A. D. 1274. 427 



ed, that, during the truce of a month (24'" June to. 24'" July) granted 

 by King Edward for fettling the terms of the treaty, fome Flemifh arm- 

 ed vefTels had put to fea, as on a filhing voyage, had attacked the Eng- 

 lifh fifhermen, who fuppofed themfelves fecure on the faith of the truce, 

 and had killed twelve hundred of them ; a number which, if not exag- 

 gerated, gives a very refpedlable idea of the EngliHi fifhery. [Foedera, 

 V. u,p. ^2-^ ^^ ^^^ other hand, the countefs of Flanders, in a letter 

 to King Edward, reprefented, that fome of her fubjeds, wlio had failed 

 after the conclufion of the peace, had put in at Berwick, on their re- 

 turn from fifhing on the coafl of Scotland, for the fake of drying their 

 nets ; and two-and-twenty of them*, who had gone up the Tweed about 

 as far as Norham, a callle on the Englifli fide of the river, to dry their 

 nets, were feized and iraprifoned by the commander of that caftle (Au- 

 gufl 15'^'.) [Fcedera,V. n,p. 37.] As it was furely unneceflary to go- 

 a journey of fix miles up the country to dry their nets, it feems more 

 probable, that their objedl was to catch falmon out of the fight of the 

 people of Berwick and Tweedmouth, and, as the fifli belonged to the 

 proprietors of the land on each fide of the river, their imprifonraent was 

 in confequence of that trefpafs upon private property. 



Augull 11'" — King Edward while he was in the Holy land, had bor- 

 rov/ed fome money from the brethren of the Temple, and given them 

 his obligation for the principal, with expenfes, damages, and intereft f 

 (' interefi^e'), all which he now paid on their account to the mafi:er of 

 the Temple in London, [Fcedera, V. \i,p. 34.] This is believed to be 

 the firft infi:ance of the kings of England exprefsly agreeing to pay in- 

 terefi; X for money borrowed, which in all their former money tranfac- 

 tions, appears to have been fettled by coUufion. 



Auguft ig"" — At the coronation of King Edward, there was a pro- 

 digious difplay of filks and gold fi:uffs, which, being articles of foreign 

 manufadure, ftiow that the exports of England, which could pay for 

 fuch an importation of luxuries, mufl: have been pretty extenfive, even 

 if there fhould have been no importation of the pretious metals this 

 year. An hiftorian fays, that no tongue nor pen could defcribe the 

 magnificence of the drefl^es, and the ingenuity of the pageants exhibited 



• Among their names we find Renoud Eiigliili to the merchants of Italy in the year i 2JJ, ' qua; 



(' Anglicus') and Michael Scot. « quotidle propter ufuvas, pcenas, et inUreJfe, non 



f Though intercd Is expreflcd in the acknow- ' minima fulcipiebant incrementa.' Here we have 



legement given to Edward by John of Bretagne, ufury, penalties, and tntereji. As the word ufury 



liis brother-in-law, for whole ufe the money was in thofe days equivalent to our modern word 



(10,500 Saracen befants) was borrowed in the intercjl, what did Mathew Paris undcriland by in- 



year 1271, [ffjOTivV Coll, manufcr. V. i, n° . 42I terejje ? — In the marriage contract between Scot- 



as well as in the mailer's difcharge to the king, land and Norway (25"" July 1281) ' damna, ex- 



the ftipulated rate of intereft does not appear in ' penfffi, et interefle,' frequently occur, the later 



cither. evidently fignifying intereft. [^FaJera, V, ii, 



J Mathew Paris [/>. 910] mentions debts due p. 1079. J 



