LONDON TO THE FIRE Tudor London.—The significance of the Tudor period in London history lies in the vast changes that the Reformation brought about in the aspect of the capital, and in its social and economic life. Henry VIII. found the city crowded with majestic ecclesiastical buildings, fruits of the piety and artistic skill of preceding centuries. Large numbers of these he left in ruins or converted to secular uses, when not actually razed to the ground, and the scars remained in Elizabeth's reign. The great conventual houses of the monastic orders and of the friars were the first to fall. Amid the vast destruction the citizens were able to save much for their permanent advantage. Rahere's Priory of St. Bartholomew was wholly destroyed save for the parts of the church still in parochial use and the attached medical hospital, of which Henry figures as the refounder. St. Thomas's hospital by London bridge, on the Southwark side (removed last century to Lambeth) was also refounded under the same royal patronage. as was Bethlehem hospital for the insane. City Livery Companies, the Mercers and the Leathersellers among them, obtained halls for themselves from the spoils of the church.
In the short reign of Henry's son, Edward VI., the Grey friars buildings at Newgate, mostly left standing, were converted into Christ's hospital for the maintenance and education of poor children. The derelict Bridewell royal palace was in like man ner given to the citizens as a house of correction for rogues, vagabonds and refractory City apprentices, and the training of boys for industry.
By the suppression of the monastic houses London was faced anew with urgent problems of the relief of the poor, to which the religious brotherhoods had largely ministered, and the education of the young. Henry's methods of treating the first were chiefly oppressive, and it was not until Elizabeth's last years that the first workable Poor Law Act was instituted. The rise of the merchant class to greater power and social prestige was an out standing feature of the Tudor epoch, and nowhere was more strongly evidenced than in the City of London. Elizabeth's reign
was marked by many efforts to establish grammar schools. To the enterprise of London merchant citizens is due the founda tion of such famous public schools as Rugby, Oundle and Ton bridge. London also owes Charterhouse, St. Paul's (to which Dean Colet devoted part of his fortune inherited from his father, a City mercer), the City of London School, and the Merchant Taylors' and Mercers' Schools to the munificence of the citizens.
Twice during the Tudor epoch the City of London became the scene of armed risings against the crown. In 1554 Sir Thomas Wyat's rebellion against Queen Mary collapsed when, after the march of his followers from Kingston-on-Thames, he found the city gate at Ludgate closed to keep him out. The earl of Essex's effort against Queen Elizabeth in 1601, made from his house at Temple Bar, had no promise of success. In each case the citizens withheld their support.
Mary's accession was subjected to brief delay by the plot to place on the throne Lady Jane Grey, the queen of the nine days' reign. The mayor abstained from attending at Cheapside at the proclamation of Jane, which was received with coldness— "few or none said 'God save her' "—but was present with the Recorder and many aldermen when on July 11, 1553, Mary was proclaimed queen at the same place.
London, always intensely patriotic in national movements, rallied to the side of Elizabeth for defence against the Spanish Armada, sending a large contingent of armed men to Tilbury. In prosperous years under the queen the population greatly increased. The City and liberties became closely built upon the dispossessed lands of the ecclesiastics, and the beginnings are detected of a "trek" outwards by substantial merchants to pleasant country houses beyond its confines. Maps and views by Van den Wyn gaerde (155o), Braun and Hogenberg (1572-73), and Ralph. Agas' map a little later for the first time give an adequate pic torial representation of London, showing a considerable extension of the town westward towards Westminster, especially by large houses built by ecclesiastics and nobles by the Thames front.