The events of the Wars of the Roses caused many changes in England, but the impact upon the economic and political landscape of London, is often overlooked. This episode, we take a short break from the nobles, the King, the intrigues of the Houses of York and Lancaster, to just look at what was happening in London and on its streets at the time… and also how forces beyond anyones control, changes in population, in wealth distribution, in social mobility, and wider forces of economic changes across Europe, saw that the most political powerful of all the Guilds of London to date, the Grocers Company, stumbled, and then fell from the dominant position they had once held. This then examines why we feel we are passing out of the medieval world and into something new- a new world being born before our very eyes.
The Roses of the Roses SEEMED to be over; and King Edward IV began to consolidate his rule over the land. What follows are 9 years where London begins to try and regain its equilibrium while Grocers and mercers fall out over who stands where in St Paul’s, where we examine the much overlooked ‘other’ duties of the cities Sargent-at-Arms; where suddenly the Hundred Years War seems to be starting again, and where the young and energetic Edward IV seems to turn from a eager young warlord, into a fat, vicious and dangerous spider… bringing order even at the cost of his close family.
In 1471 London as a city came under a three pronged attack- well armed and well trained soldiers assailed London Bridge, Bishopsgate in the West End and Aldgate in the East End, while artillery showed shells from Southwark into London itself… one of the most overlooked moments of the cities history, coming as it did only a few weeks after a massive battle just north of the city in Barnet. The Story of London details one of the more exciting moments in its history with a detailed account of those mad few weeks.
We have reached 1469, and arguably the three most intense, most insane, years of the Wars of the Roses- the wild, forever unstable Kingdom was rocked as regimes rose and fell with alarming speed; two kings; two invasions from Europe; three separate governments, seemingly constant insurrections and rebellions… London found itself trying to cope with a failing nation around it. And upon its streets and within its civic buildings, drama and melodrama was played out, as the carnage began, with slow and terrible certainty, to draw itself closer to the capital.
Young, charismatic, intelligent, and highly popular in London, Edward IV seemed to have it all. For our city, his reign promised much, a new start, a new dawn even, of a king inclined to their sensibilities and with a long and prosperous reign before him. And yet, while the city became host to marvellous royal pageants and tournaments, it was still seeing show trials and executions, and the miasma of Civil War hung over everything. In truth, Edward IV was doomed, a young man who would never be able to solve the crisis the kingdom was in, and the decade, and this chapter, explores what went wrong…
After a weeks break due to ill health, the Story returns with an episode that unashamedly takes a short break from the grand narrative of the Wars of the Roses, to look at the politics and changing fortunes of London’s Grocers, Mercers, Wool Staplers and Merchant Adventurers in the aftermath of the city siding with the Yorkist faction. How did the city cope with the huge recession the civil wars had caused, and how did it recover… welcome then to Yorkist London.
The saga of London during the Wars of the Roses continues in this fast paced chapter, which covers one of the dramatic few months this nation has ever seen; the city had mostly sided with the Yorkists in the aftermath of the Siege of the Tower of London, but now they had to choose to whom they would swear allegiance to- and they did so in a most dramatic manner. While London as a community took one of the biggest gambles in the history of the City, events elsewhere rocked the nation as the size and scale of the fighting escalated into something this nation had never seen before…
1460… that one time, in London, the Tower of London started firing cannon and napalm into the nearby houses. Seriously. A chapter that explores the extraordinary moment when the Earl of Warwick took London, his father was placed in command of the city, and a small bunch of royalist nobles and a dodgy grocers fled into the Tower, and began a brutal stand off. The siege was an incredibly vicious moment, as the Wars of the Roses suddenly became all too real to the residents. Welcome to a bumper chapter exploring this amazing year in the tale of our city.
The Wars of the Roses are warming up, and London is trying NOT to pick a side… but the Queen is unleashing a smart campaign upon the city, turning Livery Companies upon one another, and political scandle rocks the community. This chapter is an examination into the full reasons why London ended up picking the side it did, as we immerse ourselves in the complicated world of the late 1450’s- dodgy Italians in London, dodgy Londoners in Southampton, a NEW war starting up in the north and medieval pirates making the city of London swoon… welcome to the chaos.
The tale of London in the Wars of the Roses continues as we examine the aftermath of the Battle of St Albans and the fall of the second protectorate of York; Italian merchants sleeping with married English women (allegedly), the King trying to make everyone hug it out, violent law students, prison riots, and a new wave of pirates- all form the backdrop to one of the most extraordinary moments in the cities history; the amazing story of how, over one later winter and early spring, a mayor tried to keep hundreds, if not thousands, of heavily armed soldiers staying in London, from kicking the hell out of one another!
And so we begin the tale of London in the Wars of the Roses, setting the scene, and dropping us straight into the city- as the Duke of York and the Duke of Somerset’s five year rivalry moves towards its bloody end on the streets of St. Albans, in London, the city was to see young Mercers attacking the homes of Italians, the Grocers company politically shift dramatically when one side is winning, to quickly following the other side, before just as quickly having to reverse course… and as disparate factions begin to come together due to circumstances in the rest of the country, a savage political protest takes place on Fleet Street… let the games begin!
The never ending war with France was entering its death throes, but in England? A bunch of rather venal and useless men were about to plunge the nation into a political crisis so great that it would distract all from it… and in London? A small cabal of Grocers were to find themselves up to their necks in what was going on. Four chaotic and traumatic years as inept nobility, a catatonic king, a new born prince and the Duke of York riding into London in four most triumphant processions (which may or may not have actually been that impressive), all combine in this bumper chapter.
July 1450- and Jack Cade’s rebellion falls upon London. What follows this chapter is a guide to the bloody carnage and mayhem unleashed by this grandiose rebel upon. The city and how the city fought back. Leading up to one of the most dramatic incidents in London’s myriad history… a genuine multi-hour rolling battle on London Bridge that involved heavy weapons from the Tower of London, as the city tried to drive off thousands of this mans supporters. A wild, hectic few weeks in the life of London.
We approach 1450 and are introduced to the opening salvos of the rebellion of Jack Cade… but on the way examine the situation in London and the South-East in the years leading up to his rebellion; London faced a new coin shortage (not to be mistaken for the previous half-dozen or so), but this one was producing unexpected side effects; while many went under, some thrived; and London began to see a light at the end of a tunnel… but it was a distant light. As 1450 dawned rebellion and violence and murder seemed everywhere and then, suddenly, an army appeared in the south…
The story reaches the background to the rebellion of Jack Cade and we begin this cycle with the events taking place across England in the years leading up to that violent rebellion, starting with a perfect day… the coronation of England’s new 15 year old Queen. But as London rejoiced in the pomp and circumstances, powerful men were beginning a series of missteps that was going to bring the city, and the country, to the edge of crisis…
We slow down the break neck pace of the Story of London, to take the time to stop and look at how, in practical terms, London WORKED as a city; how all the disparate parts of it, the mayors, the Aldermen, the mass of poor, managed to coexist and function. In a chapter that draws upon the awesome work of historian Barbara Hanawalt, we explore how the city functioned as a living space… while setting up for a crazy few years ahead and dealing with a huge, high profile fire!
The Story this week focuses upon several things- fighting between lawyers and butchers over by the Fleet River; the massive attack upon Calais by the French; the political intrigues between the Duke of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort as the 100 Years War dragged itself to its inevitable conclusion… but mostly we focus upon the greatest political scandal of the 1440’s; the downfall of the Duchess of Gloucester. But more than that… we go beyond the public acts of contrition undertaken by this woman, to focus on the story of an overlooked figure; a woman who lived on the outskirts of the city, and whose story illuminates dark aspects of London life- this is the story of the Witch of Eye.
The 1430’s was a dark decade for London, as the most brutal weather to ever hit London landed in a series of freezing winters, that drove up prices and froze the river in a way not seen before and never since. This was the backdrop to a decade which saw London’s economy utterly collapse, and the War with France take a dramatic turn for the worse. From lavish processions through the city, to self-destructive politics, to the decline of London’s merchants under the onslaught of foreign traders, this chapter sees the city trying to cope with part of London Bridge itself collapsing into the river…
The Story returns with an unusual chapter- how a royal wedding, a Eastern European reform movement, an adulterous noble, and a violent teenage girl, conspire, to not only produce a sudden crusade being called by the most powerful man in south London… but also how that crusade ended up being instrumental in causing a sudden royal coronation. A wild tale of London’s history…
A bumper chapter where the Story of London follows the tale of the city as it deals with the aftermath of the death of Henry V; a tale of the city’s economy starting to be reborn; why it came within an inch of seeing a pitch battle on London bridge between residents north of the river and those from Southwalk; whose side it picked in the growing partisan politics of the new regency; and above all, we look at the legacy of Dick Whittington, the three-and-one-half times mayor of the city, whose legacy transformed the city and remains to this day.