y Trinity, Aldgate, shared the same fate. The banking
house of the Bardi, containing the wealth accumulated by the younger
Despenser, was sacked under cover of night. The Tower was entered, the
prisoners set free, and new officers appointed.(418) All this was done in
the face of a proclamation, calling upon the citizens to sink their
differences and to settle their disputes by lawful means.(419)

(M255) (M256)

When the Feast of St. Simon and Jude again came round, and Chigwell's term
of office expired by efflux of time, no election of a successor took
place, but on the 15th November, the Bishop of Winchester paid a visit to
the Guildhall, where, after receiving the freedom of the city, and
swearing "to live and die with them in the cause, and to maintain the
franchise," he presented a letter from the queen, permitting the citizens
freely to elect their mayor as in the days before the Iter of 1321, for
since that time no mayor had been elected, save only by the king's
favour.(420) They at once elected Richard de Betoyne, whom the queen had
that day appointed Warden of the Tower, conjointly with John de
Gisors.(421) Thus were these two aldermen recompensed for the assistance
they had rendered Mortimer in his escape from the Tower.

(M257)

On the 13th January, 1327--exactly one week before the king met his
wretched end in Berkeley Castle--Mortimer came to the Guildhall with a
large company including the Archbishop of Canterbury and several bishops,
and one and all made oath to maintain the cause of the queen and of her
son, and to preserve the liberties of the City of London. This was
solemnly done in the presence of the mayor, the chamberlain, Andrew Horn,
and a vast concourse of citizens. The Archbishop, who had offended many of
the citizens by annulling the decree of exile passed against the
Despensers in 1321, now sought their favour by the public offer of a gift
to the commonalty of 50 tuns of wine.(422)

CHAPTER VII.

(M258)

Edward III was only fourteen years of age when he succeeded to the throne.
For the first three years of his reign the government of the country was
practically in the hands of Mortimer, his mother's paramour; and it was no
doubt by his advice and that of the queen-mother that the young king
rewarded the citizens of London, who had shown him so much favour, by
granting them not only a general pardon(423) for offences committed since
he set foot in England in September, 132