because of their irregular and "grafting" financial operations.
[Footnote: Trevelyan, p. 10.] The Londoners paraded the streets in
demonstration against John of Gaunt. The latter demanded revenge and
gained the deposition of the mayor, Adam Staple. The Londoners rallied
and elected Nicholas Brembre mayor. [Footnote: idem, p. 49.] Brembre and
his allies defended the Londoners vigorously before Parliament.
Naturally then John of Gaunt felt a still greater hatred of Brembre and
his party and was willing to act as patron to their opponents. The
latter in turn, eager to gain any aid they could in their struggles,
willingly accepted John of Gaunt as a friend. This, as clearly as I can
make out, is the train of circumstances which brought about an
unquestioned condition: John of Gaunt's hatred of London and especially
of Brembre and his party, and his patronage of John of Northampton, the
chief representative of the clothiers. Brembre's chief political allies
were Sir William Walworth, Sir John Philipot and Nicholas Exton. These
men were very definitely patronised by Richard II in opposition to John
Northampton, Richard Northbury and John More.

During Chaucer's tenure of the office of controller only one certain
adherent of the Northampton faction acted as collector--Richard
Northbury, who was dropped from the office almost as soon as Richard II
came to the throne. The other men with whom Chaucer had to deal were the
very leaders of the royal faction. Further they were the most eminent
merchants of their time. In the [Footnote: (3) See Robert Girdelere, p.
46.] first half of the fourteenth century the king had been forced to
rely upon foreign, especially Italian, merchants for financial aids,
loans, etc., since no group of Englishmen could control sufficient money
to aid him in an emergency. [Footnote: W. D. Chester, Chronicles of the
Customs Department, pp. 13 ff.] But in the second half he had at his
hand a group of London merchants, powerful enough to meet the sudden