44 Antiquity and Early 



his confederates, usurped to themselves royal power 



Lord the King that it please our said Lord 



the King and the Lords aforesaid, for this deed done 

 against the Crown and the law of the land, to cause 

 them accordingly " 



The rest of the document is too fragmentary 

 for a connected translation to be made.^ The 

 career of this despotic Mayor, however, was 

 brought to an untimely end the following year, 

 when he was implicated in a treasonable con- 

 spiracy and executed. 



In the eighteenth year of his reign, 20th March, 

 A.D. 1395. 1395, Richard IL granted the Com- 

 incorporation pany a Charter of Incorporation, in 

 Richard IL the following words : — 



" Richard, by the Grace of God King of England 

 and France, and Lord of Ireland, to all to whom the 

 present letters may come. Greeting. Our well beloved 

 liege men of the Mystery of Saddlers of our City of 

 London have besought us that whereas many men of the 

 Mystery aforesaid, of venerable estate, and very often 

 being by old age and feebleness and other infirmities 

 and misfortunes come to so great poverty and need that 

 they know not (how) to live, nor fitly to keep themselves, 

 and our said lieges piously sympathizing with the estate 

 of such poor, feeble, and infirm old men, as well present 

 as to come, by means of our license purpose to acquire 

 lands, tenements, and rents, to the value of twenty 

 pounds by the year for the sustentation of the said poor, 



^ In the same bundle are like petitions from the Mercers, 

 Founders, Painters, Armourers, Embroiderers, Spurriers^ and 

 Bladesmiths. 



