A. D. 1337- 5^9 



Odober 3'' — Tn dired, and (if they are rightly dated) immediate, 

 ■violation of thefe laws, the king appointed commiflioners to confult 

 with fuch of his allies and friends as they fhould think proper, for fix- 

 ing the flaple for the fale of Englifh wool in fome proper place on the 

 continent. \Focdcra, V. iv, p. 813.] 



It was perhaps in order to deliberate upon the fame bufinefs of the 

 flaple that there was this year held a council of trade, which, as it confift- 

 ed of deputies from the towns, might be called a commercial parliament : 

 and it was apparently more numerous than a parliament, feeing the 

 bailifs of Buckingham (which fent no members to parliament till the 

 year 1545) were direcfled by the king's precept to fend three or four of 

 the beft and mofl prudent men of their town ; and they accordingly 

 fent three. [Willis's HiJ}. of Buckingham, p. 41.] 



About November i" — The king having takeii up wool throughout 

 all England, for which he gave the proprietors tallies at the rate of ^^6 

 per fack, fhipped ten thoufand facks * for Brabant, where they were 

 fold at /^2o each. [Knyghton, coL-25yo.'] 



December 20'*' — Two cardinals, fent by the pope to negotiate a peace, 

 arrived, in England. They received fifty marks a-day for their expenfes 

 from the clergy, being four pennies out of every mark from every 

 church, thofe claiming exemptions not excepted. [Knyghlon, col. 2570.] 

 We are thereby informed, that the revenue of the church amounted to 

 2,000 marks a-day, or, reckoning 365 days, to the enormous fum of 

 730,000 marks a-year, being more than twelve times the amount of the 

 national revenue in the reign of Henry III f . 



The citizens of London this year obtained from the king an oider 

 for the reftoration of their exclufive privileges, notwithftandini^ the uni- 

 verfal liberty of buying and felling allowed to people of all defcriptions, 

 natives or foreigners, by parliament in the year 1335. — The king about 

 the fame time ordered, that no young falmon fhould be taken J. [Rot. 

 pat. prim. 9 Edw. Ill, mm. 37, 38 ; ^/ « tergo.'\ 



1338, January ■^ — The king appointed his own two gallies, com- 

 manded by John De Aurea and Nicolas Blanc §, to cruife upon the eafl 

 coafl againft the Scots and their allies, and alio to convoy the veffels 

 employed in carrying provifions for his own fubjeds in Scotland. {Feed- 

 er a, V. iv, p. 835.] We have feen the merchant veffels ordered about 

 two years before to fail only in flrong fleets for mutual defence ; and 



* The anonymous hi.^orian of Edward III 1 The order againd catching young, falinon was. 



(pubhfhed aloirg with Hemingford by Hearne, very little obferved, as appears by the very frequent 



p. 412) fays, there were thirty thoufand facis,. repetition of new laws on the fame fubjed. 

 and that the veffels were detained in tlie harbours ^ At leaft one of thefe commanders may be 



the whole fummer and autumn waiting for them, ptefumed to be a native of Genoa, the name being- 



to tlie great damage of tie whole kingdom. the fame with De Auria, 01 Doria, of which name 



f See above, p. 423. The revenue in the reign there was a fuccefiion of eminent naval command-- 



of }:dward ILI, I believe, is not kiiowu. erj in the fetvice of that Hate. 



