ote-bell" is set ringing, and the whole party
proceed to the Priory of Holy Trinity at Aldgate. There they dismount, and
entering the Priory, concert measures together for the defence of the
city. There is one other point worthy of remark, touching the office of
chief banneret, and that is that on the occasion of any siege undertaken
by the London forces, the castellain was to receive as his fee the
niggardly sum of one hundred shillings for his trouble, and no more.

(M124)

It is not improbable that Fitz-Walter's election as leader of the
remonstrant barons was in some measure due to his official position in the
city. It is also probable, as Mr. Riley has pointed out, that the
unopposed admission of the barons into the city, on the 24th May, 1215,
may have been facilitated by Fitz-Walter's connexion, as castellain, with
the Priory of Holy Trinity, situate in the vicinity.

But there were other reasons for selecting Fitz-Walter as their leader at
this juncture. If the story be true, Fitz-Walter had good reason to be
bitterly hostile to King John, for having caused his fair daughter Maude
or Matilda to be poisoned, after having unsuccessfully made an attempt
upon her chastity.(188) This is not the only crime of the kind laid to the
charge of this monarch,(189) and there appears to be too much reason for
believing most of the charges against him to be true. It is certain that
Fitz-Walter was one of the first to entertain designs against John, and
that he and Eustace de Vesci, on whose family the king is said to have put
a similar affront, were forced to escape to France. The story how
Fitz-Walter attracted John's notice by his prowess at a tournament in
which he was engaged on the side of the French, and was restored to the
King's favour and his own estates, is familiar to all.

(M125)

After a feeble attempt to capture Northampton, the barons, with
Fitz-Walter at their head, accepted an invitation from the citizens of
London to enter the city. They made their entry through Aldgate.(190)

The concession which John had recently made to the citizens, viz.:--the
right of annually electing their own mayor(191)--had failed to secure their
allegiance. The city became thenceforth the headquarters of the
barons,(192) and the adhesion of the Londoners was followed by so great a
defection from the King's party (including among others that of Henry de
Cornhill), that he was left without any power of resistance.(193)

(M126)