John Northampton was a reformist Lord Mayor of London

Lord Mayor of London

The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

 in 1381 and 1382, during dissension in favor of reform of its Common Council in the early years of Richard II

Richard II of England

Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...

's reign. When the oligarchic

Oligarchy

Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...

 leaders of London were able to engineer the overthrow of his faction, even the book of records of reform legislation was burned. The mob politics of such radical movements increased the uneasiness of the great about allowing popular participation in government.

He had also served as Sheriff of London in 1377.

External links

• Florilegium Urbanum: Party politics lead to civil disorder