A Parliament of Spies
“Armed militia filled the streets. They clattered about in groups of four or five, sharpened swords swinging at their hips. Bowmen were constantly arriving from the shires. There were horsemen. Contingents of foot soldiers. Liveried armies pouring in to the town houses and palaces of the magnates.
The soon to be opened Parliament brought other kinds of incomers to fill the streets. Shire knights accompanied by their own small henchmen of liveried conscripts from the manors. Convoys of the nobili...ty with armed guards wearing the signs of their allegiance. Bishops with sumptuously attired retinues of acolytes. City dignitaries, aldermen, burgesses, guildsmen of every description, all accompanied by servants and apprentices. There were clerks by the shoal, lawyers and serjeants-at-law plying for trade, general assistants to fetch and carry, and scriveners, parchment sellers, purveyors of wax for seals and candles, craftsmen in wood and leather, stone and glass and precious metals; along with bow makers, fletchers, saddlers, carters, grooms, lorimers, stable lads and horse traders, there were wheelwrights, there were cloth workers, all accompanied by a hurrying, ever-changing crowd of servants, pages, messengers, go-betweens and attendants and, everywhere, the necessary marketeers to pander to all needs and desires.MoreLess
The soon to be opened Parliament brought other kinds of incomers to fill the streets. Shire knights accompanied by their own small henchmen of liveried conscripts from the manors. Convoys of the nobili...ty with armed guards wearing the signs of their allegiance. Bishops with sumptuously attired retinues of acolytes. City dignitaries, aldermen, burgesses, guildsmen of every description, all accompanied by servants and apprentices. There were clerks by the shoal, lawyers and serjeants-at-law plying for trade, general assistants to fetch and carry, and scriveners, parchment sellers, purveyors of wax for seals and candles, craftsmen in wood and leather, stone and glass and precious metals; along with bow makers, fletchers, saddlers, carters, grooms, lorimers, stable lads and horse traders, there were wheelwrights, there were cloth workers, all accompanied by a hurrying, ever-changing crowd of servants, pages, messengers, go-betweens and attendants and, everywhere, the necessary marketeers to pander to all needs and desires.MoreLess
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