Final ar-
rangement
under
IIenry VIIΓ.
Difficulty of
understand-
ing these
elɪanges.
General
conclusions.
6oo Constitutional History. [chap.
restriction of the elective power to the masters of the trades was
abolished ; the searchers were directed to summon the whole
body of the citizens and to elect an aiderman as mayor without
any interference from the upper house1. As the aidermen of
York retained the power of filling up vacancies in their own
body, and the twenty-four assistants were men who had served
the office of mayor, this proceeding left a fair share of power to
both houses ; and the constitution underwent no further change
until Henry VIII instituted the common council composed of
two representatives for each of the thirteen greater and one for
each of the smaller companies ; the election of the mayor was
then given to the common council and senior searchers, who pre-
sented three candidates to the aidermen for their final choice2.
Although we have these details of changes, we sadly want a
clue to the interpretation of them. In the earlier part of the
period the city does not seem to have been disturbed by political
disputes ; the influence of the archbishops and of the neigh-
bouring lords was great but not provokingly strong, and the
citizens acted fairly well together. In the later part there was
no doubt a party of the White Rose as well as of the Red, and
the increased weight given to the trade organisations by both
Edward IV and Henry VIII is a distinct recognition of their
supreme influence. As the division into four wards does not
seem to have any direct relation to the body of twelve aidermen,
we must trace the existence of the aldermanate either to the
ancient guild system, or to the combination of the merchant
guild with the Ieet jury. The connexion of the freemen with
the craft-guilds is not distinctly stated ; but as these guilds were
so numerous, and as no master craftsman was allowed to trade
unless he were a freeman, such a connexion must necessarily
have existed : the lord mayor and the eight chamberlains con-
stituted a court which took cognisance of all apprenticeships,
and which must have fulfilled the functions of the merchant
guild, if it were not the merchant guild itself in a new form.
1 Drake, Eboracum, p. 185.
2 Ibid. p. 207. By the charter of Charles II the Ciommon Council is
made to consist of 72 members, 18 from each of the four wards.
XXi.] Constitution of Boroucjlis. 6oι
The constitution of Leicester may be taken as a type of a Municipal
large class of borough forms, which retained the older names of Leicester,
local institutions, and thus maintained a more distinctly con-
tinuous history. There the chief court of the town, after it
became consolidated, was the portman-mote, in which the bailiff
of the lord continued to preside until the middle of the thir-
teenth century ; and there was likewise a merchant guild, at
the head of which were one or two aidermen. From the year Portman-
_ 1 _ 1 mote and
1246 a mayor took the place of the aidermen, and gradually merchant
edged out the bailiff, but the portman-mote and the merchant smld'
guild retained their names and functions ; the latter as the
means by which the freemen of the borough were enfranchised,
whilst the former was the court in which they exercised their
municipal functions. Under this merchant guild were the
craft guilds ; the tailors’ guild paid ten shillings to the mer-
chant guild for every new master tailor enfranchised, and
doubtless the other trades were under similar obligations. In
1464, Edward IV recognised the position of twenty-four com-
burgesses or mayor’s brethren, and a court of common council
who, in 1467, were empowered to elect the mayor. In 1484
the twenty-four took the title of aidermen, and divided the town
into twelve wards; and in 1489 the mayor, the twenty-four,
and forty-eight councillors, formed themselves into a strictly
close corporation ; took an oath by which all the other freemen
were excluded from municipal elections, and obtained an act
of parliament to confirm their new constitution : a new charter
was granted in 15041.
At Worcester, the merchant guild maintained a still stronger Constitution
vitality, and was indeed the governing body of the city, the ter;
bailiffs, twenty-four and forty-eight, being the livery men of
the guild; but the constitution is more liberal at Worcester
than at Leicester2. At Shrewsbury, on the other hand, although Siirewsbury ;
the constitution to some extent resembles that of Worcester,
there is no mention of the guild in the act which created the
1 Nichols, Leicestershire, ɪ. pp. 374, 380, 383, 385.
2 Nash, Worcestershire, ii. pp. ex. sq. ; Green, Hist. Worcester, ii.
31 sq. ; Smith’s Gilds, pp. 370 sq.