From a historical point of view, the constitution of London at this time is of very great importance, for the simple reason that, after the Norman Conquest, London, by a succession of fortunate events, almost wholly escaped the changes and innovations introduced by the Normans. In the midst of the feudal oppressions and exactions which weighed down the rest of the kingdom, London still preserved untouched and undisturbed the free and independent rights which had belonged to all the towns of the kingdom—there were not many—in Saxon times. In this respect London was not only the one surviving Saxon City, she contained also the very Ark of the English constitution itself.
AN ANCIENT SEAL OF ROBERT,
FIFTH BARON FITZWALTER
Let us now return to Henry’s Charter, taking it point by point.
(1) He grants to the citizens the Farm of Middlesex for £300 yearly rent.
That is to say, the citizens of London were to have the right of collecting the King’s demesne revenues within the limits of the County of Middlesex. These revenues consisted of dues and tolls at markets, ports, and bridges, with fines and forfeitures accruing from the penal provisions of forest laws, and from the fines from the Courts of Justice. They were collected by the Sheriff or the Portreeve for the King; or they were farmed by the Sheriff, who paid a fixed sum for the whole, making his own profit or his own loss out of the difference between the sum collected and the sum paid. Now if the collection of dues was granted to the citizens, a corporate body was thereby informally created, though the people might not understand entirely what it meant.
This grant has given rise to some controversy. The views and arguments advanced by Mr. J. H. Round (Geoffrey de Mandeville, App. P, pp. 347 et seq.) appear to me to satisfy all the conditions of the problem and to meet all the difficulties. In what follows, therefore, I shall endeavour to explain the meaning of the concession and its bearing upon the early administration of the City in accordance with the views of this scholar and antiquary.
The important words of the Charter are these:—
“Sciatis me concessisse civibus meis London(iarum), tenendum Middlesex ad firmam pro ccc libris ad compotum, ipsis et hæredibus suis de me et hæredibus meis ita quod ipsi cives ponent vicecomitem qualem voluerint de se ipsis: et justitiarium qualem voluerint de se ipsis, ad custodiendum placita coronæ meæ et eadem placitanda, et nullus alius erit justitiarius super ipsos homines London(iarum).”
Does this grant mean the shrievalty of Middlesex apart from London or of Middlesex including London? “In the almost contemporary Pipe Roll (31 Hen. 1) it is called the Ferm of ‘London.’”