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."

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.

A small, close-knit oligarchy fills civic offices and seats in the council chamber. Eldermen are drawn exclusively, and the counsellors preponderantly, from the class of wealthy traders, belonging to the manufacturing crafts and merchants. The free city is ruled not merely by an oligarchy, but by a mercantile oligarchy. Both eldermen and counsellors are to have robes of violet, murrey, and crimson, and eldermen also robes of scarlet which those who have served as mayor are to wear on all civic occasions. 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.

The Mayor

Styled: His Worship X, Mayor of [City]

The mayor is elected annually (often on Midwinter Feast Day) from amongst the eldermen 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 Small Council

AKA "The Twelve"

The city is governed by the "Small Council," a council of 12 elders, a group of technically coequal members who head various major interests within the city, including the district eldermen. This body constitutes the administrative council of the city and the mayor's regular coadjutors in government. The Small Council 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

AKA "The Twenty-Four"; Members that are not also the eldermen are "counsellors"

Meeting less often, the "Great Council" consists of 24 city elders, which convenes for matters that require a wider consensus. Like the eldermen, the counsellors serve, unless promoted to the eldermanic bench, until removed by death or discharge. The qualification for membership is, if enough such men are available, previous service as bailiff. Both eldermen and counsellors 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

AKA "The Fourty-Eight"

In the Guildhall the officers and counsellors 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 eldermen and counsellors—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 a 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 a 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 a coroner per city district, chosen by the mayor, eldermen, and counsellors.
• 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.

The District

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

Eldermen

One to three of (usually) twelve eldermen are assigned to each district (generally according to the number of wards within). Election to the ranks of the eldermen is made by the mayor and remaining eldermen as vacancies occurr due to death, old age, or ill health. It is an honour not easily refused (refusal may result in a hefty fine). Some occupations, too, are regarded as incompatible with it.

Constables

A serjeant is in charge of a district and responsible for levying money in it for the repair of the walls, and managing the militia. In addition, larger districts may be divided into wards, and a number of wardens are assigned to each. The raising of troops, and money for their wages, and the inspection of the arms in the hands of citizens are all organized by district (or by wards, if present); 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 Parish

The wards are not the smallest units of local government: that part is played by the parishes. The parish may extend outside the city walls, as well. Each has a parish clerk and two or three constables.

Constables

The constables are chosen annually in the presence of the eldermen and wardens of each district, presented to the mayor, and their names enrolled. They are sworn to see the peace is kept, malefactors are brought to justice, felons and fugitives are pursued; to report affrays and debates, make arrests and summonses, do all the mayor orderes them, keep the pavements repaired and their parish clear of dung, mire, and corruption of the air. The parish constables also play an important part in raising troops and the money for their wages. They are at once constables of the peace and general agents of the officers of the city and the districts.

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.

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
• 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—a blow aimed at Wrangwissh who was prominent as a soldier about this time; 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.

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