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numbers of their wives and children. The Christ must be destroyed." This zealot was king issued forthwith a proclamation to amongst the first to suffer the destruction he stop these proceedings, but the example of announced, for in his endeavour to fix the the metropolis spread into various parts of battering engines against the walls, a large the country, and similar scenes, though on a stone fell upon his head, and dashed out his smaller scale, were transacted at Norwich, brains. Driven to extremities, the Jews Lynn, Stamford, and York. Benedict and held a council, and offered, as Hoveden Jocenus, the York Jews, were attacked on says, a mighty sum of money to be allowed their way to the coronation, and Benedict to escape with their lives, but this offer was being grievously bruised and wounded, was rejected. On which, as M. Paris observes, dragged into a church, where he was forced a certain foreign rabbin, or doctor of their to renounce Judaism, and to submit to the law, stood up amongst them and said,ceremony of baptism. This conversion, the "Men of Israel, our creator has commandheroic Israelite, with the zeal of a Daniel, ed that we should at any time be ready to steadily disclaimed, and when brought the die for our law; when he gave us life he next day into the presence of the king, and enjoined that with our own hands, and of asked whether he was a christian or no, he our own accord, we should devoutly restore answered, no! he was a Jew, and should die it to him again, rather than submit to the in that faith. To the honour of the king he cruelty of our enemies." This invitation to was restored to his friends, but to the re-imitate the example of the followers of Joseproach of his brutal assailants he died shortlyphus, in the cave of Jotapata, was embraced after of his bruises. Jocenus returned to York, where a still more awful fate awaited him. Either by accident or design, the city of York took fire, in the midst of a boisterous right, and the flames spread in all directions. This calamity was seized upon to renew the persecution against the Jews, and while the citizens were engaged in extinguishing the flames, the house of Benedict was violently entered by the lawless rabble, who murdered the wife and children of the deceased Jew, and applied to their own use all the property on which they could lay their rapacious hands. Jocenus, alarmed for his own safety, sought refuge in the castle, to which he removed his family and effects, and his example was followed by nearly all the other Jews in the city. The governor of the castle having some business without its walls, left it for a short time in the hands of the Jews, who, under an apprehension that he might have joined in the conspiracy with their enemies, refused to re-admit him on his return. The high sheriff, a man more under the guidance of his passions than of his judgment, enraged by this indignity, issued his writ of posse comitatus to raise the country to besiege and take the castle. And now, says Hemingford, the canon of Gisburgh, was shown the zeal of a Christian populace. An innumerable company of armed men, as well from the city as from other parts of the county, rose simultaneously, and begirt the fortress. The high sheriff began to repent of his inconsiderate order, and the wiser and better sort of the citizens stood aloof from a flood that might soon overwhelm themselves. A great many of the clergy, however, joined the besiegers, and a certain fanatical friar, clad in a white vesture, was every where seen crying out" the enemies of

by many of the Jews, but others chose rather to try the victors' clemency. Before the self-devoted victims began to execute the sentence upon each other, they set fire to the castle, and committed all their property to the flames, to prevent it from falling into the hands of their enemies. The rabbin then directed that the husbands should cut the throats of their own wives and children, and Jocenus began the execution first, by applying the knife to the throats of Anne, his wife, and his five children! The example was speedily followed by the other mas ters of families, and afterwards, as a mark of peculiar honour, the Rabbin cut the throat of Jocenus himself! The last of the victims, was the self-devoted adviser of the deed, who probably was the only actual suicide. At dawn the next morning, the survivors announced the horrid catastrophe which had befallen their brethren, to the besiegers, casting the dead bodies of the victims over the wall, to convince them of the reality of their story. At the same time they supplicated for mercy, with an assurance, that if it was granted to them, they would all become Christians. The merciless Barbarians pretending to compassionate their sufferings, obtained admission into the castle. No sooner was this effected, than they flew upon the poor Jews, and slew every one of them, though to the last they cried out for baptism. With their hands reeking with blood, the murderers hastened to the cathedral, where the bonds, which the Christians had given to the Jews, (money lenders) were deposited. These documents they took out of the chests, and committed to the flames, thus freeing themselves and others from their obligations. This massacre happened at York, on the 11th of March, 1189; and

it is estimated, that no fewer than from fifteen hundred to two thousand Jews in York, fell victims to the sanguinary persecution,, When the news of these deeds of blood reached the king, who had embarked for the holy land, he sent orders to his chancellor and regent, the Bishop of Ely, to go down into Yorkshire, and execute strict justice upon the offenders; but the regent ill discharged the trust confided to him, for he contented himself by the imposition of a few mulets and fines upon the inhabitants, and not a single individual was executed, though the crime might have been brought home to numbers, not only amongst the citizens, but | also amongst persons of the military and ecclesiastical orders. Notwithstanding the horrors of this sanguinary persecution, a new colony of Jews settled in York in the same reign, and remained in this city till the time of Edward I. and Jubbergate and Jewberry, probably both derive their names from having been the favourite seats of their residence.

In the reign of King John, a convention was held at York between the English and Scotch kings and their nobles, in which an existing difference was settled by an agree ment that the two sons of the former should marry the two daughters of the latter. In the last year of the troublous reign of king John, the northern barons laid siege to York, but retreated from before its walls, on receiving one thousand marks from its inhabitants.

The marriage of the daughter of Henry III. king of England, to Alexander, the third son of the king of Scotland, took place in the cathedral church of this city amidst very splendid festivities in the year 1230.

an army of priests, monks, and others, to the amount of ten thousand men, with which he pursued the spoilers, and overtook them at Myton-upon-Swale, in the neighbourhood of Boroughbridge, where he attacked them with more fury than skill, and where he suffered a signal defeat.⚫

In 1298, another parliament sat at York, when the English barons attended, and the king's confirmation of Magua Charta, and also Charta de Forresta, was read to them. During this reign of Edward I. the courts of justice were removed from London to York, where they remained for several months, till the king's return after the famous battle of Falkirk. York, then ranked amongst the English ports, but Hull had already begun to rise into fame as a maritime town, and soon absorbed a large share of the commerce which was formerly confined to

this city.

The reign of Edward III. which shines with so much lustre in the annals of Eng● land, constitutes a splendid period in the history of York. In the year 1327, the first year of his reign; that monarch ordered his whole army to rendezvous in this city, in order to oppose Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, who, with an army of twenty thousand horse was ravaging the northern part of the kingdom. While Edward lay at York preparing for this expedition, there came to his aid John Lord Beaumont, of Hainault, one of the bravest knights of the age, accompanied with other gallant kuights and gentlemen, who, with his retinue composed a band of five hundred, or according to Knightson, of two thousand men. Most of these foreigners were lodged in the suburbs; but to Lord John himself the king assigned the abbey of White Monks in the city. The king with the queen's mother, lodged in the monastery belonging to the Friars Minors, which must have been an extensive and stately building, since each of them kept a separate court, and that of the king was very magnificent. For six weeks, Edward had his court at York, with an army of sixty thou sand men, which, notwithstanding its numbers, was well supplied with provisions, of which the citizens felt no lack. The foreigners too had reason to be satisfied with their entertainment, but jealousies arose between them and the English, which were not terminated without bloodshed. On Trinity Sunday, the king gave a magnificent entertainment at the monastery. To his usual retinue of five hundred knights, he added sixty more; and the queen's mother had in her suite sixty ladies of the highest rank and greatest beauty in England. At night was given a splendid ball, but while the courtiers were in the midst of their amusement "a strange and hideous noise interrupted them and alarmed the whole court." A contest had arisen between the foreign auxiliaries and a body of English archers, who lodged with them in the suburbs; and hostilities being once begun abettors successively came in on both sides, till near three thousand of the archers were collected. Many of the Hainaulters were slain, and the rest were obliged to retire and fortify themselves in their quarters. During the quarrel, part of the city took fire, and it was with equal dif. *See Myton, Vol. II.

In this reign the flame broke out, which for nearly a century involved England and Scotland in that general conflagration, with the vents of which every reader of English history is familiar. The Scots marched into England in great force, and having laid the country waste to the gates of York, retired. The archbishop fired with indignation, raised

C

ficulty that the king was able to subdue the, ings, challenged the Hainaulters to battle;

this challenge was accepted, and the battle was fought in a street called Watling-gate, with such desperate fury that five hundred and twenty-seven of the foreigners were slain or drowned in the Ouse, and two hundred and forty-two fell of the English. During the wars in France, in which Edward and his renowned son, the Black Prince, gained the memorable victories of Crecy and Poictiers, and rendered captive the French king. David Bruce, the competitor of John Baliol, king of Scotland, undertook to invade England, which was then left to the sole government of the queen. Bruce penetrated to the gates of York, and burnt part of the suburbs, having laid waste the country through which he passed with fire and sword. Philippa, the queen regent, then at York, having col. lected a powerful army, repulsed the invaders, and pursued them to Neville's cross, in the county of Durham, where, on the 17th of October, 1347, she gained a signal victory, having slain fifteen thousand of the Scots, and taken Bruce prisoner. The victorious queen having rescued her country from the hands of these cruel invaders, returned to York, and subsequently presented king David to her husband and sovereign...

flames and to restrain the fiery spirits with which he had to contend. The foreigners breathed nothing but vengeance, and on the night following, headed by their officers, they fell upon the Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire archers, and slew about three hundred of them. This rash act induced about six thousand of the English to combine, and to take the desperate resolution to sacrifice every soul of the Hainaulters to the manes of their countrymen. By the firmness and wise precautions of the king, this catastrophe was arrested and the tranquillity of the city was ultimately restored. During these transactions ambassadors arrived in York from Scotland to treat for peace, but after some weeks the negociations broke off, and the king with all his barons marched at the head of his whole army against the Scots, in all the martial pomp of those chivalrous times. It is not the province of this history to follow Edward through his campaigns; suffice it to say, that after a keen pursuit the Scotch army was at last overtaken and cooped up by the English in Stanhope-park, from which they were suffered to escape by the treachery of Lord Mortimer, at the moment when they were ready to surrender from the cravings of famine. Edward, chaThe unfortunate reign of Richard II. grined at the loss of his prey, when it seemed was extremely favourable to the citizens of within his grasp, returned to York and after-York. That monarch visited the city seve wards to London, having previously dis- ral times, and granted the citizens many missed Lord John of Hainault, to the Conti- charters, immunities, and privileges. On nent, bounteously rewarded for his services. his visit to York, in the year 1389, to adjust The next year Lord John, returned with his a dispute between the archbishop and the niece Philippa, the most celebrated beauty dean and chapter, the king took his sword of the age, and with a great retinue con- from his side, and gave it to be borne before ducted her to York, where the court then William de Selby, who was then dignified was, in order to her marriage with the king with the title of Lord Mayor, which is rein this city. On the Sunday before the eve tained to the present day by the first magisof St. Paul's conversion in the year 1329, trate of this city.* In this reign Edmund the marriage was publicly solemnized in the cathedral, by the archbishop. Upon these life was fixed in the reign of Edward I. * A maximum upon the necessaries of happy nuptials, says Froissart, the whole which continued for many years with eerkingdom teemed with joy, and the court at tain modifications, and in the year 1393, York expressed these feelings in a more than an ordinance for the price of victuals and ordinary manner; for three weeks the feast-drink was proclaimed in a full court at ings were continued without intermission, there were nothing but justs and tournaments in the day time, and maskings, revels, and interludes with songs and dances in the night. The Hainault soldiery, actuated by a licentious and revengeful spirit, took advantage of this carnival to treat the inhabitants with outrage and violence, and to such an excess did they carry their misconduct, that they ravished several of the wives, daughters, and maid servants of the inhabitants, and set fire to the suburbs of the city, by which a whole parish was nearly destroyed. The citizens scandalized by those proceed

York, 66 by the advice and consent of our
lord the king's justices" in mauner fol-
lowing:-

Good wheaten bread 4 loaves per
Strong beer per gallon
Claret wine per gallon................
Red wine, the best

viii

viii

A carcase of choice beef............ xx iv
A Scotch cow........................................................
A carcase of mutton......

x

xx

of the best veal ......... ii vi a lamb.............

A hog, the best ........................

A hen............
A fat goose........

viii

iii iv

iv

i

iv

A fresh salmon, the largest & best ii
Oats per bushel................................

Langley, the fifth son of Edward III. was created the first Duke of York. A contagious distemper, of the nature of a plague, raged with great violence throughout England, of which malady there died, in the city of York alone, in the years 1390 and 1391, twelve thousand souls. In the nineteenth year of the king's reign two sheriff's were appointed instead of three bailiffs, and the city of York was created into a county of itself.

Henry VI., the hero of Agincourt, being engaged during the principal part of his reign in the wars with France, made only one visit to York, when he and his queen went to perform their devotions at the venerable shrine of St. John of Beverley.

During the civil wars between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, this city was the rendezvous of armies, and the theatre on which was displayed the memorials of royal vengeance. After the battle of Wakefield, in which Richard, Duke of York met his fate, the head of that nobleman was placed upon Micklegate bar, as were also the heads of a number of his followers. The sanguinary battle of Towton changed the fortune of the two roses,† and the victorious Edward IV. caused the head of his father and of his adherents to be taken from Micklegate bar, and the heads of the Lancasterian nobles, Devon and Kime, to take their places.

The inhabitants of York were not unmindful of these benefactions and royal concessions, and they took the first opportunity to manifest their gratitude to Richard, even after the deposition and murder in Pontefract castle. Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, having lost his brother and son in the battle of Shrewsbury, Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York, whose brother the king (Henry IV.) had beheaded, and Thomas Mowbray, Earl Marshal of England, whose father died in exile, united with Lords Fal- When Edward departed this life, his conberg, Bardolf, Hastings, and others, in a brother Richard was at York, and had a conspiracy to depose the occupier of Richard's funeral requiem performed in the cathedral throne. The archbishop's impatience pre- of that city for the repose of his soul.cipitated the disclosure of the plot. Scroop After Richard III. had usurped the soveframed several articles of impeachment reign power, and had been crowned in Lonagainst the King, which he caused to be fixed don, he came to York, where the ceremony upon the doors of the churches in his own of his coronation was performed a second diocese, and sent them in the form of a cir- time, in the cathedral, by Archbishop Rocular into other counties in the Kingdom, in- therham. Tournaments, masques, and viting the people to take up arms to reform other diversions, together with the most abuses. To strengthen this call he preached luxurious feasting followed the coronation, a sermon to three congregations assembling and by their immense costs exhausted the for religious worship in the cathedral, and public treasury.‡ Richard distinguished roused 20,000 men suddenly to arms, who the city of York by various marks of royal joined his standard at York, on which was munificence; and the citizens showed their painted the five wounds of our Saviour.-gratitude by a steady adherence to his To subdue this rebellion Henry sent an army interests. of 30,000 men into Yorkshire, under the command of the Earl of Westmoreland and the Prince John, on the arrival of the king's forces at York, they found the archbishop encamped out of the gates of the city, on the forest of Galtres, so advantageously, that it was not judged advisable to attack them. The wily Earl, affecting to favour the views of the insurgents, solicited an interview with the archbishop, who took with him the Earl Marshal. Having got them into his toils, and plied them well with wine, he arrested them on the spot for high treason, and their lives paid the forfeit of their precipitaney and misplaced confidence. In 1408 the Earl of Northumberland again appeared in arms, and was defeated and slain on Bramham

After the battle of Bosworth field had placed the crown on the head of Henry VII. the people of Yorkshire and Durham refused to pay a land-tax imposed for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the army. The Earl of Northumberland was the reputed adviser of this measure, which rendered him so unpopular, that the populace assailed his house, and slew the Earl, with many of his servants. The sword being thus drawn, they threw away the scabbard, and chose for their leader Sir John Egremont, a man greatly disaffected to the house of Lancaster, and John a Chambre, a man of humble birth, but possessed of a vast share of popular in*See Vol. i. page 422. † See Vol. i. page 411.

Moor, by Sir Thomas Rokesby, High-sheriff Except the treasury was very scantily of Yorkshire. Henry soon after came to supplied it could not have been easily exhausted by purchasing the necessaries York, and completed his revenge by the of life, for it appears, that about this time execution of several of the insurgent citi-wheat sold for 2s. a quarter, barley for zens, and the confiscation of their estates.

1s. 10d. and oats for 1s. 2d,

fluence. Thomas Earl of Surrey being senttion of a chalice, and the five wounds of

against the insurgents, he defeated their principal band, and made John a Chambre with several of his followers prisoners. The rest of the malcontents fled to York, and afterwards dispersed, while Sir John Egremont found an asylum in Flanders, under the protection of Margaret Duchess of Burgundy. John a Chambre, less fortunate, was brought to trial, and executed at York, with great solemnity, upon a high gallows, with a number of his adherents suspended around him.

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Christ:* and they wore on their sleeve an
emblem of the five wounds with the name
of Jesus wrought in the middle. The rebels
succeeded in taking both Hull and York,
and laid siege to Pontefract Castle, in
which the Archbishop and Lord Darcy, at
the head of a body of the King's troops
had thrown themselves. The castle speedily
surrendered, and the prelate and nobleman
joined the insurrection. The Duke of Nor-
folk, at the head of a small army of 5000
men, was sent against the rebels, and the
king issued a proclamation, in which he told
them that they ought no more to pretend to
give a judgment with regard to government,
than a blind man with regard to colours:-
" and we," he added, "with our whole
"council, think it right strange that ye who
are but brutes and inexpert folks, do take
upon you to appoint us, who be meet or not
for our council." The Duke of Norfolk
encamped near Doncaster, where he entered
into a negotiation with the rebels, which
was protracted till the Pilgrims of Grace,
reduced almost to a state of famine, and
dispirited by the sudden rising of the Don,
at two different times, when they meditated
an attack, began, to disperse, and suffered
their leaders to be taken prisoners. Some of
them, with the abbots of Fountains, Jer-
vaux, and Rivalx, were executed at Tyburn,
Sir Robert Constable was hanged in chains
over Beverley gate, at Hull; Lord Darcy
was beheaded on Tower Hill; and Aske, the
leader of the insurrection, was suspended
from a tower, probably Clifford's Tower, at
York. In August 1541, Henry VIII. in
order to tranquilize the minds of his subjects,
made a tour into the north: On his arrival
at Barnsdale, in the West-Riding of this
county, he was met by two hundred gentle.
men in velvet coats and suitable accoutre-
ments, with four thousand tall yeomen and
three hundred clergymen, who,
on their
knees, made submission to his Majesty, and
presented him with £600. From thence the
king repaired to York, where he spent 12
days, and returned to London by way of
Hull, crossing the Humber, into Lincoln-
shire. Five years after this visit Henry died,
leaving behind him the terrible character
that throughout his reign he neither spared
man in his anger nor woman in his lust.-
The first printing press was erected in York
in his reign by Hugo Goes, the son of an in-
genious printer at Antwerp. The site of this
infant establishment was in the Minster-yard,
near St. William's college, where the royal

From this period the annals of York contain scarcely any important transaction, till the year 1536, the 27th of Henry VIII. when the suppression of the monastries and the progress of the reformation excited a great sensation in the northern counties. The suppression of the religious houses, inflicted a terrible blow on the grandeur of York. In the reign of Henry V. this city" contained, besides the cathedral, 41 parish churches, 17 chapels, 16 hospitals, and 9 religious houses, including the noble abbey of St. Mary, without Bootham Bar. No sooner, says Drake, was the word given, then down fell the monasteries, priories, chapels, and hospitals in this city, and with them, for company, I suppose, 18 parish churches, the materials and revenues of all being converted to secular uses. The lazars, sick and old people were turned out of hospitals, and priests and nuns out of religious houses, to starve or beg their bread. The natural consequence of such sweeping and indiscriminate reforms was to excite a spirit of rebellion, and in Yorkshire a formidable insurrection was raised by Robert Aske, a gentleman of considerable fortune, who possessed great influence in the country. The other chief persons concerned were Sir Robert Constable, Sir John Bulmer, Sir Thomas Percy, Sir Stephen Hamilton, Nicholas Tempest, and William Lumley, Esqrs. Their enterprize they called "the pilgrimage of grace, and they swore that they were moved by no other motive than their love to God, their eare of the king's person and issue, their desire to purify the nobility, to drive base-born persons from about the king, to restore the church, and to suppress heresy. Allured by these fair pretensions, about 40,000 men, from the counties of York, Durham, and Lancaster, flocked to their standard, and their zeal, no less than their numbers inspired the court with apprehensions. When the army was put in motion, a number of priests marched at their head in the habits of their order, carry-printing press was afterwards placed in 1642, ing crosses in their hands; in their banners while Charles I. was at York.

as woven a crucifix, with the representa

* Fox, vol. ii, page 992.

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