5o8 



A. D. 1332. 



July 25"' The king, intending to pafs over to Ireland, fent orders to 



the jufliciary (or viceroy) to prefs all the veflels in that country, and to 

 fend them to attend him at Holyhead, properly provided with bridges, 

 clays *, and other neceflaries ; and he defired him alfo to make agree- 

 ments for the freights to be paid for them. [Fcedera, V. iv, p. 524.] 



The king ordained that flaples for wool, hides, &c. fliould be held in 

 various places within the kingdom. \^Rot. pat. tert. 6 Edw. Ill, m. 6.] 



1333, April 27" — King Edward, having refolved to make another at- 

 tempt for the conquefl of Scotland during the infancy of the king of 

 that country, wrote rwo very polite letters to the earl of Flanders, re- 

 prefenting that fome of his (the earl's) fubjeds had confederated with 

 the Scots, his enemies and rebels, and were committing hoftilities againfl 

 the Englifh upon the fea, which he begged he would put a flop to ; and 

 he fhould find him ready to do every jul1:ice to the Flemings, and every 

 pleafure to himfelf. He afterwards begged that the earl would releale 

 fome Enghlhmen, whom he had arrefted becaufe feveral Flemifh vefiels 

 had been taken by Englifh pirates, reprefenting the injuilice of making 

 the innocent fuffer for the guilty, and the fad condition of merchants, 

 if they mufl; be liable to fuflfer for the crimes committed by thieves and 

 pirates upon the fea (which, however, was the law, or practice, of Eu-- 

 rope at the time f). As the magiftrates of the three principal towns 

 had nearly as much authority as the earl, if not more in matters relat- 

 ing to commerce, he alfo wrote to thofe of Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres, 

 upon the fame bufmefs. A negotiation enfued, in which mutual refti- 

 tution was promifed. \Fadera, V. iv, pp. 556, 560, 561, 576.] 



Augufl 6"" — One effed of the renewal of the war againft Scotland 

 upon the commerce of England was, that many foreign merchants, ap- 

 prehending that their veflels and goods would be arrefted, defifted from 

 trading to Englajid. King Edward, unwilling to forego the benefits 

 flowing from their trade, thereupon ordered all the fhirrefs to proclaina 

 that foreign merchants fliould not be abridged of anj of their privileges 

 on account of the war, and that nothing Ihould be taken from them 

 without their confent, nor without due fatisfadioru [Fotdera, K iv, 



P- 574-] 



06tobcr 5''' — The kings of France and Aragon, fenfible of the great 



* Clays, a word already luitii-cd in an order of of the eiglitceiitli and iiindeentli centuries. (The 



the year 1324, as of uncertain meaning. fentiincnt of Rapin, tht hiilorian of England, upon 



•J- Is not the properly of merchants npon the tha fnbjtft, will be qnottd in a note under the year 



fea ftill expoftd to capture, and thcnifilvcs to ruin, 1407.) It remains for a conflellation of flatefmen 



in quarrels of which they were not the authors? of fuperior illunnnation and virtue, endowed with 



In the barbarifm of the beginning of the fifteenth courajje fuffieitnt to break through a baibarous 



century, and even in the thirteenth century at cuftom, to at olifii this licenced piracy, at leaf! witli 



Leipfick, (/- a^o-ur, /. 41^) there was a nearer refpefl to wliat are called innocent goads. Then, 



approach, in this rcfpetl, to the civilization of war- and not till then, may they buad, that war is dir 



fare (if fuch a term be not incongruous) than there vclUd u£ its fpirit of ftrocity and dcprsdation., 

 h aow amidd nil the refinement and illumiiiatioa 



