MALES. MATS. THE NORWICH MAYOR'S HAT. 579 



taste of the time, was the hat purchased for the mayor of 

 Norwich by the Corporation. 



I have found only a few instances of the costs incurred by 

 this wealthy corporation in decorating their chief officer. They 

 bought silver to adorn his sword, and paid him while in office 

 a handsome salary, as much as they contributed for the wages 

 of their burgesses in Parliament. But the chief glory of the 

 office appears to have been his hat, which was plainly a cap 

 of maintenance, trimmed with costly fur. In 1431 the fur to 

 the hat costs 6s. 8d. In the next year a beaver hat, with 

 marten skins (i.e. ermine), costs izs. In 1434 a grey furred 

 mayor's hat is bought for i$s. 4^., and it is lined with five yards 

 of tartaryn, at a cost of zs. 6d., and decked with lace, probably 

 an ounce of this article, at a cost of is. In 1437 the mayor's 

 hat costs IQS. 2d. The hat had cost only 2s. lod. in 1418, 

 but the Corporation became splendid as the wealth of the city 

 grew. Unfortunately in 1438 the city was disgraced by a 

 terrible riot. It lost its charter for four years, its affairs were 

 administered by the Crown, and the mayor is not presented 

 with so gorgeous a display in future. The city had to suffer 

 more serious calamities a century and more afterwards, when 

 Ket ruined the trade by his insurrection, and Somerset ruined 

 himself by being too merciful to the Norfolk rioters, and thereby 

 putting himself into the power of Northumberland. 



At the beginning of the fifteenth century Norwich was the 

 second city in the kingdom. Even in the middle of the 

 century, and after the disastrous riot which was visited by the 

 temporary forfeiture of its privileges, it was assessed (supra, 

 p. 87) only a little below York, and York was a county of 2700 

 acres, that is, the franchise and the tallage extended far beyond 

 the limits of the town. It was the centre of a prosperous 

 manufacture, an equally prosperous agriculture, and of a large 

 foreign trade, of course considering the times. It had con- 

 centrated, by a natural process, the industries which had been 

 scattered over the country a century before, within its own 

 walls. It made much money, it scorned the hierarchy, and 



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