The Story of London Saul

After the battle of Lewes, the residents of London sang wild songs lampooning the supporters of the King and rejoicing in the victory of Simon De Montfort. But by the end of the next year… it was done. London had picked the wrong side and now, stripped of the position of mayor, and its sheriffs, and with the King ordering the most brutal clampdown ever seen in the city, the residents of London had to cope with the end of an era.

A bumper episode as finally all the things that have been building during the long reign of Henry III come to a head… a massive bank robbery; a terrifying moment for the Queen; a genuine pogrom; vigilante gangs wandering the streets of the city and tearing down whole buildings; and the armed forces of London finding itself in a field in Sussex… facing down a wall of horsemen led by a furious prince. A prince who was furious at just them! The story covers a much overlooked important couple of years in the history of the city.

England slowly but with relentless inevitability, slipped into civil war… and London was dragged along with it. But while the actions of the powers that be made what was to come unavoidable, the City carried on as best it could; it was sometimes funny, sometimes proud, and sometimes fearful. And then, for reasons that will become clear, it found itself armed to the teeth. And this… this was never a good thing to do to London.

A country teetering on the verge of becoming a failed state… famine kills thousands and disease kills more; the economic is shrinking in the face of the pandemic; the king is away following wild dreams of foreign glory that could bankrupt the nation; powerful landowners move to seize power; everyone becomes convinced that a rash of poisonings are taking out the powerful… and London was going to have to cope with this, mobs killing French squires, what we THINK is the city’s first ‘bank robbery’ and finding itself unsure IF it should side against the king who had vexed them so much. This is 1258, and it’s one hell of a year…

London faced relentless attack upon it by the regime of Henry III- city officials would find themselves dragged into the courts again and again, as the King seemed determined to find any excuse- no matter how stupid, to extract money from it. But take this, foreign policy misadventures, a devastating famine that killed thousands, and a terrible flood? Even the distractions caused by royal visits and wild animals being placed in the Tower of London could not derail the City from hurtling headlong towards an inevitable conflict with the crown… matters political and legal dominate as the Story carries on.

London and King Henry III were NOT getting on; and while the 7th Crusade was gloriously sailing towards disaster in Egypt, and the affairs of the nation carried on regardless, the city and the king would repeatedly clash as he provoked the place endlessly. And then? There was a huge fight in the beloved St Barts church. Who caused it, and why it led to mobs of Londoners prowling the streets and swearing vengeance on the VERY high powered offender, is covered this episode.