London guild conflicts

London guild conflicts
Factional civic strife among London guilds
Part of Urban politics in late medieval England during the reigns of Edward III and Richard II
Plan of London about 1381
Date1370s–1380s
Location
51°30′46″N 0°05′30″W / 51.5129°N 0.0918°W / 51.5129; -0.0918
Caused byGuild rivalries; Black Death; bullion shortage; heavy taxation; weak royal government; trade monopolies; disputes over civic self government
GoalsControl of civic offices and policy; regulation of markets (e.g. fishmongers’ monopoly); protection or reform of city liberties
MethodsContested elections; petitions to Crown and Parliament; street mobilization and intimidation; legal prosecutions; occasional riots
StatusResolved by 1390s; factional turbulence diminished thereafter
Parties
Greater guilds (victuallers) — e.g. Grocers, Fishmongers; allies in royal administration
Lesser trades — e.g. cordwainers, butchers; reformers favouring wider participation and open markets; John of Gaunt
Lead figures
Casualties
ArrestedNotably the arrest and exile of John Northampton (1384); other detentions during contested elections, and executions of John Constantine and Nicholas Brembre
Overlapped with national crises including the Good Parliament (1376), Bad Parliament (1377), the Peasants' Revolt (1381), and the ascendancy of the Lords Appellant (1387–1388).
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The London guild conflicts refer to period of intense civic conflict in the City of London during the 1370s and 1380s. The conflict was between rival political factions often centered on craft guilds or “misteries,” the predecessors of the later livery companies. These divisions reflected wider national divisions in the reigns of Edward III and Richard II and which largely centered around John of Gaunt's influence in the city.