Free City

A Free City is a settlement that has been granted royal charter exempting it from certain feudal obligations and interference in exchange for taxes, fees and/or rents. Citizens of the city are "free men."

Privileges

• City walls (the right to erect a defense wall around an inhabited area)
• Market right (the right to hold a market and receive income from the markets)
• Storage right (the right to store and exclusively trade particular goods, often only granted to a few cities)
• Toll right (the right to charge toll)
• Mint right (the right to mint city coinage)
• Personal freedom (citizens had a relative degree of personal freedom in comparison to citizens of rural areas: they were not subject to the liegelord and had freedom of mobility) — Hence the old saying, 'City air makes free'
• City governance (Well-to-do citizens could sometimes elect local government officials)
• Judiciary and law making (Within its boundaries the city could have a large degree of autonomy)
• Taxation (the right to levy taxes)

Rules

• Since 1502 the city had maintained a by-law that a freeman might not sue another in the king's courts, or those of any other lord, until the case had first been reported to the mayor.
• "Hew and cry"
• Cleanliness and dumping
• Citizenship
  • A bonded peasant escaping to live in the city may be considered free if not "claimed" after a year and a day
  • Some cities are more restrictive, requiring recommendations, or restricting foreign or class-based participation
• The common seal was to be properly kept; the streets were to be cleaned; poultry was to be sold only in Thursday Market to prevent innkeepers forestalling victuals; the city's troops were to be commanded by the mayor's esquires; the esquires and common serjeants were not to buy their offices, but were to be appointed by the mayor and his brethren with the assent of the commons.

Government

The Parish

The smallest unit of local government is the civil parish, centered around a parish church. The boundaries of the parish may extend outside the city walls. Each has a parish clerk and two or three constables.

The Vestry

The vestry is a meeting of the parish ratepayers chaired by the incumbent of the parish, normally held in the parish church or its vestry, from which it got its name. The vestry committees were not established by any law, but by civil necessity. This meeting is supervised by the parish Patron, probably the best educated of the inhabitants. Primarily, it looks after its own: churches and burial grounds, parish cottages and workhouses, endows charities, market crosses, pumps, pounds, whipping posts, stocks, cages, watch houses, weights and scales, clocks and fire engines. Or to put it another way: the maintenance of the church and its services, the keeping of the peace, the repression of vagrancy, the relief of destitution, the mending of roads, the suppression of nuisances, the destruction of vermin, the furnishing of soldiers and sailors, even to some extent the enforcement of religious and moral discipline. It is responsible for appointing parish officials, such as the parish clerk, overseers of the poor, sextons and scavengers, constables and nightwatchmen. The decisions and accounts of the vestry committee are administered by the parish clerk, and records of parish business are stored in a "parish chest" kept in the church and provided for security with three different locks, the individual keys to which are held by such as the parish priest and churchwardens.

Constables

The constables (parish constables, or petty constables) are chosen by the parishioners annually in the presence of the assemblymen and wardens of each district, presented to the mayor, and their names enrolled. Like many official positions, the position is obligatory, and unpaid, although the chosen constable has the right to employ someone to perform the role on their behalf. It is often a resented burden, as it involves a wide variety of extremely time consuming tasks. They are at once constables of the peace and general agents of the officers of the city and the districts. Anyone seeing a "misdeed" is empowered to make an arrest. The role of the constable is as the "eyes and ears" of the court, finding evidence and recording facts on which judges can make a ruling. By extension, the constable is also the "strong arm" of the court (i.e., of the common law).

• Each civil parish typically has a small location in which the constable can confine criminals. The constable is responsible not only for confining such people, but also for delivering them to the courts. They are to report affrays and debates, and make arrests and summonses.
• They are among the people with authority to read the Riot Act, and are expected to do so if a riotous assembly arises in their parish.
• They are expected to police vagabonds and beggars, who are to be set in the stocks for three days, and then whipped until they leave the parish.
• They have a general responsibility for the local stocks, as well as for the pillory
• They are expected to punish poachers, drunks, hedge-damagers, prostitutes, church-avoiders, and fathers of bastards.
• They are expected to keep the pavements repaired and their parish clear of dung, mire, and corruption of the air.
• They are expected to monitor trading standards and pubs, catch rats, restrain loose animals, light signal beacons, provide local lodging and transport for the military, perform building control, attend inquests, and collect the parish rates.
• They are responsible for collecting national taxes, within their area.

The Ward

Much of the government of the city is conducted by the guilds and by the ward courts. The main importance of the ward is in the military organization of the city, the maintenance of its walls, and in the management of the common lands.

The Assemblyman

Each ward has its own assemblyman, who is the most senior official or representative in the ward. Election to the ranks of the assemblymen is made by the mayor and remaining assemblymen as vacancies occur due to death, old age, or ill health. Assemblymen are drawn exclusively, and the councilors preponderantly, from the class of wealthy traders, belonging to the manufacturing crafts and merchants. Such assemblymen were usually elected from among the guild brothers, mostly from among brothers who had been an assemblyman before, or a bailiff, or an assessor of the guild (this indicates that before election they had been members of the merchant guild approximately twenty years). Some occupations, too, are regarded as incompatible with it. It is an honour not easily refused (refusal may result in a hefty fine). The assemblymen receive no salary for their duties, thus have simultaneously to maintain their merchant activities. An assemblyman remains a member of the guild; he does not participate in all of the social events of the guild, although he does participate in the guild’s most important festivals and feasts.

The normal civic official is an amateur, serving generally for a year at considerable cost to his pocket and doubtless at much inconvenience to his business. It is not, therefore, surprising that some men seek exemption from office by the purchase of royal letters patent. This is reasonable enough if a man was old or sick, but another matter entirely when a number of able and wealthy citizens secure exemption for life.

• Both assemblymen and councilors are to have robes of violet, murrey, and crimson, and assemblymen also robes of scarlet which those who have served as mayor are to wear on all civic occasions.
• It is prohibited to elect brothers, fathers, or sons to the council.

The Serjeant

A serjeant (or ward constable) is in charge of a ward and responsible for levying money in it for the repair of the walls, and managing the militia. A number of wardens are also assigned as needed. The raising of troops, and money for their wages, and the inspection of the arms in the hands of citizens are all organized by ward; also the serjeants are responsible for opening and closing the city gates, and the wardens for clearing the walls in their wards from rushes, nettles, and weeds.

The City

Though the city is granted charter directly from the king, he does not normally involve himself in its day-to-day governance. As he (rarely) sees fit, the king may attend council meetings himself, or send a representative (often, his steward). The government of a free city may properly be described as 'magisterial' in character, for at its centre stands the mayor.

Municipal authority has its focus in two buildings. The first is called the council chamber, where the city council meets and the main officers of the city are accommodated. The other is the City Hall, where larger meetings assemble and where the court of the mayor and bailiffs are held, though there is also an inner chamber where the election of the bailiffs may be settled.

The Mayor

Styled: His Worship X, Mayor of [City]

The mayor is elected annually (often on Midwinter Feast Day) from amongst the assemblymen of the city; re-election is common. The election of a mayor also occurs whenever the old mayor dies, retires, resigns, or fails a no-confidence vote consisting of a two-thirds majority of the council. It is his duty, which he swears to accomplish, to keep the city safe for the king, to maintain and advance its franchises, usages, and customs, and to do impartial justice to all. He is active in the various courts of the city and is the central figure in the city council. He is the recipient of mandates from the central government on every conceivable matter. He is escheator within the liberty, his name being certified to Chancery in this capacity as soon as he is elected. He acts as a liaison to the king in all civic matters. If the mayor's responsibility is great, so too is his dignity. He has a serjeant to bear his mace of office, who precedes him at all official duties. The mayor does not serve gratis; the normal fee in is [£20] yearly. The mayor, however, merely stands at the pinnacle of the city's government, and he has a number of coadjutors.

The Assembly

The city is governed by the City Assembly, or the "Small Council," a council of the usually dozen or two assemblymen from the wards, a group of technically coequal members who head various major interests within the city. This body constitutes the administrative council of the city and the mayor's regular coadjutors in government. The Assembly meets every Senday during the year to cover business relevant to the city. Replacement of a councilman who dies or retires is not immediately required. If a vacancy in the council should be filled, the new member is chosen by vote of the current councilmen.

The Great Council

Meeting less often, the "Great Council" consists of the assemblymen and other city elders, usually double the number of assemblymen, which convenes for matters that require a wider consensus. Like the assemblymen, the councilors serve, unless promoted to the assembly, until removed by death or discharge. The qualification for membership is, if enough such men are available, previous service as bailiff. Both assemblymen and councilors are sworn to aid and obey the mayor in all matters; and are ordered to accompany him, and not their crafts, in all processions.

The Commonalty

In the Guildhall the officers and councilors of the city from time to time faced a more genuinely representative assembly, which includes up to 48 upstanding citizens, few or none of whom—by contrast with the assemblymen and councilors—had held municipal office, and most of whom were drawn from the manufacturing as distinct from the trading occupations. It is not deliberately representative of the crafts, but is represented by the searchers of the guilds, though other craftsmen might accompany them to the Guildhall. The rooting of the representation of the commonalty in the crafts gives it an organized backing which augments its political effectiveness.

The assembly of the commonalty has certain specific constitutional functions. It has a part, however limited, in choosing the mayor and approving the choice of other officers; in assenting to the imposition of financial burdens; and in consenting to ordinances for the common utility of the city. It has a role, in other words, in constituting the city government and in legislating for the city. But it also is the political assembly of the city, where all the internal stresses and strains of the day are ventilated. By means of petitions presented to the mayor and council the demands and grievances of the commonalty are made manifest and pressure is applied to have them met.

Bailiffs

There is one bailiff per city district. Their duties are summarized in the bailiff's oath. They have to acquit the city of its farm, enforce the assizes of bread and ale and other market regulations, empanel jurors, do justice to rich and poor, and collect the issues of the city courts. Alone or in conjunction with the mayor, they are the addressees of mandates from the central government; and, as the officers responsible for the farm, they have at their disposal all the profits and commodities pertaining to the office from ancient times. These are husgable, rents from city property, tolls, stallrents in the markets, and the issues of fairs, and courts. Like the mayor, the bailiffs have their assistants and their dignity. Each has his serjeant-at-mace, responsible for making summonses, arrests, and so forth; and there is a bailiff's clerk, originally appointed annually but also during good behaviour. The bailiffs move about the city in some state, with a serjeant preceding them and an honest servant at their back.

Chamberlains

There is one city chamberlain per city district. Goods and riches are not less necessary for the chamberlains. Normally, their year of office coincides with that of the mayor. The chamberlain is responsible for the treasury, the paying and collecting of city funds. Each bears a "key" as a symbol of his office (which does sometimes open the treasury's locks).

Other Officers

• There is one coroner per city district, chosen by the mayor, assemblymen, and councilors.
• The recorder and common clerk are representatives of a new professional class; they are chosen for their professional skill and sometimes make their civic office a stepping stone to better things. It is no less noticeable that the recorders are variously employed. Apart from legal duties in the narrow sense, some fulfill the role of the city's ambassador at large. They are found wherever the city has business to do or interests to pursue.
• The bridges are each in the charge of a bridgemaster who is responsible for its maintenance, for collecting the revenues assigned to it, and for paying over any surplus to the city chamberlains.
• There are also keepers of the city weights and measures, keepers of the gates, and in some cities, city minstrels.

Courts

• More important was a court which sat every Monday in the Guildhall under the mayor and bailiffs (later the sheriffs), described in the 15th century as the court for 'common pleas' (i.e. pleas regarding wills, and of dower, services, waste, and so forth). In addition, in 1343, the mayor and bailiffs also claimed a court competent to deal with such matters as assault; (fn. 7) and between 1351 and 1392 distinct commissions of the peace for York were issued to the mayor, a few prominent citizens, and one or two royal judges. In 1392 Richard II conferred the commission of the peace ex officio upon the mayor and aldermen; and the powers they exercised in this capacity seem to have been fused with those of the older mayoral court to produce the court of the mayor and aldermen described in the city custumal. It met in the Guildhall from day to day at their discretion; and dealt with matters touching apprentices, offences against the customs and ordinances of the city, the faults of victuallers and craftsmen and civic officers, nuisances, rumour-mongers, disturbers of the peace, forgers of seals and charters, and made orders for governing the city and keeping the peace.

Other Features

Guilds

The guilds of the Capital are all designed to protect and further the social and economic interests of their membership. While not all of the Guilds have been granted or have been able to maintain a monopoly on the services and crafts they provide, they can nevertheless present a united front to any form of competition and have a recognized degree of political influence with the city council. On the first days of each season of the year, the Grand Council of Guilds meets at City Hall. All the city's Guildmasters are required to attend (and must send deputies should they be unable to do so). This meeting is used to discuss petitions and legislation before the city council that may affect the trade or business of one or more of the city's guilds, and allegedly serves the purpose of granting those city guilds not directly represented in the council a say in the city's governance.

Behind-the-Scenes

• The purpose of this article is to establish the baseline; some individual free cities will inevitably vary in their adherence
• Liberties have been taken with the exact organization, to make more "generic" sense
• Historically, a free city answered to the king, but for simplicity, this system will keep to the more "CK2" roots, where the cities answer to the ruler of the province in which they exist

See Also

• Manor
• Barony
• Vicarship
• County
• Duchy
• Kingdom
• Empire