Berkeley Castle, in Gloucestershire, where Edward II. was murdered in 1327.
a son was born: Edward, Prince of Wales, born in 1453. After the Yorkist victory of Northampton in 1460 Edward's claim to the throne was set aside in favour of Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward IV. The Prince was slain at the battle of Tewkesbury, 1471.
benevolences: loans of money, supposed to be voluntary, really compulsory, made by merchants and other rich men to the king.
charts: papers; blank cheques: orders on the bank for money with all except the amount required filled up and properly signed.
factor: if 2 × 3 makes six, 2 and 3 are each factors of 6; hence it is something which helps to bring about some result.
[40. ELIZABETHAN LONDON. PART I.]
Stow (born 1525, died 1605): a famous writer in Queen Elizabeth's reign on the antiquities of London and other places.
Whitechapel takes its name from a white chapel-of-ease built to relieve Stepney, in which parish this district was till 1763.
tenters: pegs for stretching cloth. Sometimes hooks were used, from which we get the phrase 'to be on tenter hooks'—to be on a stretch with anxiety.