who was treated by the faction of the ambitious Duke of Gloucester" without any regard to reason, justice, or humanity." Grafton in his Chronicle, mentions him as " a worthie and puissant man of the City, which was the King's draper, called Nicholas Brember." It is not my intention to make any attempt to reconcile these contradictions; I will, therefore, content myself with giving a brief narrative of the events in which Sir Richard was concerned, and leave my readers to draw their own conclufions, entreating them, at the fame time, to bear in mind that he lived at a period when "the laws were fo feebly executed that no subject could trust to their protection,"* when men openly affociated themselves under the banner of one or other of the great political parties of the day, which parties were confidered legitimate in proportion to the fuccefs they obtained. This was particularly obfervable in the following reign, when Henry IV. patched up his title to the Crown in the best manner he could, and became the lawful fovereign of England with no ground of right but his prefent poffeffion. "Ille crucem fceleris pretium tulit, hic diadema." The first remarkable event which occurred in 1377, was a dangerous riot occafioned by the conduct of the Lord Piercey, Marshal of England, who committed a Citizen of London to his prison of the Marshalsea, contrary to the rights and immunities of the City. The Mayor and Common Council affembled to deliberate upon the affair; but, in the meanwhile, the populace, having learned that one of their fellow citizens was in * Hume, vol. ii. page 62. durefs, and being inftigated by the Lord Fitzwalter, the City standard-bearer, broke open the Marshalsea, liberated the prisoner, and spoiled the Marshal's house; they then ran to the Savoy, a palace inhabited, at that time, by the King's fon the Duke of Lancaster, to attack it. They had a grudge against him, on account of his having endeavoured, in parliament, to abridge the liberties of the City, by having the office of Mayor abolished and a Cuftos, as in ancient times, fet over it, and also by giving the Marshal liberty of arrest therein. The Duke, having notice of their approach, escaped, but a priest was murdered by the mob, under the idea that he was Lord Piercey, in difguife.* The Mayor and Commonalty, apprehensive that a storm would burft upon the City in consequence of these events, fent a deputation of their principal citizens to deprecate the King's wrath. They produced a momentary impreffion upon the Royal mind; but the lower orders, whose dislike of the Duke of Lancaster was unconquerable, continuing to insult him by means of lampoons and pasquinades, the Mayor and Aldermen were fummoned to attend the King at Sheen, for the purpose of apologifing to the Duke in the City's name. They entreated the King not to permit the innocent to fuffer for the guilty, and offered to use every exertion to discover and bring to punishment the delinquents, but they declined the apology: the refult was, that Adam Staple, the Mayor, and several of the Aldermen, were dismissed from their offices; and others, by the King's writ, appointed in their places. Sir Nicholas Brember was then named Mayor. * Stowe's Annals. A few weeks after this event, Richard II. afcended the throne, and Sir Richard, with the affiftance of Parliament, fucceeded in obtaining a confirmation of the City's charter and the King's interference for the accommodation of the dispute with the Duke of Lancafter, which was brought about without any compromife of dignity on either part. In 1383, the fecond year of Brember's mayoralty, the City charter received further confirmation and additions, as was announced to the citizens in a remarkable proclamation iffued by Sir Richard, " on the Friday after the feast of the B. V. Mary and in the seventh year of the King." Great and beneficial changes alfo took place in the Common Council, which, it was ordered, should confift of " "fufficient perfons," four of whom the Aldermen were ordained to cause to be chofen from each Ward, in lieu of the ancient mode of taking them from certain mysteries or crafts. By means of Sir Nicholas Brember, most of the Aldermen were turned out by the Common Council and new ones elected in the respective wards. The return of the Lord Mayor himself, for the Ward of Bread-street is thus recorded; -"Bread Strete-Dominus Nicolas Brembre, Miles, electus eft in Alderman. Wardæ prædicta, per probos homines ejufdem Warda." The maladministration of affairs by De la Pole Earl of Suffolk, the Chancellor, and Robert de Vere Duke of Ireland, widened the breach which then existed between the King and his Nobles. These favourites faw the impoffibility of engroffing the royal favour during the life of the Duke of Gloucester, uncle to the King, * Maitland, vol. i. and they entered into a confpiracy to kill him. Sir Nicholas Brember is faid to have been concerned in it; and when the Duke, who fecretly affembled his adherents at Hornfey, got poffeffion of the King's perfon, Suffolk, the Duke of Ireland, Trefilian and Brember, were declared traitors and enemies to the ftate. A charge of thirty-nine articles was delivered in by the Duke and his friends, but none of the accused, except Sir Nicholas, being in cuftody, the reft were cited to appear,* and, upon their abfenting themselves, the House of Peers, after a very short interval, without hearing a witness, without examining a fact, or deliberating on one point of law, declared them guilty of high treafon. Sir Nicholas Brember, who was produced in court, had the appearance, and but the appearance, of a trial: he denied the charges, and insisted, as a knight, on the privilege of defending himself by fingle combat, but this was refufed to him. His words, on this occafion, deferve to be recorded:"Whoever has branded me with this ignominious mark, with him I am ready to fight in the lifts to maintain my innocency, whenfoever the King shall appoint. And this he spoke with fuch a fury that his eyes sparkled with rage and he breathed as if an Ætna had laid hid in his breast, chusing rather to die gloriously in the field than difgracefully on a gibbet." The Peers, though they were not, by law, his proper judges, pronounced, in a very summary manner, fentence of death upon him. § He was adjudged to be * Hume, vol. ii. + Malham's History of England, vol. i. § Maitland's Hiftory of London, vol. i. drawn and hanged, which fentence was accordingly executed upon him at Tyburn.* Froissart thus alludes to the death of Sir Nicholas :-" His dethe was fore complayned of fome men of London, for he hadde been Mayre of London before, and had well governed his offyce, and dyde one day great honour to the Kyng, whan he flewe, with his owne handes Lyfter, whereby alle the rebelles were difconfyted, and for that good servyce the Kyng made hym knyght." He was afterwards buried in Christ Church Newgate-street, where a monument was erected to his memory. The following extract from an ancient Chronicle of London, dated 1377, is curious, and I give it in its original state : "Nicholl Brembre, Groc', m". Andr'. Pykeman, Nicoll Twyford, Sheriffs. "In this yere was graunted to the kyng of every perfone, man and woman, above the age of xiiij yere, iiijd; and of every man of holy chirche avaunced xijd. and of every man nought avaunced iiijd. freres only except. And this fame yere the cardynall of Engelond was smyten with the palfye and lofte his fpeche, and upon Marie Magdaleyne day he dyde. Alfo in this yere, the xij day of Aprill, St John Mynftreworth knyght was beheded. Alfo in this yere, in the xij kal' of Jull, that is for to feye on feynt Albones even, at Schene, deyde the mooft excellent and doughted prynce Edward the thridde; the whiche Richard, the fone of the goode prynce Edward the fone of the fayde kyng Edward, at the age of xj yere began to reigne : *Stowe's Survaie. + The Chronycle of Froyffart, vol. ii. p. 393. |