London in the Time of the Stuarts

by Walter Besant

At the Coronation Banquet the Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and the members of the twelve principal companies attended as butler and assistants. The City plate was also lent for the occasion. This was on the 11th of April 1689. Since the Prince of Orange had entered London on December 18, 1688, when James fled, the country had been left without King or Government. The “Convocation,” as it was called, met on January 22. On the 28th the Commons declared the throne to be vacant, and on the 6th of February the House of Lords passed a similar resolution. A Declaration of Rights was next drawn up condemning the unconstitutional acts of James and offering the throne to William and Mary. After their proclamation their Majesties made haste to convert the Convocation into Parliament.

The reign of William presents few surprises or dramatic scenes so far as the City of London is concerned. On the other hand, there was a great deal done towards the strengthening and definition of the City rights and liberties. The Stuart kings, who could learn nothing and forget nothing, were gone, never to return; in future it would be quite as impossible for the sovereign to rob London of her liberties as to reign without a Parliament. Out of the arbitrary acts of the two Charleses, the elder and the younger, out of the civil wars, out of the expulsion of James, came to London the secure possession, henceforth unquestioned, of her charters, just as to the three kingdoms came constitutional government and a sovereign bound by the will of the people. These were great gains; one who could realise the state of the country even under the well-beloved despot Elizabeth, and compare it with its condition under the Georges, might well acknowledge that the gain was worth all the fighting and struggle, all the trials and executions which had to be endured in achieving it.

Of the loyalty of the City throughout this reign there can be no question. The address drawn up by the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs soon after it began on the occasion of a discovery of a plot against the King strikes a note which was maintained throughout:—

“And we most humbly beg leave to assure your Majesty that we will, as far as our Power extends, oppose ourselves to, and suppress all designs of that Nature; and will search after, disarm, seize, secure, and bring to Justice all Persons concerned therein, or contributing thereto: And we are unanimously, firmly, and unalterably resolved and determined to stand by, defend, and maintain your Majesty, and your Government, with the uttermost Hazard and Expence of our Lives and Estates, against all Persons whatsoever, that shall conspire or attempt any Thing against the same” (Maitland, i. p. 491).

The pageant on Lord Mayor’s Day was attended by the King and Queen, who sat in the usual place reserved for them in Cheapside—the balcony of St. Mary le Bow. After the pageant they dined with the Lord Mayor at Guildhall. The pageant itself may be found briefly described in Fairholt’s Book of Pageants. It will be seen by those who look up the passage that we are indeed far from the pageants of Edward the Third or Henry the Fifth.

It was natural that the first desire of the City should be to obtain an Act of Parliament declaring the forfeiture of their charter to be illegal. On March 8, 1689, the Grand Committee of Grievances reported that the rights of the City of London in the election of Sheriffs were invaded in the year 1682, and that the judgment given upon the Quo Warranto was illegal. The Act of Parliament by which the charters of the City were formally declared is a lengthy document of very great importance. An abridgment of this Act follows:—

“Whereas a Judgment was given in the Court of King’s-Bench, in or about Trinity-Term, in the thirty-fifth Year of the Reign of the late King Charles the Second, upon an Information, in the Nature of a Quo Warranto, exhibited in the said Court against the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, That the liberty, Privilege, and Franchise of the said Mayor, and Commonalty, and Citizens, being a Body Politick and Corporate, should be seized into the King’s hands as forfeited; And forasmuch as the said Judgment, and the proceedings thereupon, is and were illegal and arbitrary; and for that the restoring of the said Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens to their antient Liberties, of which they had been deprived, tends very much to the Peace and good Settlement of this Kingdom.

2. Be it declared and enacted, ... That the said Judgment given in the said Court of King’s Bench in the said Trinity Term, in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of the said King Charles the Second, or in any other Term; and all or every other Judgment for the seizing into the late King’s Hands the Liberty, Privilege, or Franchise of the Mayor, and Commonalty, and Citizens of the City of London, is, shall be, and are hereby reversed, annulled, and made void, to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever; and that Vacates be entered upon the Rolls of the said Judgment, for the Vacating and Reversal of the same accordingly.

3. And be it further declared and enacted, by the Authority aforesaid, That the Mayor and Commonalty, and Citizens of the City of London, shall and may for ever hereafter remain, continue, and be, and prescribe to be a Body Corporate and Politick, in re, facto and nomine, by the Name of Mayor and Commonalty, and Citizens of the City of London, and by that Name, and all and every other Name and Names of Incorporation, by which they at any Time before the said Judgment were incorporated, to sue, plead, and be impleaded, and to answer and be answered, etc.”

At the same time the City proceeded to lay down and define the rights of the inhabitants in voting for Aldermen and Common Council men. The following is the Act of Common Council:—

“It is hereby declared, That it is, and antiently hath been the Right and Privilege of the Freemen of the said City only, being Householders, paying Scot and bearing Lot, and of none other whatsoever, in their several and respective Wards, from Time to Time, as often as there was or should be occasion, to nominate Aldermen, and elect Common Council men for the same respective Wards. That all and every the Beadle and Beadles of the respective Wards shall do, prepare, return, and deliver to the Aldermen at their several and respective Courts of Wardmote, or to their Deputies authorized to hold the same, one List of all and every the Freeman Householders aforesaid, dwelling and residing within the respective Wards, to which they are Beadles, and of no others, apart and by themselves: And also one list of all and every other Householders within the said respective Wards only, apart and by themselves: To the intent that such Freemen Householders, may nominate Aldermen, and elect their Common Councilmen: And they, together with the other Householders, may chuse their Constables, Scavengers, Inquest and Beadles.”