... Saxon monarchy could not repulse the Normans . After the defeat of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 , illiam , Duke of Normandy , quickly installed himself in London , had himself croned on Chrismas Day and made it his headquarters , building the hite Toer , a monumental stone keep that as to form the core of the Toer of London . The Normans restordthe alls and rebuilt London Bridge in stone for the first time . illiam II , the Conquerors son , developed estminster Hall 3km 2 mi upriver from the Toer as his royal palace and a bolt-hole safe from fractious burghers . Thereafter , the capitals history as alays in some measure a tale of to cities the City of London itself , the square mile first circumscribed by the Roman alls , settled by the Saxons and Normans , and destined to become the economic activity and , on the other hand , the City of estminster ith its to focuses of estminster Abbey andestminster Hall , hich became the home of the royal court and later of Parliament .The Normans and later the Plantagenets , made England strong and London flourished as their capital and as a port and manufacturing centre . Much of Englands lucrative trade in ool and agricultural produce as floated don the Thames and exported via the harves and jetties just donstream of London Bridge . ithin the alls , skilled crafts flourished and especially from the 14th century , these ere organized into over 100guilds , such as the Mercers , Salters , Fishmongers and Vintners . A mixture of trade union and empliyers company , guilds ere self-regulating bodies ith the poer to admit apprentices and appoint freemen ho thereby became citizens .Trades ere localized and often associated ith a particular street that still survives todayfor example , ood Street , Milk Street , Ironmonger Lane and Poultry still branch off Cheapside cheap is from the Anglo Saxon for market .London developed administrative institutions . From just before 1200 there is evidence of a mayor . This official seems to have had dual loyalties , being in part an officer of the Cron charged ith carrying out royal bussiness , hile also serving as a focus for citizen loyality a tension indicative of the often strained relationship beteen the City and the Cro in the latter part of the Middle Ages . Many kings , notably the Edards , treated the City of London as a milch co , a handy source of taxes and revenues . Yet only a foolish monarch ould risk permanently alienating the loyalties of the merchant princes of the City of London , as Charles I as later to discover to his cost .From the 15th century , Londons government as conducted from the Guildhall , an impressive stone building that in part survives . Beneath the Mayor there as the Court of Aldermen , the Common Counciland the Common Hall . Tensions often arose among these bodies , and also beteen the assemblies and the guilds , but London managed to escape the internecine urban arfare so common in late medieval Italy . The emergence of Parliament conferred further importance on London , since its meetings ere increasingly held in estminster Hall .Londons prosperity as temporarily affected by the Black Death of 1348-1349, a bubonic plague epidemic that killed up to one third of the entire population . That did not , hoever , prove a long term setback and much evidence siggests thatLondon enjoyed self confident prosperity in the late Middle Ages . The guilds stage ... Download