heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

212 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
a swan, close, argent, beaked and legged or, gorged with a crown, and
chained of the last), together with the earldom of Essex, and the manor
of Enfield near London.
Edward I.
granted a license for a weekly market to be held here,
which, in the reign of James I., had acquired the name of the " Court of
" pie powder."
Richard II. granted to the inhabitants certain exemptions of the tolls
for their goods; and, in 1347, Humphrey de Bohun procured the King's
license to fortify his manor-house at Enfield. The site of this original
manor-house has long been a subject for antiquarian research, for Camden
says that "almost in the middle of the chase there are the ruins and
" rubbish of an ancient house, which the commoner people from tradition
" affirm to have belonged to the Mandevilles, Earls of Essex ;
"
and, from
the traces of the site still left, it must have been of considerable extent,
as, when measured in 1773, one side of the moat was 150 feet.
Humphrey, second earl, was a crusader, and fought, together with his
eldest son, Humphrey, who died vita patris, on the side of the barons
against the King at the battle of Evesham, 1265.
In 1243 he founded an Augustinian convent in London, the site of
which is where Broad Street falls into Throgmorton Street, and is now
known as " Austin Friars." Humphrey himself was buried here ;
also
Edward Bohun (or Stafford), Duke of Buckingham, beheaded 1521.
It was granted at the dissolution to William Paulet, first Marquis of
Winchester ;
but the church was retained, and granted by Edward VI. to
the Dutch nation in London to have their service in, by whom the building
is still held. The marquis built a house there known as Winchester
House, and only pulled down in 1839. He lived to a great age, and during
the reigns of nine sovereigns. When asked in his old age how he had
contrived to get on so well with them all, he said, "By being a willow,
" not an oak."
*
His grandson, Humphrey, third
earl, was Lord High Constable, and
attended Edward I. in Scotland, as did also his son Humphrey, fourth
earl, who was present at the siege of Caerlaverock. The old poet "Walter
of Exeter" thus describes him : "A rich and elegant young man. He had
" a banner of deep blue silk, with a white bend between two cotises of gold,
" on the outside of which he had six lioncels rampant." He mentions him
also
at the conclusion of the siege, as accompanying the royal
his own banner, by established rights, as constable.
banner with
His seal also appears appended to the letter of the barons to Pope
Boniface. He married Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of the King and
widow of John, Earl of Holland.
* Walks in London (Augustus Hare), vol. i. p. 277. Walford's Greater London.