Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Calendar of the Letter-Books: Preserved Among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall, 1904
When Parliament met in March (1337) the City took the course, common enough in those days, of making presents of money to the King, the Queen, the Treasurer, and other officers of State, for the purpose of gaining their favour, the money being borrowed, on the credit of the City's Chamber, from divers citizens, whose names have been handed down to us. Some portion of the money so raised was expended, we are told, on obtaining various writs from the King, and notably one for levying money to meet the expenses of fitting out the three vessels just mentioned as having been furnished by the City?
The King's necessities at this juncture were once more the City's opportunity. For the last two years the citizens of London had been carrying on their business at a dis advantage, owing to a Statute passed at York in 1335 to the effect that merchant strangers should be allowed freely to trade throughout the realm, in spite of all charters, &c., to the contrary. Although this Statute contained a proviso that the City of London should have its ancient liberties and free customs uninjured the citizens held it to be opposed to the liberties of the City, and now, as they thought, was an opportunity for getting matters placed on a proper footing. They therefore again took the course of making gifts of money and plate to the Lord Chancellor and others who had in?uence at Court,4 and succeeded in obtaining a grant of letters patent from the King (dated 26th March, with the assent of Parliament.
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