482 A. D. 1315. 



mufl have been more than one ftaple, fome of them, fuch as S'. Omers 

 and Lifle being apparently fubfidiary to the chief one, which was fixed 

 at Antwerp, though the earl of Flanders had endeavoured to get it fet- 

 tled at Bruges. 



England was this year afflided by a famine, grievous beyond all that 

 ever were known before, which raifed the price of provifions far above 

 the reach of the people of middling circumftances. The parliament, in 

 companion to the general diftrefs, ordered that all articles of food fhould 

 be fold at moderate prices, which they took upon themfelves to pre- 

 fcribe. The confequence (which, it is very wonderful, they did not 

 forefee) was, that all things, inflead of being fold at, or under, the maxi- 

 mum price fixed by them, became dearer than before, or were entirely 

 withheld from the markets. Poultry were rarely to be feen ; butcher 

 meat was not to be found at all ; the fheep were dying of a peftilence ; 

 and all kinds of grain were fold at moil enormous prices. Early in the 

 i^ext year (131 6) the parliament, perceiving their miflake, repealed 

 their ill-judged ad:, and left provifions to find their own price. \Wal- 

 finghnm, pp. 106, 107.] 



In the time of the famine fome corn was imported from France, Si- 

 cily, and Spain ; and feveral Spanifh fliips, carrying provifions and arms 

 to the Flemings, were feized by the conftable of Dover cafl;le, upon 

 which the king of France requeflied his ally of England to confifcate the 

 velFels and cargoes to himfelf, and to make the men his flaves. \Fcedera, 

 r. iii, />/». 542, 544, 564.] 



1316 — A great dromund of Genoa, loaded with corn, oil, honey, and 

 other provifions, for England, to the value of /^5,7i6 : 12 : o llerling, 

 and having the king's protedion and fafe condud, was attacked, when 

 lying at anchor in the Downs near Sandwich, by a fleet under the com- 

 mand of a French admiral, who carried her into Calais. The depriva- 

 tion of fo large a cargo of provifions in a time of famine was a national 

 calamity ; and King Edward applied both to the king of France, and to 

 the admiral who had taken the fiiip, requiring her to be brought back 

 to the Downs. The king of France being dead, he repeatedly wrote to 

 the regents, and to feveral French noblemen individually, upon the fame 

 bufinefs, but without effed *. \Fcedera, V. iii, p. 564, 894, 985.] 



Immediately after his application for the recovery of a Genoefe vef- 

 fel, Edward, having learned by intercepted letters, that two citizens of 

 Genoa were in treaty with Robert king of Scotland to furnilh gallies 

 and arms for his fervice in the war againfl; himfelf, wrote to the com- 

 munity of the city (July 18'''), exprelfing his furprilc that they {hould 

 ehter into friendfiiip with his capital enemy, feeing that he had fliown 

 every kmd of favour to the Genoefe, and friendfiiip between his ancef- 



* The papers iit the Focdern, here quoted, fliow that no compenfation was made in January 1323. 



