1340 Edward III granted this privilege to the
City. From an early period the manufacture of cloth and caps and
bonnets was the principal trade of Coventry, and though Leland says,
"the town rose by making of cloth and caps, which now decaying, the
glory of the City also decayeth," it was only destroyed by the French
wars of the seventeenth century. But in 1377, when only eighteen towns
in the kingdom had more than 3,000 inhabitants, and York, the second
city, had only 11,000, Coventry was fourth with 7,000. Just one
hundred years later 3,000 died here of the plague, one of many
visitations of that terrible scourge. At the Suppression it had risen
to 15,000, and soon after fell to 3,000, through loss of trade for
"want of such concourse of people that numerously resorted thither
before that fatal Dissolution."

But if the town grew apace so did the Monastery. Thus, when in 1244
Earl Hugh died childless his sisters divided his estates and Coventry
fell to Cecily, wife of Roger de Montalt. Six years later the
Monastery lent him a large sum to take him to the Holy Land, and
received from him the lordship of Coventry (excepting the Manor House
and Park of Cheylesmore) and the advowson of St. Michael's and its
dependent chapels, thus becoming the landlords of nearly the whole of
Coventry.

[Illustration: COOK STREET GATE.]

Civic powers grew with the growth of trade. Before 1218 a fair of
eight days had been granted to the Priory, and later another of six
days, to be held in the earl's half of the town about the Feast of
Holy Trinity. In 1285 a patent from the king is addressed to the
burgesses and true men to levy tolls for paving the town; one in 1328
for tolls for inclosing the city with walls and gates, while in 1344
the city was given a corporation, with mayor, bailiffs, a common seal,
and a prison. As the municipal importance and the dignity of the city
increased, the desire for their visible signs strengthened, and so, in
1355, work was begun on the walls, Newgate (on the London Road) being
the first gate to be built. Such undertakings proceeded slowly, and
nine years later the royal permission was obtained to levy a tax for
their construction, "the lands and goods of all ecclesiastical persons
excepted."

Twice afterwards we hear of licence being granted by Richard II to dig
stone in Cheylesmore Park, first for Grey Friars Gate, and later for
Spon Gate, "near his Chapel of Babelake." The walls so built were of