“In June 1461, previously to his Coronation, King Edward IV. crossed
London Bridge with some ceremony, on the way from his Palace of Sheen
to the Tower; whence it was anciently customary for the English
Sovereigns to ride to Westminster in solemn procession the day before
they were crowned. We have this information in an article printed
by Hearne, and attached to his ‘_Thomæ Sprotti Chronica_.’ Oxford,
1719, 8vo. It is entitled ‘_A remarkable Fragment of an old English
Chronicle, or History of the Affairs of King Edward the Fourth,
Transcrib’d from an old MS_.;’ and on page 288, we find the following
particulars. ‘The same xxvi^{th} of Juny, the King Edward movid from
Sheene towardis London, then being Thursday;’--in reality though it
was Friday, as this very extract subsequently shews--‘and upon the
way receyvid him the Maire and his brethirn all in scarle, with iiii
c commoners well horsid and cladde in grene, and so avauncing theime
self passid the Bridge, and thurgh the Cite they rode streigte unto
the Toure of London, and restid there all nigt.’ The day following,
King Edward made 32 Companions of the Bath. He then proceeded to
Westminster, attended by the new Knights habited in the white silk
dress of the Order; and on the morrow,--which was St. Peter’s day, and
Sunday,--he was crowned at Westminster by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop
of Canterbury.
“The revenues of London Bridge seem greatly to have flourished under
the reign of this Sovereign, for in his 5th year, 1465, the Wardens of
the same, Peter Alford and Peter Caldecot, paid, on account thereof,
the immense sum of £731. 10_s._ 1-1/2; as you may see in Maitland’s
‘_History_,’ volume i., page 48, which information he has quoted from
Stow’s ‘_Survey_.’ You, doubtless, remember, that although Edward IV.
was, at this period of our history, seated on the English throne,
yet that King Henry VI. was only deposed by the partizans of Edward
Plantagenet, Earl of March, and son to the late Duke of York, and the
Earl of Warwick, in March, 1461. In October 1470, therefore, Henry
was again restored to his crown, which he retained with a disturbed
sway for seven months only, and in April, 1471, was again imprisoned
in the Tower, whence he had been taken to remount the throne. There
were, however, not even then wanting some zealous adherents to the
declining House of Lancaster, who made several brave, though unavailing
efforts on the behalf of King Henry, Margaret of Anjou, and the
young Edward, Prince of Wales. Under the sanction of their cause an
impudent attack was made upon London in 1471, which forms an important
feature in the history of this Bridge; which being mentioned by Stow
in his ‘_Survey_,’ volume i., page 61, is thence copied by all who
have written its Annals. The Earl of Warwick had appointed to be
Vice-Admiral of the Channel, one Thomas Neville, an illegitimate son
to William, Lord Falconbridge, and thence called ‘the Bastard of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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