Note 1761 — Chapter VIII · THE LATER YEARS OF RICHARD. 1194–1199.

In the Liber de Antiquis Legibus (a chronicle of the mayors and sheriffs of London, compiled in 1274, and edited by Mr. Stapleton for the Camden Soc.), p. 1, the first mayor, Henry Fitz-Aylwine, is said to have been appointed “anno gratie Mº centesimo lxxxviii, anno primo regni Regis Ricardi;” and the document known as Fitz-Aylwine’s Assize (ib. p. 206) purports to have been issued “Anno Domini Mº Cº lxxxix, scilicet primo anno regni illustris Regis Ricardi, existente tunc Henrico filio Aylewini Maiore, qui fuit primus Maiorum Londoniarum.” On this however Bishop Stubbs remarks: “It is improbable that London had a recognized mayor before 1191, in which year the communa was established ... and there is I believe no mention of such an official in a record until some three years later.” Introd. to Annales Londonienses (“Chronicles of Ed. I. and Ed. II.”), p. xxxi.