of a Lord Mayor's day.[917]
Estrangement of Warwick, 1464-1468.
Edward now gave himself up to a life of luxury and pleasure. In 1464 he married the young widow of Sir John Grey, better known by her maiden name of Elizabeth Woodville. His marriage to her gave offence to the nobility, more especially to the Earl of Warwick, who was planning at the time a match with France or Burgundy, and to whom the news of the marriage with one so beneath the king in point of dignity came as an unpleasant surprise. The earl was still more offended when he learnt that the young king had secretly effected a marriage treaty between his sister Margaret (whom Warwick had destined for one of the French princes) and the Duke of Burgundy. These matrimonial alliances, combined with the inordinate favour Edward displayed towards his wife's family, led to an estrangement between the king and his powerful subject.
Alliance between England and Burgundy, 1468.
The proposed alliance with Burgundy was far from being distasteful to the merchants of the city, inasmuch as it was likely to open up trade with those states of the Low Countries which the Burgundian dukes had consolidated as a barrier against France. When the Princess Margaret was about to start (June, 1468) for her future husband's dominions, the mayor[pg 310] and aldermen of London testified their appreciation of the alliance by presenting her with a pair of silver gilt dishes, weighing 19 lbs. 8 oz., besides the sum of £100 in gold, by way of a wedding gift.[918]
Renewal of the civil war, 1469.