A, D. 13 1 6. 483 



tors and theirs had been inviolably preferved from antient times * ; and 

 concluding with a requeft that thofe two citizens might be punifhed for 

 an example to others. [Feeder a, V. iii, p. 565.] 



1317, January 30''' — King Edward, defirous of procuring fome Ge- 

 noefe veflels for himfelf, employed Leonardo PefTaigne of Genoa to hire 

 from his fellow citizens five gallies fitted for war, and fuflaciently armed, 

 manned, and vidualled, to be employed in his war againfl Scotland. 

 [Fisdera, V. iii, p. 604.] Many other inflances might be adduced, if 

 neceflary, of the princes of Europe applying to the Genoefe for naval 

 affiflance, which they, more frequently than any other of the Italian 

 Hates, granted, without being, however, any other way concerned in the 

 quarrel than as mercenary auxiliaries. 



June 20''' — The king granted the merchants of Brabant permiilion 

 to tr^ttie in his kingdom with the ufual conditions ; and he alfo added 

 the fame exemptions from being liable for the debts and crimes of 

 ftrangers, which he had granted to the citizens of Dordrecht in the 

 year 13 13. And a fimilar grant was made (November 20''') to the 

 merchants of Bermeo, Bilboa, and the other towns of Bifcay, with the 

 fame exemption ; and, at the requeft of their fovereign the king of Caf- 

 tile, it was declared that ihey ihould not even be liable for the debts or 

 crimes of the people of any other kingdom or province of Spain. [Feed- 

 era, V. iii, //. 647, 678.] 



July 6'*' — Edward, having occafion to thank the duke of Bretagne for 

 doing juftice to fome Englilli fubjeds in his territories, affured him, that 

 any of his fubjeds aggrieved by the Engliih fhould have fpeedy juftice, 

 and even favour ; and if they chofe to trade in his dominions, they 

 fhould be treated as he would wifti his own merchants to be treated in 

 a foreign country. [Fcedera, V. iii, p. 656.] 



Some Engliih merchants having been plundered many years before 

 by fome Hollanders, it was determined, in the courfe of a dilatory and 

 interrupted negotiation, that there was due to Walter Ken and Com- 

 pany of Lincoln the fum of /J954, and to Richard Wake and John 

 Wype £2S9, as compenfations for damages fufFered by them. As a 

 fund for their payment the earl of Holland propofed, and King Edward 

 ratified it (July 3"), that the money fhould be levied from all the merch- 

 ants, fifliermen, and mariners of Holland arriving in the ports of Eng- 

 land, at the rate of twenty fliillings annually from every vefi^el bringing 

 herrings or other fifli, (fo antient at leaft is the very profitable Dutch 

 trade of fupplying the London market with fifh f ) and ten fliillings 



• This has been adduced as a proof of a very f The Englilli had been accufed by the Dutch 



antient commerce between England and Genoa, fifhermen of taking their lilli, whicli they brought 



But fuch allegations £ifa»//V«/ friendlhips have ge- to fell on the coail of England, and paying them 



ntrally as little meaning with refpect to time pall, as much or as little as they pleafed, and when they 



ii% perpetual and tvirlajl'mg treaties of friendlhip and pleafed, or not at all. In Auguft 1309 the king 



alhance have with regard to time coming. ordered the warden of the Cinque ports and the 



(hirrefs { 



3P2 ] 



