A.D. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1293- I 



France was thereby (for a long season after) in maner ] 



destitute, both of Seamen, and shipping. ' 



1406. Finally, and to conclude this part, in the dayes of king I 



Henrie the fourth, the navie of the Five Ports, under I 



the conduct of one Henrie Paye, surprised one hundreth i 



and twentie French ships, all laden with Salt, Iron, Oile, ' 

 and no woorse merchandize. 



The prhn- The priviledges of these Ports, being first granted by ! 



ledges of the Ec^^ard the Confessour, and William the Conquerour, ' 



and then confirmed and increased by William Rufus, - 



[I. 20.] Henrie the second, Richard the first, Henrie the third, I 



and king Edward the first, be very great, considering ' 



either the honour and ease, or the freedome and exemp- ' 



tion, that the inhabitants have by reason of the same. ; 



I 



Part of an Epistle written by one Yvo of Narbona | 



unto the Archbishop of Burdeaux, conteining \ 



the confession of an Englishman as touching ; 



the barbarous demeanour of the Tartars, which \ 



had lived long among them, and was drawen | 



along perforce with them in their expedition | 



against Hungarie : Recorded by Mathew Paris i 



in the yere of our Lord 1243. i 



THe Lord therefore being provoked to indignation, ! 



by reason of this and other sinnes committed ! 



among us Christians, is become, as it were, a destroying ■ 



enemie, and a dreadfull avenger. This I may justly ; 



afBrme to be true, because an huge nation, and a ! 



barbarous and inhumane people, whose law is lawlesse, ; 



whose wrath is furious, even the rod of Gods anger, j 



overrunneth, and utterly wasteth infinite countreyes, j 



cruelly abolishing all things where they come, with fire j 

 and sword. And this present Summer, the foresayd 

 nation, being called Tartars, departing out of Hungarie, 

 which they had surprised by treason, layd siege unto the 

 I Neustat. very same II towne, wherein I my selfe abode, with many 

 thousands of souldicrs : neither were there in the sayd 



50 



