The Earls of Leicester had also another fair, held on the Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross, May the third (not on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Sep. 14th, as Miss Bateson inadvertently stated), and the fifteen days following. The toil of this fair was valued in the year 1327, after the death of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, at £1 a year. This was no large sum; nevertheless, William of Dunstable, who was Mayor of Leicester from 1357 to 1360, did his best to relieve the town from it, as well as from other vexatious imposts. In the year 1357 he went up to London, with some leading citizens of Leicester, and, after lengthy negotiations, succeeded in gaining his end as regards this fair. Their expenses came to £6 7s. 934 d., a considerable sum in those days, and evidence of protracted business. The result of his efforts was a Royal Charter, bearing date the 2nd day of July, 1360, whereby the date of the fair was altered by King Edward III, from May to the three days before Michaelmas Day, Michaelmas Day, and three days after, "in such a way that every native or stranger coming to the town and suburb of Leicester by reason of the aforesaid fair staying there and going away from thence shall be quit both at the said fair and also before and also for ever of toll, stallage, pickage, and other customs and tributes whatsoever." Furthermore, by a supplementary charter of August 15th, 1360, the Duke himself granted to the Mayor and burgesses of Leicester the entire ordering of the fair, and assignment of the stalls and plots, the management being placed in the hands of the Mayor and two or three burgesses chosen by the community to act as Stewards. He reserved, however, the "amercements and all other profits accruing to us in the said new fair, to be levied by the bailiffs of us and our heirs of the said town of Leicester, that is, the fines imposed at the Courts of the Fair." Subsequently John of Gaunt, by the Charter which he signed in 1375, expressly included in his grant to the Mayor, burgesses and commonalty of the town of Leicester, "all manner of profits of portmoots, courts of the fair, and of the market of the said town and suburbs," so that, from this time forward, all the rights and profits of this fair, as well as its management, were vested absolutely in the community of the town.
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