Elizabeth succeeded

by James

land.

pecting that they were betrayed by their leaders, withdrew themselves from the cause.

At the death of Elizabeth, in 1602, she was succeeded by James VI. of Scotland. On the way from his Scottish dominions, VI. of Scot in the following year, to take possession of the English crown, he visited York the 16th of April, and was received with all the ceremony and splendour customary on such occasions. The Lord-mayor and corporation, previous to his departure, made the king a present of a valuable silver cup, with a cover of silver gilt, weighing seventy-three ounces, and containing 200 angels of gold, the value of which was £100. In return for this present, the king conferred the honour of knighthood on the lord mayor.

The Plague at York.

Charles I. visits York.

The plague, which had carried off 30,578 persons in London in 1603, raged at York in 1604, to such an alarming degree, that the markets within the city were prohibited, to prevent the contagion from spreading into the country, and stone crosses were erected in various parts of the vicinity of the city, where the country people met the citizens and sold them their commodities. The Lord President's courts were adjourned to Ripon and Durham. The Minster, and the Minster yard, were shut up, and the unfortunate subjects of infection were sent to Hob-moor and Horse-fair, where booths made of boards were erected for their reception. No fewer than 3,512 inhabitants of York fell victims to this pestilential disease.

In August 1617, James again passed through York on a journey to Scotland. His majesty was received with the usual ceremonials, and after the sword had been presented to him, a standing cup, value £30 5s. 7d. and an elegant purse, the price of which was £3, containing 100 double sovereigns were given him. He dined with the Lord-mayor the same day, and after dinner knighted his lordship and the recorder.

In the year 1633 Charles I. paid a visit of three days to York on his journey to Scotland, and was very sumptuously entertained by the Lord-mayor and the Archbishop. Presents were made to him of a large silver cup and cover, and a purse

of gold of £100 value. While his majesty was there the Portuguese ambassadors came to the city. Sir Edward Littleton,

keeper of the great seal, also joined his majesty.

York.

On the 19th of April, the parliamentarians, with their united Siege of forces, commenced the blockade of York; but their army not being sufficiently numerous to invest the city, the northern side remained open; and the Marquis of Newcastle, having between four and five thousand cavalry in the place, could by means of a bridge over the Ouse transport them to either side of the river, and attack any corps that he might see divided from the rest. The Earl of Manchester, however, arriving with his troops and twelve field pieces, took a position near Bootham Bar towards Clifton, and thus the city was completely invested by 40,000 men. Several batteries were then opened against the place, and particularly one on a hill near Walmgate Bar, where four pieces of cannon played almost incessantly on the tower, castle, and town, while the garrison and armed inhabitants, from their different platforms, kept up a heavy fire on the works of the besiegers. From that time to the 24th of June, an almost incessant fire was continued day and night, both by the besiegers and the besieged, when a party of the garrison consisting of about six hundred men sallied out from Monk Bar, and furiously assaulted the Earl of Manchester's quarters, but they were soon driven back with considerable loss. Several bold attacks were made by the besiegers, which were always bravely repelled by the besieged. So loyal were the inhabitants of York to their sovereign, that even the women assumed a masculine courage, Loyalty of and, despising fatigue and danger, contributed, by every exertion in their power, to the defence of the city. The siege, however, continued with all possible vigour, and a line of circumvallation having been drawn round the city, it effectually cut off the supply of fresh provisions, so that mutton sold at sixteen shillings per quarter, beef at four shillings per stone, pork at seven shillings, bacon at four shillings, eggs at threepence each, fresh butter at two shillings and eightpence per pound, and oatmeal at two shillings and eightpence per peck. But the magazine was well stored with salt provisions and grain, and liquors

the Citizens.

Siege of
York raised

Siege

renewed.

the citizens surrender.

Farnley

Wood conspirators executed.

of all sorts were plentiful. On the 30th of June, towards evening, the parliamentarian generals received intelligence that Prince Rupert, with an army of twenty thousand men, was advancing, and would quarter that night at Knaresborough and Boroughbridge. Having called a council of war upon the occasion, they, being conscious of their inability to contend with him in that situation, resolved to raise the siege.

After the battle of Marston-moor the parliamentarian generals resumed their former positions before the city, and carried on the siege with unremitting vigour. They summoned the governor to surrender unconditionally; to which a negative answer was returned, but, in a few days afterwards, finding that the besiegers had made their approaches to the very walls, and were preparing scaling ladders, the garrison, from the reduction in their numbers and means of defence, were fearful of the result, and judged it advisable to surrender.

In the winter of 1663, a commission was sent down to York to try several men, who had been taken at Farnley wood, a few miles from Leeds, in an insurrection. The prisoners were found guilty, condemned, and executed. Two of them were also quartered, and according to the savage ferocity of the times, their mutilated bodies were placed over the several gates of the city. The heads of four of them were fixed over Micklegate Bar, three over Bootham Bar, one over Walmgate Bar, and three over the gates of the castle.

Prior to the year 1687 the streets of York possessed no advantages during the nocturnal hours from artificial light; but in that year lamps began to be hung up in the chief streets of the city, viz: at the Minster gates, the west-end of Ouse-bridge, in the Pavement, &c.

1688, November 29th, a considerable mob assembled in the city, which resorted to the Roman catholic chapels and there committed great outrages. The mob tore away all the pictures and images they met with, threw down the altars, and after stealing the books and vestments of the priests, exhibited them through the day in different parts of the city; in the evening they publicly burnt them in Coney-street and in the Pavement.

The 14th of February, 1689, was observed in York as a day of general rejoicing for the delivery of the nation from the designs of James II.; and on the 17th of the same month, William Henry, Prince of Orange, and Mary, his princess, who was the daughter of the late sovereign, were proclaimed in the city, king and queen of England, France, and Ireland, in the presence of many thousands of spectators.

of the River

Ouse.

The year 1689 was distinguished by one of the greatest Inundation floods ever known at York. In October the river Ouse so much overflowed its banks, that during three successive days, boats were absolutely required at the west-end of the bridge. The Duke of Wirtemberg, with a number of Danish soldiers, amounting to 5,000 foot and 1,000 horse, passed the winter in York and in the adjoining villages. They were on their route to Ireland, for which place they embarked in the spring of 1690.

In 1694, April 2nd, a terrible fire broke out on the premises of Charles Hall, a flax dresser, in the parish of All Saints, High Ousegate, which raged with such fury that the houses on both sides of the street were soon enveloped in one tremendous conflagration. No lives, however, were lost on the occasion, but the fire continued for eight successive hours, within which time nearly thirty houses were burnt to the ground.

An act of parliament having passed for the regulation of the gold and silver currency of the country, the old coin was called in. One of the king's mints was consequently erected in the Manor-house, without Bootham Bar, and bullion and plate were coined in 1696, to the amount of £308,621 sterling.

On the 28th of May, 1746, the Prince of Hesse honoured York with his presence, whilst on his journey from Scotland to London, after the decisive battle of Culloden. On the 23rd of July, William, Duke of Cumberland, second son of George II., arrived at York, having been invited by the Lord-mayor and commonalty; his grace was attended by Lords Cathcart and Ancram, with several other military officers. He alighted at the precentor's house in the Minster yard, and was received by the Archbishop, the two Judges of Assize, and the High Sheriff,

Prince of

Hesse at

York.

Execution

of Rebels.

Terrible hurricane.

&c. A collation was prepared at the expense of the city, of
which the Duke and the Archbishop partook.
After supper

the Lord-mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs, presented the duke with
the freedom of the city. It was about nine o'clock in the evening
when the duke and his attendants arrived, and at twelve the
same night they departed. Many of the rebels who were at that
time tried at York were convicted, and twenty-two were executed.
As on former occasions, two of them were afterwards beheaded,
William Connolly and James Mayne, whose heads were placed
on iron spikes over Micklegate Bar. In the year 1754 those two
heads were stolen away; the theft was effected in the night of
the 28th of January by William Arundell, a tailor of York,
assisted by an Irish journeyman tailor.

On the 8th of January, 1762, war was formally declared in York against Spain, and on the following day the High Sheriff of the county, Sir John Lister Kaye, bart., attended by two regiments of militia, and many gentlemen, caused the under-sheriff to read a similar declaration at the castle.

A terrible hurricane was experienced at York in 1763; it commenced about nine in the evening, on Saturday the 1st of December, and continued till near eight o'clock the next morning. So powerful was the wind that the vane and part of the battlement at the west end of the Minster were blown down, and many houses in the city were greatly damaged.

In 1768, August 31st, the king of Denmark visited York, attended by many of his nobles and officers of state; they were accommodated at Mr. Bluitt's Inn, in Lendal. In the evening of that day the Lord-mayor and aldermen waited on his majesty, in the usual manner, and were received with great respect, but the king could not be prevailed upon to remain long in York. The following morning, after viewing the Minster and other objects of public interest, he hastened through Leeds and Manchester to London.

In November, 1773, Foster Powell, the celebrated pedestrian, engaged for a considerable wager to walk from London to York, and back to the former city, in six days. He commenced his journey on the morning of Monday, the 29th of November, and