Growing unpopularity of Warwick, 1550-1551.
Warwick had not long taken the place of Somerset before he found himself compelled to make peace with France (29 March, 1550). This he accomplished only by consenting to surrender Boulogne. The declaration of peace was celebrated with bonfires in the city, although the conditions under which the peace was effected were generally unacceptable to the nation and brought discredit upon the earl.[1337] One result of the conclusion of the war was again to flood the streets of the city with men who openly declared that they neither could nor would work, and that unless the king provided them with a livelihood they would combine to plunder the city, and once clear with their booty they cared not if 10,000 men were after them. It was in vain that proclamation was made for all disbanded soldiers to leave the city. They refused to go, and oftentimes came into conflict with the city constables. At length the mayor and aldermen addressed a letter on the subject to the lords of the council (25 Sept.).[1338]
The debasement of the currency, 1551.
In the following year the state of the city was rendered worse by a proposal of Warwick to debase the currency yet more. As soon as the proposal got wind up went the price of provisions, in spite of every effort made by the lords of the council to keep it down. They sent for the mayor (Sir Andrew Judd) to[pg 446] attend them at Greenwich on Sunday, the 10th May, and soundly rated him—or, as the chronicler puts it, "gave him some sore words"—for allowing such things to take place. On Thursday, the 28th, the mayor summoned a Common Council, when the Recorder repeated to them the king's orders that the price of wares was not to be raised. The livery companies were to see to it, and there were to be no more murmurings.[1339]
Warwick himself excited the anger of the city burgesses by riding through the streets to see if the king's orders against the enhancement of the price of victuals were being carried out. Coming one day to a butcher's in Eastcheap, he asked the price of a sheep. Being told that it was 13 shillings, he replied that it was too much and passed on. When another butcher asked 16 shillings he was told to go and be hanged. The earl's conduct so roused the indignation of the butchers of the city—a class of men scarcely less powerful than their brethren the fishmongers—that they made no secret that the price of meat would be raised still more if the debasement of the currency was carried out as proposed.[1340] Yet, in spite of all remonstrances and threats, a proclamation went forth that after the 17th August the shilling should be current for six pence sterling and no more, the groat for two pence, the penny for a halfpenny, and the halfpenny for a farthing.[1341] The price of every commodity rose 50 per cent. as a matter of course, and nothing that Warwick[pg 447] could do could prevent it. Seeing at last the hopelessness of attempting to overcome economic laws by a mere ipse dixit, he caused a "contrary proclamasyon" to be issued, and "sette alle at lyberty agayne, and every viteler to selle as they wolde and had done before."[1342]
The Duke of Somerset again arrested, 16 Oct., 1551.
Warwick's increasing unpopularity raised a hope in the breast of Somerset of recovering his lost power. Some rash words he had allowed to escape were carried to the young king, who took the part of Warwick against his own uncle, and showed his appreciation of the earl's services by creating him Duke of Northumberland (11 Oct.). A few days later Somerset was seized and again committed to the Tower.[1343] The new duke vaunted himself more than ever, and as a fresh coinage was on the eve of being issued, he caused it to be struck with a ragged staff, the badge of his house, on its face.[1344] Some of the duke's servants thought to ruffle it as well as their master, and offered an insult to one of the sheriffs, attempting to snatch at his chain of office as he accompanied the mayor to service at St. Paul's on All Saints' Day, and otherwise creating no little disturbance in St. Paul's Churchyard. The mayor waited until service was over, and then took them into custody.[1345]
Trial and execution of Somerset, 22 Jan., 1552.
At the time of Somerset's second arrest the Common Council and the wardens of the several livery companies were summoned to meet at the Guildhall to hear why the duke had been sent for the[pg 448] second time to the Tower, and to receive instructions for safe-guarding the city. They were informed by the Recorder that it had been the duke's intention to seize the Tower and the Isle of Wight, and to "have destroyed the city of London and the substantiall men of the same."[1346] This was, of course, an exaggeration, although there is little doubt that the duke was preparing to get himself named again Protector by the next parliament. On the 1st December he was brought from the Tower by water to Westminster, the mayor and aldermen having received strict orders to keep the city well guarded.[1347] He was arraigned of treason and felony, but his judges, among whom sat his enemy Northumberland himself, acquitted him of the former charge, and those in the hall, thinking he had been altogether acquitted, raised a shout of joy that could be heard as far as Charing Cross and Long Acre. When they discovered that he had been found guilty of felony and condemned to be executed they were grievously disappointed. As he landed at the Crane in the Vintry on his way back to the Tower that evening, and passed through Candlewick (Cannon) Street, the people, we are told, cried "'God save him' all the way as he went, thinkinge that he had clerely bene quitt, but they were deceyved, but hoopinge he should have the kinge's pardon."[1348] According to another chronicler there were mingled cries of joy and sorrow as he passed through London, some crying for joy that he was acquitted, whilst others (who were better informed of the actual state of the case)[pg 449] lamented his conviction.[1349] His execution took place on Tower Hill in January of the next year (1552).
The City and the Royal Hospitals, 1547-1553.