London Author:William John Loftie Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE MAYORS. Date of the Mayoralty—The Sheriffs—FitzOsbert—The first Common Council—The early Guilds—Localisation of Trades—Growth and strength... more » of the Commune—The succession of Mayors—Wan- inglnfluence of the Great Families—-The descendants of FitzAilwin —Simon de Montfort and FitzThomas—Oppression of London by Henry III.—Walter Hervey—His Charters—Condition of London at the return of Edward I. The preponderance of authority in favour of the first year of Richard I. as the date of the establishment of a new form of government in London is very great, but as the mayor does not appear upon the page of history before 1194, and as the gradual character of the change is now for the first time capable of proof, it has been usual for the modern school of scientific historians to. fix upon 1191 as the year and the deposition of Long- champ as the occasion. The mayor was appointed one of the treasurers of Richard's ransom in 1194, but is mentioned, as we have seen, at least a year earlier in a document at St. Paul's. The citizens were probably represented by their mayor at the first, and certainly at the second, coronation of Richard, and at the latter ceremony contended with Winchester for the office of butler at the royal feast. The prominent part played by Ralph de Diceto, the great dean of St. Paul's,in these ceremonies, belongs to English history. He may have had a share in the establishment of the mayoralty, and it is interesting at least to see his signature beside that of Henry FitzAilwin in several contemporary documents. The sheriffs who were in their second year of office when Richard ascended the throne were Richard Fitz- Reiner and Henry de Cornhill. The first named was son of one of the five ' vicecomites ' who jointly answered for the city early in th...« less