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As King Henry III lay dying at Westminster Palace on October 1272, he was disturbed by a mob of rowdy Londoners who had chased their aldermanic governors from the London Guildhall and burst into Westminster Hall shouting ‘we are the commune of the city and to us belongs the election of the city’s mayor, and we definitely want Walter Hervey, whom we have elected, to be mayor’. For the next three weeks these events were repeated on an almost daily basis as the election for city’s mayor that year descended into chaos. This article explores why this election proved to be so decisive and considers the controversial career of the popular choice for mayor, Walter Hervey.