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1441.

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

*Sueyro, 313, 314.

20 Hen. 6. c. 1.

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.

95

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 Bewfitz 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 51687.; and for eight months yearly following, during the grant of the subsidies for two years upon wines and merchandise imported and exported, 68901. 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

made within six weeks after the havening of the vessel. Half the amount of the prize should belong to the masters of the ships, quarter-masters, shipmen, and soldiers; the other half to be divided into three parts, of which two belonged to the owners of the fleet, and the other to the chief captain and under-captain, the chief captain having two parts of this share, and the under one. * No portion was claimed for the crown; perhaps it was considered as having no claim, when none of the ships belonged to it.

The seas seem to have been better kept while this armament was maintained. An incident of nearly the same date may serve to show the insecure position of foreigners in this country, and the dangers to which they were exposed, not merely in any outbreak of the rabble, but by the uncharitable temper of the people. A. D. A petition was presented to "the wise and discreet 1441. commons of this land in parliament, showing that some

Genoese ships, with many Saracens covertly on board, had entered the harbour at Rhodes, under the flag of knights hospitallers; that their object had been to give the said Saracens good knowledge of the entries into that isle, and that they had committed depredations there upon ships, persons, and cattle, to the great reproach of all Christians, and great hurt and disworship of the master and brethren of the convent of Rhodes; wherefore the petitioners prayed the commons, in their wise discretion, to pray the king and the lords spiritual and temporal, that all the Genoese in this land might be held in such reputation and conceit as enemies to the Christian people, succourers and helpers to the enemies of the Christian faith and miscreants; and, moreover, to purvey such remedy and punishment against their demerits and evil purpose as might be pleasant to God, profit and ease to Christian people, honour and worship to this land, and surety and salvation to our holy religion, for the love of God, and in the way of charity." The answer to this address was, that the king, when

* Bree's Cursory Sketch, 115-118.

TRUCE WITH FRANCE.

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he should be more fully informed, would demean him-
self herein as a Christian prince ought to do, in keeeping
of the Christian faith.* A few years afterwards, a re-
port prevailed that a Bristol merchant, Sturmyn by
name, who had travelled with his ship in divers parts
of the Levant and of the East, had obtained some green
pepper and other spice, with the intention of having them
set and sown in England; and that the Genoese, know-
ing this, had waited for him upon the sea, and spoiled
his ship and those in his company. Fabyan, by whom
this is related, says,
"it is full like to be untrue that
the Genoese should spoil him for any such cause; for
there is no nation that dealeth so little with spices."
But, with whatever pretext, an outrage had been com-
mitted, for which all the Genoese merchants in London
were committed to the Fleet, till they had given suffi-
cient bond to answer the demand, amounting to 6000
marks. †

66

England was at this time" unquieted" by factions, A. D. which were then ripening apace for civil war; and France 1443. sore defaced by spoil, slaughter, and burning." The other princes of Christendom "travelled effectuously" to bring about peace between the two countries. A diet was appointed at Tours; ambassadors were sent thither from the emperor, from Spain, from Denmark, and from Hungary, to be mediators. "The assembly," says the chronicler, " was great, but the cost was much greater, insomuch that every part, for the honour of their prince and praise of their country, set forth themselves, as well in fare as apparel, to the uttermost." The meetings ended in a truce by sea and by land for eighteen months, which was afterwards prolonged to the year 1449; and meantime Suffolk concluded for his imbecile king that impolitic marriage which in its

Bree, 246. This compiler supposes the petition to have come from the clergy, and says it refers to "a generous interference of England in a cause not immediately her own, but that of all Christendom!"

+ Fabyan, 633. This occurred in 1458. In 1460 a truce was made with Genoa for three years, and among the articles specified as lawfully to be introduced on either side are books. Rymer, xi. 441.

Holinshed, iii. 206.

consequences completed the ruin of the English cause The truce soon ran out, and the old course

in France.

of depredation and havoc was renewed.

There had been statutes * passed to restrict the admirals and their deputies from intermeddling with things not within their proper jurisdiction, which they, it seems, were desirous of extending from the seas and ports as far as their power could reach. It was now enacted †, that for any offence committed by the king's subjects upon the seas, or in any port within the realm under the king's obeisance, against any strangers who were either in amity, league, or truce with England, or A. D. had the king's safe-conduct or safeguard in any wise, 1452. the chancellor might immediately proceed against the

offenders, and cause full restitution to be made or just redress. But little could amity, league, or truce avail the merchant in those times, or any other safe-conduct than what he carried with him in the strength of his ship and the courage and fidelity of his company. 1456. Just as, in former times, when any tumult arose in London, the Jews were the immediate objects of violence; so, now, the rabble, upon any like occasion, attacked the foreign merchants, "and them spoiled, robbed, and rifled, without reason or measure." It was not the rabble only that were implicated in these outrages the weight of capital punishment fell upon them alone, but "diverse great fines were set on the heads of divers merchants, and paid, for winking at the matter." Jealousy of the foreigner's profits had actuated them; and they ought to have been punished with as much severity as the ignorant wretches whom they instigated or encouraged.

:

Amid the wars and rumours of wars with which the nations were now afflicted, the most absurd prodigy that ever found a serious relater is recorded at this 1457. time. "In the month of November," says Holinshed, "in the Isle of Portland, not far from the town of Weymouth, was seen a cock coming out of the sea, +31 Hen. 6. c. 4.

*13 Rich. 2. c. 5. 2 Hen. 4. c. 11.
Holinshed, 243-244. Hall, 235.

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