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Ok, let’s start with the City of London: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/law-historic-governance/freedom-of-the-city https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/a

Ok, let’s start with the City of London: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/law-historic-governance/freedom-of-the-city https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/law-historic-govern... Nothing about drawn swords or sheep. And another article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_City “the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand—although today the title of "freeman" confers no special privileges” “While sheep have occasionally been driven over London Bridge by Freemen on special occasions, these privileges are now effectively symbolic.” Effectively, what once was is no longer, but people still want to believe it to be. TLDR; don’t go carrying a drawn sword or herding sheep across the bridge (unless it’s during one of the ceremonial and permitted sheep drives).

tdeck 4y ago
It's interesting; I read these sources completely differently. The first doesn't enumerate any privileges of the title. For example, it doesn't mention voting rights afforded to liverymen in London's traditional elections (the titles are basically sinecures, but they do come with money and a certain amount of prestige so there's arguably a point to them). The quote about driving sheep being largely symbolic, I read that as saying "technically you can do this but hardly anyone exercises the right because there's no economic benefit". No shepherds would want or need to bring sheep to market in that particular way. No flocks of sheep are even likely nearby. So in that sense the benefits are all relatively silly and unusual, not necessarily practical.