One of the last acts of Edward was to restore the Bishop of Winchester to the temporalities of which he had been deprived by the duke, and this restitution was made at the instance and by the influence of Alice Perers,(615) who within a few weeks robbed her dying paramour of his finger rings and fled.(616)
Shortly after Edward had breathed his last, a deputation from the City waited upon the Prince of Wales at Kennington. John Philipot again acted as spokesman, and after alluding to the loss which the country had recently sustained, and recommending the City of London--the "king's chamber"--to the prince's favour, begged him to assist in effecting a reconciliation with Lancaster. This Richard promised to do, and a few days later the deputation again waited on the young king--this time at Shene, where preparations were being made for the late king's obsequies--and a reconciliation took place, the king kissing each member of the deputation, and promising to be their friend, and to look after the City's interests as if they were his own.(617) Formal announcement of the reconciliation was afterwards made at Westminster, and Peter de la Mare, long a prisoner in Nottingham Castle, was set free, to the great joy of the citizens.(618)
At the express wish of the citizens, Richard--the "Londoners' king," as the nobles were in the habit of cynically styling the new sovereign, for the reason that he had ascended the throne more by the assistance of the _bourgeois_ Londoner than of the nobility(619)--took up his quarters at the Tower, whence he proceeded in state to Westminster for his coronation. Great preparations were made in the city to tender his progress through the streets one of exceptional splendour. The claim of the mayor and citizens to assist the chief butler at the banquet was discourteously refused by Robert Belknap, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who bluntly told them that they might be of service in washing up the pots and pans. The citizens had their revenge, however. They set up an effigy of the man at a conspicuous arch or tower in Cheapside, in which he appeared to the whole of the procession as it passed on its way to Westminster, in the ignominious attitude of vomiting wine.(620) This was enough; the Londoners gained the day, and were allowed to perform their customary services at the banquet, and the mayor got his gold cup.(621)