His grandfather, named Arnald, or Arnold, or Arnulf, was a merchant of Cologne. He married one Ode, of the same town, with whom he lived for some years without children. Hearing, however, of the miracles performed daily by St. Thomas à Becket, the pair crossed the seas and made a pilgrimage to the shrine at Canterbury, imploring the favour of the Saint in the matter of offspring. This done, they went on to visit the famous City of London. Here the wife found that St. Thomas had heard, and had granted her prayers. The pair accordingly remained in London until the child was born. Then they bought a house and remained altogether in London. They had eleven children, of whom six died young. One of the surviving daughters was Juliana, who married a native of Bremen, also a resident merchant in London. The youngest son, Arnold, was the author of the Chronicle before us. A miraculous dream, he proudly tells us, accompanied his birth. Most mediæval families were able to point with pride to miraculous interpositions and dreams. In this case, as Arnold himself says, the difference between the log of wood and the slab of marble which formed the dream was known to God only. And so we may leave it.
Arnold became a man of considerable wealth. He was an Alderman, and when the City was fined 20,000 marks by Henry and 1000 marks for his brother, Richard of Almaine, his tallage amounted to 132 marks, or nearly a hundred and fifth part of the whole. The way of assessment was as follows:—He first paid four marks and forty pence for his house; then 20 marks “by inquisition of his neighbours”; then an increase of five marks; after that an assessment of 100 marks in a lump sum by John Waleran, Constable of the Tower, and William Hazelbech, commissioner, for the assessment appointed by the King. After that, half a mark, and then fifteen shillings on his rent. From this assessment it appears that the principal part of the fine must have been paid by the wealthy sort. Arnold had a good deal of trouble over the business, being annoyed by Walter Hervey and by Henry Waleys in succession for not having paid enough. However, he obtained protection from King Henry first and King Edward next.
Let us now proceed to show, from Arnold’s book, the “uncertain steps” of the City during the century of the new order.
The office of Alderman was passing out of the hereditary stage; there was a strong sense among the people that the City offices were to be held during good conduct only. Thus, in 1216, Jacob Alderman (had he no other designation either of trade or of birth?), being Mayor, was turned out by the King and another Mayor appointed. We have seen that in 1233 Symon FitzMary was turned out of his Shrievalty for wasting the City property. In 1248 the same citizen was deprived of his Aldermanry for siding with Margery Vyel. In 1254, on account of the escape of a criminal, the Sheriffs were deprived of office. In 1257 eight of the Aldermen were deposed for alleged malpractices.
The list of sixty-two names given in Appendix III. rescues from oblivion almost as many Aldermen of the thirteenth century. If we look into the names we can pick out with some degree of certainty those which belong to the aristocratic party, including the old City families and some of those which had become naturalised. Thus, we have Aswy, Basing, Blunt, Bukerel, Farndon, or Farringdon, Fulk, Gisors, Hardel, Haverhill, de Lisle, Renger, Sperling, Rokesley, Tovy, Tidmar (one Arnold FitzThedmar), Vyel, etc., about one-third of the whole.
We then find certain names without surnames at all, such as Adrian, Edmund, Geoffrey, Matthew; we are surely justified in concluding that they belonged to crafts; names such as FitzMary and FitzAlice, which indicate a mother but not a father; names where the father’s is also a Christian name, as Thomas FitzThomas, who, we know from FitzThedmar, belonged to the popular party; names of trades, as Cordwainer, Ferrun, and Potter. These may all be assigned to the popular party, and they account for nearly another third. There remain about twenty-five names which are local, as William de Hereford, of whom it is difficult to pronounce with any certainty. It is, however, certain that in the thirteenth century a good deal had been already effected in the breaking down of the oligarchy and the entrance upon office of the popular side.
RICHARD II. AND HIS PATRON SAINTS
From the Arundel Society’s reproduction of a contemporary painting at Walton House.
There can be little doubt that Henry throughout his whole reign was bitterly hostile to the City. On the other hand, the City, it must be acknowledged, with its turbulence and its claims of privilege and liberty, gave a despotic monarch a great deal of annoyance. Henry’s principal weapon of retaliation was to take the City into his own hands, i.e. to depose Mayor and Sheriffs, to deprive the Aldermen of their powers, and to appoint a Warden. In 1245, on a charge of harbouring a traitor, Henry took over the City, restoring the Charter after inflicting a fine of £1000. In 1247, during the famous case of Margery Vyel, the King again took the City into his own hands (see [p. 46]). Also in 1249, after the tumult of the populace against the Abbot of Westminster; in 1254, on the plea of mal-observance of the assize of bread, really in consequence of the quarrel between Richard of Almaine and the City; in 1259, when the City refused to pay the “Queen’s Gold”; in 1257, when the “Green” roll gave an occasion to make inquisition into the tallages; in 1263, after the Battle of Evesham; in 1265, the reason not stated; in 1266, after Gloucester had held the City. This is a considerable list of offences and punishments.