The principal object of the next two chapters of this book will be to inquire how far the disillusionment and dissatisfaction which affected, to a greater or lesser degree, so many members of the London concessionary interest were reinforced by the experiences of some of them as City fathers. The present chapter deals with the significance in this context of what may loosely be described as local issues peculiar to the relations between crown and municipality but none the less significant for that. The succeeding chapter looks at some of the issues which divided crown and court from what came to be the great majority of the political nation with the aim of seeing how far and in what manner they were reflected within the City. In the final chapter the story will be taken up to and beyond the outbreak of civil war so as to parallel the treatment of the fortunes of the concessionary interest in chapter 4 and to attempt to throw some new light on the problem of London's allegiance in the struggle.

Insufficient attention has hitherto been paid to the multiplying occasions of friction between the municipal governors of London and the government of Charles I during the two decades or so before the constitutional revolution of 1641–2 in the City.