FITZ OSBERT, WILLIAM (d. 1196), was a Londoner who had served in the Third Crusade, and on his return took up the cause of the poorer citizens against the magnates who mo nopolized the government of London. He complained in par ticular of the unfair assessments of the "aids" for the king's ransom (1194). The chronicler Roger of Hoveden gives Fitz Osbert a high character, and he was implicitly trusted by the poorer citizens. He attempted to procure redress for them from the king; but the city magistrates persuaded the justiciar Hubert Walter that Fitz Osbert was planning a general rising. The troops were sent to seize the demagogue, smoked him out of the sanctuary of St. Mary-le-Bow, in which he had taken refuge, and dragged him to the Tower where he was sentenced to death. He was hanged in chains at Smithfield on April 6, 1196 with nine of his followers.