These regulations passed, the Mayor sent a letter to the King:—
“Whereas, Sire, you have demanded of us by your letters that we should cause to be guarded and safely kept your said City in behalf of yourself and your heirs, according as is in your mandate contained; know, Sire, that of the same wish we ourselves are, and at all times have been, and always will be, to the best of our lawful power, if God so please. And we do let you know that your said City is in good condition, may God be thanked; and your people set in good array, according as the times demand; and that ordinance has been made to strengthen and to repair the gates, and the defaults in the walls, and divers other things which pertain to the safe-keeping of the said City, so speedily as ever the same may be properly done. Unto God, our most dear Lord, we commend you, and may he save you and keep you; and may he grant unto you a good life, and a long” (p. 97).
To this letter was appended a very singular and suggestive rider, which the bearer was instructed to lay before the King:—
“Under the first head:—that the murage which our Lord the King has granted to the City, and wherewith the old walls of the City ought to be repaired, strengthened and amended, is now spent upon the new wall behind the Friars Preachers at Castle Baynard, towards the Thames, by your command and nowhere else.
S.W. VIEW OF GERRARD’S HALL
(Gisors’ Hall, Basing Lane, otherwise denoted Gerrard’s Hall Inn, the residence of Sir John Gisors, Mayor of London in 1245, 1246, and 1259; it descended to another Sir John Gisors, Mayor and Constable of the Tower, in 1311-1314; and was possessed by several of that family until 1386, when it was alienated by Thomas Gisors.) From Londina Illustrata.
Also, that such outlays and costs, which are great, and are hastily expended upon so many repairs, whereas in justice they ought to be levied from all those who have rents, and tenements, and moveables, within the City, commonly fall upon one part of the citizens only, and not upon persons of the religious Orders, and others who have franchises by charter and in almoigne[13]; to the amount indeed of the third part of the rental of the said City. And such persons are not willing to give any portion thereof, or any aid or contribution, or any assistance, thereto, although they are saved just as much throughout the said city as the rest of the citizens. And if the King shall see fit, and deem it good that they should aid therein, the people of the City will be the better comforted, and the better strengthened, and the more speedily will they have the City put in due repair.”
So that the new piece of wall outside the Black Friars, and between their House and the Fleet, was not built by the Friars at all as is sometimes stated, but out of the murage granted by the King, and it will also be observed that so early as 1312, before the new ideas had been started, there were grumblings at the exemption of the Religious from taxation and a complaint that their property amounted to a third part of the rental of the whole City.