Hitherto it had not been the custom when orders were given for a general muster and survey of the armed forces of the realm to include the city’s forces. The city had been for the most part exempt from such orders, except when the necessities of the times demanded that it should be otherwise. In 1614 the lords of the council thought fit to include the city in their order for a general muster, and they wrote (16 Sept.) to the mayor requiring him to cause "a generall view" to be taken of the city’s forces, and an enrolment made "of such trayned members as in her late majesty’s time were put into companies by the name of the trayned bands." Vacancies among the officers and soldiers were to be filled up, armour and weapons repaired, and the force to be completely equipped and regularly exercised.(198) The letter having been submitted to the Common Council (21 Sept.), it was agreed to raise at once a force of 6,000 men. A tax of a fifteenth was voted to meet the necessary expenses, and a committee was appointed to carry out the resolution of the court.(199) On the following day (22 Sept.) the mayor issued his precept to the alderman of every ward stating the number of men required from his ward, and particulars of the kind and quantity of armour his ward was to provide. Appended to the precept was a schedule of the prices at which certain manufacturers in the city were prepared to sell the necessary weapons.(200) Jerome Heydon, described as an "iremonger at the lower end of Cheapeside," was ready to sell corslets, comprising "brest, backe, gorgett, taces and headpeece," at 15_s._; pikes with steel heads at 2_s._ 6_d._; swords, being Turkey blades, at 7_s._; "bastard" muskets at 14_s._; great muskets, with rests, at 16_s._; a headpiece, lined and stringed, at 2_s._ 6_d._, and a bandaleer for 1_s._ 6_d._ Henry White and Don Sany Southwell were prepared to do corslets 6_d._ cheaper, and the same with swords, but their swords are described as only "Irish hilts and belts to them." Their bastard muskets, "with mouldes," could be had for 13_s._, or 1_s._ cheaper than those of Jerome Heydon. The Armourers’ Company were ready to supply corslets at 15_s._, but for the same "with pouldrons" they asked 4_s._ more. The Cutlers’ Company would furnish "a very good turky blade and good open hilts" for 6_s._, thus under-selling the private firms. (M80) On the 5th May, 1615, the Common Council ordered another fifteenth to be levied on the inhabitants of the city "towards the defrayinge of all maner of charges to be disbursed in and about the trayninge and musteringe of men";(201) and in the following year the trained bands were divided into four regiments, under the command of Sir Thomas Lowe, Sir Thomas Middleton, Sir John Watts, and Sir John Swinnerton, and quartered in different parts of the city for the purpose of putting down riots. For these measures the mayor, Sir John Jolles, and the aldermen received the thanks of the lords of the council.(202) (M81)