Pit and gallows, right of, 2, _note_

Pirates attack English Adventurers, 90, 91

Pisa, English wool merchants at, 117

Plays, 145-148

Players, petition against, in Norwich, 152

Pledges required of candidates for citizenship, 178

Plimpton, charter of Baldwin of Redvers to, 263, _note_ 2;

agreement of the convent of, with Plymouth, 296, _note_;

rope yarn made at, 202

Plumpton family, their money difficulties, 261

Plumpton, Sir John, 130

Plumpton, Sir William, 265, 266, _note_ 1

Plymouth, its agreement with the convent of Plimpton, 296, _note_;

money collected for S. Andrew’s by church ales, 160, 161;

regulations about the use of copes, 158;

the guild of our Lady and S. George, _ib._;

of Corpus Christi, 151;

incorporation of tailors, _ib._

Ponthieu, federative republic of, 415

Portmanbrok in Reading, 300, 304

Portmen in Ipswich, 224

Portmote, _see_ Borough Court

Portugal succeeds Venice in the Eastern trade, 121;

commercial treaty with, _ib._

Pratt, William, builds the first main drain at Canterbury, 19, 20

Preston, its various lords, 253, _note_ 2;

qualifications of burghers, 170, _note_ 2;

their privileges, 190, _note_ 3, 198, 199;

punishment for breach of public duty, 181

Prison of the bishop, in Exeter, 362;

freeman’s, 185;

the abbot’s, at Fordwich, 412

Privy Seal, _see_ Seal

Probate, claimed by the Mayor of Canterbury, 200, _note_ 1;

at Lynn, 289

Provost of Norwich, his election, 238;

his duties, 239;

replaced by four bailiffs, 240

Prussia, English traders banished from, 66

Purveyors, the king’s, 210

Q

Quay at Fordwich, quarrels about the, 413;

of Sandwich, agreement between Christ Church and Sandwich about,

400, _note_ 2

“Queke,” game of, 363

Quo Warranto in Liverpool, 270

R

Radford, Recorder of Exeter, 345, 347

Radington, Baldwin of, 130

Ramsey, carpet and tapestry manufactories at, 57;

tenants of King’s Ripton transferred to the Abbey of, 228, _note_

Reading, originally on royal demesne, 299;

its subjection to the Abbot, _ib._, 227;

struggle with him, 300, 301, 303-308;

confirmation of charters, 303;

archers, 16, _note_;

view of arms, _ib._;

bell, 304;

nineteen bridges, 301, _note_ 2;

the Hallowed Brook, 304;

chepin gavell in, 299, 306;

common chest, 305, 306;

constable, 304, 306;

guild merchant, 300, 303, 304;

guildhall, 303, 304, 305;

exemption from serving on juries granted to burghers, 306;

loans to the king, 305, _note_ 1;

the mayor, his salary, 304, 305;

his mace, 306;

disputes about his election, 306, 307;

register of his acts, 305;

Morgespeche, 303;

Outbutchery, 304;

Portmanbrok, 300, 304;

seal for cloth, 308;

contribution of soldiers under Edward VI., 16, _note_

Reap-silver, 171, _note_ 2

Recorder of Exeter, 345, 347;

of London, 372, 378, _note_ 2

Redcliffe, dispute about ownership of, 314, 315;

incorporated with Bristol, 314, _note_

Redvers, Baldwin of, his charter to Plimpton, 263, _note_ 2

Religion among English townsfolk in 15th century, 42

Rhine, commercial league of the, 415

Ricart of Bristol, his notices of political events, 37, _note_

Richard I., advantages to towns of his money difficulties, 237;

his charters to towns, 238

Richard III.’s dealings with York, 27, _note_ 2

Richard of Almayne, his grant to Exeter, 357

Riga, Henry VII.’s commercial treaty with, 113

Ripon, its fair, 130;

fight at, in 1441, _ib._

Ripton, King’s, tenants of, transferred to the abbey of Ramsey, 228,

_note_

Rising, Castle, disputes between the lords of, and the bishop of

Norwich, 284;

its rights in Lynn pass to Edward III., 285

Roan, John, Flemish engineer employed at Romney, 143, _note_

Rochelle, its wine trade with Romney, 88

Rochester, the King’s hackney-men in, 209, _note_ 3;

castle of, owner of land in Lydd, 409

Roll, the Black, of Exeter, 345

Romney under Archbishop of Canterbury, 227;

member of Cinque Ports, 386;

ownership of, 387, _note_ 1;

struggle for freedom, 404-409;

claim to be a royal borough, 407-408;

struggle with Lydd, 409, 411;

auditing of town accounts, 139, _note_ 2;

bailiff, 404-406;

bell, 405, _note_ 1;

Cranmer’s refusal to lease out bailiwick to townspeople, 408-409;

common barges, 87, 88;

decay of burghers, 403;

book of customs, 405, _note_ 1;

commerce, 87, 88;

common hall, 129, _note_ 2, 403, 405, _note_ 1;

common horn, 404, 405, _note_ 1;

care of common lands, 136, 137;

decrease of freemen, 190;

bailiffs and jurats allowed to hold inns, 404, _note_ 2;

government by senior jurat, 409;

places of assembly of jurats, 405, _note_ 1;

grant of mayor, 409;

mayor deposed by Privy Seal, 407;

silver mace, 406;

payment for maintenance of liberties of Cinque Ports, 390, _note_ 2;

plays at, 148;

silting up of its port, 403;

punishment of elected mayor or jurat who refused to serve, 188;

seal, 405, _note_ 1;

sluices, 143, _note_;

assessment of taxes, 402, _note_ 4;

trade, 402-403, 88;

wards, 402, _note_ 4

Roofs of tiles or brick, houses to be provided with, 194

Ropes, made at Bridport, 202

Rosiers, at Canterbury, dispute for jurisdiction over, 135, 136

Rother, river, 403

Rotherham college, its red brick, 56, _note_ 3

Rowley, William, 120, _note_

Russia, Henry VII.’s attempt to secure trade with, 113

Rye, ownership of, 387, _note_ 1;

member of Cinque Ports, 386;

growth, 17;

auditing of its accounts, 139, _note_ 2;

expenses for war, 415, _note_ 4;

tax for its fortification, 129, _note_ 1;

London merchants in, 17;

building of its quay, 142, _note_ 2;

rights of sanctuary forbidden in, 338;

its “schipwrite,” 88, _note_ 2;

trade, 88;

gifts to poor, 41, _note_ 2;

wards, 17

S

Sailors, in seaports, 194

St. Albans, ownership of, 227;

renounces its liberties, 295, _note_ 2;

its seal, _ib._

St. Edmundsbury, its agricultural services, 171, _note_ 2;

dispute with abbot, 296-298;

Guild of Young Men, 296, 297;

claims a merchant guild, 297, 298;

common horn, 296;

seal, 298

Salford, qualification for citizenship in, 170, _note_ 2

Salisbury, bell foundries at, 55, 56;

cloth sold at, 54, _note_ 1;

relations between citizens and bishop, 281, _note_

Sanctuary, question of, 337-8;

in Canterbury Cathedral, 374;

rights of, forbidden in Rye, 338

Sandwich, member of Cinque Ports, 386;

port of London, 369, _note_ 3;

ownership, 387, _note_ 1, 399, 400;

freedom as royal borough, 402;

refuses loan to the king, 27, _note_ 2;

quarrels with Canterbury, 163, _note_;

mastery of Fordwich, 411-413;

common assembly, 401;

Hundred court, _ib._;

powers of King’s bailiff in, 400-402;

church of S. Clements, 401;

of S. Peter, _ib._;

engages a Dutchman to make a new dyke, 142;

harbour, 369;

privilege of burghers, 185;

market-place and common hall, 401;

the Mastez in, 184, _note_ 5;

its mayor manager of the hospitals, 41, _note_ 2;

his power to arrest on suspicion, 184, _note_ 5;

mayor and jurats, 400-402;

Monkenkey, 400;

punishment of men charged with homicide or theft, 221, _note_ 2;

of elected treasurer who refused to serve, 188;

penalty for wounding in, 132, _note_ 2

Scarborough, its complaint about ferm, 247, _note_ 4

“Scavadge,” 142, _note_ 1

Scot-ales, 206, 207

Scotland, war with, Morton’s demands for, 376, 377

Scots traders at Veere, 98, _note_ 5

Schonen, English cloth dealers at, 95

Seaford, 386, _note_ 2

Seaports, their duties, 128, 129

Seals, 175-6;

English, their fine workmanship, 225, _note_;

of Archbishop of Canterbury used in Lydd, 410;

of Barnstaple, 225, _note_;

of Doncaster, 269, _note_;

Ipswich, 225;

Liverpool, 270;

Norwich, 246;

for sealing the cloth in Reading, 308;

of Romney, 405, _note_ 1;

St. Albans, 295, _note_ 2;

of S. Edmundsbury, 298;

of Lord Warden of Cinque Ports, necessary to make King’s writ valid,

387;

the Great, request that only laymen should have charge of, 365,

_note_ 3;

the Privy, writ of, 341;

mayor of Romney deposed by, 407

Security required by town on admission of man to freedom, 179

Self-government in the towns, 1-3, 218

Selling, Prior, of Christ Church, Canterbury, 377

Serfs, conditions of their emancipation in towns, 174, _note_ 3

Shepway, court of, 388, 391-394, 396, _note_ 2

Sheriff, jurisdiction of the, 203-4;

appointment of deputy by, 204;

assessor and collector of royal taxes and rents, _ib._;

duties as head of shire forces, _ib._;

tyranny and extortion of, 206;

hatred of, expressed in popular ballads and books, 207;

term of office, 234, _note_ 3;

business at Bridport, 204;

modes of extortion in Canterbury and Bridgenorth, 207;

court at Dorchester, 203, 204;

of Norfolk, his Curia Comitatus at Norwich, 239;

jurisdiction there, 246;

of Norwich, 246

“Shewage,” 142, _note_ 1

Shillingford, John, 338, 340-341, 346-348, 350

Shipbuilding for aliens, 86;

at Hull, 89;

at Woolwich, 84, _note_ 1;

its costliness, 87

Shipmen’s guild at Hull, 89, _note_ 2

Shipping, native and foreign, regulation of, 84;

its conditions in England, 85, 86;

growth in seaport towns, 87;

trade taken under State protection (1489), 112

Ships, English and foreign, sizes of, 84, _note_ 1;

English, dispute with Flemish, 92, _note_ 2;

_see_ Christopher, Grâce, Harry, Nicholas, Trinity

Shire officers, 203-207;

freedom from them, 232-3

Shrewsbury, wearing of liveries forbidden in, 268, _note_ 2

Shrewsbury, Countess of, her agreement with James, Lord of Berkeley,

266

Silk, its importation forbidden, 110;

manufacture, its beginning in England, 57;

carried on by women in London, _ib._, _note_ 2

Silver mines in England, 55, _note_ 1

Skenes, Irish, 351

Soke, the bishop’s at Winchester, 322

Soldiers, charges of levying for royal service, 374

Somerset, its silver mines, 55, _note_ 1

Southampton, owned by King, 227;

burgess imprisoned for its rent, 140, 141;

liberties forfeited, 247, _note_ 4;

its aqueduct and water supply, 19, _note_;

constable of castle, 312;

gallows, 2, _note_;

licence to buy and sell during S. Giles’ Fair, 329;

Italian merchants at, 78, 81, 330;

paving, 18, _note_;

provision for poor, 41, _note_ 2;

ship, 85, _note_ 2;

rights of Bishop of Winchester in, during fair of S. Giles, 324,

_note_ 3

Spain, English trade with, 120, 121

Stalls, in Exeter market place, 360;

the Queen’s, in Winchester, 323

Stanley, John of, 130

Stanley, Sir John, his relations with Liverpool, 273-276

Staple, the, 45;

its wanderings under Edward III., _ib._, 46;

fixed at Calais, _ib._;

mayors and aldermen of, _ib._, 48;

English towns of, 46;

rules, 46-48;

authority, 48;

merchants of, monopolize export of wool, 49;

of Calais, its money transactions with the captain and the

Government, _ib._, 50;

decline, 51;

struggle against Merchant Adventurers, 101-103;

Mediterranean merchants freed from its control, 78;

appointment of mayor as mayor of, 234;

set up by English adventurers at Bergen, 95;

for English cloth in Flanders, placed at Bruges by Archduke Philip,

113, _note_ 3

Staplegate at Canterbury, 370

Statute of Maintenance, 221, _note_ 1;

of Merchants, 156;

of Mortmain, 219, 246-7

Steel-yard, the, 83, 109, 110

Steward of King’s house, his jurisdiction, 209

Steward’s Hall Port of Lynn, 294

Stonor, harbour of, 369

Sturgeon, Nicholas, 44, _note_ 1

Sturmys of Bristol, sends a ship to the East, 115

Sturry, 369

Sudbury, Archbishop, 374

Suffolk, Duke of, 216

Sussex, miners of, their evil reputation in Middle Ages, 415

Swithun, S., the convent of, at Winchester, 322, 323, _see_ Winchester

Sword, of mayor of Norwich, 246;

of mayor of Lynn, 293

T

Tailors at Plymouth incorporated, 151

Taperaxe, 412

Tapestry factory at Ramsey, 57

Taverner, John, builds a “carrack” at Hull, 89

Tax on wool farmed by Lübeck merchants, 83

Taxation, changes in, 27, _note_ 1;

of cloth, 81, _note_ 1;

illegal, controlled by Commons, 25, _note_ 3;

internal, of towns, 139, 355-357;

interference with, in Norwich, 219, _note_ 4

Temple Fee, Bristol, 313, _note_ 2

Tennis, game of, 363

Tetbury fair, 314

Teutonic Order banishes English traders from Prussia, 66

“Thefeswell” in Fordwich, 412

Thiefdown, 221, _note_ 2

Thomas, S., feast of translation of, 370

Tin-works, Cornish, rented by Lübeck merchants, 83

Tolbooth at Norwich, 239;

Court at Lynn, 286, 288;

Port, at Lynn, 294

Toll hall at Bridport, 16

Tolls of cloth-exporters and staplers compared, 52;

on export, 90, _note_ 2;

for Merchant Adventurers, fixed by charter in Burgundy, 96;

freedom from, granted to burghers, 183

Topsham, 359

Totnes, jurisdiction of the lord’s bailiff in, 252-3;

disputes between lord and tenants, 252;

poverty in 1449, 159;

wooden belfry replaced by stone tower, 160;

Guild under Henry II. and John, 251;

rights claimed by, 251-2;

Merchant Guild, 175, _note_;

water-bearers, 157, _note_

Towns, English, their importance in fifteenth century, 1;

significance of their history, 8-10;

beginning of municipal history, 11;

contrast of their history with that of French communes, 29-32;

their lowly beginnings, 33;

relation to the Government, 27;

importance of their internal administration, 20;

their contribution to the reorganization of society, 23, 24;

progress up to fourteenth century, 10-12;

in fourteenth century, 13;

place in history of fifteenth century, 40-44;

fallen condition in 1835, 5, 6;

attitude in Wars of Roses, 164;

ratify Henry VII.’s treaties with Burgundy, 4;

their self-contained and self-dependent life, 125;

changes in their condition through increase of industry and

commerce, 171;

amusements in, 145-153;

assemblies, 223;

“common barges,” 140;

preservation of boundaries and “liberties,” 134;

common lands, 136, 137;

common revenue, 139;

competition and commercial jealousy in, 163;

corporate property, 138;

criers, 161, 162, 180;

duties, 4;

duty of citizens to chief magistrate and community, 126;

military duties, 129-131;

military discipline, 127, 128;

freedom of election, 5;

its decay, 6, 7;

festivals, 149, 152, 153;

financial responsibility, 140, 165-167;

refusal to take up the franchise, 186;

forced labour in, 141, 142;

extent of their jurisdiction, 3, 190-193, 333-8;

right of criminal jurisdiction in, 2;

election of mayor, 12;

officers’ duties and responsibilities, 186;

representation in Parliament, 4, 7, 24, 25;

patronage of nobles sought by, 216;

paving of, 18, _note_;

political feeling in, 60, 61;

privileges forfeited, 247, _note_ 3;

their protection extended to men who were not free citizens, 189;

provisions for relief of the poor, 41, _note_ 2;

ranks and classes of men in, 189-196;

conflicting rights in, 309-311;

their self-government, 1-3;

self-taxation, 2;

distribution of taxes in, 355, _note_ 2;

regulation of trade, 2, 3;

watch and ward, 132, 133;

water-supply in, 19;

condition of the working classes in, 195;

public works, 141;

on ancient demesne, 227-229;

dependent on other boroughs, 227, _note_;

on ecclesiastical estates, 227, 277-281;

on feudal estates, 250-1;

subject to monastic rule, 295;

seaport, their duties during Hundred Years’ War, 128, 129;

of the Staple, 46;

_see_ Boroughs

Townspeople lay rectors of parish church, 157;

their temper in the fifteenth century, 165

Tracy, Henry de, holder of Barnstaple, 253, _note_ 3

Trade, its regulation in towns, 2, 3;

early associations for protection of, 32;

increase of lawsuits concerning, 58;

revolution in fifteenth century, 51;

endeavour to exclude foreigners from, 73;

attempts to protect it from piracy, 91;

right of, given to burghers, 182;

payment for rights of, 189;

with the East, monopolized by Italians, 114;

diverted from Venice to Portugal, 121;

English, with Bordeaux, 118, 119, 316, _note_ 1;

with Genoa, proposal to forbid, 116;

with the North, 106, 107, 114;

of Florence, 78, 79;

foreign, Bishop Moleyns’s views of, 61, 62;

an anonymous “Libeller” on, 62-64;

London attempts to monopolize, 69;

injured by war with France, 64, _note_;

of Romney, 403;

free, adopted by Florence, 117;

of the country, formidable rival to protected trade of towns, 193;

between Liverpool and Ireland, 270;

of the Mediterranean, 77, 78;

State protection of, 72, 73;

its results at Venice, 80;

by sea, its early routes, 75, 77;

Venetian, bill against, proposed in Parliament, 115;

of Winchester, 324, 328;

in beer, with Flanders, 57;

in cloth, its rise, 51-54, 94, 95;

rivalry in, between England and Flanders, 65-66;

in iron, 54;

in wool, 45, 49, 51;

in wine, between Aquitaine and England, 118-120;

from Rochelle to Romney, 88;

struggle between England and Venice for, 116-118;

licenses for trade given to lords of Berkeley, 316, _note_ 1

Traders in the towns, 189-192;

privileged, living outside towns, 192-3

Treaties of commerce, Henry VII.’s, 66;

with Brittany, 112;

with Castile and Catalonia, 120;

Henry VII.’s, with Florence, 117;

with Portugal, 121;

with Riga and Scandinavia, 113;

of Marienburg, 104, _note_ 6;

of Utrecht, 110;

of 1475, 1486, 1495, 119, _note_ 2;

of 1496 (_Intercursus Magnus_), 112

Trials, complaint about, in Lincoln, 336-7

Trinity of Berkeley (ship), 316, _note_ 1

Tumbril, 252, 315

U

Under-sheriff, appointed by sheriff, 204

Unenfranchised class, increase of, in towns, 196

Utrecht, treaty with the Hanse made at (1474), 110;

confirmed by Henry VII., 112

V

Veere, depôt of Scottish traders at, 98, _note_ 5

Venice, its state-protected trade, 80;

its trade with Southampton, 81;

diverted to Portugal, 121;

bill to forbid its carrying trade proposed in Parliament, 115;

driven out of Egypt, 114;

struggle of English merchants with, 116;

Henry VII.’s agreement with, 118

Vitalien Brüder, 90

W

Waits, 145

Walls, provision for repairing in Norwich, 245, _note_ 4

Wards in Norwich, 239, 240;

in Romney, 402, _note_ 4;

in Rye, 17

Warden, the Lord, of the Cinque Ports, towns under the rule of, 386;

his authority, 390-394;

powers as Constable of Dover Castle, as Admiral, as Chancellor, 392;

his seal, necessary to make King’s writs valid, 387

Warden of the Poor at Exeter, 41, _note_ 2

Warwick, its various lords, 309, 310

Warwick, Earl of, the Kingmaker, 257-8, 415

Watch and ward, 132, 133;

controversy about in Exeter, 357-8

Water supply in towns, 19, _note_

Wayneflete, Bishop of Winchester, 326, _note_

Weald, iron trade in, 54

Weavers of Chester, their riot in 1399, 130, _note_ 1;

English and foreign, their rivalry, 65;

Flemish, their struggle against importation of English cloth,

99-101;

in Bristol, 193

Weights and Measures, Act of 1429, 3, _note_

Wells, under Bishop of Wells, 227;

fees in kind at, 178

Westgate, Canterbury, 381;

Archbishop’s tenants of, 370

Westminster, silk manufactory at, 57, _note_ 2;

Abbot of, his gallows in Worcester, 310

Westwick, ward in Norwich, 240

Weymouth, ownership of, 227

Whitstable, rights claimed by Archbishop of Canterbury’s tenants, of,

371

Wikham, John, “schipwrite” of Rye, 88, _note_ 2

Wills, enrolled in borough courts, 200, _note_ 1;

probate of, at Lynn, 289;

claimed by Mayor of Canterbury, 200, _note_ 1

Winchelsea, ownership of, 387, _note_ 1;

member of Cinque Ports, 386;

punishment of thief at, 221, _note_ 2

Winchester, owned by King, 227;

charter, 238, _note_ 2;

sided with King against De Montfort, 242;

its reputed antiquity, 321;

poverty, 190;

decrease of freemen, _ib._;

dispute between bishops and burghers, 323;

fight between citizens and monks, 324, _note_ 2;

distress and poverty in fifteenth century, 326-330;

Lancastrian sympathies, 326, _note_;

heavy burdens, 327-9;

petition of burghers to Henry VI., 328, 329;

ferm, fines, and expenses in 1450, _ib._;

grant of forty marks to, from ulnage and subsidies of cloths, 329;

various alien bodies within its liberties, 322-324;

common assembly, 321;

boundaries, 322;

castle, _ib._;

corporation, 321;

curfew bell, 324;

S. Giles’ fair, 324, 329;

fraternity of S. John, its payment towards maintenance of walls and

bridges, 329, _note_ 2;

provision for ferm, 328, _note_ 2;

franchise refused, 328;

experiment in free-trade, _ib._;

friars, 323;

Magdalen hospital, 328, 329;

mayor, 325;

control of gates, 324;

liberty of Godbeate, _ib._;

Guildhall, 324;

High Street, 322, 323;

Italian merchants in, 330;

King’s officers in, 325;

town officers, 321, 322;

expenses of burgesses to Parliament, 329;

Pavilion, 322;

perambulation of liberties, _ib._;

the Queen’s House, 323;

Queen’s stalls, _ib._;

convent of S. Swithun, 322;

Bishop of, bribes to, 214;

his authority over trade, 324;

palace, 322;

rights of his tenants, 322-3;

Soke, 322

Windsor, Dean of, gift from Canterbury to, 214

Wines, variety of, 215;

Rhine, ordered to be carried only in English ships, 110;

_see_ Trade

“Wine gavell” in Exeter, 359

Wingham, Archbishop of Canterbury’s tenants of, 370-1

Women carry on silk manufacture in London, 57, _note_ 2;

their management of great estates, 265

Wool, beginning of its manufacture in Normandy, 119;

export of, 45, 49;

under Edward III., 50;

decrease in fifteenth century, 51;

tax on, 49;

farmed by Lübeck merchants, 83

Wool Hall at Colchester, 14

Wool-growers, rivalry with cloth-manufacturers, 68

Woolwich, ship built at, 84, _note_ 1

Worcester, protection of burghers, 184;

law passed to compel men to become citizens, 190;

common coffer, 138, _note_;

“Great Clothing,” _ib._;

gallows, 310;

hospital of S. John, 357, _note_ 4

Working-classes in towns, condition of the, 195

Worsted manufacture in Norfolk, 54

Wynde, burgesses of the, in Barnstaple, 254

Y

Yarmouth, owned by King, 227;

rivalry with Norwich, 163, _note_;

made staple town, _ib._;

imitates Norwich system of government, 238, _note_ 2;

riotous population of sailors, 194;

threatens monopoly of Cinque Ports, 394;

its fair, 395, 396, 415

Yaxley, church-ales at, 161, _note_

Year gift, 206

York, owned by King, 227;

its corporation made justiciars for preserving rivers, 234,

_note_ 2;

dealings with Richard III., 27, _note_ 2;

reception of Duke of Gloucester, 216, 217;

guilds at, 42, _note_, 89, _note_ 2;

mercers at, 89, _note_ 2;

territory, 3, _note_;

its franchise, 196;

dispute about payment of troops, 131, _note_ 3;

riot about common lands, 137, _note_ 2

York, Archbishop of, his attack on Ripon in 1441, 130

York, Duchess of, gifts from Canterbury to, 215

Yorkshire, early brick buildings in, 56, _note_ 3

Ypres, decline of its weaving trade, 65

END OF VOL. I.

RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED,

LONDON AND BUNGAY.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The right of pit and gallows was never formally revoked. The last

case was under Charles I. (Rogers’s Agriculture and Prices, i. 132).

The gallows at Southampton stood on the common; in Colchester at the

end of East Street.

[2] The Inquisition de quo Warranto, Ed. I., proves that S. Martin’s

and other villages were under the jurisdiction of Canterbury; inquests

at these places were held by the city coroner. York had a territory of

2,700 acres. (Agric. and Prices, iv. 579.) The burgesses of Dorchester

claimed the right to weigh all goods within twelve miles of the town.

A special statute was passed in 1430 “that they shall not be disturbed

of their right,” in consequence of the Act of 1429 ordering weights and

measures in every town. (9th Henry VI. cap. vi.) Other instances, such

as Norwich, Nottingham, &c., are too numerous to give.

[3] The mariners of the Cinque Ports drew up treaties with “French

shipmen,” as to ransom for mariners, sailors, or fishing boats that

might be captured on either side; the people of the coast were to

be set free without charge, while “gentlemen” and merchants were to

pay whatever the captors chose to ask. The shipowners and merchants

of each port signed the compact; and all the towns of the coast from

Southampton to Thanet joined the league. The document which was drawn

up was handed over to the keeping of the Lord Warden in Dover, and

in case of dispute messengers from the Ports rode there to see its

provisions, or to make a copy for their own guidance. Hist. MSS. Com.

v. 537-8; iv. i. 434.

[4] Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 146; xi. 3, pp. 12-13, 171, 113. For 1340 see

Ashley’s Arteveldes, 126-7.

[5] Stubbs Const. Hist. iii. 484-488. Hallam Const. Hist. iii. 36.

Gneist, who gives different figures, considers that one of the greatest

dangers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the irrational

and meaningless increase of town representation. (Constitution

Communale, tr. by Hippert, i. 333, 338; ii. 9.)

[6] Rep. of Com. on Mun. Corp., 1835, 20, 21; 29-34; Papers relating to

Parl. Representation, 93, 94. Vol. ix. No. 92. ii.; 31 x.

[7] See Paston Letters, i. 160-1, 337, 339-40; ii. 78, 28, 31,

35-36; iii. 52-3. Richard the Redeless, passus iv. The great people

occasionally exercised influence in towns; Hist. MSS. Com. v. 497; ix.

138. For various modes of voting in towns see Lynn, Hist. MSS. Com. xi.

3, 146-151; Chichester, Gross. Gild Merchant, ii. 48; Reading, Coates,

459; Sandwich, Boys, 402; Exeter, Freeman, 152; Worcester, Eng. Guilds,

373, 393; Bristol, Hunt, 86; Cinque Ports, Boy’s Sandwich, 774, 796.

[8] The first mention of burgesses in the Empire is in 1066 at Huy, in

the bishopric of Liege. Pirenne, Dinant, 18.

[9] Dr. Gross gives a list of 150 towns which had gained the right of

having a merchant gild—most of them in the twelfth and thirteenth

centuries.

[10] Edward the First in the thirty years of his rule created

fifty-four new boroughs. In the first eighty years of the fifteenth

century the kings only issued nine charters of this kind.

[11] London was not apparently before other cities in the winning of

liberties. (Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 372.) There were reasons

enough for especial caution of Henry the Second in the matter of London.

[12] Gross, Gild Merchant, i. 73, note; Archæologia, vii. p. 337-347;

Stubbs, ii. 486.

[13] Burgage rents in the earliest times were accounted for by the

officers not in a lump sum but “as the pennies come in.” Rep. on

Markets, 13.

[14] Cutt’s Colchester, 111-117, 126-7.

[15] Two other innkeepers had much the same stock-in-trade.

[16] Hist. MSS. Com. vi. part i. 491-2, 478, 489. In Reading at the

muster roll of 1311 there appeared eight men armed with sword, bow,

arrows, and knife; thirty-three with bows, arrows, and knives; and over

two hundred and thirty-five (besides some names lost at the foot of the

roll) with hatchets and knives. In 1371 the town was able to raise a

body of archers for service abroad; and under Edward the Sixth it sent

fifty soldiers armed with bills, swords, daggers, bows, and arrows, and

paid each soldier forty pence “for the King’s affairs into Boulogne.”

Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 7, 171, 182.

[17] Ibid. v. 497.

[18] Act of Parliament for paving Gloucester, 1455; Fosbrooke’s

Gloucestershire, i. 157. For Exeter in 1466; Freeman’s Exeter, 91. For

Canterbury in 1474, because the “evil report” carried away by pilgrims

“would be stopped if the roads were properly pitched with boulders and

Folkestone stone”; Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 168, 144, 174. For Southampton

in 1477, after a century of vain attempts to pave the streets; Davies,

119, 120; in 1384 a tax was levied for pavage; in 1441 accounts were

rendered of paving stones provided; payments were made in 1457 to a

London paviour. By the Act each citizen was ordered to pave before his

own door as far as the middle of the street since “the town was full

feebly paved and full perilous and jeopardous to ride or go therein,

and in especial in the High Street,” so that “strangers thither

resorting have been oftentimes greatly hurt and in peril of their

lives.” For Bristol in 1491 when the whole town seems to have been new

paved. Ricart, 47-48.

[19] To take a single instance, in 1421 the water-supply of Southampton

was undertaken by the council, and new leaden pipes provided by the

grant of a burgess who had thus bequeathed his money “for the good of

his soul.” An aqueduct was made at considerable expense in 1428; 261

days’ work at it was paid at from 4_d._ to 6_d._ a day; over £12 more

was spent on an iron grating for it, and 27_s._ 2_d._ given to the

plumber who fixed it; great stones from Wathe called “scaplyd stonys”

were carried, with loads of chalk, quicklime, pitch, rosin, solder,

wax, and wood. In 1490 a new well was made with a “watering-place for

horse and a washing-place for women.” Davies, 115, 117; Hist. MSS. Com.

xi. 3, 138-40. In many towns wells were repaired, enclosed with a wall

and covered with a roof and put under the care of wardens.

[20] Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 137, 145. See Paston, i. 434; Hist. MSS. Com.

xi. 7, 169; x. 4, 529-30.

[21] English Guilds, 241, 249.

[22] For the contrast in this respect between the shire and the borough

see Round’s Geoffrey de Mandeville, 356-7.

[23] Luchaire, Communes Françaises, 22-25. See Piers Ploughman, passus

i. 139-146; ii. 90-99; ix. 19-76; x. 223-227.

[24] Piers Ploughman, passus xvi. 248-255.

[25]

“The Jews that were gentlemen, Jesus they despised,

Both his lore and his law, now are they low churls,

As wide as the world is woneth (dwelleth) there none

But under tribute and tallage as tikes and churls.

And those that become Christian by counsel of the Baptist

Are franklins and free....

And gentlemen with Jesus.”

(Piers Ploughman, ed. by W. Skeat for Early English Text Society, part

iii.; pass. xxii. 34.) I have ventured to give quotations from mediæval

writers in modern spelling, as I am here concerned neither with

philology nor the history of literature: and there are many to whom the

old methods of spelling only serve to obscure the sense.

[26] Stubbs, ii. 137-144, 239-244.

[27] Ibid. ii. 560, 671.

[28] Stubbs, ii. 332-4.

[29] Ibid. ii. 257; iii. 16.

[30] The former devices for illegal taxation on the King’s part broke

down when the commons looked so sharply after these matters that no

attempt at unauthorised taxation of merchandise was made after the

accession of Richard the Second. Stubbs, ii. 574-578. How completely

the relation of King and commons had been reasoned out by the people we

see in Langland’s writings.

“Then came there a King, and ‘by his crown,’ said,

‘I am a king with crown the commons to rule,

And holy Church and clergy from cursed men to defend.

And if me lacketh to live by, the law wills that I take

There I may have it hastelokest; (quickest) for I am head of law,

And ye be both members, and I above all.’

* * * * *

‘On condition,’ quoth conscience, ‘that thou conne defend

And rule thy realm in reason right well, and in truth;

Then, that thou have thine asking as the law asketh;

_Omnia sunt tua ad defendendum, sed non ad deprehendendum_.’”

(Piers Ploughman, passus xxii. 467-472, 478-481.)

[31] Stubbs, iii. 77; Rogers, Agric. and Prices, iv. viii.

[32] See the description of a session of Parliament in Richard the

Redeless, passus iii. A.D. 1399.

[33] Piers Ploughman, passus iv. 376, &c.

[34] Ibid. passus v. 176.

[35] Ibid. passus vi. 181. M. Jusserand (Epopée Mystique du Moyen Age,

101-118), justly points out what a typical representative of common

opinion Langland was. Compare the popular manifesto of 1450. (Hist.

MSS. Com. viii. 267.) “They say the King should live upon his commons,

and that their bodies and goods are his; the contrary is true, for then

needed him never to set Parliament and to ask good of them.”

[36] The burden of taxation was gradually being transferred from one

class to another as subsidies on moveables, and customs on import and

export were found more productive and more easily managed. Stubbs, ii.

570.

[37] Reductions of rent are too numerous to give; they occurred

everywhere, and were sometimes apparently bought at a considerable

price. (See Round’s Geoffrey de Mandeville, 366.) Loans from the towns

seem to have been voluntary. In 1435 the Sandwich commonalty refused to

lend money to the King; and further excused themselves from sending him

soldiers for the defence of Calais, “having all the men they can spare

already employed in the service of the Duke of York.” (Boys, 672.) A

grant to the King was again refused in 1486. (Ibid. 678.) The Norwich

citizens got into trouble for instituting a suit to have their loan

returned (Blomefield, iii. 147, 152). In 1424 Lynn lent 400 marks, and

in 1428 the council agreed that burgesses of parliament should receive

from executors of the late king a hundred pounds for a pledged circlet

of gold because they could not get more (Hist. MSS. Com. xi. part 3,

161). In 1491 the king was at Bristol, where he had a benevolence of

£1,800 (Ricart, 47-48). At the coming of Richard the Third in 1484,

York, to gain a reduction of the fee-ferm, agreed to give him 100 marks

in a cup of gold, and to the queen £100 in a dish. A list is given of

the citizens who subscribed—the mayor giving £20, the recorder £100,

and so on. The whole sum subscribed was £437 (Davis’ York, 167-9, 174).

It would be quite impossible to mention all the loans, but the instance

of Canterbury is curious as the first foreshadowing of the national

debt. In 1438 £40 was lent to the king, and in 1443 £50; in these cases

private individuals advanced the money in various amounts according to

their taste for speculation, and probably got certificates promising

interest and redemption at par (Hist. MSS. Com. ix. part 1, 139).

[38] Luchaire, 288-9.

[39] Luchaire, 64, 137.

[40] M. Jusserand in his Epopée Mystique du Moyen Age has well pointed

out that the war with France was royal rather than national. Pp. 7-9,

117.

[41] Stubbs, Lectures on Mediæval History, p. 342; Friedman, Anne

Boleyn, i. pp. 1-4; Gneist, La Constitution Communale, trans. by

Hippert, i. p. 334, &c. “England at the accession of Henry the Seventh

was far behind the England of the thirteenth century.” (Denton,

Lectures on the Fifteenth Century, 120, 118.) “This low and material

view of domestic life had led to an equally low and material view of

political life, and the cruelty which stained the Wars of the Roses

was but the outcome of a state of society in which no man cared much

for anything except his own greatness and enjoyment. The ideal which

shaped itself in the minds of the men of the middle class was a king

acting as a kind of chief constable, who, by keeping great men in

order, would allow their inferiors to make money in peace.” (Gardiner’s

Student’s History, 330-1.) “The despondency of the English people, when

their dream of conquest in France was dissipated, was attended with a

complete decay of thought, with civil war, and with a standing still

or perhaps a decline of population, and to a less degree of wealth.”

(National Life and Character, by Charles Pearson, p. 130-1.) “There are

few more pitiful episodes in history. Thirty-five years of a war that

was as unjust as it was unfortunate had both soured and demoralised

the nation.” “England had entirely ceased to count as a naval power.”

As for the burgesses, “if not actively mischievous they were sordidly

inert.” (Oman’s Warwick, 4-11, 67, 133.)

[42] In Ricart’s Calendar in Bristol he enters duly the fact that

a battle had been fought and that one side or other was victorious

without further comment. He misplaces the date of the murder of Suffolk

three years, though he might well have remembered it; and he writes as

a sort of after-thought in the margin of his record, “and this year the

two sons of King Edward were put to silence in the Tower of London.”

(Ricart, 40-46.) In 1460 Norwich had its captain and 120 soldiers with

King Henry in the north, and all the rest of its available forces had

to hurry off to Edward at his accession. (Blomefield iii. 162-163.)

The city raised £160 for the coming of Richard the Third to the city,

and £140 for the coming of Henry the Seventh. (Ibid. 173-174.) For

Nottingham, see vol. ii. There is no mention of Bosworth in Canterbury,

and Henry the Seventh was received with the same pomp as former

kings. (Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 145.) For Bosworth, where men stood afar

off waiting to join the victorious side, see Fabyan, 672-673. The

policy of the burghers was the same in this respect as that of the

great Churchmen, who were entirely passive in the real crises of the

civil war, and so ready to serve every king, that not one of them

suffered loss from fidelity to any side. (Rogers’ Agricul. and Prices,

iv. 9, 10.) The people in general were equally indifferent. “I have

read thousands of documents penned during the heat of the strife,

and have found only one allusion to the character of the times in

the earlier, and one about the later war of 1470-1.” (Ibid., 19.) An

interesting parallel to the indifference of the trading communities of

the fifteenth century during the Wars of the Roses may be seen in the

action of the Merchants’ Company in the civil wars of the seventeenth

century. (Lambert’s Gild Life, 177-178.)

[43] See vol. ii. ch. i.

[44] In Lydd corn was given to the poor at Christmas and Easter, and

gifts to lepers; payments made from 1480-1485 for Goderynge’s daughter,

“poor maid,” “hosen, shoes, her keep, kertyl-cloth and for making

thereof;” also in 1490, “paid to the poor man keeping the poor child

12 pence.” After a long list of expenses for a thief and making stocks

for him and a halter, “paid for one pair of shoes to his daughter

3_d._,” and “given to the quest of women 4_d._”; summoned perhaps in

reference to the daughter. (Hist. MSS. Com. v. 527, 526.) In Rye sums

were paid to the poor on opening the box of maltotes. (Ibid. 494.) For

Southampton, Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, 112; the steward’s book in 1441

contains a list of alms, £4 2_s._ 1_d._, given away every week to poor

men and women. (Davies, 294.) According to the usual calculation at

this time in almshouses of a penny a day for living, this sum would

mean that the corporation paid weekly for the mere subsistence of 140

persons. For Bristol, Ricart’s Kalendar, 72-80, 82, &c. For Chester,

Hist. MSS. Com. viii. 371. For Romney, Hist. MSS. Com. v. 535-6. The

Mayor of Sandwich had to manage the hospitals of S. Bartholomew and

S. John, to appoint their officers, to audit their accounts, and

administer their estates made up of innumerable parcels of land and

houses left by pious people. (Boys, 17-21, 526.) The municipal council

of Exeter appointed every year a Warden of the Poor to look after their

many charitable foundations. It had charge of Magdalen Hospital, of the

Ten Cells Hospital for Poor, founded in 1406 by Simon Grendon, Mayor;

the Combrew Almshouse, founded by Sir William Bonville, 1408; and an

almshouse founded by John Palmer. (Freeman’s Exeter, 175-6.) There

was a municipal almshouse in Hereford supported by way of payment to

the corporation from ecclesiastical tenants for a share in the city’s

privileges. (Arch. Ass. Journ. xxvii. 481.) In the fifteenth century

bequests by burgesses for these purposes were very frequent and were

usually left to the management of the corporation. In all large towns

the mayor and aldermen presided over the court of orphans. (Davies’s

Southampton, 239.) The indications of poor relief by the towns must

modify Mr. Ashley’s conclusion (Economic History, I. part ii. 338)

that “no attempt was made by the State as a whole, _or by any secular

public authority_, to relieve distress. The work was left _entirely_

to the Church, and to the action of religious motives upon the minds

of individuals.” It seems difficult to follow in this connexion his

distinction drawn between the craft associations which had or had not

grown out of religious fraternities (p. 325).

[45] Besides the customary Latin prayers a Norfolk guild used English

prayers for Church and State, harvest and travellers, like our Litany.

(English Guilds, 111-114.) The play of the Lord’s Prayer was performed

by a York guild. “They are bound to find one candle-bearer, with seven

lights, in token of the seven supplications in the Lord’s Prayer.”

“Also they are bound to make, and as often as need be to renew, a table

showing the whole meaning and use of the Lord’s Prayer, and to keep

this hanging against a pillar in the said cathedral church near to the

aforesaid candle-bearer.” (Ibid. 137-9.) See also Hibbert’s Shrewsbury

Guilds, 62. For Pecok as “the first author of the Middle Ages who

propounded reason as a judge of faith,” and one who “might be claimed

as at once the forerunner of the Erastian theory of the church, and

of the Rationalist interpretation of its theology”; and for the place

now given to general councils see Rogers’s Agriculture and Prices, iv.

11-13. For the first signs that the revenues of monastic houses were to

be devoted to other purposes. (Ibid. 101.)

[46] Agriculture remained stationary during the fifteenth and sixteenth

centuries. It was in fact but little changed from the time when Walter

of Henley published his treatise until the time when Fitz Herbert wrote

his work about 1523 embodying most of the rules which Walter had given

before him. The real progress lay not in the country but in the town.

[47] Nott. Records, ii. 143, 145, 167, 179, 191; iii. 21, 29.

[48] Clément, Jacques Cœur, 196-7. Nicholas Sturgeon was ordered by the

Privy Council in 1442 “to go and choose six singers of England such

as the messenger that is come from the Emperor will desire for to go

to the Emperor.” Proceedings and Ordinances of Privy Council, ed. Sir

Harris Nicholas, 1834, v. 218.

[49] Mr. Jacobs tells me that he has found no direct evidence of Jews

lending to townspeople in the twelfth century; there are only some

indications such as that they sought for debtors in S. Paul’s; (The

Jews of Angevin England, p. 45) and that they claimed to attend the

assizes at Bury. (Ibid. 142.) If their business lay, as it seems, with

nobles and landowners, it would prove the absence of any demand for

capital in the towns.

[50] For an account of the Staple see Schanz, i. 327 et seq.; von

Ochenkowski, Englands Wirthschaftliche Entwickelung im Ausgange des

Mittelalters, 220; Stubbs, ii. 446-8.

[51] Schanz, i. 329, &c.

[52] Ibid. 657.

[53] Schanz, i. 543; von Ochenkowski, 216-7. For the Law Merchant see

Mr. Maitland’s Pleas in Manorial Courts (Selden Soc.), p. 137. For

Staple Statutes see 14 R. II. cap. 3, 4.

[54] Schanz, i. 332, 338.

[55] See Paston Letters, iii. 166.

[56] Schanz, i. 501.

[57] Von Ochenkowski, 202, 210; Schanz, 495-500. Petition of merchants

in 1442 to be relieved from these rules refused. Proc. Privy Council,

v. 217.

[58] In 1442 the merchants of the Staple of Calais begged that payment

should be made to the soldiers for the surety of the merchants’ wools.

(Proceedings of Privy Council, v. 215, 216.) When the lords seized

Calais in 1459, “they shifted with the Staple of Calais for £18,000” to

carry on the war with. After Edward’s accession, in 1462, the merchants

claimed repayment. Edward refused, and after long efforts the merchant

who represented them and had borne the chief charges died a ruined man

in sanctuary at Westminster (Fabyan, 635, 652-3).

[59] A sack was 364 lbs. of 16 oz. each (Schanz, ii. 569).

[60] Stubbs, iii. 69, Stat. 27, H. VI. c. 2.

[61] Schanz, ii. 15.

[62] Under the system of paying a fixed sum in good and bad years alike

the poor merchants became bankrupt, and in the middle of the sixteenth

century the number of wool exporters fell enormously (Schanz, ii. 17).

An extremely interesting statement by the Staplers of the causes of

their decay is given by Schanz in vol. ii. 565-9.

[63] In the years from 1485 to 1546 general trade had increased by

one-third, while the wool trade had decreased by one-third (Schanz, ii.

12).

[64] In the Paston Letters there is even in the fifteenth century

complaint of the quality of Norfolk cloth, i. 83.

[65] Ashley’s Woollen Industry, 39, afterwards expanded in his Economic

History, part ii., chap. iii. This book was published after these pages

had been printed. Riley’s Mem. London, 149-50; Schanz, i. 436-440,

588-9.

[66] The first charter to the company of drapers or dealers in cloth in

London was in 1364.

[67] This statement is made by Schanz, i. 441, and his reasons are

given, ii. 1-7. 31 H. VI. c. 8.

[68] 4 H. VII. c. 11; Schanz, i. 449.

[69] Schanz, i. 11; ii. 17, 18.

[70] Schanz, ii. 571-2.

[71] In 1472 the prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, buys from a London

alderman two pieces of cloth for gentleman’s livery, nine for yeoman’s,

and five for groom’s, the price, £39 14_s._; from a “raymaker” in New

Salisbury he buys similar cloths in 1475 and 1480; again from Hadley,

in 1499, he got eighteen pieces, and russet cloths from a Cranbrooke

clothier. (Hist. MSS. Com. v. 436-7, 459.) Fastolfe bought cloth for

his soldiers at Castlecoombe, Wilts (Paston Letters). The Warden of

Merton, Bishop Fitz James, bought for his fellows and himself at Norton

Mandeville in Essex. (Rogers’ Economic Interpretation of History, 151.)

[72] Paston Letters, ii. 235. 1465.

[73] Debate between the Heralds of France and England, probably

published from 1458 to 1461, translated by Pyne, p. 61. Published in

French by the Société des Anciens Textes Français. In 1454 the commons

petitioned that silver mines in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset,

should be worked (Schanz, i. 493). For coal see Paston, iii. 363.

Nottingham Records, i. 145. In 1307 there were complaints about the

corruption of London air by use of coal. Cruden’s Gravesend, 84-5.

[74] Hist. MSS. Com. vi. 347.

[75] Rogers’ Econ. Interpretation, 276.

[76] Brazen pieces, invented 1340 or 1370, were first used in England

at the siege of Berwick, 1405 (Eng. Chron. 1377-1461, p. 184); not

known in France so well (Three books of Polydore Vergil’s English

History, 9-10 Camden Society). For the Lydd gun of 1456 the gunmakers

were paid 11s. 8d.; the binding and iron for it cost 18s. “Guns with

six chambers” mentioned as early as 1456 in Cinque Port towns. (Hist.

MSS. Com. v. xvii.)

[77] Journ. of Archæl. Association, 1871, p. 416; Hist. MSS. Com. vi.

489.

[78] Pirenne, Dinant, 102, 94, 95. In the fifteenth century the Dinant

traders sent their wares by Antwerp, not by Damme.

[79] For English brick building see Rogers’ Agric. and Prices, iv. 440.

First notice of bricks at Cambridge 1449, in London 1453, in Oxford

1461; common in eastern counties before end of fifteenth century. Ibid.

iii. 432, 433. The proverb, “as red as Rotherham College,” refers to

one of the first brick buildings in Yorkshire.

[80] There is good fifteenth century English glass at Malvern and

elsewhere. But according to Dugdale English glass was forbidden in the

Beauchamp chapel at Warwick.

[81] Turner’s Domestic Architecture, 98.

[82] Silk manufacture in London in the fifteenth century was carried on

by women; their complaints of the Lombard merchants noticed in Act of

1454 (33 H. VI. c. 5). A bill with the royal sign manual prays that the

king would grant to Dom. Robert Essex his frames “ordeigned and made

for the makyng of sylkes,” with their instruments which now “stondith

unoccupyed within your Monastery of Westminster,” and he will ordain

workmen to use them. Temp. Edward the Fourth, Hist. MSS. Com. iv. I,

177.

[83] Libel of English Policy. (Political Poems and Songs, composed

between 1327 and 1483, ii. ed. Wright Rolls Series.) For export of

English beer to Flanders, see Fœdera, xii. 471 1492. Beer was a “malt

liquor flavoured with bitter herbs,” as distinct from ale, made before

1445, though commonly ascribed to a century later.

[84] Blomfield, iii. 160. 33 H. VI. cap. vii.

[85] Piers Ploughman, Introduction to Text C, xxxi.

[86] Schanz, ii. 35, 36.

[87] Italian Relation, 42-3 (Camden Soc.); Schanz, i. 513; Heralds’

Debate, 65.

[88] Plummer’s Fortescue, 114-5, 132. Compare Bacon’s Henry the

Seventh, 71-72.

[89] Heralds’ Debate, 61, 1453-1461.

[90] Richard the Redeless, passus iii. 172.

[91] Brinklow’s Tracts, published in the first half of the sixteenth

century, afford interesting illustrations of the type of radical

politician formed in the towns. His proposal for a single chamber and

the list of reforms sketched out are not more significant than his

criticism of parliamentary despotism and inefficiency, “This is the

thirteenth article of our creed added of late, that whatsoever the

Parliament doth must needs be well done. and the Parliament, or any

proclamation out of the parliament time cannot err ... then have ye

brought Rome home to your own doors and given the authority to the

King and Parliament that the cardinal bishops gave unto the Pope ...

if this be so, it is all vain to look for any amendment of anything.”

Brinklow’s Complaynt, E. E. Text Society, 35. See also pp. 8, 12.

[92] Libel of English Policy (Political Poems and Songs, ii. 157-205.

Roll’s series, ed. Wright). The Libel was probably written after 1436.

The Bishop was murdered in 1450. (Agric. and Prices, iv. 533.)

[93] Wright’s Pol. Poems, ii. 282-7. Schanz, i. 446.

[94] Compare the very similar expression of faith in a modern labour

paper. “To this island, small as it is, has been given the work of

leading the industrial organization of the world; that is to say, of

governing and ordering the affairs of the world.” Trade Unionist, Dec.

26, 1891.

[95] Compare Paston Letters, i. 531; Brinklow’s Complaynt 11.

[96] Pauli, Drei volkswirtschaftliche Denkschriften, s. 61, 75.

[97] In 1447 exactions in England were so heavy “as that the minds

of men were not set upon foreign war, but vexed above measure how to

repel private and domestical injuries, and that therefore neither pay

for the soldier nor supply for the army were as need required put in

readiness.” (Polydore Vergil, 77 Camden Soc.) For interruption of trade

by the war, Paston, i. 425-6. Davies’ Southampton, 252-3. The Staplers

complain that before the war the French bought yearly 2,000 sacks of

wool, now only 400 (Schanz, ii. 568). For effect of the war on the

salt trade, Rogers’ Econ. Interpretation of History, 100. For the wine

trade, &c., Schanz, i. 299-300, 643-50. “It cannot be brought to pass

by any mean that a French man born will much love an English man, or,

contrary, that an English will love a French man; such is the hatred

that hath sprung of contention for honour and empire.” (Pol. Vergil,

82.)

[98] Schanz, i. 32-33.

[99] See the series of statutes with which the reign of Edward the

Fourth opens. 4, Ed. IV. c. 1-8. Schanz, i. 447.

[100] Ashley’s Wool. Ind. 81-2; expanded in his Economic History, part

ii. Schanz, i. 445.

[101] Schanz, i. 446. “The caryage out of wolle to the Stapul ys a

grete hurte to the pepul of Englond; though hyt be profitabul both to

the prynce and to the marchant also.” (Starkey, England in the Reign of

Henry the Eighth. Early English Text Society, p. 173.)

[102] Brinklow’s Complaynt, E. E. Text Soc. p. 11. Schanz, i. 479, note.

[103] The fellowship of the mercers and other merchants and adventurers

living in London “by confederacy made among themselves of their

uncharitable and inordinate covetous for their singular profit and

lucre contrary to every Englishman’s liberty, and to the liberty of the

Mart there” made an ordinance and constitution that every Englishman

trading with the marts of Flanders or under the Archduke of Burgundy

should first pay a fine to the Merchants’ Fellowship in London on pain

of forfeiture of all their wares bought and sold. The fine was at

first half an old noble, and demanded by a colour of a fraternity of

S. Thomas at Canterbury, and “so by colour of such feigned holiness it

hath been suffered to be taken for a few years past.” Finally, however,

the London Fellowship raised the fine to £20, then the other merchants

began to withdraw from the marts and the cloth trade to suffer. On the

complaint of the merchant adventurers living outside London Parliament

ordered that the fine should only be ten marks. (12 Henry VII.,

cap. 6.) For the complaint of the Hull traders against the merchant

adventurers of London in 1622 see Lambert’s Gild Life, 171-2.

[104] Schanz, i. 342.

[105] Schanz, ii. 571.

[106] 3 Ed. IV. c. 4.

[107] Schanz, i. 618-19.

[108] Bacon’s History of Henry the Seventh, 38.

[109] The men of Cologne had a house in London as early as 1157.

[110] Founded before 1240 (Schanz, i. 291-3). Some interesting details

are given in Mr. Hudson’s Notes on Norwich (Norfolk Archæology, xii.

25; see section on madder and woad.) For merchants of Lorraine,

Denmark, &c., Liber Custumarum, Nunimenta Gildhallæ Londiniensis (Rolls

Series), vol. ii. part 1, xxxiv. &c.

[111] In the beginning of the fourteenth century (Schanz, i. 113-8).

[112] See Keutgen, Die Beziehungen der Hanse zu England, 40.

[113] Boys’ Sandwich, 375; Paston, iii. 436. The foreign trade is

illustrated by some of the things in Fastolf’s house; the Seeland

cloth, i. 481; iii. 405—brass pots and chafferns of French making,

i. 481—silver Paris cups, 475; iii. 270-1, 297-8—blue glasses, i.

486—habergeons of Milan, 487—”overpayn of Raines,” 489—cloth of

Arras, 479—harness from Almayne, iii. 405—German girdles, iii.

270-1—the treacle-pots of Genoa, ii. 293-4, bought of the apothecary.

The merchant’s marks were especially noted for fear of adulteration.

The grocer, or dealer in foreign fruits, also sold hawks, iii. 55-6. In

the reign of Henry the Eighth about a dozen shops in London sold French

or Milan cups, glasses, knives, daggers, swords, girdles, and such

things. Hist. MSS. Com. viii. 93. “A discourse of the commonwealth of

this Realme of England.”

[114] Libel of English Policy; Political Poems and Songs (Rolls

Series), ii. 173, 172. Fabyan, 630. See petition of burghers against

the Lombards, 1455, in Rot. Parl. v. 334

[115] Schanz, i. 65. Strangers exporting wool had to pay 43_s._ 4_d._ a

sack, English merchants only 5 nobles or 33_s._ 4_d._ (Fabyan, 594-5).

[116] In 1372 there is a receipt by two of the company of the Strozzi

for money from Archbishop Langham. Hist. MSS. Com. iv. part 1, 186.

[117] Clement, Jacques Cœur, 23-4.

[118] For the failure of this company in 1437 and its effect on English

traders, see Bekynton’s Corres. i. 248-50, 254.

[119] Libel of English Policy. Pol. Poems and Songs, ii. 172.

[120] Schanz, i. 124-6.

[121] Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, p. 11, 87. 11 H. IV. c. 7. Yarn and

unfulled cloths paid only subsidy—finished cloths paid also customs

and measuring tax. Schanz, i. 448, note.

[122] Davies’ Southampton, 254.

[123] Denton’s Lectures, 192; Paston Letters, iii. 269.

[124] Pauli’s Pictures, 126-132.

[125] Keutgen, 41.

[126] Keutgen, 41. Dinant was the only town outside German-speaking

countries that belonged to the Hanseatic League. It entered the

League in the middle of the fourteenth century as a sort of external

member—only _sharing its privileges in England_ and never voting in

its assemblies—tolerated rather than holding its right by formal

grant. Pirenne, Dinant, 97-102.

[127] Keutgen, 5, 30.

[128] Keutgen, 14-18.

[129] For a description of the Steel-yard see Pauli’s Pictures.

[130] The ordinary size of French ships seems to have been 1,000 or

1,200 tons. (Heralds’ Debate, 51-2.) Cannyngs, of Bristol, had in his

little fleet vessels of 900, 500, or 400 tons. (Cruden’s Gravesend,

131.) The “Harry Grace à Dieu,” built at Woolwich, 1512, was of 1,500

tons, and cost £6,472. (Ibid. 143-9.)

[131] 1382; 5 Richard II., Stat. 1, c. 3. See Schanz, i. 360, for the

scope of this law.

[132] 6 Richard II., Stat. 1, c. 8.

[133] A small war vessel with probably about forty sailors, ten

men-at-arms, and ten archers. Nott. Rec. i. 444.

[134] Southampton had to keep a ship, “le Grâce de Dieu,” at its own

expense for the king’s service. In the last year of Henry the Sixth

its master received from the mayor £31 10_s._ 0_d._ In the first year

of Edward the Fourth the mayor paid for the victualling and custody of

the ship £68 5_s._ 10_d._ In 1470 there was a great deal of difficulty

about the matter. The king ordered certain payments to be made for the

ship which the town for some months absolutely refused to carry out.

The sheriff at last stepped into the breach and paid the sums due from

money in his own office, and the next year the town was forced by the

king to refund what he had spent. Three successive sheriffs were in

difficulties about this dispute between the king and the town. They

made payments as best they could, and were afterwards given indemnity

for the sums they spent. (Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, 98-100; Davies, 77.

See also H.M.C. xi. 3, 215-16, 188-191, 221-2; Ibid. iv. 1, p. 426,

429-31; Ibid. v. 517-18, 521, 494; Boys’ Sandwich, 663; Nottingham

Records, i. 196; Paston Letters, ii. 100-105; Rot. Parl. i. 414, ii.

306-7.) Full accounts of the making of a barge in Ipswich in 1295 are

given in Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 257-8.

[135] Schanz, i. 356-7, 362, 367. On page 357 he quotes from a petition

of the commons in 1371 (Rot. Parl. ii. 306-7) to prove that the one

result of the foreign policy of Edward the First was the _narrowing of

town franchises_, and consequent decline of the navy. If the petition

is read to the close the passage seems to be merely a piece of fine

writing to arrest attention, and the town franchises are not mentioned

again when the king asks to have the real grievances stated. In the

second petition (Rot. Parl. ii. 332) the gist of the complaint is that

foreign merchants are allowed to sell and buy in England, which is

represented as a loss of all their franchises.

[136] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 501.

[137] Edward the Fourth made one futile attempt to revive the

protection of English shipping, but the Act only lasted three years. (3

Ed. IV. c. i.)

[138] Schanz, i. 328.

[139] Heralds’ Debate, 51-2.

[140] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 528. See the hiring out of the London barge;

loss by accident from tempest or enemies to fall on the commonalty;

Mem. Lond., 478.

[141] Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, 215-16, 221-2, 188-191.

[142] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 534-540.

[143] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 496. Rye kept its own “schipwrite,” John

Wikham, who had the freedom of the town for sixteen years while

building the ships of the port, and at last left in 1392 with a glowing

testimonial from the mayor and barons of Rye. Along with other towns

it had made profit by selling ships to aliens, which might afterwards

be used by the enemies of England, and a proclamation was sent to Rye

in 1390 forbidding such sales. For the export of eggs from Norwich in

1374, as well as butter and cheese and corn, and possibly oysters, see

Hudson’s Norwich Leet Jurisdiction (Selden Society), 62, 63, 65. The

practice of forestalling, carried to so great an extent as is here and

elsewhere described, doubtless implied buying for the foreign market.

[144] Hunt’s Bristol, 74, 94-96.

[145] Schanz, i. 328. For St. Mary’s Gild in York see Hist. MSS. Com.

i. 109, 110. This “mystery of Mercers,” or “Community of Mercers” in

York formed into a body with a governor in 1430—in fact, became a

company of Merchant Adventurers. (Gross, ii. 280.) The Shipmen’s Guild

of Holy Trinity in Hull drew up its constitution in 1369, but got its

first royal grant in 1443. The Merchant Guild of S. George also dates

from the fifteenth century. (Lambert’s Guild Life, 128-131, 156-161.)

[146] In 1422 a writ was issued by the Privy Council to permit a

Bristol merchant to take two vessels laden with cloth, wine, salt, and

other merchandise not belonging to the Staple. The cloth and wine were

to be sold, and meat, hides, salmon, herrings, and fish to be bought,

and the salt used for salting these provisions. Proc. Privy Council,

ii. 322-3.

[147] When Taverner built his ship for the Mediterranean trade he got

no reduction of tolls, but had to pay the high export dues fixed for

foreigners. Schanz, i. 367.

[148] Keutgen, 79; Plummer’s Fortescue, 232-3.

[149] Eng. Chron. 1387-1461, 113. French pirates “whirling on the

coasts so that there dare no fishers go out,” (Paston Letters, iii. 81)

behave “as homely as they were Englishmen.” (Ibid. i. 114-116.)

[150] For the frequent disputes in the reign of Henry the Fourth see

Hist. MSS. Com. v. 443. In 1419, when some Bristol merchants had

seized vessels belonging to the Genoese, the King sent a messenger to

choose for him a portion of the prize, for which, however, he promised

honestly to pay the merchants. Proc. Privy Council, ii. 267. The mayor

of Lynn attended by two proctors travelled with the King’s embassy to

Bruges in 1435 “for the worship of the town” as its representative to

declare the wrongs done to Lynn merchants “by the master of Pruce and

his subjects and by them of the Hanse.” Hist. MSS. Com., xi. 3, 163;

Polydore Vergil, 159; Davies’ Southampton, 252-3, 275, 475.

[151] Stubbs, ii. 314, iii. 57, 65; Plummer’s Fortescue, 235-7. From

time to time money was collected for the protection of trade; (Nott.

Rec. ii. 34-36). In 1454 Bristol gave £150 for this purpose—the

largest sum given by any town save London. (Hunt’s Bristol, 97-8.)

[152] Rymer’s Fœdera, viii. 470.

[153] Debate of Heralds, 49. In 1488 a letter from London to the

money-changer Frescobaldo, at Venice, told that Flanders galleys

which left Antwerp for Hampton fell in with three English ships,

who commanded them to strike sail, and though they said they were

friends, forced them to fight. Eighteen English were killed. But on the

complaint of the captain of the galleys the King sent the Bishop of

Winchester to say he need not fear, as those who had been killed must

bear their own loss and a pot of wine would settle the matter. Davies’

Southampton, 475.

[154] See Libel of English Policy, Pol. Poems and Songs, ii. 164-5. For

complaints in 1444 and 1485 see Rot. Parl. v. 113.

[155] Libel of English Policy, Pol. Poems and Songs, ii. 159. Capgrave

de Illust. Henricis, 135. A man at Canterbury was accused in 1448 of

saying that the king was not able to bear the fleur-de-lys nor the ship

in his noble. (Hist. MSS. Com. v. 455.)

[156] Heralds’ Debate, 17.

[157] Schanz, ii. 27.

[158] 4 H. VII. cap. x.; Schanz, i. 368-9. Encouragement was also given

to building of English ships—as for example by remission of tolls on

the first voyage (Schanz, ii. 591).

[159] Keutgen, 55, etc.

[160] Ibid. 54.

[161] Schanz, i. 332; ii. 575. A list of the charters granted to them

follows, ibid. 575-8. See also treaty given, ibid. 159.

[162] Ibid. i. 339, 340.

[163] Ibid. ii. 162.

[164] Ibid. i. 340.

[165] 1500; Schanz, ii. 545-7.

[166] In 1505. Henry VII. issued regulations for the Merchant

Adventurers. They might meet _in Calais_ to elect governors; and

they were at the same time to elect a council of twenty-four called

“assistants,” who were to have jurisdiction over all members and power

to make statutes, and to appoint officers both in England and in Calais

to levy fines and to imprison offenders. The council filled up its own

vacancies. Every merchant using the dealings of a Merchant Adventurer

was not only to pay its tolls and taxes, but must enter the fellowship

and pay his ten marks. The Calais officials were to proclaim the marts

whenever required to do so. The Adventurers might appoint their own

weighers and packers, and have nothing to say to the royal officers.

(Schanz, ii. 549-553.)

[167] Schanz notes the settlement in Antwerp as one of the most

critical turning points of English industrial and commercial history

(i. 339). The movement had well begun in the fourteenth and early part

of the fifteenth centuries, but the real influx of English traders was

from 1442-4 (ibid. i. 9). For the treaties with the Duke of Burgundy

in 1407 concerning English traders in Flanders, Rymer’s Fœdera, viii.

469-78.

[168] Schanz, ii. 577, 581, 582.

[169] Ibid. i. 343, 344.

[170] 12 Henry VII. c. 6.

[171] Wheeler, Treatise of Commerce, 19, 23.

[172] “Déjà au quinzième siècle les Écossais avaient à Veere en Zélande

un dépôt pour leurs marchandises, administré par un ‘Conservator.’ Sir

Thomas Cunningham remplit cet office jusqu’à sa mort en 1655, et ce ne

fut que le 28 novembre, 1661 (_sic_), que Sir W. Davison en fut chargé;

il demeura de temps en temps à Amsterdam, où il eut des querelles à

l’occasion des impôts municipaux. Plus tard, il eut des différends

avec le pasteur épiscopal Mowbray, qui par suite fut déplacé, et enfin

avec les Écossais de Veere eux-mêmes. En 1668 Davison fit un traité

avec la ville de Dordrecht, pour y transporter les affaires d’Écosse;

mais comme les Écossais ne voulurent pas s’y conformer, Davison fut

contraint de prendre son congé en mai 1671; Veere resta le dépôt du

commerce écossais. Consultez encore l’ouvrage très rare. “An account

of the Scotch Trade in the Netherlands, and of the Staple Port in

Campvere. By James Yair, Minister of the Scotch Church in Campvere.

London, 1776.” (Œuvres Complètes de Huygens. Amsterdam, 1893. Note on a

letter from R. Moray to Huygens, Jan. 30, 1665.)

[173] Libel of English Policy. Pol. Poems and Songs, ii. 180, 181. See

Hist. MSS. Com. x. 4, 445-6. William Mucklow, merchant at London, sent

commissions to his son Richard at Antwerp; a Richard Mucklow was warden

of S. Helen’s, Worcester, either in 1510 or 1519 (446). An account book

of Wm. Mucklow, merchant, “in the Passe Mart at Barro, Middleburg, in

the Synxon Mart at Antwerp, in the Cold Mart and in Bamys Mart,” in

1511 records sales of white drapery and purchase of various goods—a

ball battery, fustian, buckram, knives, sugar, brushes, satin, damask,

sarsenet, velvet, pepper, Yssyngham cloth, spectacles, swan’s feathers,

girdles, “socket,” treacle, green ginger, ribands, brown paper, Brabant

cloth, pouches, leather, buckets, “antony belles,” “sacke belles,”

sheets, &c.; and the names of the vessels in which the goods were

shipped.

[174] Rot. Parl. iv. 126; Schanz, i. 443-445. For English reprisals, 27

H. VI. cap. i.; 28 H. VI. cap. i.; 4 Ed. IV. cap. 5.

[175] Schanz, ii. 191-3, 203-6. Negotiations were still going on in

1499 as to the trade disputes between Henry the Seventh, the Archduke,

and the Staple at Calais (Schanz, ii. 195-202). The main point in

dispute was allowing English cloths to be cut in the Netherlands for

making clothes.

[176] In 1493; Schanz, i. 17, 18.

[177] Schanz, ii. 582-5.

[178] Ibid. i. 7-11.

[179] Schanz, i. 31, 32.

[180] Ibid. i. 339.

[181] Schanz, i. 345; ii. 561, 562.

[182] Instances, Schanz, ii. 557, 558.

[183] Ibid. ii. 564.

[184] Ibid. ii. 543.

[185] From Antwerp Archives; Schanz, ii. 539-43.

[186] In November, 1504, the Staplers and Adventurers appeared before

the Star Chamber. The Staplers pleaded a charter which declared them

free from the jurisdiction of the Adventurers. The Star Chamber decided

that every Stapler who dealt or traded as an Adventurer was to be

subject to the courts and dues of the Adventurers: and every Adventurer

dealing as a Stapler in like manner to be subject to the Staple

(Schanz, ii. 547). This decision seemed to imply the ruin of Staplers,

but the next year it was explained that the authentic interpretation

was simply that “the merchants of the Staple at Calais using the feate

of a Merchant Adventurer passing to the marts at Calais should _in

those things_ be contributories to such impositions and charges” as the

Adventurers had fixed (ibid. 549); and that they could not be compelled

to join the Adventurers’ company. In 1510 Henry the Eighth repeated

the decree of Henry the Seventh that the Adventurers must not force

Staplers to join their body (555). For the pleadings before the Star

Chamber under Henry the Eighth see Schanz, ii. 556-564.

[187] Schanz, i. 249.

[188] Keutgen, 42, 51-54.

[189] Schanz, i. 251.

[190] Keutgen, 30, 81.

[191] Ibid. 44, &c.

[192] Pauli’s Pictures, 172, 185. Keutgen, 10-43. Richard the Second

complained to the Grand Master that traders were forced to carry their

cloth to Elbing instead of Danzig (ibid. 72). In 1388 three citizens

of London and York were sent to Marienberg with an interpreter to

make a treaty of commerce with the “general master of the house of S.

Mary of Teutonia.” (Hist. MSS. Com. i. 109.) In 1397, however, trade

with the Easterlings was practically stopped. The English imposed

enormous duties on German imports; the Germans forbade traffic in

English cloth. For the negotiations carried on by Henry the Fourth see

Literæ Cantuarienses, iii. xxviii.-xxxi., and the various letters on

the subject. The English colony in Danzig increased greatly after the

peace of Marienberg. (Schanz, i. 231.) In 1392 more than 300 English

came into Danzig to carry corn. (Keutgen, 71.) But the resistance of

the Danzig burghers to English trade was strenuous. They were less

jealous of the Netherlands manufacturers, and the Teutonic Order in the

fifteenth century sent to Dinant for the rough cloth needed for the

Baltic trade. (Pirenne, Dinant, 97; Keutgen, 81-83.)

[193] Pauli’s Pictures, 135-8.

[194] 8 H. VI. c. 2; Proc. Privy Council, iv. 208; Schanz, ii. 170.

[195] In 1425 there were letters from Henry the Sixth to the King of

Dacia, Norwegia, and Swecia, concerning the merchants of Lynn who

traded with the parts of North Berne; (Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, 203).

In 1427 he wrote to the English merchants “in partibus Prucie, Dacie,

Norweie, Hanse, and Swethie commorantes,” to assemble in a sufficient

place, elect governors and make ordinances for self-government in

mercantile matters, and for reasonable punishment of any merchants

disobedient (203). At times the English even forced compensation from

the Hanse merchants for outrages (Schanz, i. 250). In 1438 rye was

brought from Prussia “by the providence of Stephen Browne,” the mayor,

at a time of famine in England, when a bushel of corn was sold for 3s.

4d., and the people were making bread of vetches, peas, beans, and

fern-roots. (Fabyan, 612.)

[196] Schanz, i. 254.

[197] Libel of English Policy. Pol. Poems and Songs, ii. 191. The

bailiffs and community of Chepstowe did trade with Iceland and Finmark.

(Proc. Privy Council, iv. 208.) In 1426 Lynn forbade trade with Iceland

to its inhabitants and the whole community sent a petition against the

trade to the King’s Council. (Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, 160.)

[198] Hunt’s Bristol, 94-6. In 1491 fishing-smacks starting for Iceland

had to get leave to sail, after finding surety that they would not

carry more grain nor any other forbidden thing than sufficed for their

own food. Paston Letters, iii. 367-9.

[199] Keutgen, 30.

[200] Ibid. 84-5, 70-71. For these negotiations see Rymer’s Fœdera, x.

656-7, 666-70, 753. Bekynton, i. 215.

[201] In 1439. Bekynton’s Corres. i. 183-4.

[202] “Whereof the payment was kept secret from writers” (Fabyan, 657.)

[203] The fortunes of Memling’s Last Judgement now at Danzig give a

curious illustration of this war and the trade complications of the

time. Ordered at Bruges through the Florentine agents there (the

Portinari), probably by Julian and Lorenzo de Medici, the picture could

not be carried to Florence on account of this war begun in 1468. At

last in 1473 it was sent off from Sluys in a British-built ship, which

had been bought by English merchants as a French prize, chartered by

Florentines in Bruges for a voyage to London, registered in the name of

the Portinari, commissioned by a French captain, and navigated under

the Burgundian flag for greater security against capture. It was,

however, taken off Southampton by a privateer sailing under the Danzig

flag and commanded by a noted captain Benecke. In spite of a bull

issued by Sixtus the Fourth the cargo was sold at Stade and the picture

brought by the owners of the ship to Danzig. (Crowe and Cavalcaselle,

Early Flemish Painters, 257-260.)

[204] Henry the Sixth, on the other hand, brought the help of the

Genoese. Possibly the excessive price of fish mentioned in the Paston

Letters in 1471 may have been caused by the political troubles (iii.

22, 254).

[205] Schanz, i. 172-9; ii. 388-396. Pauli’s Pictures, 185-7.

[206] Schanz, i, 186.

[207] Schanz, i. 294.

[208] Schanz, i. 257.

[209] Schanz, i. 237-42.

[210] For the negotiations between the Easterlings and the English

merchants, see Schanz, ii. 397-430; i. 179-201. In 1498 Archduke

Philip, seeing the utter ruin into which Bruges had fallen, tried

to revive it by ordering that all foreign merchants should do their

business there only, by improving the harbour, _and by making it the

Staple for English cloths in Flanders_. (Schanz, i. 26-27.) In 1501

Philip made Bruges a Staple where English cloth might be sold in

Flanders under strict conditions. (Ibid. ii. 203-6.) In 1506 Henry won

from the Archduke the right to sell cloth by the yard and to have the

manufacture of it finished in all his dominions except Flanders. (Ibid.

i. 31.)

[211] The friendly way in which the English merchants even in 1405

looked on Genoese traders is illustrated in the story told by Fabyan

(571), of three carracks of Genoa laden with merchandise plundered

by English lords. The Genoese merchants made suit to the King for

compensation, and meanwhile borrowed from English merchants goods

amounting unto great and noble sums. When their suit was seen to be in

vain they made off with their spoils “to the undoing” of many merchants.

[212] Hunt’s Bristol, 97-8.

[213] For the anxiety as to the friendship of powerful maritime states

see the French boast of the alliance of Spain and Genoa; Heralds’

Debate, 59. It is interesting to notice that both Edward the Fourth

and Henry the Seventh preferred Florence to Venice. Disputes about the

Venetian wool trade under Henry the Sixth are mentioned in Bekynton’s

Corresp. i. 126-9.

[214] The price of wine had been raised in England by new rules about

measures.

[215] A pilgrim to Rome in 1477 got letters in London on the bank of

Jacobo di Medici. (Hist. MSS. Com. vi. 361.)

[216] 1. English merchants might trade freely with Florence in all

kinds of wares of home or foreign origin.

2. The Florentines promised to buy no wool save from English ships. The

English on their side were bound to carry yearly to Pisa an average

quantity for all the Italian states save Venice. In Pisa they were to

have all the privileges of inhabitants and to have land for a building.

3. The English were to be free from personal services and from taxes

which might be raised on trade.

4. The merchants might form a corporation in Pisa.

5. Quarrels between Englishmen to be settled by their own head.

Quarrels between an Englishman and a foreigner to be decided by the

municipality and the English consul. Criminal cases by the municipality

alone.

6. The English to share all advantages the Florentines might win by

trading treaties.

7. The wishes of the English to be considered in all new privileges

granted in the Florentine dominions.

8. The English King was to allow no stranger to carry wool out of

England. The Venetians only might carry 600 sacks.

9. The wool was to be of good quality and well packed. (Schanz, i.

126-137.)

[217] Schanz, i. 119-142; 7 Henry VII. c. 7.

[218] An interesting account of this is given in Hist. MSS. Com. v. 461.

[219] Schanz, i. 298.

[220] In 1475, 1486, and 1495. (Schanz, i. 299-304.) In 1475 a

proclamation in Cinque Ports forbade Englishmen to buy Gascon wine of

an alien. (Hist. MSS. Com. v. 494.)

[221] An interesting trace of foreign connections is given in the will

of Wm. Rowley, who left money to a parish church and a nunnery at Dam

in Flanders, and to two places in Spain. (Hist. MSS. Com. v. 326.)

[222] Schanz, i. 275-7.

[223] Ibid. i. 285-90. The Portuguese were among those who were allowed

to export woollen cloths under Henry the Sixth. (Proc. Privy Council,

v. ii. 11.)

[224] Notices of English trade with Portugal in the second half of the

fifteenth century may be found in the complaints of the merchants;

Schanz, ii. 496-524. For Portuguese in Lydd in 1456, Hist. MSS. Com. v.

521.

[225] In Piers Ploughman a graphic illustration is taken from the

mediæval borough thus isolated and protected.

“He cried and commanded all Christian people

To delve and dike a deep ditch all about unity,

That Holy Church stood in holiness as it were a pile.

Conscience commanded then all Christians to delve,

And make a great moat that might be a strength

To help holy Church and them that it keepeth.”

—Pass. xxii. 364-386.

[226] Journ. Arch. Assoc. xxvii. 461.

[227] Piers Ploughman, passus iv. 386.

[228] Journ. Arch. Assoc. xxvii. 466.

[229] “And we use that during the siege if the bailiff be an unable and

impotent man or unlearned, to choose us one other for the time being;

but not a far-dweller unless by the pleasure of the commonalty.” (Ibid.

488.) See Proc. Privy Council, iv. 217.

[230] Journ. Arch. Assoc. xxvii. 463, 488.

[231] In Rye there was a tax “from every stranger, as though from a

prisoner taken, payment of his finance for his ransom, and when he has

entered the fortresses of the port for his passage thence, 3_s._ 4_d._;

he having to pay towards the building of the walls and gates there what

pertains to the common weal of the town.” (Hist. MSS. Com. v. 490.) For

the strengthening of Canterbury wall against the French, (ibid. ix.

141.) It had twenty-one towers and six gates, and mayors in 1452 and

1460 left money for the gates. (Davies’ Southampton, 62-3, 80, 105.

Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, 167.)

[232] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 518-24, 492-3. The Common House at Romney was

only provided with bows until in 1475 a gun was laid on it. Burgesses

were sometimes driven from towns by the excessive charges of war and

of watch and ward. (Owen’s Shrewsbury, i. 205.) For Southampton, see

Davies, 79, 80, Chester, Hist. MSS. Com. viii. 370.

[233] Hist. MSS. Com. viii. 370. In 1399, when the master-weavers and

tradesmen came armed to the cathedral and led an attack on “William

of Wybunbur and Thomas del Dame and many of their servants called

journeymen in a great affray of all the people of the city against the

peace of the Lord King.” Ibid. 367. See also Paston Letters, i. 408;

Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 1, 432.

[234] Plumpton Correspondence, liv. lxii.

[235] Davies’ York, 183. For the directions given about the gathering

of troops, see ibid., 152-157. For cost of arms and maintenance of

troops to towns, see Stubbs ii. 309. Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 143.

[236] Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 7, p. 171.

[237] The authorities of York decreed that the soldiers sent on a

Scotch campaign should be given their wages for the first fourteen

days, and the captain should have in his pocket the money for the

second fortnight. The troops struck, however, and insisted on having

the whole twenty-eight days’ pay before they started, and the town had

at last to give in as the only way of getting the expedition started.

(Davies’ York 132-7.) The soldiers, once paid, often did no more than

start on their journey and then “sraggle about by themselves” with

their pay in their pockets. (Paston Letters ii. 1-2.)

[238] Eng. Chronicle, 1377-1461, pp. 71, 83, 90, 109.

[239] Piers Ploughman, passus iv. 478, 479.

“‘Therefore I counsel no King any counsel ask

At conscience if he coveteth to conquer a realm,

For should never conscience be my constable

Were I a king y-crowned, by Mary,’ quoth Meed,

‘Nor be marshall of my men where I most fight.’”

—Passus iv. 254-8.

[240] In Canterbury, any man drawing a knife was fined or imprisoned

forty days. (Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 172.) In Sandwich if any one wounded

another with a sword or knife he might choose one of three punishments,

a fine of 60s. to the commonalty, imprisonment for a year and a day, or

to have his hand perforated with the weapon by which he had inflicted

the wound. (Boys 502.)

[241] Parker, Manor of Aylesbury, 20-21. “Also I complain,” said one of

them pitifully, “upon James Fleccher for fraying of my wife about 10

o’clock in the night and I ready for to go to bed, standing scolding at

my door bidding me come out of thy doors an thou dare with his dagger

in his hand ready to break the king’s peace.” The prudent constable,

however, refrained from coming out and was content to appeal to the

next court; “he is coming and therefore I beseech you of peace of

his godabery.” In Canterbury one of the watchmen called to a person

“walking out of due time” to know wherefore he walked there so late.

“The suspect person gave none answer, but ran from thence into St.

Austin’s liberty and before the door of one John Short they took him.

And the same John Short came out of his house with other misknown

persons and took from the said watchmen their weapons and there menaced

them for to beat contrary to the oath of a true and faithful freeman.”

(Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 174.)

[242] “The freemen of the borough of Huntingdon have this week been

engaged in the observance of a curious and ancient local custom. With

their sons, the whole of the freemen of the borough have assembled in

the morning in the Market-place. The skull of an ox borne on two poles

was placed at the head of a procession, and then came the freemen and

their sons, a certain number of them bearing spades and others sticks.

Three cheers having been given, the procession moved out of the town

and proceeded to the nearest point of the borough boundary, where the

skull was lowered. The procession then moved along the boundary line

of the borough, the skull being dragged along the line as if it were a

plough. The boundary holes were dug afresh, and a boy thrown into each

hole and struck with a spade. At a particular point, called Blacktone

Leys, refreshments were provided, and the boys competed for prizes.

The skull was then again raised aloft, and the procession returned to

the Market-place, where three more hurrahs were given before it broke

up.” (From the Pall Mall Gazette, September 16th, 1892.) In Hythe Holy

Thursday was the day of perambulation. (Hist. MSS. Com. iv. i. 432.)

For Canterbury in 1497 see Hasted’s Kent, iv. 399-401.

[243] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 434.

[244] History Preston Gild, 41, 42; Hist. MSS. Com. iii. 345;

Nottingham, Records, i. 150-151, 268, 164-165.

[245] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 519.

[246] For common pasture and closes see short account in Rogers’

Six Centuries of Work and Wages, i. 89-90, taken from Fitzherbert’s

Treatise. In 1484 a great riot broke out in York on the question of the

common lands. The King had begged the council to make an order that a

close which belonged to S. Nicholas, but was common from Michaelmas to

Candlemas, should be “closed and several” for the use of the hospital

if the commons would agree to the same. The order was made, but a

few days after Michaelmas, when the close was not thrown open as was

customary, the citizens met in a “riotous assembly or insurrection”

which led to interference of the King. (Davies’ York, 190-198.) In

Winchester (1414) John Parmiter was punished for accusing the mayor

of intending to sell the Coitebury mill without consent of the

citizens. (Kitchen’s Winchester, 171.) For other instances see Vol. II.

“Democracy in the Towns,” Note A.

[247] At Worcester the common coffer which contained the city deeds

and moneys was fastened with six locks; three keys were kept by

the bailiff, an alderman, and a chamberlain, chosen by the “Great

Clothing,” or the council of “the twenty-four above;” the other three

by a chamberlain chosen by the “Low Election” or the council of “the

Forty-eight beneath,” and by two “thrifty commoners.” Eng. Gilds, 377.

[248] In case of error or fraud, or if the bailiff refused to make

answer to complaints of the burghers, he was brought before the

court of his fellow-citizens “and he shall make satisfaction as the

commonalty shall think fitting.” Journ. Arch. Ass. xxvii. 462.

[249] In Romney the town paid every year to have seats put in the

church of S. Lawrence on the day of the Annunciation. (Hist. MSS. Com.

v. 546.) In the same way town accounts at Rye were made up and audited

in the church at the end of the year. (Ibid. v. 494.) Lydd in 1471

“spended in the church upon the bailly and jurats when they enquired

what lyvelod men have in Lydd two pence.” (Ibid. 525.)

[250] Hist. MSS. Com. i. 106, 107.

[251] See p. 41, note 2.

[252] Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 1, 438. The Hythe barge brought back three

lasts of herrings which were sold for £12. In 1409 Romney Jurats got

6s. increase upon white salt bought for the community. (Ibid. v. 537.)

If a corporation was in need of money it could always fall back on

loans from rich townsmen, who were willing to lend even on long credit.

In 1455 or 1456 one Canterbury merchant lent £13 6s. 8d., which was

needed for a gift to the queen, then travelling on pilgrimage, and he

was only repaid in 1464. Three leading men, who advanced large sums to

do honour to Edward the Fourth on his first coming to the city in 1460,

waited four or five years for their money. (Ibid. ix. 139-140.) In Lynn

the loans to the corporation were on a very great scale according to

the ideas of the time, and the municipal debt, entirely raised on the

spot, was as permanent and as progressive as that of a modern town.

[253] Madox, Firma Burgi, 159. See also in 1322, when the missing ferm

was to be levied of the bailiffs’ goods, chattels, and lands, and, if

this did not suffice, of the goods of the citizens. Documents pr. 1884.

(Stanley _v._ Mayor, &c., 24.) See Note A at the end of chapter.

[254] Davies, 111, 37.

[255] Eng. Gilds, 362-363; Nott. Records, i. 267.

[256] Records of Nottingham, iv. 449. Afterwards a paviour was

appointed who was paid, or partly paid, by a toll taken for corn

“shown” for sale in the market. This tax, known as “shewage” or

“scavadge,” gave rise to our later word scavenger (iv. 453). Rules for

keeping streets clean in Southampton. (Gross, ii. 223.)

[257] Ricart, 28. 1240 A.D. For carrying great stones for the quay and

walls of Rye. Hist. MSS. Com. v. 492, 493.

[258] Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 1, 434.

[259] One man received £30 10s. in various sums, 3s. 4d. a rod for

nineteen rods, 1s. 8d. a rod for 106 rods, and 12d. a rod for 380 rods.

(Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 1, 434.) For forty years the men of Romney fought

a desperate battle with the sea and the changing bed of the Rother to

preserve the harbour on which their prosperity depended. In 1381 they

spent nearly £9 on making a sluice (Boys’ Sandwich, 803); there were

heavy payments for it again in 1388, and in 1398 John Roan was brought

over from Flanders to take charge of it. The commons turned out in 1406

for “digging the common Rie,” or bed of the Rother, and in 1409 were

again busy “digging the water-course.” In 1410 Gerard Matthyessone was

brought over from Holland to make the sluice at a cost of £100; in 1412

over £44 was spent on it besides clothing for Gerard and his household;

and in 1413 payments were still being made to him. A few years later

in 1422 his place was taken by another Dutchman, Onterdel, who seems

to have finished the work, for after this there are only charges for

slight repairs. Their improvements remained the model for neighbouring

towns, and when Lydd was occupied in works of the same kind its

citizens came to study the jetty at Romney.

[260] Ibid. vi. 495-7. A messenger went as far as Kent and Essex

to gather alms for making the harbour. He collected groats, pence,

fleeces of wool, broken silver and rings, a dish full of wheat, malt,

or barley, a piece of bacon and so forth; and got a man to help him

who swore before the canons of Christchurch that he would be true, but

declared he must have a crucifix and writing as sign of authority, and

got a goodly crucifix with beryl set therein and a new suit of clothes,

and then made off with his booty.

[261] Shillingford’s Letters, 141, 142. Rec. Nottingham, i. 183. For

Rochester, Eng. Chron. 124; Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 76. For London see Lit.

Cantuar. iii. 169.

[262] Boys’ Sandwich, 673, 676, 684. The town council of Lynn decreed

in 1431 “that the three players shall serve the community this year

for 21s., and their clothing to be had of every house;” but two years

later the players demanded an increase of their “reward,” and a grant

was made to each of them of 20s. and their clothing, in return for

which “they shall go through the town with their instruments from the

Feast of All Saints to the following Feast of the Purification.” (Hist.

MSS. Com. xi. 3, p. 162-3.) In Canterbury four minstrels were appointed

every year, and each one was given a silver scutcheon worth 100s.—a

badge which was returned at the end of the year to the city chamberlain.

[263] Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London (Camden Society), 12.

[264] Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 147-8. A most interesting example of an

English play is given in the “Commonplace book of the fifteenth

century,” ed. by Miss Toulmin Smith, pp. 46-9, the play of Abraham and

Isaac. The vivacity, the pathos, the dramatic movement, the strong

human interest, are very remarkable.

[265] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 516-527.

[266] Piers Ploughman, pass. i. 34-38.

[267] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 518, &c.

[268] Ibid. pass. viii. 98.

[269] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 540, 541, 544, 552, 548, 549.

[270] Ibid. xi. 7, 172-4.

[271] “Two Sermons of the Boy Bishop at S. Paul’s” have been published

by the Camden Society, 1875.

[272] Eng. Guilds, 430.

[273] Hist. MSS. Com. viii. 363.

[274] See vol. ii.

[275] Davies’ York, 43, 77; Eng. Guilds, 141-3. The expenses that fell

on a town at a royal visit were exceedingly heavy. (Davies’ York, 69.)

For Canterbury, Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 140-151.

[276] In 1415 there were fifty-seven crafts in York, each of which

had its special play. (Davies’ York, 233-236; English Guilds, 141-3;

Hist. MSS. Com. i. 109.) Plays were given over to certain trades to

act. _Abraham and Isaac_, for instance, was given to the slaters in

Newcastle, the bowyers and fletchers in Beverley, the weavers in

Dublin, the parchminers and bookbinders in York, the barbers and

wax-chandlers in Chester. (Commonplace Book, ed. by Miss Toulmin Smith,

47-8.)

[277] The prices charged by players and minstrels seem to have risen

considerably between 1400 and 1500. For a growing economy, see Hist.

MSS. Com. iii. 345.

[278] Ibid. ix. 173.

[279] Ibid. ix. 274. For the Worcester rules of 1467, see English

Guilds, 385, 407-8.

[280] Hist. MSS. Com. i. 103-104, no date.

[281] Ibid. x. 4, 426.

[282] The York hostellers contracted in 1483 to bring forth yearly for

the next eight years a pageant of their own, _The Coronation of Our

Lady_.

[283] A small fee was sometimes paid to the parson when the church was

used as storehouse for grain or wool as in case of Southampton. Roger’s

Agric. and Prices, ii. 611.

[284] Paston Letters, iii. 436.

[285] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 306. York Ritual.

[286] The belfry where the clock hung played so important a part in

the communes of France that the right to have a belfry and a town hall

were given by charter when the commune was established, and were taken

away when it was suppressed (Ordonnances des Rois de France, vol. xi.,

cxlii., cxliii.), and the bell-tower often formed the town prison. In

England, on the other hand, the town clock and the assembly and curfew

bells in almost all cases were set in the tower of the parish church,

and the ringers paid by the corporation.

[287] Piers Ploughman, passus vii. 144. In Totnes in the thirteenth

century there is a long list of entries such as these:— “Alice wife

of Walter Cochela sits above the seats of Walter rustic;” “Nicholas

son of Henry has his seat by common purchase;” and so on. And down to

recent times the mayor, who by tradition represents the head of the

Merchant Guild, was charged with appointing seats in the church to the

inhabitants. (Hist. MSS. Com. iii. 242-3.) In Liverpool, “according to

ancient custom,” the city officers and their wives had special seats in

S. Nicholas, and after them the householders; “apprentices and servants

shall sit or stand in the alleys.” (Picton’s Liverpool, ii. 53, 54,

57.) For allotment of seats in the parish church see Toulmin Smith, The

Parish, 2nd Edition, 1857, 441.

[288] In Cumberland stray sheep were proclaimed at the church on

Sunday. At Rotherham the penalties decreed in the manor court were

commonly ordered to be published by the bailiff in the church.

(Hunter’s Doncaster, ii. 10.) In 1462 the king’s judges sat to hold

trials in the Grey Friars’ Church at Bridgewater for cases of assault

and theft. (Hist. MSS. Com. iii. 316.)

[289] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 537. Romney. Ibid. iv. 1, 436.

[290] Shillingford’s Letters, 48, 94. For the church of S. Nicholas

Romney, 1422, see Hist. MSS. Com. v. 542. In Dover barons of Cinque

Ports met at the church of S. James. (Ibid. v. 528, 538.) For Rye,

Ibid., 499. The meetings of the town council in Southampton were

probably first held in the church of S. Cross or Holy Rood, where the

assembly bell and curfew bell hung; and so closely did the idea of the

town life come to be connected with this spot that when a town hall

was built in the fourteenth century the church was moved further back

that the hall might stand on its exact site. As late as 1470 the mayor

and his brethren met in the parish church to settle a question of town

business.

[291] Shillingford’s Letters, 93. Report on Markets, 25. Fairs

forbidden on Sundays and feast days; 27 Henry VI., cap. 5.

[292] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 436.

[293] It is interesting to note the scientific experiments of “Doctor

Wren” in the tower of old S. Paul’s, described in a letter from Moray

to Huygens, Sep. 23, 1664. Œuvres Complètes de Huygens. Amsterdam,

1893, vol. v.

[294] The mayor and jurats of Rye had the nomination of the chaplain

of S. Bartholomew’s. (Lyons, ii. 367.) For Sandwich Boys, 672-3. The

Bridgewater burgesses were lay rectors of the church. (Hist. MSS.

Com. iii. 312.) For the Wells corporation, Hist. MSS. Com. i. 106. At

Dartmouth the parish church was built by the mayor; and a dispute began

between mayor and vicar who was to have fees for masses; fresh dispute

raised every thirty years from that time till 1874, when it had come

to a question of pew rents, and a compromise was made. In Andover the

custodians of the cemetery were chosen by the people (Gross, ii. 331).

“If any person shall be a water bearer in Totnes he shall cry the hour

of the day and shall carry the holy water every Sunday throughout the

whole ville of Totnes.” (Hist. MSS. Com. iii. 344.) Payment was often

made for sermons. (Hist. MSS. Com. v. 549. Davies’ York, 77.)

[295] Hist. MSS. Com. vi. 495. For the presenting of parish priests and

clerics by the town juries see Cutts’ Colchester, 129. “And also the

parish priest of St. Peter’s for over assessing of poor folks and men’s

servants at Easter for their tythes and other duties.” (Nott. Rec. iii.

364.) In 1476, when the chaplain of Old Romney Church was arraigned

for felony, “according to the custom of the Cinque Ports, for his

acquittance it is assigned that he shall have 36 good and lawful men to

be at the Hundred Court next to come at his peril.” Hist. MSS. Com. vi.

544. See ch. v. p. 175, note.

[296] Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 272.

[297] For the rise of the new parish administration, Gneist i. 282-5;

ii. 21.

[298] Hythe, Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 1, 432. Bridport, Hist. MSS. Com. vi.

495; Andover, Gross, ii. 345. In Lynn all houses leased for 20s. a year

were bound to supply the blessed bread and wax for S. Margaret’s, and

the most elaborate rules were drawn up to regulate the contributions

which were to be paid by tenements lying together, or by various

tenements under one roof. In case payment was refused the common

sergeant, or any officer sent by the mayor, might levy a distress and

carry off the tenant’s goods to the Guild Hall to be kept till he had

made satisfaction or paid a fine of 20s. (Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, 161.)

Payments for the holy fire are frequent. (Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 432, v.

549.) Sometimes fines for breach of trade laws went to church uses.

(Gross, ii. 331, 345.) In Rye, if any animal got into the churchyard

the owner paid 3s. 4d. to fabric of church. (Hist. MSS. Com. v. 489.)