Whiftington and His Cat. 



Ill 



date presented by the livery. The person elected declares his accept- 

 ance of the office : the Lord Mayor, recorder, sheriffs, crier and 

 common sergeant return to their hall, and the proclamation of the 

 election is made. It only remains to present the successful candidate 

 to the Lord Chancellor, to receive, through him, the assent of the 

 Crown to the election, and then to administer the usual oaths before 

 the mayor and aldermen. 



But the city records of London sho'w that in the earlier days, 

 a much larger and more popular constituency than rhe livery- 

 men of the different companies, claimed the right to elect the 

 Lord Mayor ; so large a constituency, indeed, that it is supposed 

 to have comprised the whole body of citizens. For Eichard XL, 

 in whose reign Whittington was Lord Mayor for the first time, had 

 shown a determined and open hostility to the citizens, partly because 

 they had manfully remonstrated against the acts of his ministers, and 

 partly because he was envious of their w^ealth ; and when they had 

 fallen under his displeasure, they could only purchase his forgiveness 

 by large contributions of money. Sir Xicholas Brember, whom I 

 have before mentioned as having served as Lord Mayor for three con- 

 secutive terms, was a creature of the king's, and he forced him on 

 the citizens as Lord Mayor several times, in defiance of their wishes 

 and rights ; and this was one of the elements of the struggle between 

 Eichard and the Londoners. This struggle rose to its climax in 1382, 

 when the citizens selected John of Northampton as an opposing candi- 

 date to Nicholas Brember; of the particulars of this struggle we have 

 no account, although the poet Chaucer, who was deeply interested in 

 -it on behalf of the citizens, tells us that they would have submitted 

 to every imaginable disadvantage rather than have suffered the man- 

 ner and rule of the hated governors ; and when Brember endeavored 

 to hinder the election, and procure one in favor of himself, then the 

 insurrection broke out, or as Chaucer expresses it, " mokyl roar 

 arreared." The insurrection was put down by a large body of armed 

 men under Sir Eobert Knolles on behalf of the King ; and Sir Xicholas 

 Brember was again duly installed. How deeply Chaucer as a simple 

 citizen was interested in these proceedings appears from the fact 

 that he fled to Zealand to escape the trial which had been commenced 

 against him. Venturing back to London in 1386, he was elected 

 member of Parliament for Kent; but this very election may have 

 determined the government not to overlook his former conduct ; for 

 he was arrested in the latter part of that year, and sent to the Tower 

 and deprived of his offices, namely, the comptrollership of the customs 



