d that a
_communia_ was in fact everything that was bad. It puffed up the people,
it threatened the kingdom, and it emasculated the priesthood.(156)

(M108)

With the change from a shire organization to that of a French _commune_,
whenever that happened to take place, there took place also a change in
the chief governor of the city. The head of the city was no longer a Saxon
"port-reeve" but a French "mayor," the former officer continuing in all
probability to perform the duties of a port-reeve or sheriff of a town in
a modified form. From the time when this "civic revolution"(157) occurred,
down to the present day, the sheriff's position has always been one of
secondary importance, being himself subordinate to the mayor.

(M109)

The earliest mention of a mayor of London in a formal document is said to
occur in a writ of the reign of Henry II.(158) The popular opinion,
however, is that a change in the name of the chief magistrate of the City
of London took place at the accession of Richard I. What gave rise to this
belief is hard to say, but it is not improbable that it arose from a
statement to be found in an early manuscript record still preserved among
the archives of the Corporation, and known as the _Liber de Antiquis
Legibus_.(159) The original portion of this manuscript purports to be a
chronicle of mayors and sheriffs from 1188 down to 1273, noticing briefly
the chief events in each year, and referring to a few particulars relative
to the year 1274.

After naming the sheriffs who were appointed at Michaelmas, A.D. 1188,
"the first year of the reign of King Richard,"(160) it goes on to say that
"in the same year Henry Fitz-Eylwin of Londenestane was made mayor of
London, who was the first mayor of the city, and continued to be such
mayor to the end of his life, that is to say, for nearly five and twenty
years." That Henry Fitz-Eylwin was mayor in the first year of Richard's
reign is stated no less than three times in the chronicle.(161)

(M110)

The compiler of the chronicle is supposed to have been Arnald or Arnulf
Fitz-Thedmar,(162) an Alderman of London, although it is not known over
which ward he presided. Particulars of his life are given in the volume
itself, from which we gather that he was a grandson on the mother's side
of Arnald de Grevingge(163) a citizen of Cologne; that his father's name
was Thedmar, a native of Bremen; that he was born on the vigil of St.
Lawrence [10 August] A.D. 1201, his