498 A. D. 1326. 



he now gave orders, that all foreign merchants, except the fubjeds ot 

 the kmg of prance, fhould have freedom of coming and going in fafe- 

 ty ; and to that intent he ordered the fhirrefs to take fuflficient fecurity 

 from the feamen of every vefTel before they failed, that they fhould not 

 commit hollilities againfl: any friendly veffels. He gave his admirals the 

 fame inftruAions for preferving inviolate peace with all neutral nations, 

 and efpecially with the Flemings and Bretons, whom he had taken un- 

 der his protedion. In a few weeks after he ordered all the fliipping of 

 the eafl; coaft of the kingdom from the mouth of the Thames north- 

 ward to Holy ifland *, doubly furnilhed with arms and provifions for 

 one month, to be ready at Erewell (or Orewell) to receive his further 

 orders for proceeding againfl his enemies. [Foedefa, V. '\v,pp. 218, 219, 



225-] 



We have now the firfl certain knowlege of reprefentatives from the 



cities and biirghs forming a conflituent part of the parliament of Scot- 

 land. — In the firft treaty upon record between France and Scotland, in 

 the year 1295, John king of Scotland mentions the communities, or 

 corporations, of the towns ; but they do not appear as compofing any 

 part of the legiflative body. In a parliament, held by King Robert I in 

 1323, the burghs do not appear to ha^-e been reprefented : and in the 

 confirmation of a truce with England, in the fame year, Robert fays, it 

 is done with the confent of the bifhops, earls, and barons ; but he has 

 not a word of any reprefentatives of burghs. \Fcedera, V. ii, pp. 696, 

 698 ; V. iii,/. 1030.] But in a parliament of the fame king, held this 

 year, we find the burghs forming the third eftate in parliament, and 

 confenting to an aid granted to the king f . \Stat. Rob. I, in Karnes's 

 Law tracts, append. «'. 4.] 



1327, April 29'*' — In early times the aldermen of London were pro- 

 prietors of the wards, which were conveyed by hereditary fucceffion or 

 purehafe X- They, together with the mayor, flairrefs, and fome eledlors 



* There are forty ports mentioned in the fum- \_Scotichron. V. '\\,p. 90] when copying Wyntown's 

 monfcs : but as there are no rated quotas of vcfTels narrative, and comparing it with two other author- 



;ni- 



to (how tlieir relative importance, I have not ities, alfo omits the burgcfl'ts. It may be reme 

 thought it worth while to infcrl their bare names. bered, that biirgcfTcs were not then introduced in- 

 + It ought, however, to be recoUcfted here, to the parliament of England. Under the year 

 that in the year 1209 the buighs granled King 1357 the carlidl knoivu lilt of Scottifli town« re- 

 William a fnbfidy of 6,000 marks, (fe above, p. prefcnted ii) parliament will be given. 

 •37c.) But whether they did fo of duty, as hold- \ Stow begins his account of the ward of 

 ing lands of tiic king in thi-ir corporate capacity, Farringdon by a dedutkion of the property 

 or as a fpontaneous mark of their afTeflion to their of it, as follows. It belonged fucceflively to 

 fovereign, or as occafional members of ihe legifla- Ankeiin de Avern, Ralph Arderne, his fon 

 tive body, docs not appear. The hurgefi'LS of Thomas Arderne, Ralph le Feure by purehafe in 

 Scotland, mentioned by Wyntown, [^/-sny//, ^ i, 1277, John le Feure, William Farendon by pur- 

 * sgrT as exprcffing, along with the barons and chafe in 1279, ^'"^ '"* '^"" Nicolas Farendon, and 

 prelates, '.heir difapprobation of lome negotiations his heirs, wliofe name the two wards formed out 

 with the king of England, muft not be fuppofed of it (till retain. Thofe whom Fitz-Stephen, in 

 a collective, or Icgidative, body. They are not his afftded Latin, calls confuls of the regions of 

 noticed ill the Chronicle of Mclros ; and Bowar, the city in the reign of Henry II, were probably 



proprietary 



