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estine with an immense army. To obtain this end, places of trust and 

 honor, even the highest offices in the kingdom, were sold to the highest 

 bidder. A recent writer says " that his presence chamber was a market 

 overt in which all that the king could bestow, all that could be de- 

 rived from the bounty of the crown, or imparted by the royal preroga- 

 tive, was disposed of to the best chapman." 



The chief justiceship was sold for 1,000 marks ; and in consideration 

 of 20,000 marks, received from the Scottish king, lie granted him a 

 release from all the obligations that had been extorted from him and 

 his subjects, during his captivity, and returned to him all the charters 

 and documents of his servitude ; and when some of his friends remon- 

 strated with him, he swore that he would sell London itself if he could 

 only find a purchaser. He nominated a regency to govern the king- 

 dom during his absence, but he did not appoint his brother John one 

 of the regents. On the contrary, he guv him. in addition to the earldom 

 of More ton in Normandy, earldoms in England, forming altogether not 

 less than one-third of his kingdom, on the condition that he should stay 

 out of England for three years. As soon, however, as Richard had 

 sailed for the holy land, John appeared in England and began those 

 intrigues which resulted in his displacing the regents Richard had ap- 

 pointed, and assuming the government himself. History tells us that 

 the citizens of London assisted him in carrying out his designs ; and 

 doubtless between him and the city there was a well-understood and 

 well-defined bargain. When he became king, he granted to the citizens 

 the first extant charter which allowed them to appoint a mayor — to 

 elect him from among themselves and to keep him in office for a year. 

 This was in 1214, and then was completed the municipal edifice which 

 the citizens" of London had for so many years been laboring to erect. 



Now the fact is that for twenty-four years before the year 1214 the 

 citizens had elected their own mayor. Henry, the son of Aylwin (or 

 Fitzaylwin), was elected mayor in the year 1189 by the citizens, and 

 he continued to be elected every year for twenty-four consecutive 

 years, and held the office until his death. If the charter was granted 

 by King John in 1214, he held the office during the twelve or fourteen 

 years of John's reign before the granting of the charter. In fact he 

 only lived a year or two after the granting of the charter; and the rest 

 of his mayoralty dates from the beginning of the reign of Richard I, 

 and about the time when John was intriguing for the kiugdom. It 

 is hardly to be supposed that the citizens would appoint a mayor for 

 the first time in 1189 or 1191 — for there is a little discrepancy as to 

 the date — and continue to reappoint him for twenty-four years, and yet 

 do this without a royal warrant; the feeling of the kings toward the 



