The sword of St. Paul, emblematic possibly of his martyrdom, still remains in the City's coat of arms. It has often been mistaken for the dagger with which Sir William Walworth is said to have killed Wat Tyler.
The story is told in Mr. Riley's Introduction to the Liber Custamarum (p. lxxix), on the authority of the Chronicle of Dunmow.
He is said to have made a similar attempt upon the wife of Eustace de Vesci, a leading baron.—(Blackstone, Introd. to Magna Carta, pp. 289, 290).
Mat. Paris, ii, 156. A different complexion, however, is put on this event by another chronicler. According to Walter de Coventry (Rolls Series, No. 58, ii, 220) the barons made their way into the City by stealth, scaling the walls at a time when most of the inhabitants were engaged in divine service, and having once gained a footing opened all the City gates one after another.
By charter, date 8th May, 1215, preserved at the Guildhall.
Mat. Paris, ii, 159, 161, 164, 186.
Roger of Wendover (Rolls Series No. 84), ii, 117.
Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 298.
"Moram autem faciebant barones in civitate Londoniæ per annum et amplius cum civibus confœderati, permittentes se nullam pacem facturos cum rege nisi assensu utriusque partis."—Annals of Waverley (Rolls Series No. 36), ii, 283.
Mat. Paris, ii, 161, 165.