The rights
and privileges attaching to his soke and to his official position in time
of peace were considerable, to judge from a claim to them put forward by
his grandson in the year 1303. Upon making his appearance in the Court of
Husting at the Guildhall, it was the duty of the Mayor, or other official
holding the court, to rise and meet him and place him by his side. Again,
if any traitor were taken within his soke or jurisdiction, it was his
right to sentence him to death, the manner of death being that the
convicted person should be tied to a post in the Thames at the Wood Wharf,
and remain there during two tides and two ebbs.(185)

In later years, however, upon an enquiry being held by the Justiciars of
the Iter (a deg. 14 Edward II, A.D. 1321), the claimant was obliged to
acknowledge that he had disposed of Baynard's Castle in the time of Edward
I, but had especially reserved to himself all rights attaching to the
castle and barony, although he very considerately declared his willingness
to forego the right and title enjoyed by his ancestor of drowning traitors
at Wood Wharf.(186)

(M123)

But it was in time of war that Fitz-Walter achieved for himself the
greatest power and dignity. It then became the duty of the castellain to
proceed to the great gate of St. Paul's attended by nineteen other
knights, mounted and caparisoned, and having his banner, emblazoned with
his arms, displayed before him. Immediately upon his arrival, the mayor,
aldermen, and sheriffs, who awaited him, issued solemnly forth from the
church, all arrayed in arms, the mayor bearing in his hand the city
banner, the ground of which was bright vermilion or gules, with a figure
of St. Paul, in gold, thereon, the head, feet, and hands of the saint
being silver or argent, and in his right hand a sword.(187) The
castellain, advancing to meet the mayor, informed him that he had come to
do the service which the city had a right to demand at his hands, and
thereupon the mayor placed the city's banner in his hands, and then,
attending him back to the gate, presented him with a charger of the value
of L20, its saddle emblazoned with the arms of Fitz-Walter, and its
housing of cendal or silk, similarly enriched.

A sum of L20 was at the same time handed to Fitz-Walter's chamberlain to
defray the day's expenses. Having mounted his charger, he bids the Mayor
to choose a Marshal of the host of the City of London; and this being
done, the communal or "m