Smithfield, London by Charles of France at Paris a few years earlier, upon the arrival of his consort Isabel of Bavaria. Geoffrey Chaucer supervised preparations for the tournament as a clerk to the King. Along with Tyburn, Smithfield was for centuries the main site for the public execution of heretics and dissidents in London. The Scottish nobleman Sir William Wallace was executed in 1305 at West Smithfield. The market was the meeting place prior to the Peasants' Revolt and where the Revolt's leader, Wat Tyler, was slain by Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor of London on 15 June 1381. Religious dissenters (Catholics
James Townsend (Lord Mayor of London) a co-founder. He turned from a friend of Wilkes's to one of his fiercest opponents. Townsend was elected Lord Mayor of London in 1772. Wilkes had come first in the polls but Sheriff Richard Oliver manipulated the voting process to prevent the election of Wilkes. This created political turmoil in the City and a mob incensed by Townsend's coup rioted outside Guildhall during the ball on Lord Mayor's Day. Townsend's arms were erased from the church of St Helen's Bishopsgate. John Wilkes was eventually elected Lord Mayor in 1774. In 1781, Townsend presented a petition for electoral reform from the