ad THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1388. 



right gratiously vouchsafed upon our Masters and 

 Order : neither yet for the injuries aforesaid, was there 

 ever any maner of offence, or molestation offered unto 

 any of your subjects noble or ignoble whatsoever. 

 Moreover, in the name & behalfe of our foresaid 

 Ma. general we do propound unto your excellency by 

 way of complaint, that in the yere last past, 6. dayes 

 after ye feast of the Ascension, certain persons of your 

 realm of England, with their ships & captains comming 

 unto the port of Flanders, named Swen, & finding 

 there, amongst sundry other, 6. ships of Prussia resident, 

 which had there arrived w l divers goods & marchandises : 

 and being informed that they were of Prussia, & their 

 friends, they caused them & their ships to remain 

 next unto their owne ships, protesting unto them, that 

 they should in no sort be molested or damnified by 

 themselves or by any other of their company, & that 

 they would faithfully defend them, as if they were their 

 own people, from ye hands of their adversaries : & 

 for their farther security & trust, they delivered some 

 of their own men & their standerds into our mens 

 ships : howbeit a while after being stirred up, & bent 

 far otherwise, they took out of ye foresaid ships al 

 kind of armors, wherwith they were to gard & defend 

 themselves from pirats, & they deteined the masters 

 of those ships, not suffring them to return unto their 

 own ships & companies, one also of ye said ships 

 (having taken al the goods out of her) they consumed 

 with fire. And within 3. daies after they came with 

 one accord unto ye abovenamed ships, and tooke away 

 from them all goods and marchandises which they could 

 find, and all the armour and weapons of the said ships, 

 the chestes also of the marchants, of the ship-masters, 

 & of other persons they brake open, taking out money, 

 jewels, garments, & divers other commodities : and so 

 they inflicted upon them irrecoverable losses and unkind 

 grievances. And departing out of the foresaid haven, 

 they caried 2. of the Prussian ship-masters with them, 



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