[476]. See infra, under c. [25].
[477]. Even when an honour escheated to the Crown, the tenants of that honour “were not suitors of the Curia Regis.” See Report on Dignity of a Peer, I. 60.
[478]. Cf. supra, pp. [173-4] and infra, under c. [14].
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
Et civitas Londonie habeat omnes antiquas libertates et liberas consuetudines suas, tam per terras, quam per aquas. Preterea volumus et concedimus quod omnes alie civitates, et burgi, et ville, et portus, habeant omnes libertates et liberas consuetudines suas.
And the citizens of London shall have all their ancient liberties and free customs, as well by land as by water; furthermore, we decree and grant that all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports shall have all their liberties and free customs.
A full list of the liberties and customs of London would be a long one; and an account of how each of these grew up and was confirmed by the Crown need not be given here. The most cherished of the privileges enjoyed in John’s day were the right to appoint a civic chief, who bore the name of mayor, and the right to choose sheriffs of their own who should collect the city’s firma[[479]] (or annual rent payable to the exchequer), so as to obviate the intrusion of royal bailiffs. Only a brief account of the way in which the metropolis obtained these two privileges need be here attempted.
The chief feature of London before the Norman Conquest seems to have been lack of proper municipal organisation. Dr. Stubbs describes the capital during the eleventh century as “a bundle of communities, townships, parishes, and lordships, of which each has its own constitution.”[[480]] It was thus a collection of small administrative units, rather than one large unit. Some semblance of legal unity was, it is true, afforded by the folkmoot, in which the citizens regularly assembled; by its smaller council known as “husteng”; and perhaps also by its “cnihtengild” (if, indeed, this third body be not entirely mythical); while the existence of a “portreeve” shows that for some financial purposes also the city was treated as one whole. London, however, prior to the reign of Henry I. was far from possessing machinery adequate to the duties of a local government for the whole community.
The first step towards acquiring a municipal constitution is generally supposed to have been taken by the citizens when they obtained a charter from Henry I. in the last years of his reign (1130-35). This is not strictly accurate. London, indeed, by that grant gained certain valuable privileges and enjoyed them for a short time, but it did not obtain a constitution. The chief rights actually conferred by Henry were as follows:—(1) The firma was fixed at the reduced rate of £300 per annum, the citizens obtaining for this payment a lease in perpetuity of their own city with the surrounding county of Middlesex—the grant being made to the citizens and their heirs; (2) they acquired the right to appoint whom they pleased as sheriffs of London and Middlesex, implying the exclusion of the king’s tax-collectors by men of their own choosing; (3) a similar right of appointing their own nominee as justiciar was also conferred on them, to the exclusion apparently of the royal justices of eyre. Many minor privileges were confirmed which need not here be specified. Mr. J. H. Round[[481]] argues with convincing force that these concessions, important as they were, did not confer a civic constitution upon London. Henry’s charter, in his opinion, confirmed all the already existing separate jurisdictions and franchises, perpetuating the old state of disunion, rather than creating a new principle of cohesion. He proves, further, that these benefits continued in force only for a few years after Stephen’s accession. That king was coerced by the Earl of Essex into infringing the citizens’ chartered rights; and London did not regain the ground thus lost until the reign of Richard I.
Henry II., indeed, granted a charter to the citizens in 1155, which is usually interpreted as a full confirmation of all the concessions of the earlier Henry.[[482]] Mr. Round has conclusively proved the error of this opinion.[[483]] The charter of 1155 restricted, rather than enlarged, the privileges of London, being couched in cautious and somewhat grudging terms. The main concessions of the earlier charter were completely omitted: the citizens no longer elected their own sheriffs or their own justiciar; the reduction of the firma to £300 was not confirmed; and subsequent pipe rolls show that Henry doubled that amount, although the Londoners protested, arguing for the lower rate.