Yet not only was high political and social rank reached by individual "merchant princes," such as the wealthy William de la Pole, a descendant of whom is said (though on unsatisfactory evidence) to have been Chaucer's grand-daughter, but the government of the country came to be very perceptibly influenced by the class from which they sprang. On the accession of Richard II, two London citizens were appointed controllers of the war-subsidies granted to the Crown; and in the Parliament of 1382 a committee of fourteen merchants refused to entertain the question of a merchants' loan to the king. The importance and self-consciousness of the smaller tradesmen and handicraftsmen increased with that of the great merchants. When in 1393 King Richard II marked the termination of his quarrel with the City of London by a stately procession through "new Troy," he was welcomed, according to the Friar who has commemorated the event in Latin verse, by the trades in an array resembling an angelic host; and among the crafts enumerated we recognise several of those represented in Chaucer's company of pilgrims--by the "Carpenter," the "Webbe" (Weaver), and the "Dyer," all clothed in one livery Of a solemn and great fraternity. The middle class, in short, was learning to hold up its head, collectively and individually. The historical original of Chaucer's "Host"--the actual Master Harry Bailly, vintner and landlord of the Tabard Inn in Southwark, was likewise a member of Parliament, and very probably felt as sure of himself in real life as the mimic personage bearing his name does in its fictitious reproduction. And he and his fellows, the "poor and simple Commons"--for so humble was the style they were wont to assume in their addresses to the sovereign,--began to look upon themselves, and to be looked upon, as a power in the State. The London traders and handicraftsmen knew what it was to be well-to-do citizens, and if they had failed to understand it, home monition would have helped to make it clear to them:-- Well seemed each of them a fair burgess, For sitting in a guildhall on a dais. And each one for the wisdom that he can Was shapely for to be an alderman. They had enough of chattels and of rent, And very gladly would their wives assent; And, truly, else they had been much to blame. It is full fair to be yclept madame, And fair to go to vigils all before, And have a mantle royally y-bore.