Part 8 (1/2)

{120a}

A Parliament was also held in Lincoln by Edward II., and another, in his first year, by Edward III.

In 1352 the staple of wool was removed from Flanders to England; and Lincoln, with Westminster, Chichester, Canterbury, Bristol, and Hull, was made a staple town {120b} for that commodity.

John, of Gaunt, fourth son of Edward III., resided in Lincoln Castle.

His son, ”Henry of Bolingbroke,” afterwards Henry IV., was the only king born in this county. John of Gaunt married Catherine Swynford, sister of Chaucer the poet. She and a daughter were interred in the Cathedral, on the south side of the altar steps. The royalty of Lincoln Castle was shewn by a s.h.i.+eld over a doorway, bearing the arms of England and France, quarterly, which were shewn in Buck's engraving, date 1727.

In the year 1386 Richard II. visited Lincoln and held a Court in the Episcopal Palace. He granted to the Mayor and his successors the privilege of having a sword carried before them in civic processions.

Henry VI. visited Lincoln and held a Court at the Bishop's Palace in 1440.

Henry VII. visited Lincoln in 1486, and was right royally entertained.

On the dissolution of monasteries {120c} by Henry VIII., Lincoln became the headquarters of 60,000 insurgents, who, by the subsequent ”Pilgrimage of Grace,” made their protest against the spoliation, A.D. 1536.

In 1541 Henry VIII. made a progress to York, and, although he had called Lincolns.h.i.+re one of ”the most brute and beastly s.h.i.+res in the realm,” he, on his way, visited Lincoln in great state. It is recorded that he found in the Cathedral Treasury 2,621 ozs. of gold and 4,285 ozs. of silver, besides jewels of great value.

On the commencement of the Civil Wars between Charles I. and his Parliament, the King came to Lincoln, where he received a.s.surances of support from the Corporation and princ.i.p.al inhabitants. He convened there a meeting of the n.o.bles, knights, gentry, and freeholders of the county. Lincoln Castle was taken by the troops of Cromwell, under the Earl of Manchester, in the year 1644.

James I. visited Lincoln A.D. 1617, hunted wild deer on Lincoln Heath, touched 50 persons for ”the King's evil,” attended service in the Cathedral, and c.o.c.kfighting at ”The Sign of the George.” {121a}

In 1695 William of Orange visited Lincoln, but it is on record that, being entertained the day before by Sir John Brownlow, at Belton, ”the king was exceeding merry there, and drank very freely, which was the occasion, when he came to Lincoln, he could take nothing but a porringer of milk.” {121b} In Lincolns.h.i.+re phrase, he had been ”very fresh.”

Reviewing these historic items, I think we may say, with the historian Freeman, that Lincoln ”kept up its continuous being, as a place of note and importance, through Roman, English, Danish, and Norman Conquests,”

and that it has a record of which we may fairly be proud, as meriting the praise which old Alexander Necham, in his treatise ”De divina Sapientia,”

bestowed upon it,”

Lindisiae columen Lincolnia, sive columna, Munifica felix gente, repleta bonis.

I have said little of the Cathedral. That is, indeed, too large a subject. The visitor must see it for himself. I have referred to the opinion of Mr. Ruskin. His exact words, written at the time of the opening of the School of Art, to the Mayor, were these: ”I have always held, and am prepared against all comers to maintain, that the Cathedral of Lincoln is out and out the most precious piece of architecture in the British islands, worth any two other cathedrals we have got.” {121c} Viewed in the distance, from the neighbourhood of Woodhall Spa, its three towers seem to coalesce into one, almost of pyramidal form, to crown the hill on which it stands. That form was once more lofty, and more pointed, for each of the three towers had a spire. An entry in the Minster Archives records the fall of the largest-ruina magnae pyramidis-in 1547. In 1808 the two other lesser spires were taken down, not without strong remonstrances and much skirmis.h.i.+ng in the public papers and elsewhere, as to the propriety of the act. The Lincoln people proved themselves more law-abiding than they had been on a previous occasion, for when, in 1726, the Chapter had decided to remove them, there was a very considerable riot, called ”The Religious Mob,” of which an amusing account was found among some MS.

”_Tuesday night_, _Sept._ 20, 1726, _a mob was raised in Lincoln to hinder the puling down the_ 2 _west End spirs of the Cathedrall_, _which was then began to be puled down it was computed ther was aBout_ 4 _or_ 500 _men_. _On Wednesday following by orders of the Marsters of the Church sent an order to the Mayor and Aldermen desiering them to send a Belman through the town with this cry_, _whereas there as Been a Tumult for this_ 2 _or_ 3 _Long Day_, _upon puling the_ 2 _west end Spirs of the Cauthed Church of Lincoln_, _this is to give satisfaction that they have made a stop' and that the spirs shall be repaired again with all speed_.”

On hearing this important proclamation ”the mob with one accord gave a great shout and said 'G.o.d bless the King.'”

The emeute terminated with no more serious results than some headaches the next day, as the beer barrels in the Chancellor's cellars were broached and drained to the last drop by the exultant crowd. {122}

An interesting feature of Lincoln is the ancient ”Jew's House,” situated on the left hand of ”the street which is called strait,” on the ”Steep Hill.” The Jews of old, notwithstanding the scorn with which they were often treated, were persons of no small consideration to almost all ranks, from the Sovereign downwards. Their almost instinctive propensity for ama.s.sing wealth gave them a powerful lever for moving any who were in need of the moneylender; and there were few who were not. Through them, and sometimes through them alone, the sovereign could indirectly break the power of his unruly barons, and, naturally, in a city of commerce such as Lincoln was, as well as the not unfrequent seat of Parliament, and the residence of powerful members of the n.o.bility, the Jews were an important element in the population. Among the ”Pipe Rolls” of the ”Public Records,” there are frequent mentions of them; the famous Aaron and his kinsfolk figuring largely among them. I here give a few brief extracts taken from those Rolls (31 Henry I. [11301]-1 John [11991200]).

William of the Isle renders count of the ferm of Lincolns.h.i.+re . . . and (cr.) by payment of King's Writ to Aaron the Jew, 29 8s. l0d. . . . owes 12 4s. 9d. He renders count of the same debt in the treasury 2 6s. 9d.

new money, for 2 4s. 9d. blank money, and 10 in two tallies, and is quits.-12 Hen. II., Rot. i. mem. i. Linc.

The Sheriff accounts for the ferm of the counties, And (cr.) by payment by King's writ to Aaron of Lincoln and Ysaac Jew 80.-22 Hen. II., Dorset and Somerset.

Benedict brother of Aaron, and Benedict son of Isaach, and Benedict son of Jaocb render count of 6 for one mark of gold to be quits of the pledges of Isaac son of Comitissa.-25 Hen. II., City of Lincoln.

The following looks very like Jews leaguing together to ”Jew” a fellow Jew:-Brun the Jew owes 400 of the fine he made with the King at his transfretation; but they ought to be required from Aaron of Lincoln, and Ysaac, and Abraham, son of Rabbi, and Ysaac of Colchester, his sureties, who have acknowledged that they received those 400 from his chattels.-28 Hen. II., Lond. and Midd.

Benedict, brother of Aaron, renders count of 6 for one mark of gold, to have in peace his mortgage of Barewe (_i.e._, Barrow). Abraham, son of Aaron, owes 6 for one mark of gold to have his debts (settled).-29 Hen.