Criminal Cases, Part 3

When the Mayor of London says you have to dress for diner, you dress for dinner. On the Feast of Pentecost in 1382, the Mayor of London and the Aldermen were to meet at the Church of St. Peter in Cornhill. From there they would make a procession through the City to the Church of St. Paul in Walbrook.

The Mayor and Aldermen had agreed beforehand that everyone in the procession should be dressed with a cloak lined with green taffeta (silk).

The Alderman of the Ward of Walbrook, John Sely, appeared in a cloak that was not lined with anything, much less green taffeta.

Whereupon, by advice of the Mayor and other Aldermen, it was then adjudged, and assented to, that the said Mayor and other Aldermen should dine with the same John at his house, and that, at the proper costs of the said John, on the Thursday following; and further, the said John was to line his cloak in manner aforesaid: and so it was done. And this judgment shall extend to all other Aldermen, hereafter to come, without sparing any one, if any person among them shall act contrary to the Ordinance aforesaid. [link]

The posts of the past few days on Criminal Cases all came during the term of the Lord Mayor of London, John Northampton. This was early in the reign of King Richard II, when there was much dissension among the guilds and the common people about how the country was running. (Less than a year earlier, the Peasant's Revolt had caused a great deal of turmoil in the country, as well as a few deaths. A post with links to several posts about the Revolt can be found here.)

Northampton had also been a sheriff, but as mayor he was a reformist, trying to make changes to the workings of government. Tomorrow we'll look at his career, its rise and fall.