to the monopoly of the fishmongers, and broke this by enacting ordinances to open the markets to non-resident tradesmen and forbidding the wholesale purchase of fish for profit. He later applied such measures to trade in bread, ale, wine and poultry. He increased the circulation of farthings by reminting £80 into 76,000 coins, ordered bakers to make farthing measures of bread for sale, and ordered that traders, mass priests and others accept payments in the coin or give their services free. There were also moralistic ordinances made against prostitution, misrepresentation and false practices in business. A servant of Northampton's during his mayoralty was Thomas Usk who, after being arrested in 1384 by Northampton's rival Nicholas Brembre, gained release by informing on his former master through a legal appeal. Arrest, imprisonment, pardon At the election in 1383 Northampton was ousted by Brembre, who packed the Guildhall with armed support and got himself elected. Brembre had Northampton arrested on charges of sedition on 7 February 1384, and provoking an 'insurrection' in the city on the 11th, involving shop closures by supporters. His kinsman, John Constantine, was executed for his part in leading this. Northampton and two associates, John More and Richard Norbury, were sentenced to death in trial before the King at Reading, Berkshire but this was commuted to 10 years' imprisonment, each man to be held in a separate prison at least 100 leagues outside London. Northampton, possibly through the influence of Cornish judge Sir Robert Tresilian, was confined at Tintagel. In 1386 the King pardoned Northampton but he remained banished from the city. Following the Merciless Parliament, as a result of which Brembre and Usk were executed in 1388, his situation improved with a full pardon granted in December 1390 and a full restoration of his citizenship in 1395. Last years Northampton died in 1398 and was buried in the church of the Hospital of St Mary de Elsyngspital, Cripplegate. He had prospered to the extent of leaving property valued about £5,000, enabling him to be a benefactor to the Charterhouse monastery, to whose monks he made gifts of dates, figs and raisins during Lent. See also Thomas Usk References External links Florilegium Urbanum: Party politics lead to civil disorder Year of birth missing 14th-century lord mayors of London Sheriffs of the City of London English MPs 1378 1398 deaths Members of the Parliament of England for the City of