In 1403, in consideration, as it appears, of a gift of 4000 marks, (for most of our ancient liberties were purchased) Henry IV. conferred municipal institutions on the city, and would also have increased its representatives—for Norwich had returned two members since 1296—to four, had not the citizens represented their inability to meet the increased expense which their services would have occasioned. William Appleyard was the first mayor, and he celebrated his year of office in the fine flint building then just erected, lately used as a Bridewell, and now as a tobacco manufactory. In 1407 the Guildhall was commenced, on the site of a small thatched erection, called a toll-booth, used for collecting the market tolls. Henry V., in 1415, visited the city, and, we are told, left his coronet in pawn for 1000 marks, which he doubtless required for his French wars; but 25 years afterwards Norwich was in sad disgrace at court, for as a rebuke for suing Henry VI. for £100 which they had lent, the charters were suspended. A few years after, however, the city was visited by that unfortunate monarch, and in 1469 by Edward IV., who, writes John Paston, “hath been worshipfully received into Norwich, and had right good cheer and great gifts”—with which he was so well pleased that he speedily paid another visit, when some grand pageants were performed, though interrupted by “heavy and continuous rain.” But we now come to a catalogue of disasters: the Cathedral was seriously injured by fire, 1463; the fatal plague ravaged the city, 1479; and in 1505 and 1507 there were great fires, in the latter year 718 houses being consumed, which obliged the corporate authorities to prohibit the erection of thatched buildings. In 1517, disputes between the citizens and the monks being again rife, Wolsey came over on a mission of mediation, but it was not till several years afterwards that peace was restored by the settlement of the civil and ecclesiastical boundaries and jurisdictions. We must not forget to notice the burning of the martyr Bilney, after an imprisonment in a dungeon of the Guildhall; and scarcely were the lurid fires of persecution extinguished before a memorable political outbreak exposed the city to the ravages of contending armies, and excited the anxious consideration of the youthful Edward’s ministers. The details of Kett’s rebellion are too well known to require recapitulation; suffice it to say that after obtaining possession of the city and defeating the Marquis of Northampton in an encounter on Palace Plain, the insurgents were dispersed by the Earl of Warwick—Robert Kett being executed at the Castle, and William at Wymondham. To close a paragraph of casualties, persecutions, and tumults, we must record the visitation of the sweating sickness, striking down near 1000 victims in 1551, and of the quartan ague six years later; the conviction of several citizens in 1570, for participation in a plot for assassinating the