News Story
Dick Whittington, or rather, Richard Whittington was a real Mayor of London almost 700 years ago, and unfortunately, no one knows if he actually had a cat!
‘London’s streets are paved in gold’ is a famous line from the original story as Dick Whittington ventures into the city from Gloucestershire, and although he did go to London and climb his way up, Shropshire council claims that Dick was from their Village of Whittington. Whittington castle was owned by his future father-in-law and Shropshire Council believes that Richard Whittington was indeed a peasant who took on the name of his village and left for London to find his riches.
After learning everything through an apprenticeship, Richard became a Mercer first, a merchant who imported valuable fabrics from overseas and sold them to the Royal Court. He became so wealthy, the crown itself owed him money and later borrowed money from him. Because of these favours, King Richard II allowed him to export goods without paying customs duty. He then became the head of the Mercer’s Company, which still exists to this day!
Dick Whittington then married Alice Fitzwarren and became a magistrate of the City of London, but when the mayor passed away, King Richard II appointed Dick to become the new mayor. (I guess it pays off when you lend money to the royal family!?). The title ‘Lord Mayor’ didn’t actually exist until a long time after and was added into the stories when it was normal to call the mayor that, so Dick was just called ‘The Mayor of London’. It was true however, that he was mayor thrice! He was even elected four times but as some terms were joint, it counted as three times. King Richard II passed away and was succeeded by King Henry IV who also relied on Dick – so much that by the end of his reign, he borrowed £21,562 which in today’s money is… £20,816,956.19! Almost £21million!
Dick died in 1423 and left behind his fortune to London to make it better for everyone else. All that money was able to build schools, almshouses, a library, improving the sewage system and rebuilding a prison (which coincidently had a carving of a cat on the gates). The Mercer’s Company became a charity which still functions today and distributes £10million a year to important causes!
Sadly, Dick’s body was dug up several times as people thought there were riches buried with him. There was not, but his body became lost because of this and mysteriously, in the 1940s in the attempt to find the body again, they instead found a mummified cat!
A stone cat was placed on Dick Whittington’s memorial in London to honour the legend he became, and his story inspired many to write stories, plays and perform pantomimes about his life.
And as for the legend of the cat? Historians can’t figure out where the cat came from but many say, since he made his fortunes from being a merchant, the cat came from his boat, which was called Cat!
Dick Whittington and his Cat runs from November 2024 - January 2025, book tickets now!
