The New Murrey and Blue blog

“….Watchmen were organized groups of men, usually authorized by a state, government, city, or society, to deter criminal activity and provide law enforcement as well as traditionally perform the services of public safety, fire watch, crime prevention, crime detection, recovery of stolen goods. The streets in London were dark and had a shortage of artificial light that brought a heightened threat of danger. So from 1485 to the 1820s, in the absence of a police force, it was the parish-based watchmen who were responsible for keeping order in London’s streets….”

The above extract is from this site , from which I take it that 1485 was when London’s watchmen were first appointed. Well, guess that also means the Wunderkind Henry VII was the inspiration. After all, he was the first to do everything else, including bringing the Renaissance to England. No doubt he had it in a sack slung over his horse’s rump as he lurked at the rump of his own army. No, no, stop it viscountessw, your Yorkist teeth are gnashing again.

Well, it can’t have been Richard III (the true king in 1485) because he already knew all about the London Watch, which had been operating for centuries and certainly was not a Tudor innovation. As it was already in existence, he’d hardly pretend to invent it. He was too intelligent and comfortable in his own skin. Unlike his paranoid foe, of course. I fear the above extract makes full obeisance to the Tudor Weasel’s propaganda machine, which itself was certainly invented by the Wunderkind!

And should you doubt my assertion concerning the watch predating the usurper, go to this site. 

And one final gnash of the teeth. I couldn’t find an illustration of watchmen that definitely predated the Tydder. I therefore conclude that all such incriminating scribbles went into the same razor-sharp Tudor shredder as Titulus Regius. So, hopefully, a surviving example will indeed come to light one day….

PS: Hold the mayo, ladies and gentlemen, Wikipedia has solved the mystery, see this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchman_(law_enforcement): “….By 1415 a watch was appointed to the Parliament of England and in 1485 King Henry VII established a household watch that became known as the Beefeaters….” So that’s it. He didn’t create a watch for the good of the people, he created his own little watch, just to “watch” his miserable back….” We should have known, right?