In October Henry was expected in London,[980] and the Common Council again showed their loyalty by agreeing that the mayor and aldermen should ride forth to meet his highness, clad in cloaks of scarlet, and accompanied by a suite of servants clothed in medley, at the cost of the "Chamber." With them also rode a contingent from the various civic guilds, clothed in violet, and numbering over 400 horsemen. The Mercers, the Grocers, the Drapers, the Fishmongers, and the "Taillours," each sent 30 mounted representatives of their guild; the Goldsmiths sent 24, whilst the rest sent contingents varying from one to twenty.[981] On the occasion of the queen's coronation, which took place the following month (25 Nov.), she was made the recipient of a gift of 1,000 marks by the City.[982]
Henry VII and Brittany, 1488-1492.
The king would willingly have remained at peace if he were allowed, from motives of economy if for no other reason. England, however, could not sit still and see Brittany overwhelmed by the French king. Before assistance could be sent to the Duchess Anne, it was imperative that money should be raised. At the close of 1488 the Common Council voted the king a loan of £4,000. The money was ordered to be raised by assessment on the companies, but the practice was not to be drawn into precedent. The king,[pg 330] like a good paymaster as he always was, whatever other defects he may have had, repaid the money in the following year.[983]
Parliamentary supplies and City loans.
Early in the following year parliament[984] granted large supplies which enabled Henry to despatch 6,000 Englishmen to Anne's assistance, but which caused much discontent among the "rude and beastlie" people of Yorkshire and Durham.[985] In June, 1491, another loan of £3,000 was raised, this time by assessment on the wards;[986] and in October Henry declared to parliament his intention of invading France in person. A grant of two fifteenths and two tenths was immediately made to assist him in his expedition by parliament; whilst the City contributed a "great benevolence," the fellowship of Drapers contributing more than any other fellowship, and every alderman subscribing, whether he wished it or no, the sum of £200. The amount contributed by the commonalty exceeded £9,000.[987] Thus furnished with supplies, the king crossed over to Calais on the 6th October, 1492. The campaign, however, had scarcely opened before Henry gladly accepted the liberal terms offered him by the French king, and peace was signed at Etaples (3 Nov.).
Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, 1496-1497.
The success which, brief as it was, had attended Simnel's enterprise was sufficient to encourage a hope that a better planned project might end in overturning the throne. A report was accordingly blazed abroad that Richard, Duke of York, brother of King Edward V, was yet alive, not having been murdered in the Tower, as had been supposed; and a man called Perkin Warbeck or Warboys, a native of Tournay, assumed the name of Richard Plantagenet and succeeded in getting a large number of people in Ireland and Scotland to believe that in his person they in fact saw Richard, Duke of York, the rightful heir to the crown. James IV of Scotland not only gave him in marriage the lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntley, but led an army into England in hopes that the appearance of the pretended prince might raise an insurrection in the northern counties. Instead, however, of joining the invaders the English prepared to repel them, and James retreated into his own country. This took place in 1496. Parliament granted large supplies to enable the king to meet the danger, but the inhabitants of Cornwall, sick of the constant demands made of them for money, and aware of the large treasure which Henry had already amassed, openly resisted any attempt at further taxation and determined to march on London.
The city put into a state of defence.
The Londoners, who not only abstained from opposing the new demand for money, but volunteered a loan to the king (15 Nov.) of £4,000,[988] lost no time in putting their city into a state of defence. Six[pg 332] aldermen and a number of representatives from the livery companies were deputed to attend to the city's ordnance.[989] The mayor was to be allowed twelve armed men in addition to his usual suite, and the sheriffs forty sergeants and forty valets in order to assist them in keeping the peace within the city. Communication was to be kept up at least once in the day between the mayor and the Lord Chancellor. Houses which had been set up on the city's walls, or within sixteen feet of them, were to be abated. John Stokker, who filled the not unworthy office of Common Hunt,[990] was ordered daily to ride out to learn the king's pleasure and report thereon to the mayor and aldermen. Among those appointed to guard the city's gates and Temple Bar was Alderman Fabyan, the chronicler.[991] The state of anxiety which prevailed in the city at this crisis is illustrated by "Jesus Mercy" at the head of one side of the page of the City's record, on which the above orders are entered, whilst on the other side are the words vigilie temporis turbacionis.[992]
The rebels defeated at Blackheath, 22 June, 1497.