of charter, trade was to be "quit and free from all tolls, dues, and customs at fairs or otherwise, in all harbors throughout all my dominions, both by the hither side and the further side of the sea, by land and by strand."

In their efforts to gain the privilege of self-government, the towns were aided by the necessities of the king and nobles, who were often in sore straits to meet the expense of their crusading enterprises, and were willing to yield some liberty or exemption in return for ready money. Each right gained was a matter of bargain. Rye and Winchelsey secured their charters from Richard by supplying him with two ships for one of his expeditions, and, a little later,

Portsmouth obtained

the same much-coveted possession by paying part of the royal ransom.

The Merchant Gild. A most important factor in the emancipation of the towns was the influence of the merchant gilds. With the development of commerce and industry, trade had become the ruling interest in the towns, and the merchant classes the most powerful element in the life of the com

munity. Their associations were originally formed merely to control the trade of the place or to secure purely commercial privileges, such as the right of holding a fair or exemption from paying toll, but, including as they did the influential men of the community, and strong through effective

organization, they naturally took the lead in wringing from the crown judicial immunity or political power. Almost every town and many villages possessed a gild, and it was here that the stirring, vigorous life of the community centred. Each gild had its hall where meetings were held to make rules by which dishonest trade might be prevented and non-gildsmen kept from sharing in the traffic of the place.

The power of the merchants tended to become tyrannical, and already artisans in some of the crafts endeavored to combine against their domination. In the reign of Richard, Rising of the artisans of London, led by one of the aldermen, William Longbeard. Longbeard, rose in a vain protest against alleged injustice of the great traders in the assessment of taxes.

Trade. - As yet there was little freedom of commercial intercourse; protection and monopoly were the watchwords of the merchant world throughout the Middle Ages, and trade was shackled by many fetters. The business code forbade methods now looked upon as entirely legitimate: for example, "forestalling," or buying up at a distance in order to sell at a higher price in the home market, and " engrossing," or buying at a season of plenty to hold over until a time when the goods were dear.

Internal trade depended on the great fairs, and the right Fairs. of holding them was dearly prized by the towns. The fair of Stourbridge, a few miles from Cambridge, was known throughout Europe. It was held in September, and for days before it opened the roads were blocked by wagons laden with wares from all parts of the world. Silks from Genoa, the linens of Flanders, French and Spanish wines, were displayed side by side with the home traders' stores of wool and salt fish. The narrow streets were thronged with men of all classes, merchant and noble, soldier and priest. For three weeks the fair went on, and daily the mayor sat at his court "of the dusty feet" to give justice between disputing wayfarers, and on Sunday some monk from the neighboring priory said mass in the chapel that still stands near the spot where the fair was held.

Traill, I,

367-371.

With increased prosperity came greater refinement and luxury. The houses of the wealthy merchants were often of some architectural pretensions, and were far more comfortable than the fortress-like dwellings of the baronage. Within the cities, where the gilds looked after their own people, some attention was paid to sanitary conditions of living, but outside the walls, where those not admitted to the privileges of the towns were herded together in unrelieved dirt and squalor, fever and plague flourished unchecked.

Richard I, d. 1199.

Philip Augustus,

d. 1223.

CHAPTER V

STRUGGLE FOR THE CHARTER

Books for Consultation

SOURCES

Matthew Paris.

Robert of Gloucester.

William of Rishanger.

The Burton Annals.

Grosseteste, Letters.

Political Songs (Camden Society).

Royal and other Historical Letters of the Reign of Henry III.
Hutton, Misrule of Henry III, Simon de Montfort and his
Cause.

Stubbs, Select Charters.

SPECIAL AUTHORITIES

Taswell-Langmead, Constitutional History.

Richardson, The National Movement in the Reign of Henry III.
Pauli, Life of Simon de Montfort.

Eccleston, Coming of the Friars.

Tout, Edward I.

Burton, History of Scotland.

IMAGINATIVE LITERATURE

IMAGINATIVE

Shakespeare, King John.

John1 (1199-1216). — The third king of the Angevin line stands out as the most vicious and worthless of all English

1 John, 1199-1216

Henry III, m. Eleanor Joan, m. Alexander II Eleanor, m. Simon 1216-1272

of Provence

of Scotland

de Montfort

Richard, king of
the Romans,
d. 1271

Edward I, m. Eleanor of Castile Edmund Crouchback, Margaret, m. Alexander III Earl of Lancaster, d. 1295

1272-1307

of Scotland