History of the Company. 43 



confederates to be summoned to the Guildhall of the 

 said City on the Feast of St. Edward the King in the 

 seventh year of the reign of our Lord the King who 

 now is, to elect a Mayor. And the said Sir Nicholas, 

 by the assent of all the others, proclaimed in divers 

 parts of the said City and charged every man of the 

 said City on pain of imprisonment and on pain of . . . 



towards the King that none be so daring as 



to be at the said election but those who were summoned, 

 and those who were summoned were summoned by the 



consent of the said Sir Nicholas and his 



to that election who would be caused to oppose their 

 Franchise. The said Sir Nicholas and the others, his 

 confederates, ordained certain men, as well strangers as 



others, to the great at the Guildhall aforesaid 



to make that election, and to put to death all other men 

 who wxre not summoned if they came there to the said 

 election, by which he willed ....... and the most 



noble and wise Lords in this present Parliament of this 

 horrible thing done against the law and the Crown there 

 may be made a due remedy, for the sake of God and as 

 an act of charity. 



" complain against the said Sir Nicholas 



that whereas he, with the consent of others, his accom- 

 plices, usurped to himself royal power by coming to the 

 * Chepe ' with a great multitude of men ... (to the) 

 fear of all the good men of the said City, and there put 

 to death John Costantyn, Cordwainer, and afterwards 

 came to the shops of divers Saddlers and threatened 



them to have in the same manner by which 



each of them should be put out of the said City, and 

 not allowed to come there for fear of losing their lives. 

 And afterwards the said Sir Nicholas took certain men 



Mystery and put them in prison without 



any answer in the law, to the great fear of their lives 

 and the loss of their goods, so that he and the others, 



E 



