St Bartholomew's Fair licensed in London

1133

Henry I granted his jester-turned-canon Rahere the right to hold an annual cloth fair at Smithfield beside the priory Rahere had built after surviving malaria in Rome. The fair would run every August for more than seven centuries. It grew from a modest cloth market into one of England's great commercial and theatrical gatherings, famous for its puppet shows, sideshows, and the annual spectacle of livestock sales.