“The verdict of the twelve Jurors of the Ward of John Horn, also
testifies the Queen’s possession of London Bridge, see Membrane 11,
and page 416, column 2: but from Queenhithe Ward, or that of Simon
de Hadestok, Membrane 13, and page 419, column 1, we learn that the
Jurors ‘said that the Lord King Henry took the Bridge of London into
his own hands, presently after the Battle of Evesham, and delivered
it into the hands of the Lady the Queen, Mother of the Lord the King,
who hath it now; and that to the great detriment of the Bridge, and
the prejudice of all the people; it is also now nearly in a falling
state, through defect of support.’ On Membrane 14, and page 420, column
1, the Jurors of the Ward of John de Northampton,--which is, by the
way, the first Inquisition, so vaguely referred to by Stow, at page
60 of his ‘_Survey_,’--depose to the same effect; as do those of the
Ward of Thomas de Basing, Membrane 15, and page 421, column 1; the
latter adding only, that when the Bridge was held by the City, it was
delivered to two honest Citizens to keep, saving the rents of their
custody. The only information we gain from the Jurors of the Ward of
Dowgate, Membrane 16, and page 422, column 2, is, that Brother Stephen,
Bishop of Waterford, was custodier for Queen Eleanor, whilst their
evidence on the Bridge dilapidations is quite as full as that of the
other Wards.
“Such were the chief answers to the inquisitions concerning London
Bridge, in the reign of King Edward I.; I say the chief, for there
are yet several others, which, for the most part, are but abridged
repetitions of those already cited. Indeed, they are recorded upon a
different Roll, which is kept in the Chapter House, at West-Minster;
and you may see their contents in the printed copies of the ‘_Hundred
Rolls_’ to which I have so often referred you, volume i. pages 425-432.”
“Well, Master Postern,” said I, when my narrator came to this breathing
place, “and how did King Edward and his Commissioners act upon this
evidence against Queen Eleanor of Provence? Were they not of the mind
of _Dogberry_ as it regarded the answers of the Citizens; ‘’Fore God!
they are both in a tale,’ seeing that nearly all of them swore alike?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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