QUEENHITHE, BAYNARD'S CASTLE, HOUSES OF THE NOBILITY, BLACKFRIARS, &c. DERIVATION OF THE NAME OF QUEENHITHE.-CELEBRATED RESIDENTS IN BAYNARD'S CASTLE.-MANSIONS NEAR PAUL'S WHARF.-MONASTERY OF THE BLACK FRIARS.-REPUDIATION OF QUEEN CATHERINE.—QUEEN ELIZABETH AT COBHAM HOUSE. -THE FATAL VESPERS.-BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE.-FLEET DITCH STRONGHOLDS OF THIEVES.-PALACE OF BRIDEWELL.-ALSATIA.— EXECUTION OF LORD SANQUHAR. CONT (ONTINUING our route along Thames Street, we shall point out as we pass along the particular sites on the banks of the river, which are associated either with the history, the manners, or the romance of past times. We have hitherto strolled from Billingsgate as far as Queenhithe; we will now continue from Queenhithe to the Temple Garden. Queenhithe, Queenhive, or Queen's Harbour,-on the west side of Southwark Bridge,—was anciently called Edred's Hythe; and, as far back as the days of the Saxons, was one of the principal harbours or quays where foreign vessels discharged their cargoes. According to Stow, it derived its more ancient name of Edred's Hythe from one Edred, who had been a proprietor of the wharf. We have evidence that it was royal property in the reign of King Stephen; that monarch having bestowed it upon William de Ypres, who, in his turn, conferred it on the Convent of the Holy Trinity within Aldgate. In the reign of Henry the Third VOL. II. 16 242 ST. MICHAEL'S QUEENHITHE. it again came into the possession of the Crown. In consequence of the harbour-dues being the perquisite of the Queen of England, it obtained particular favour; foreign ships, and especially vessels which brought corn from the Cinque Ports, being compelled to land their cargoes here. From its connection also with the Queen of England it obtained its name of Ripa Regina, or Queen's Hythe. For centuries it maintained a successful rivalry with Billingsgate.* From Fabian, however, who wrote at the end of the fifteenth century, we learn that in his time the harbour-dues of Queenhithe had so fallen off as to be worth only £15 a year. A century afterwards, Stow speaks of it as being almost forsaken. Opposite to Queenhithe, on the north side of Thames Street, is situated the parish church of St. Michael, Queenhithe; an edifice erected by Sir Christopher Wren on the site of a very ancient church destroyed by the fire of London. In 1181, we find it denominated St. Michael de Cornhithe; Queenhithe being probably occasionally styled Cornhithe, from the quantity of corn which was landed there from the Cinque Ports. The church contains no monuments of any interest; nor, with the exception of its small but elegant spire, and some fine carved fruit and flowers on the doorway next to the pulpit, has it much artistical merit. A little beyond Queenhithe is Paul's Wharf, which derives its name from its vicinity to the great cathedral of St. Paul's. Close to this spot stood the mansion occupied by Cicely, youngest daughter of the haughty and powerful Baron, Ralph de Neville, first Earl of Westmoreland, and widow of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York; in whose ambition originated the devastating wars between the White and Red * See ante, p. 223. FAMILY OF RICHARD PLANTAGENET. 243 Her Roses. She was the mother of a numerous family, of whom seven survived to figure prominently in the stirring times in which they lived. When this lady-the granddaughter of John of Gaunt-sat in her domestic circle, watching complacently the childish sports, and listening to the joyous laughter of her young progeny, how little could she have anticipated the strange fate which awaited them! husband perished on the bloody field of Wakefield; her first-born, afterwards Edward the Fourth, followed in the ambitious footsteps of his father, and waded through bloodshed to a throne; her second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, perished at the battle of Wakefield; her third son, "false, fleeting, perjured Clarence,” died in the dungeons of the Tower; and her youngest son, Richard, succeeded to a throne and a bloody death. The career of her daughters was also remarkable. Anne, her eldest daughter, married Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, whose splendid fortunes and mysterious fate are so well known. Elizabeth, the second daughter, became the wife of John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, and lived to see her son, the second Duke, decapitated on Tower Hill for his attachment to the House of York. Lastly, her third daughter, Margaret, married Charles, Duke of Burgundy. This lady's persevering hostility to Henry the Seventh, and open support of the claims of Perkin Warbeck, believing him to be the last male heir of the House of Plantagenet, have rendered her name conspicuous in history. Between Paul's Wharf and Puddle Dock, under the shadow of the great cathedral of St. Paul's, stood anciently, on the banks of the Thames, Baynard's Castle, endeared to us by the magic genius of Shakspeare, and associated with some of the most stirring scenes in the history of our country. Baynard's Castle derives its name from its founder, one of 244 BAYNARD'S CASTLE. the Norman Barons who accompanied William the Conqueror to England, and by one of whose descendants, William Baynard, it was forfeited in 1111. Henry the First bestowed it on Robert Fitzwalter, fifth son of Richard Earl of Clare, in whose family the office of Castellan, and standardbearer to the city of London became hereditary. His immediate descendant was Robert Fitzwalter, whose daughter, the beautiful Matilda, King John attempted to corrupt. Fitzwalter, to avenge the affront offered to his race, subsequently acted a conspicuous part in the wars waged against the King by his Barons. "The primary occasion of these discontents," writes Dugdale, "is by some thus reported: that this Robert Fitzwalter, having a very beautiful daughter, called Maude, residing at Dunmow, the King frequently solicited her chastity, but never prevailing, grew so enraged that he caused her to be privately poisoned: and that she was buried at the south side of the choir at Dunmow [in Essex], between two pillars there." To punish the rebellion of Fitzwalter, the King caused "his house, called Baynard's Castle, in the city of London," to be razed to the ground. Fitzwalter, however, is said to have subsequently made his peace with King John, by the extraordinary valour which he displayed at a tournament in the presence of the King of France. King John, struck with admiration at his prowess, is said to have exclaimed, "By God's tooth, he deserves to be a King who hath such a soldier in his train." Ascertaining the name of the chivalrous knight, for his features were concealed by his closed vizor,-the King immediately sent for him, restored him to his barony, and subsequently gave him permission to repair his castle of Baynard. Baynard's Castle was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1428, shortly after which period it was rebuilt by Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, on whose attainder it again BAYNARD'S CASTLE. 245 reverted to the Crown. The next occupant was Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who maintained no fewer than four hundred followers within its walls, and who carried on here his ambitious projects against the government of Henry the Sixth. After his death at the battle of Wakefield, Baynard's Castle descended by inheritance to his gallant son, the Earl of March, afterwards Edward the Fourth. When, in 1460, the young Prince entered London with the King-maker Warwick, we find him taking up his abode in his paternal mansion, and it was within its princely hall that he assumed the title of King, and summoned the bishops, peers, and magistrates in and about London to attend him in council. In the garden of Baynard's Castle, Shakspeare places the secret interview between the Duke of York and the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, in which the two latter acknowledged him as their rightful sovereign, and came to the determination to appeal to arms to enforce his claims "York. Now, my good lords of Salisbury and Warwick, Our simple supper ended, give me leave, In this close walk to satisfy myself, In craving your opinion of my title, * War. What plain proceeding is more plain than this? It fails not yet; but flourishes in thee And in this private plot be we the first With honour of his birthright to the crown." King Henry VI., part 2, act ii., sc. 2. Shortly after his accession to the throne, Edward the Fourth appears to have conferred Baynard's Castle upon his |