In the reign of King Eadgar, thirteen knights who had done service to the realm, asked the king to bestow upon them a tract of land lying desolate outside Aldgate, comprising what is now covered by the Minories, Houndsditch, Petticoat Lane, etc., and Whitechapel to the Bars. Eadgar consented on two conditions, that they should each be victors in three combats, one under ground, one upon ground, and one above ground, and that on a certain day they should tilt with lances against all comers in East Smithfield. All this was accomplished by the knights with great glory, and the king made them a grant of the land, constituting them a guild under the name of the "Knighten Guild," the land being named "Portsoken," signifying the "Franchise at the Gate." Eadgar's charter of incorporation was confirmed by Eadward the Confessor, William I., William II., and Henry I. After the establishment of the priory, the knights of the guild, for the glory of God and the Blessed Trinity, and out of a chivalrous admiration of their pious Queen, gave to the prior and canons the whole of their land, franchise, and liberties, and the church of St. Botolph the Briton, and took upon themselves the habit of the order, becoming members of the fraternity. In attestation of their grant they placed their charters upon the altar of the priory church, and gave Norman, the prior seisin of the land in the church of St. Botolph, which stood upon the land; Barnard, Prior of Dunstable; John, Prior of Derland; Geoffrey Clinton, Chamberlain of London, and other clerks and laymen being witnesses thereof. King Henry gave a confirmatory charter, as did, afterwards, Gilbert, William, and Roger, Bishops of London, St. Alphage, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Popes Alexander and Innocent, the latter adding that the Church of St. Botolph should be served by one of the canons of the priory, removable at the discretion of the prior. In consequence of this acquisition, the prior was admitted as a Ward Alderman of the City of London, the land, although lying beyond the boundaries, being within the liberties of the City. He met in the Council Chamber, took part in the deliberations, feasted in the hall, and rode forth in pageants, clad in scarlet as other aldermen, but had his robes cut in clerical fashion. Allen, in his History of London, intimates that he sat in the Guildhall, in a clerical capacity, to look after the interests of the church, which was not correct, his position there being the representative of the temporalities of the Ward.