street, called Watlingate (now Lawrence Street), no less than 527 of the foreigners, and 242 Englishmen, were slain, or drowned in the Ouse. In 1332, Edward summoned another Parliament to this city; and two years afterwards, the King, on his march to Scotland, stayed, and kept his Christmas here. On his return from that country, he held another Parliament in this city, to which Baliol, whose cause he had embraced, in opposition to David Bruce, was summoned to attend him; but Baliol, not daring to trust himself, for fear of being seized by his Barons on his journey, sent the Lords Beaumont and Montecute to excuse him, and afterwards met the King at Newcastle. In 1335, Edward took up his residence at the monastery of the Holy Trinity, in this city, and held a council, in which the Bishop of Durham, then Chancellor, resigned the great seal into his hands, and he immediately gave it up to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who took the usual oaths of office in the presence of the council, and on the same day proceeded to the "church of the Blessed Mary," where he affixed it to several deeds. It appears in Cotton's Collections, that in this, and in the preceding reign, there were no less than twelve Parliaments assembled in York. During the wars in France, in which Edward and his renowned son, the Black Prince (so called from the colour of his armour), gained the memorable victories of Crecy and Poictiers, the Scots formed a resolution, suggested, most probably, by the French monarch, to invade and ravage the northern counties of England during Edward's absence. Accordingly, in 1846, David Bruce, with an army of 36,000 men, well armed and trained, entered by the eastern marches, and destroyed the country with fire and sword as far as York; and actually set fire to the suburbs, and then retired to a short distance from that city. Philippa, the heroic consort of King Edward, who then kept her court at York, issued peremptory orders to arm the population, whether laity or clergy; which was soon accomplished under the active superintendence of Archbishop William de la Zouch, Lord Percy, and others. A gallant army was soon assembled before the gates of York, and the Queen headed it in person. The second division was commanded by the Archbishop, in which were found all the clergy of the diocese, who were able to bear The two armies met at a place called Nevil's Cross, in the county of Durham, on the 17th of October, in the same year; and though the Scots were unprepared for immediate action, yet they thought it an easy matter to conquer an army of clerks and citizens, commanded by a woman and a priest. But they were miserably deceived. The English, fighting for their altars and their homes, entered the battle with a full resolution not to survive the loss of their freedom. The carnage of that day was dreadful. The English arms. gained a signal victory; David Bruce was taken prisoner; about 100 of the choicest Knights in Scotland lost their lives; and 20,000 men perished in the contest.* The English lost 4,000 private men, and five Esquires. After the battle, the victorious Queen returned to York in triumph; and having seen the city strongly fortified, and then leaving the Lords Percy and Neville to the government of the north, she returned to London, carrying her royal prisoner in her train. William de Hatfield, the second son of Edward and Philippa, died in his infancy in York, and was buried in the Cathedral. This reign was unhappily distinguished by a pestilence, called the “black death," which was uncommonly fatal and extensive. It broke out in 1349,† and raged at York for nine weeks, and considerably diminished the popula tion. It took a wider range, and proved more destructive than any calamity of that nature known in the annals of mankind. Its effects continued, in some degree, even to the time that Walsingham wrote, which was about seventy years afterwards. In the last year of this long and eventful reign, the Parliament granted the King a capitation tax of 4d. from every lay person of either sex, in the kingdom, above fourteen years of age; and 12d. from each beneficed clergyman. The only persons exempted from it, were the four mendicant orders of religious, and real known beggars. From the accounts of the produce of this tax, the entire population has been estimated. The city of London was rated at 35,000 souls; York, at 11,000; Bristol, 9,000; Coventry and Plymouth, each 7,000; Norwich, 6,000; Lincoln, 5,000; Lynn, 5,000; Colchester, 4,500; Beverley, Oxford, and Newcastleupon-Tyne, each 4,000; Ely, Canterbury, and Bury, in Suffolk, each 3,500; Gloucester, Leicester, and Shrewsbury, each 3,000; and Kingston-upon-Hull, 2,000. Thus England had but two towns containing a population of more than 10,000 souls; six only with a population exceeding 5,000; and but eighteen above 3,000. Richard II., grandson to Henry III., was but eleven years old when he came to the throne. The late King had left the kingdom involved in many dangerous and expensive wars, which demanded large and constant supplies. The capitation, or poll tax, levied at the close of the last reign, led the way to others in rapid succession. The ultimate consequence was an insurrection of the lower classes of the people; occasioned, perhaps, not so much from the nature of the tax itself, as from the brutal insults attending its collection. It began in Essex, and the rebels were headed by a profligate priest, who had M.S. penes me, calculated from the Subsidy Roll of 51st Edward III. assumed the name of Jack Straw. The men of Kent, who were not long behind their neighbours in Essex, placed themselves under the leadership of a blacksmith, named Wat Tyler, or, according to some, a Kentish tyler, named Walter. The number of the rebels soon amounted to 100,000 men, and the discontent became general in the southern and midland counties. The flame of rebellion soon spread from the southern coast of Kent, to the right bank of the Humber; on the southern coast it reached as far as Winchester; and on the eastern, to Beverley and Scarborough. Tyler, at the head of a large body of men, marched into London, and at Smithfield he was met by the King, who invited him to a conference, under a pretence of hearing and redressing his grievances. Tyler, ordering his companions to retire, presented himself before the King, and accordingly began the conference. Whilst stating his complaints, and making his demands, he now and then lifted up his sword in a menacing manner; and at length he laid his hand on the bridle of his Sovereign, which insolence so raised the indignation of William Walworth, Mayor of London, who was attending on the King, that he stunned Tyler with a blow of the mace, and Robert Standish, one of the King's Esquires, riding up, dispatched him with his sword. The rebels seeing their leader fall, bent their bows to take revenge, when Richard, though not yet quite sixteen years of age, appealing to them, told them that he would be their leader, and that they should have whatever they desired. The mob followed the King into the fields at Islington, and there he granted to them a charter, which he soon after revoked in Parliament. The Scots having entered Northumberland, and taken three castles in the Marches, Richard, in 1385, set out from the south to oppose them, at the head of 80,000 men. The progress of the King was arrested at York, by an unfortunate circumstance, which cast a gloom over the sequel of the expedition. In the neighbourhood of the city (near Bishopthorpe), Lord Ralph Stafford, eldest son of the Earl of Stafford, one of the royal favourites, was basely assassinated by the hand of Sir John Holland. The father and relatives of the slain loudly demanded justice; and Richard confiscated the property of the assassin, and threatened him with the gallows, if he ever left the Sanctuary of St. John of Beverley, where he had taken refuge. In 1389, King Richard visited York, for the purpose of adjusting a disagreement between the ecclesiastical and civil authorities; and during this visit he took his sword from his side, and gave it to be borne before William de Selby, the mayor, and his successors, whom he dignified with the title of Lord Mayor, which honour has ever since been retained, and is possessed by U no other city except those of London and Dublin. Richard afterwards visited York several times, and granted the citizens some valuable charters, immunities, and privileges. In the year 1390-1, a contagious disease, of the nature of a plague, raged with great violence throughout England; of which malady there fell a sacrifice to it, in the city of York alone, about 12,000 souls. In 1892, Richard, being displeased with the citizens of London, the courts of Kings's Bench and Chancery were again removed to York, but they remained here only from Midsummer to Christmas. Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of the diocese, was then Lord Chancellor. In the same year the King presented the first mace to the city, to be carried before the Lord Mayor, and a cap of maintenance to the sword bearer; and in 1396, the same monarch erected the city of York into a distinct county of itself, and appointed two Sheriffs, in lieu of the three Bailiffs that previously formed a part of the corporation. In this reign, Edmund Plantagenet, surnamed De Langley, the fifth son of Edward III. and Queen Philippa, was created the first Duke of York. In the year 1393, a quarrel arose between Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Hereford (afterwards Duke of Lancaster, and King Henry IV.), and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, who had accused each other of treason. Richard, by the advice of his council, sent these two noblemen into exile, the first for six years, and the other for life. This arbitrary procedure rendered the King odious to his subjects in general, and especially to the discontented Barons. In 1399, Bolingbroke, then Duke of Lancaster, finding that the rebellious nobles were ready to dispossess Richard of the crown, sailed from France with only three ships, attended by about sixty gentlemen and their servants, and landed at Ravenspur, or Ravenspurne, in Holderness, on the 4th of July, where he was joined by Lords Willoughby, Ross, Darcy, and Beaumont, with a great number of the gentry and commonalty. At Doncaster, the Duke was joined by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, two of the most powerful Barons in England, and a great number of people from all parts of the country. The King himself during these commotions was in Ireland, and soon after he landed in England, his army deserted him, and he himself was betrayed, apprehended, and sent to the tower, and Bolingbroke proclaimed King. Richard was soon after deposed by the two Houses of *The Cap of Maintenance, which is still worn by the sword bearer on all state occasions in the city of York, is traditionally the identical hat of King Richard II., who, upon some festive occasion, placed it upon the head of the nearest person, who happened to be the Lord Mayor's Esquire. It was originally crimson velvet, edged with gold; but it is now very much faded, and has only been held together by repeated re-linings. Parliament, and sent to Pontefract Castle, where he died or was murdered. Some historians assert that he was there inhumanly starved to death; whilst others inform us that Sir Piers Exton, with eight ruffians, entered his chamber, disarmed and attempted to lay hold of him, but that he, perceiving their deadly errand, so furiously attacked them, that he slew four of them with a weapon which he had seized from the first who entered; and that whilst combating with the rest of the murderers, Sir Piers mounted a chair behind him, and cut him down with a pole-axe. Scrope, Archbishop of York at that time, mentions his death by hunger, but adds ut vulgariter dicitur. When preparing for his expedition to Ireland, Richard made his will, in which he was very particular in ordering the ceremonials of his funeral, and for which purpose he allotted £4,000. Within ten months the unhappy monarch was deposed, murdered, and buried without pomp. Such is the mutability of human greatness. Soon after Henry Bolingbroke ascended the throne of England, under the title of Henry IV., Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, who had lost a brother and son in the battle of Shrewsbury; Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, whose brother Henry, the King had beheaded; and Thomas, Lord Mowbray, Earl Marshal of England, whose father died in exile, united with Lords Falconberge, Bardolf, Hastings, and others, in a conspiracy to depose him. Through the impatience of the Archbishop the plot was disclosed. Scrope framed several impeachments against the King, which he caused to be fixed against the doors of the churches of his own diocese, and sent them in the form of a circular into other counties, inviting the people to take up arms to reform abuses. Henry was charged by the conspirators with perjury, rebellion, usurpation, the murder of his sovereign (Richard II.), irreligion, extortion, and the illegal execution of many clergymen and gentlemen.‡ The Archbishop preached a sermon to three congregations in his own Cathedral, and raised 20,000 men suddenly to arms, who joined his standard (on which was painted the five wounds of our Saviour) at Shipton-on-the-moor, a few miles from York. To put down this rebellion, the King sent an army of 30,000 men into Yorkshire, under the command of the Earl of Westmorland and the Prince John. The Archbishop's forces were advantageously encamped on the forest of Galtres, without the gates of the city, when the King's army arrived at York. Westmorland being weaker than the insurgents, did not consider it prudent to attack them; and having affected to favour * Boothroyd's Hist. Pontefract, p. 114. + Rymer's Fœdera, tom. viii., p. 75. |