han allow that monarch to pledge his
crown and jewels to the merchants of the Steelyard, and it was truly
repaid. To this the aldermen were not permitted to make any reply, but
were sent away to advise together how the sum should be raised.(402)

On Thursday, the 7th May, the mayor and aldermen were again summoned
before the council, when they were told that, having failed to provide the
sum previously asked for, they would now have to find L200,000. If the
latter sum was not forthcoming the king threatened to "have L300,000 of
the city." They were to come again on the following Sunday (10 May) and
bring with them a list of the rich men of the wards.

(M158)

On the day appointed they came, but brought with them a petition to be
excused making such a list as that required. The excuse was not allowed.
Strafford is recorded as having lost his temper at the obstinacy of the
aldermen. "Sir," said he, addressing the king, "you will never do good to
these citizens of London till you have made examples of some of the
aldermen," and recommended Charles, in his own "thorough" way, to hang a
few of them.(403) Charles did not take the advice offered. He would have
made, however, the mayor resign his sword and collar then and there but
for the intercession of the bystanders, and actually committed four of the
aldermen to prison, viz., Nicholas Rainton, John Gayre, Thomas Soame and
Thomas Atkins, for refusing to make a list of those inhabitants of their
respective wards who were able to lend from L50 upwards.(404) One of them,
Alderman Soame, gave particular offence. "I was an honest man whilst I was
a commoner," he told the king to his face, "and I would continue to be so
now I am an alderman." The other aldermen professed their readiness to
give in the names of the richer citizens, but objected to rate them
according to their means.

(M159)

Both Garway and Sir Thomas Gardiner, the Recorder, favoured the king. The
latter was particularly anxious that the City should lend the L100,000
originally requested, and did his best to get the money advanced. For his
zeal on this occasion, and for "other high crimes and misdemeanours," he
was afterwards (1642) impeached.(405)

(M160)

The aldermen were not long kept in confinement. Even before their
committal the city was in a ferment, and a placard had appeared posted up
in the Exchange inviting all who were lovers of liberty to assemble in St.
George's Fields in Southwark early on