ersons
there dwelling to the no small damage of the same our Officers
and others," etc.[85]

Political exigencies had led these justiciars, clerks in Chancery, and
"our other officers," to settle outside the city walls. London had been
a free city in Saxon times, and William the Conqueror had allowed its
privileges when, by issuing his famous charter, six inches by one of
parchment, he granted its burghers to be all "law-worthy."[86]
Successive monarchs had put their seal to further charters, renewing and
enlarging previous concessions, so that none of the King's men, whether
knight or clerk, might lodge within the city walls, nor might lodging be
taken by force, and all pleas of the Crown were to be determined
elsewhere. In 1191 the burghers obtained a "sworn Commune," after the
pattern of that of Rouen, and it became a boast that "come what may, the
Londoners shall have no King but their Mayor."[87]

Henry III., jealous of political control, constantly endeavoured, by
irritating Ordinances, to cripple the powers previously conferred. On
December 2nd, 1234, he issued a

"Mandate to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London that they cause
proclamation to be made through the whole city firmly
forbidding that any should set up schools in the said city for
teaching the laws there for the time to come; and that if any
shall there set up such schools they cause them to cease
without delay."

Whatever the reason of this mandate may have been, the result was that
the Inns of the apprentices-at-law became fixed in the suburb.

At that date, namely, 1234, the principal officer of the Crown was Ralph
Nevill, Bishop of Chichester, the King's Chancellor, who held land on
both sides of New Street, afterwards known as Chancery Lane, and who had
succeeded to the power and influence previously enjoyed by the
justiciar, Hubert de Burgh. This once powerful minister, who had been
Regent during Henry's minority, had himself held land in New Street. But
upon his disgrace and dismissal in 1232 he was deprived of it, and it
was granted

"to the House which the King has founded in the street called
Newstrate, between the Old Temple and the New Temple, for the
support of the brethren converted, and to be converted, from
Judaism to the Catholic faith, saving the garden which the King
has already granted to Ralph, Bishop of Chichester, his
Chancellor."[88]

This house became