London and the Kingdom - Volume 1: A History Derived Mainly from the Archives at Guildhall in the Custody of the Corporation of the City of London.Sharpe, Reginald R. (Reginald Robinson)
History
London and the Kingdom - Volume 1: A History Derived Mainly from the Archives at Guildhall in the Custody of the Corporation of the City of London.
Sharpe, Reginald R. (Reginald Robinson)
London (England) -- History
On the 6th July the last Angevin king that reigned over England was
crowned—crowned with his wife Anne, widow of Prince Edward, killed at
Tewkesbury, but after the battle not in it, and of whose blood Richard
himself is thought to have been guilty. The City accepted the position and
made the new king and queen a present of £1,000; two-thirds for the king
and the remainder for the queen. The money was raised in the city by way
of a fifteenth; the poor were not to be called upon to contribute, and the
gift was not to form a precedent.(954) The claim of the mayor and citizens
to assist the chief butler at the coronation banquet was made and
allowed,(955) the king, sitting crowned in _le Whitehawle_, presented to
the mayor and aldermen who were present on that occasion a gold cup set
with pearls and precious stones, to be used by the commonalty at public
entertainments in the Guildhall.(956) Concerning this cup there is the
following curious entry made in the City’s Records, under date 13th July,
1486, when Hugh Brice was mayor:—(957)
"Item it is aggreed this day by the Court that where Hugh Brice
Mair of this Citie, hathe in his Kepyng a Cuppe of gold, garneised
with perle and precious stone of the gifte of Richard, late in
dede and not of right, Kyng of Englond, which gifte was to thuse
of the Cominaltie of the said Citee, that if the saide Cuppe be
stolen or taken away by thevys oute of his possession, or elles by
the casualtie of Fire hereafter it shall hapne the same Cuppe to
be brent or lost, that the same Hugh Brice hereafter shall not be
hurt or impeched therfore."
This extract is interesting as showing that the coronation cup presented
to the mayor of the City by way of _honorarium_ was, at this period at
least, looked upon as a gift made to the City’s use, and that the mayor
could not claim it as his own perquisite, as mayors had been in the habit
of doing in days gone by, and as they continued to do afterwards. William
Estfeld, who, as mayor, attended the coronation of Henry VI (6 Nov.,
1429), and received the customary gold cup and ewer, appropriated the gift
to his own use, and, as we have already mentioned, bequeathed them to his
grandson.
(M515) (M516)
Richard had scarcely been seated three months on the throne before the
Duke of Buckingham, who had been rewarded for his late services by being
appointed lord high constable, was in open rebellion, and Henry, Earl of
Richmond, long an exile in France, was meditating an invasion.
Buckingham’s conspiracy proved a failure, and he paid for his rashness
with his head. The Earl of Richmond was detained in France by stress of
weather, and danger from that quarter was averted at least for a time.
(M517) (M518)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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