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COMMERCIAL RESTRICTIONS.

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couraged from freighting the ships of her enemies, their navy in time to come would be decreased, diminished, and that of her subjects and friends increased and enlarged.” * It became a contest of commercial regulations between the duke of Burgundy and the English government, after more active hostilities had ceased, the duke being engaged in turmoils with his own subjects, and with the marauders whom the French king encouraged to provide for themselves upon his neighbour's territories, and the English seeking to maintain their ground in France, not to make conquests on the side of Artois or Flanders. The prohibition of English cloth in Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and Zeeland was a measure which the duke thought would injure England, A. D. and encourage his own manufactories: an ordinance, therefore, was published to this effect, and strictly enforced; and whatever English cloths were found were seized and forfeited. When a truce at length was made between the two powers, it was stipulated that this prohibition should be revoked: nevertheless, it was continued to be enforced, and that notwithstanding letters from the English government and demands of redress. At length they passed an act declaring, that unless this ordinance was repealed before the ensuing Michaelmas, no manner of merchandise or goods, of the growing or workmanship of the countries which the duke possessed, should be imported into England, on pain of forfeiture; the ordinance, it was said in the act, being " to the intolerable damage of all the commons of this realm, because many clothmakers, that is to say, men weavers, fullers, and dyers, and women websters, carders, and spinners, and others who were buyers and sellers of the materials in their various stages, had no other occupation ; and being deprived of this, to which of very necessity they were constrained for their living, were driven, by idleness and distress, to sin and evil life." † The act was re-enacted in the ensuing year.

The English had not yet turned their arms against + Sueyro, S14. 27 Hen. 6. c. 1.

20 Hen. 6. c. 1.

each other; nor, though the tide of fortune had turned against them in France, had they lost any of their military renown, or abated any thing of their pretensions. But their naval force appears to have been neglected; and while the three great powers of England, France, and Burgundy were eagerly engaged in the continental war, the trade of piracy flourished. A certain Hannequin Leeuw, who had been banished from Ghent for his misdeeds, took to this course, and pursued it with such success that he got together a squadron of eight or ten vessels, well armed and stored. He not only infested the coast of Flanders and Holland, and the English Channel, but scoured the coast of Spain, and even proceeded as far as the Straits of Gibraltar, making war indiscriminately upon all nations, and calling himself the Friend of God and the Enemy of all mankind. This wretch escaped the vengeance of man; but he, and, as it appears, the greater part, if not the whole, of his people, perished in a storm at sea. *The Easterlings, among whom the piratical spirit was still continued down from the days of the Vikingar, provoked at length the Hollanders and Zeelanders. They had been warned by one of their own people, more farsighted than themselves, not to rouse the lion; for if he was so far awakened as to feel his strength, he would be provoked to use it! Instead of listening to this counsel, they pursued their depredations, laughed at the demand of 50,000 florins for reparation, when it was made in the name of his countrymen by the burgomaster of Amsterdam; and, when they were required to choose between such amends and open war, made choice of fire and sword. Upon this the Hollanders and Zeelanders united their forces, sent a fleet to sea, and gave the Easterlings a great defeat, taking twenty of their ships, besides three vessels laden with salt and other commodities from Prussia, and a rich Venetian carrack in their company. This action was more important in its consequences than in itself: it made

*Monstrelet, vii. 347. Sueyro, 281.

EASTERLINGS DEFEATED.

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the two provinces sensible, for the first time, of their maritime strength, and gave a new impulse to that spirit of maritime adventure which they had recently begun to manifest. Till of late the Zeelanders had confined their trade to the northern and eastern ports, and to those of their French and English neighbours: a voyage to Spain had been considered among them to be so perilous, that whosoever undertook it settled his worldly and his spiritual affairs as if preparing for death before he set forth: from this time they carried on a brisk trade with Spain and Portugal. Till now they had borne the insults of the Easterlings as the weaker party after this victory they retaliated upon them, attacked and captured one of their admirals off the coast of Norway, hoisted a besom at the mast-head, in token that they had swept the seas; and, if their own chroniclers may be believed on such a subject, showed themselves as much superior to their enemies in the generous treatment of their prisoners as they had proved themselves to be in war.† But this redeeming virtue can have belonged only to individuals: it is certain that those who were engaged in this predatory warfare soon made no distinction between friend and foe, considering all as fair prize upon which they could lay strong hand. Under pretext of making war upon the Easterlings, the admiral Hendrick van Borselen, lord of Veere, entertained all the pirates and outlaws whom he could gather together, and carried on his depredations with equal audacity and address. The booty which he obtained enabled him to add largely to his possessions in Walcheren, by the purchase of confiscated estates; while he received others as grants from the duke, who thought it prudent, at any cost, to retain in his service, or at least in the profession of obedience, one who could render himself so destructive an enemy. This did not prevent the admiral-for he held that rank under the

*Chronicle of Zeeland by Jan Reygersbergh van Cortgene, quoted by Sueyro, ii. 312.

+ D'oude Chronijcke van Holland, Zeeland, &c. Dordrecht, 1620. p. 462. Tegenwoordige Staat der Vereenigde Nederlanden, x. 144, 145

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duke - from infesting the coast of Flanders, carrying off cattle from Cadsant, and selling them publicly in Zeeland. His excuse was, that the terrible character of his men compelled him to act as he did; and the duke admitted the exculpation, being fain to overlook outrages which he could neither prevent nor punish.* A. D. It was long since any sea rovers had infested England so boldly. A statute of this time sets forth that the poor merchants of this realm were daily robbed by the king's enemies, not only upon the sea, but in divers rivers and ports within the same realm, their ships and goods captured, their bodies taken and imprisoned with great duress, and put to great fines and ransoms: nor was this all; for "the king's poor subjects dwelling nigh the sea coasts were taken out of their own houses, with their chattels and children, and carried by the enemies where it pleased them.' In consequence of these complaints, the commons prayed the king to take order for the safe keeping of the sea; and represented that the least purveyance which could be made for his worship and the defence of the realm was to have upon the sea, from Candlemas to Martinmas, eight ships with four stages, carrying one with the other 150 men each. Every great ship was to have in its company a barge, with eighty men, and a ballinger, with forty; and there were also to be four pinnaces, with twenty-five men in each. They advised also that there "should be named eight knights and worthy esquires of the west, of the south, and of the north, so that no country should be displeased;" from these the king should choose such one as him liked to be chief captain, and the other seven should act under him, so that every great ship should have a captain on board. They named such ships as seemed to them proper for this service, and advised that when "stuffed and arrayed

+ 20 Hen. 6. c. 1.

Sueyro, 313, 314. They were the Nicholas of the Tower, at Bristol, the Katharine of the Burtows, at Dartmouth, and the Spanish ship that was the Lord Pouns (Poines), at the same port; Sir Philip Courtney's ship, at the port of London, and the Trinity, of the same port; at Hull, the Thomas, and that called Taurners, named Grace à Dieu; and the George at Newcastle.

EASTERLINGS DEFEATED.

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they should assemble in the Humber," there to obey such rule and governance as by their captains and under-captains should to them be ordained; and their muster to be seen by certain persons deputed thereto by the king's commission. In case any of the ships, barges, ballingers, or pinnaces named for this service should not be in England, or not in the port specified, or otherwise not to be had, the captain, or, in his absence, the under-captain, the esquire, to the ship so wanting should have full power to choose another like and fitting ship in its place. Proclamation was to be made in the said navy, that no harm or hurt was to be done by it to any ship of our friends, whereby any trouble or breaking of peace might fall between the king and his friends. When they brought any prize into port, neither goods nor ships might be disperbled till it had been duly ascertained whether they were enemy's property or friend's; but this proof was to be

The eight barges were to be one of Harry Russell's at Weymouth; one of sir Philip Courtney's; the Manlake at Plymouth; the Mary of Morsores, and the Pratt, both at Winchelsea; the Valentine of de Bew fitz and Berlynes at London; the Slags at Saltash; and a barge without a name at Falmouth.

One of the ballingers was at Newcastle, and one was sir Philip Courtney's, who seems to have been a great shipowner; the Palmers of sir William Bouvill at Fowey; and one with the unaccountable name of Pygfygg, belonging to Wards and Cooks at Dover. The other three were at Southampton, at St. Osyth's in Essex, and at London.

One of the pinnaces was Harry Russell's; one was at Hastings, the other two at Dartmouth.

The wages of the men two shillings each per month; their victualling fourteen pence per week, the estimated cost in food and wages for six months 5168.; and for eight months yearly following, during the grant of the subsidies for two years upon wines and merchandise imported and exported, 68907. 13s. 8d.

The names are here given as Mr. Bree has printed them, who evidently has often failed in deciphering the manuscripts before him. There is a paper in Rymer, which probably relates to one of the ships enumerated in the list; and certainly to the builder. It is dated 1449, and states that John Taverner, of Kingston upon Hull, had built a ship adeo magnam sicut magnam carrakam seu majorem (quæ quidem navis Grace Dieu nuncupatur) ad præsens in portu nostro Londoniæ existentem. Because of its size the king granted him permission to call it also the Grace Dieu, and to freight it with wool, tin, pelles agninas, pelles lanatas, passelarges, et alia coria tam fresca quam tannata, and any other merchandise; paying duties for them, and exporting them through the Straits of Morocco to the ports of Italy, and bringing back bow-staves, wax, and such other things as were valde necessariæ in this kingdom. Rymer, xi. 258.

These are the earliest notices of a name which became under the Tudors so well known in the navy.

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