The Lord Mayor
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mayor:
alcalde
’s Show is London’s biggest annual party. It’s free, fun, and a chance
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chance:
oportunidad
to enjoy
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to enjoy:
disfrutar
London’s diversity. But the history of the procession, which forms the heart of the show, goes all the way back
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goes all the way back:
retroceder hasta
to 1215 and one king’s desperate attempt
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attempt:
intento
to hold on
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to hold on:
aferrarse
to power.
LONDON’S first Lord Mayor
In the early
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in the early:
a principios de
1200s, King John had a big problem on his hands. He was losing money and power fast. England’s rich nobles were ready to rebel against him. And so, in 1215, ‘Bad’ King John signed a charter giving more rights to the nobles of London
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SPEAK UP EXPLAINS
"El malvado rey Juan I firmó un fuero que otorgó más derechos a los nobles de Londres". También conocido como Juan sin Tierra (Lackland), ya que no heredó propiedades al ser el último de sus hermanos, tenía la reputación de ser particularmente cruel y de gustarle el vino malo, por lo que se ganó el apelativo de ‘bad’. Juan I es el monarca que aparece en muchas de las historias relacionadas con la leyenda de Robin Hood.
, including the right to elect their own mayor once
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once:
una vez
a year.
Procession
Because King John wanted London under his influence, he added
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to add:
añadir
one condition: each new mayor would have to travel from London to Westminster, which was then a separate city two miles away
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two miles away:
a 3,2 km de distancia
, to swear loyalty
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to swear loyalty:
jurar lealtad
to the monarch. In those days, that meant taking a boat
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boat:
barco
west up
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west up:
al oeste río arriba
the River Thames. The newly-elected
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newly-elected:
recién elegido
mayor’s journey from the City of London to the King’s residence in Westminster turned into
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to turn into:
convertirse
a procession. It has been celebrated almost
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almost:
casi
every year for the last eight centuries, even taking place
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to take place:
tener lugar
in times of war.
21st-century procession
Thousands of people still come out every year to watch the Lord Mayor’s Show with its colourful and noisy
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noisy:
ruidosa
procession through the streets of ‘the City’. There are floats
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floats:
carrozas
, a gold carriage
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carriage:
carruaje
, costumes, music, horses and a strong sense of London’s fascinating past.
an amazing cat
London’s most famous Lord Mayor was Richard ‘Dick’ Whittington. Born in 1356, he came to London from the countryside
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countryside:
campo
, made big money
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to make big money:
hacer una fortuna
as a merchant, became a friend of King Richard II and was elected Lord Mayor of London three times. A popular but not very accurate story says that Dick arrived in the City without a penny and made his fortune thanks to his amazing cat.
The Lord Mayor and the Mayor
Are the Lord Mayor of London and the Mayor of London the same person? No! The Lord Mayor of London is the position that goes back to 1215 and is concerned with
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concerned with:
ocupado en
issues
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issues:
cuestiones
in London’s financial district (the City of London). The Mayor of London (a position only created in the year 2000) deals with
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to deal with:
tratar con
issues in Greater London, especially transport. The current
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current:
actual
Mayor of London is Sadiq Khan (first elected in 2016). Before him it was Boris Johnson.
