Dick Whittington - Businessman, Politician, Cat Lover
Dick Whittington (1358-1423) was lord mayor of London three times in the early 1400s. Everyone agrees on that. How he got his cat is not entirely clear.
There are two Dick Whittingtons: 1) The Man and 2) The Legend. Maybe there’s three, if you count the cat.
Dick Whittington: The Legend(this is the folktale version that appears ~200 years after he died)
Dick was a poor orphan in London, trying to make his way all alone. He spent all his money on a cat to chase away the mice from the attic where he slept. He rented his cat out to a rich foreign merchant to chase away the mice from his ship, and Dick earned 10 times what he paid for the cat. That was the start of his business empire.
Dick used the money he earned from cat-renting to buy some fancy clothes and become a gentleman merchant. He continued his rise in the world and became Lord Mayor of London three times. He walked around town with the cat on his shoulder, being generous and giving money and sweets to children.
Sir Richard Whittington: The Man(this is the version backed up by plain old facts)
Dick was the third son of Sir William Whittington, a knight unable to endow his son with a country estate, so Dick would have to make his own way in the world. And that he did as a mercer, a seller of the finest cloth in England.
His customers were the highest and mightiest in the realm, including King Richard II, and when he was overthrown by King Henry IV, Dick presented the new king with clothes fit for a noble ruler, not some upstart usurper.
Clothes make the man, so they say, and Price Hal, the future King Henry V also was dressed in Dick’s finest fabrics. Dick not only sold the kings expensive clothes, he also loaned them money to help them finance the Hundred Years War against France.
Dick Whittington’s close association with the high and mighty led him into politics, first as an alderman (think city council), then the city’s sheriff (don’t think cowboy boots and six-shooter), then Lord Mayor of London for three terms: 1397-99, 1406-07, and 1419-20.
His wife predeceased him, and they had no children, so he spent his fortune on philanthropy. He endowed many public works projects, which included repairing bridges, building public drinking fountains, establishing multiple libraries, improving the squalid Newgate Prison, and founding a women’s refuge for single mothers. He established a church that burned down in the Great Fire of London of 1666 and an almshouse for the poor that is still active today.
That’s a pretty impressive list of accomplishments, whether he had a cat on his shoulder or not.
Either version of Dick Whittington serves as a pretty good example for modern aspiring business tycoons. He’s about as close as you’re going to get to a self-made man in the medieval period.
It’s not a rags-to-riches story, as only he started out at the bottom of the top echelon, but he made his fortune through commercial trade, not plundering and conquest, so he’s a better role model for today’s corporate warriors than most of his time.
Dick Whittington is also a good role model for public service. It seems like he entered politics because he wanted to make London a better place rather than for the glory that would be heaped upon him for his political positions. That makes him downright weird in modern times, where so many politicians don’t even pretend to care about helping improve their constituents’ lives, instead spending all their time scoring points against the opposition and fundraising and getting media attention.
Dick was charitable in his giving both during his life and through his will. He advocated for laws that protected child laborers centuries before it would become fashionable. In a rough and tumble time, he was a pretty good guy. Maybe it was the cat?
And about your cat, yes, everyone is glad to see Miss Whiskers on your lap when you’re on video conference. There are many that will smile when she’s lounging on the back of your couch or playing in her multi-level cat gym behind you. Whether or not your coworkers enjoy seeing her in costume is a personal choice. Maybe don’t force everyone to see that, no matter how cute you think it might be.
