It is clear from the Domesday that London was confined within its wall; that Westminster had no existence as a town; that outside the walls the only parish inhabited, except by farmers, was a part of Stepney; and that the northern part of the county, as is proved by the “pannage” for swine, was covered with forest beginning beyond Islington and Kentish Town, and covering Hampstead and Highgate, and so east and west to Willesden on the west and the Essex Forest on the east.
In other words, there lay, all around London, a broad belt of manors belonging to the Church. We may consider how the ownership of this land would affect building and settlement outside the walls. We find, what we should expect, the first settlement on the Moorland immediately north of the walls; Smithfield and Clerkenwell the first suburbs. We then find houses built as far as the “Bars” in the Whitechapel Road, then in Holborn, and then in Fleet Street and in Bishopsgate Without. Beyond the Bars there are difficulties; they seem to be surmounted in Chancery Lane and St. Giles’s, also along the Strand, but not on the east side, nor on the north. It would be interesting had one the time to trace the gradual removal of the prohibition to build on the part of the Bishop of London, the Abbot of Westminster, and the Chapter of St. Paul’s.
[CHAPTER III]
WILLIAM RUFUS
This king—of a strange and inexplicable personality—gave no Charter to the City so far as is known, nor do there appear to have been any events of importance in London itself during his reign. One or more destructive fires, a hurricane, and a famine, or at least a scarcity, are mentioned.
William Rufus followed his father’s example in being crowned at Westminster. And as the Conqueror was crowned by a Norman and a Saxon Bishop, so he also was crowned by the Norman Archbishop of Canterbury and the last Saxon Bishop, Wulfstan.
In the Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, it is mentioned that on the outbreak of the Civil War, the year after the accession of William Rufus, he collected his army in London; that it consisted mainly of English whom he made loyal by promising “just laws”; that while William was besieging Pevensey, the garrison of Rochester fell upon the people of Canterbury and London with fire and sword. Had the King taken from London the power of defence? Were there no walls and gates, or were there traitors within the walls and gates? The A.S. Chronicle says nothing of this massacre; it speaks, however, of discontent. When the rebellion in favour of Robert broke out, the King “was greatly disturbed in mind; and he sent for the English, and laid his necessities before them, and entreated their assistance. He promised them better laws than had ever been in this land, and forbade all unjust taxes, and guaranteed to his subjects their woods and hunting. But these concessions were soon done away. Howbeit the English came to the aid of their lord the King, and they then marched towards Rochester.”
William spent very little time in London or at Westminster. Once he held his Christmas at the King’s House, Westminster, and twice he held Whitsuntide there. At the feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide the King feasted in public, wearing his crown.
In the year 1092, Florence of Worcester says that a fire destroyed nearly the whole of London. The A.S. Chronicle does not notice the event. Like the alleged massacre in London by the men of Rochester, we may suppose that the damage was exaggerated.
