London and the Kingdom
The men of London were a political force before the Conquest. Their claims and actions,
and efforts to subdue them
or win them over, show that this influence persisted during the Middle Ages. The picture is
clearer if we look at
their role in the kingdom before the growth of their own institutions,
remembering that the threads were interwoven,
since national importance made
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possible the march to self-government. `Londoners' or `citizens' here are simply those
who happened to act for the city at a particular time; there were always factions, so there could be no steady drive
towards independence.
William the Conqueror, by building the White Tower, made London a vital military prize. Although the Tower was governed
separately, England's mightiest castle and biggest arsenal was physically part of London. The fortress might hold out
while Londoners changed sides; it never fell to anyone who had not first gained the streets. The strong rule of the
first three Normans gave the citizens no chance to assert themselves, although we have seen that Henry I allowed them to
pay their own taxes and choose their own officers. When Henry died in Normandy on 1 December 1135 the picture changed.
While his daughter Matilda was still with her husband in Anjou, the dead king's nephew Stephen hurried across the
Channel to snatch the Crown. He was barred from Dover and Canterbury but an anonymous partisan says that he pressed
on to London, `the queen of the whole kingdom', whose people unanimously approved his claim. They naturally wanted
a quick decision-war being bad for trade and they also struck some sort of bargain to strengthen their privileges.
We do not know the terms but can see, after nearly a century, a return to the citizens' Anglo- Saxon habit of acclaiming
a new ruler on their own. Stephen dashed on to secure the treasury at Winchester - he was the last claimant to have to
do this, as it was moved to Westminster before 1200 and was back for his coronation within three weeks of his uncle's
death.
London stuck to its choice even after Matilda had plunged the kingdom into civil war. At the height of her success in
1141 she was hailed as `Lady of the English' by the captive Stephen's own brother, Bishop Henry, in his cathedral city
of Winchester. Hoping to sway the doubters, Henry sent for a delegation of Londoners who, he flatteringly explained,
held the leading place in England. They came, spoke in vain for their king and left without committing themselves.
Some two months later Matilda was grudgingly admitted to London, where a `commune' or sworn association had been
formed, presumably to defend the liberties wrung from Stephen. Matilda, who could not change her title to that of
queen until she had been crowned at Westminster, was already losing friends by her arrogance. She now insulted the
Londoners for refusing a large sum of money, retired outside the gates and, in the words of a partisan of Stephen,
`with too much boldness ... was just bent on reclining at a well-cooked feast', when the citizens stormed out
`like thronging swarms from beehives' (Gesta Stephani). Matilda was lucky to escape and her cause never recovered.
London quickly followed up its rebuff by sending nearly a thousand men to take part in her rout at Winchester,
and in 1145 it helped Stephen to reduce Faringdon Castle in Berkshire, so averting a new attack from the west.
A fascinating thread in this struggle is London's feud with the most notorious of robber barons, Geoffrey de Mandeville,
earl of Essex. Geoffrey was one of Stephen's supporters, who joined Matilda only to desert her after her expulsion from
London. He had succeeded his father as constable of the Tower and, as a key figure, could extort lands and offices from
either side. Not content with being sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire, he was made sheriff of Middlesex
(including London) by both Stephen and Matilda. Although Geoffrey's grandfather had held this office, his own
appointment, making him responsible for justice and tax collecting, violated the freedom granted to London by Henry I.
Mutual hereditary loathing is clear from a treaty in 1142 which marked the earl's second desertion of the king:
Matilda must make no separate peace with the citizens, who are his `mortal enemies'. Deprived of the Tower by Stephen,
Geoffrey soon afterwards seized a Fenland abbey from which he indulged in an orgy of ransom, torture and pillage.
He was killed in 1144 and his body, denied consecrated burial, was taken to London; there it dangled from a tree in
an orchard belonging to the Templars, before being ignominiously buried. One of the effigies in the Temple Church may
be that of Geoffrey; it was carved about a hundred years after his death and needed much restoration after the
Second World War.
Extract from “Medieval London”, Written by Timothy Baker. Cassell & Company Ltd, London:1970.
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