652 N. M. Treiiholme being encouraged in this by several of the Londoners sent to St. Al- bans for this purpose. The majorcs, or better class of townsmen, pretended to be on the side of the abbot, yet, secretly, they encouraged and aided the malcontents. Just on the eve of the outbreak the Earl of Lancaster came to St. Albans with a powerful retinue. The majores, afraid for the success of their plans, sent a deputation of twelve burgesses to the abbot begging him neither to mention the sworn league nor to make any complaint to the earl. They, on their part, promised to see to it that matters in dispute would pro- ceed peaceably and by way of law. Relying on these assurances the abbot allowed the earl to depart without asking his aid against the rebelliously minded townsmen.' The next day saw the opening of hostilities on the part of the townsmen, and proved how fallacious the abbot's trust in their promises had been. A servant of the abbot being attacked and pursued by the mob, in the streets of the town, slew one of his ad- versaries and escaped. Thereupon the townsmen rose en masse to assert their liberties. They erected a scaffold in the market-place and attaching an axe to it by a chain, they declared that all who were unwilling to join them should be beheaded there. ' On the morrow the same twelve townsmen, who had so earnestly besought the abbot not to call on the earl for assistance, came to him again, and, in the name of the community of St. Albans, they asked him to grant them certain rights and liberties contained in the petition which they presented. This petition consisted of seven articles, and the demands made show clearly what it was that the burgesses in most ecclesiastical towns struggled for so fiercely. The first article asked for a general restoration of charters and liberties, of which the townsmen believed themselves to have been deprived and for proof of which they appealed to the Domesday record. They wished to be "as free as any borough or burgesses." Then, in the articles following, they went on to ask for the restoration of certain specific rights which they declared that they had formerly enjoyed. They wished to be allowed to send two burgesses, elected by themselves, to represent them in Parliament ; also to respond by twelve burges- ses, without a commixture of outsiders, before the justices in eyre ; to take the assize of bread and beer in the town through twelve of their own number ; to have the right of common in lands, woods, waters, fish-ponds and other privileged places, as was contained in Domesday ; to have hand-mills for grinding their corn, and to be indemnified for the losses they had sustained through being de- 1 Gesta Abbaium, R. S., II. 156-157. ^ Ibid., " ut qui nollent consentire lUoram molitionibus, ibidem capite plecterentur."
