The rules of procedure on such occasions are fully set out in the city's "Liber Albus,"[312] and they contain, curiously enough, a provision expressly made for cases where the full notice of forty days had not been given. In such an event the prescribed rule was to send some of their more discreet citizens to the king and his council to ask for the appointment of another day. Whether Rokesley had taken this step before resorting to the measures he did we are not told. It was also the custom on such occasions for the citizens to gather at Barking Church, clothed in their best apparel, and thence proceed in a body to the Tower. A deputation was appointed—selected members of the common council—who should also proceed to the Tower for the purpose of giving an official welcome to the justiciars on behalf of the citizens. It was not thought to be in any way derogatory to secure the goodwill of the king's justiciars by making ample presents. It had been done time out of mind. The sheriffs and aldermen were to attend with their respective sergeants and beadles, the benches at the Tower were to be examined beforehand and necessary repairs carried out, all shops[pg 122] were to be closed and no business transacted during the session. In a word, everything was to be done that could add to the dignity of the justiciars and the solemnity of the occasion. In contrast with all this, Rokesley's conduct was indeed strange, and leads us to suppose that his action was caused by some other and stronger reason than the mere omission to give the usual notice of the coming of the king's justiciars.
The city declared to be taken into the king's hand.
Be this as it may, the king's treasurer, who may possibly have been forewarned of what was about to take place, at once decided what course to take. He declared the city to be there and then taken into the king's hands, on the pretext that it was found to be without a mayor, and he summoned the citizens to appear on the morrow before the king at Westminster. When the morrow came, the citizens duly appeared, and about eighty of them were detained. Those who accompanied Rokesley to Barking Church on the previous day were confined in the Tower, but after a few days they were all set at liberty, with the exception of Stephen Aswy, who was removed in custody to Windsor.[313]
For thirteen years the city governed by a custos instead of a mayor.
The king appointed Ralph de Sandwich custos or warden of the city, enjoining him at the same time to observe the liberties and customs of the citizens, and for the next thirteen years (1285-1298) the city continued to be governed by a warden in the person of Sandwich or of John le Breton, whilst the sheriffs[pg 123] were sometimes appointed by the Exchequer and sometimes chosen by the citizens.[314]
Both the king and the city in straits for money, 1289-1290.
In May, 1286, the king went to Gascony, leaving the country in charge of his nephew, Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, and did not return until August, 1289. He was then in sore straits for money, as was so often the case with him, and was glad of a present of £1,000 which the citizens offered by way of courtesy (curialitas). The money was ordered (14th October) to be levied by poll,[315] but many of the inhabitants were so poor that they could only find pledges for future payment, and these pledges were afterwards sold for what they would fetch.[316] A twelve-month later (October, 1290) when Edward visited London, he was fain to be content with the smaller sum of 1,000 marks.[317]
The king's difficulties increased by the expulsion of the Jews, 1290.
The expulsion of the Jews in 1290 increased Edward's difficulties, for on them he chiefly depended for replenishing his empty exchequer. Their expulsion was not so much his own wish as the wish of his subjects, who, being largely in debt to the Jews, regarded them as cruel tyrants. The nation soon discovered that it had made a mistake in thus getting rid of its creditors, for in the absence of the Jews,[pg 124] Edward was compelled to resort to the Lombard merchants. It may possibly have been owing to some monetary transactions between them that the king was solicitous of getting a life interest in the city's Small Beam made over to a lady known as Jacobina la Lumbard. No particulars are known of this lady, but to judge from her name she probably came of a family of money-lenders, and if so, the king's action in writing from Berwick (28th June, 1291) to the warden and aldermen of the city—at a time when he was completely in the hands of the Italian goldsmiths and money-lenders—soliciting for her a more or less lucrative post is easily intelligible.[318] The king's request was refused, notwithstanding the city being at the time in charge of a custos of his own choice instead of a mayor elected by the citizens themselves. Such requests produced friction between the king and the city, and the former's financial relations with the foreign merchants were fraught with danger to himself and to his son.[319]
Edward's domestic troubles of 1290.