cester, then Treasurer of the Realm, is to be imputed, partly to the Sway of the Time wherewith they were carried, and partly to a private Displeasure which they had to the Bishop.

Finally, cometh to Hand King Richard the Second, (for these three only, in all the Catalogue of our Kings, have been heavy Lords to London) who also had much Contention with his Nobility, and was in the End deposed. But whatsoever Countenance and, Aid the City of London brought to the Wars and Uproars of that Time, it is notoriously true, that London never led the Dance, but ever followed the Pipe of the Nobility. To close up this first Part, therefore, I affirm, that in all the troublesome Actions during the Reign of these three Kings, as also, in all that heaving in, and hurling out, that afterward happened between King Henry the Sixth and King Edward the Fourth, the City of London was many Times a Friend and Fautor, but never the first Motive, or Author of any intestine War or Sedition.

In the second Room I place a Couple of tumultuous Affiars, that chanced in the Days of King Richard the First: The one upon the Day of his Coronation, against the Jews, which, contrary to the King's own Proclamation, would needs enter the Church to see him sacred, and were therefore cruelly handled by the common People. The other was caused by William with the long Beard; who, after that he had inflamed the poor People against the richer Sort, and was called to answer for his Fault, took Bow Church for Sanctuary; and kept it Castle-like, 'till he was fired out.

Here is a Place also for the stoning to Death of a Gentleman, Servant to the Half Brother of King Henry the Third; which had before provoked the Citizens to Fury, by wounding divers of them without any Cause 1257: For the riotous Fray betweeen the Servants of the Glodsmiths and the Taylors 1268: For the Hurly-burley and Blood-shed between the Londoners and the Men of Westminster, moved by the young Men, upon an Occasion of a Wrestling on St. James's Day 1221; and made worse by one Constantine, an ancient Citizen: For the Brawl and Business that arose about a Baker's Loaf at Salisbury Place 1391: For the which, and some other Misdemeanors King Richard the Second was so incensed by evil Counsel against the Londoners, that he determined to destroy them, and raze their City: And for the Fight that was between the Citizens and the Sanctuary Men of St. Martins 1454, under King Henry the Sixth. And finally, for the Misrule on evil May Day 1519: And for such other like, if there have been any.

To the third Head may be referred the Seizure of their Lberties, for a false Judgment given against a poor Widow, called Margaret Viel, 1246. The two several Seizures in one Year, 1258, for false Packing, in Collections of Money, and other Enormities. And finally, the Seizure made by King Edward the First, for taking of Bribes of the Bakers, 1285. But all this Security in seizing and resuming of the Liberties, which was in old Time the only ordinary Punishment, was at length mitigated by King Edward the Third and King Henry the Fourth, in their Statutes before remembered.

In the last Place, stand those Offences, which I repute rather taken than given, and do fall within the Measure of the Adage, Ut canem cædas cito invenias baculum; i.e. You may soon find a Staff to beat a Dog. For King John, in the Tenth of his Reign, deposed the Bailiffs of London, because they had bought up the Wheat in the Market, so that there was not to serve his Purveyors. King Henry the Third, his Son, compelled the Londoners to pay him, 5000 Pounds, because they had lent to Lewis the French, the like Sum, of a good Mind to dispatch him out of their City, and the Realm, at such Time as the Protector and the whole Nobility fell to Composition with him for his Departure. And the same King fined them at three thousand Marks, for the Escape of a Prisoner out of Newgate, of whom they took no Charge. For he was a Clark, Prisoner to the Bishop of London, under the Custody of his own Servants: And as for the Place, it was only borrowed of the Londoners, to serve that Turn. Hitherto of these Things, to this End, that whatsoever Misdemeanor shall be objected out of History against London, the same may herein appear, both in his true Place, and proper Colour.

BEcause amongst other mine Authors I have oftentimes alledged Fitz-Stephens, as one more choice than other, namely, for the ancient Estate of this City, more than four hundred Years since: And also the said Author being rare, I have in this Place thought good by Impression to impart the same to my loving Friends, the learned Antiquaries, as the Author wrote it in the Latin Tongue. And first, to note in Effect what Master Bale, in Commendation of said Author, writeth.

William Stephanides, or Fitz-Stephen, a Monk of Canterbury, born of worshipful Parents in the City of London, well brought up at the first under good Masters, did more and more increase in honest Conditions and Learning: For ever in his young Years there appeared in him a certain Light of a Gentleman-like Disposition, which promised many good Things, afterward by him performed. Such Time as others spent in Brawls and idle Talk, he employed in wholesome Exercises, for the Honour of his Country, following