As soon as John found that the chancellor had gone to London instead of Reading, he too hastened thither. On his arrival he was welcomed and hospitably entertained by Richard Fitz-Reiner who gave him to understand on what terms he might expect the support of the city.[149] As to terms, John was ready to accede to any that might be proposed.
A meeting of barons and citizens in St. Paul's, 8 Oct., 1191.
Longchamp deposed and John recognised as head of the kingdom.
The next day (8 Oct.), a meeting of the barons of the realm, as well as of the citizens of London, was convened in St. Paul's Church, to consider the conduct of the chancellor, and it was thereupon decided that Longchamp should be deposed from office. The story, as told by different chroniclers,[150] varies in some particulars, but the main features are the same in all. The king's minister was set aside, John was recognised as the head of the kingdom, and new appointments made to judicial, fiscal, and military offices. The Archbishop of Rouen, who attended the council, seeing the turn affairs had taken, no longer hesitated to produce the letters under the king's sign manual appointing a new commission for the government of the kingdom.
John grants or confirms to the citizens their commune.
The same day that witnessed the fall of Longchamp was also a memorable one in the annals of the City of London; for immediately after judgment had been passed on the chancellor, John and the assembled barons granted to the citizens "their commune," swearing to preserve untouched the dignities of the city during the king's pleasure. The citizens on[pg 064] their part swore fealty to King Richard, and declared their readiness to accept John as successor to the throne in the event of his brother dying childless.[151]
Change of name from port-reeve to mayor.
This is the first public recognition of the citizens of London as a body corporate; but so far from granting to them something new, the very words their commune (communam suam) imply a commune of which they were de facto, if not de jure already in enjoyment. How long the commune may have been in existence, unauthorised by the crown, cannot be determined; but that the term communio in connection with the city's organization was known half a century before, we have already seen;[152] and, according to the opinion of Giraldus Cambrensis, there is no valid distinction between the words communio, communa and communia.[153] Bishop Stubbs, however, hesitates to translate communio as "commune," the latter being essentially a French term for a particular form of municipal government. He prefers to render it "commonalty," "fraternity," or "franchise," although he goes so far as to allow that the term "suggests that the communal idea was already in existence as a basis of civic organization" in Stephen's reign, an idea which became fully developed in the succeeding[pg 065] reign.[154] He is also in favour of dating the foundation of the communa in London from this grant by John and the barons,[155] and in this view he is supported by Richard of Devizes, who distinctly states that the communia of London was instituted on that occasion, and that it was of such a character that neither King Richard nor Henry his father would have conceded it for a million marks of silver, and that a communia was in fact everything that was bad. It puffed up the people, it threatened the kingdom, and it emasculated the priesthood.[156]
Change of name from port-reeve to mayor.
With the change from a shire organization to that of a French commune, whenever that happened to take place, there took place also a change in the chief governor of the city. The head of the city was no longer a Saxon "port-reeve" but a French "mayor," the former officer continuing in all probability to perform the duties of a port-reeve or sheriff of a town in a modified form. From the time when this "civic revolution"[157] occurred, down to the present day, the sheriff's position has always been one of secondary importance, being himself subordinate to the mayor.