There were three city councils, “the twelve,” “the twenty-four,” and “the forty-eight,” as they were called.  There were the Aldermen and Councillors—­the “lords” and “commons” of the municipal parliament.  The ordinary council-chamber was at Ouse Bridge:  the other was the Common Hall, the present Guildhall.  Sometimes the whole community of citizens met, when for the moment the government of the city became essentially and practically democratic.  This was only done on important occasions to decide broad questions of policy, or when numbers were needed to enforce a decision.  The commons really possessed no administrative power.  The form of civic government was supposed to be representative, but as a matter of fact it was not only not founded on popular election (a procedure enforced in 1835 by the Municipal Reform Act), but was kept exclusively in the hands of the wealthy merchant and trading class, the middle class.  Men of this class became Aldermen.  When a vacancy occurred in the upper house of civic government, they chose a man like themselves.  The Mayor was elected by the Aldermen, who naturally chose one of themselves.  In fact the government of the city was in the hold of a “close self-elected Corporation.”

The civic spirit developed a good deal during the fifteenth century, no doubt in connection with the simultaneous increase in the wealth and social pretension of the rising merchant middle class.  It appeared in the greater respect bestowed on the office of Mayor and the pomp and reverence attached to his position.  The “right worshipful” the Mayor and the Aldermen wore rich state robes edged with fur.  In addition, contemporary city records reflect the new spirit in such expressions as “the worshupful cite,” “the said full honourabill cite,” “this full nobill city.”  This spirit, however, developed more fully in the sixteenth century.

The Mayor held his court in the Common Hall, where he heard pleas about apprentices and mysteries (i.e. the rules of the crafts); offences against the customs of the city; breaches of the King’s peace.  It was his duty to administer the statute merchant.  The Recorder was the official civic lawyer.

The governors of the city were intimately connected with the control of trade, and the rule of the pageants.  These phases of city life overlapped considerably and were interdependent.  Weaving was the principal trade.  The Mayor and Aldermen were the masters of the mysteries of the weavers.  Power to enforce the ordinances of the other mysteries was granted by the Mayor and Corporation.

There were times when the King took the government into his own hands.  This was done during the rebellion of the Percies, a northern family skilled and experienced in rebelling.  Henry IV. withdrew the right of government from the city in 1405, but he restored it in 1406 after the execution of Archbishop Scrope, who had been so popular with the people of York.