A. D. 1350. 541 



fraying the expenfe (06lober 20'''). King Edward, moreover, thinking 

 fuch an enemy fufficiently important to be oppofed. by himfelf, colledt- 

 ed a fleet, with which he engaged the Spaniards near Winchelfea, and, 

 chiefly by the fuperiority of the EngUfli archers, gained a complete 

 vidlory, took twenty-four large veflels richly loaded with Flemifli cloth 

 and other goods, and put the reft to flight. Thus did Edward a fecond 

 time triumph upon that element, which is the appropriate theatre of 

 Britifla warfare. [Fa'dero, V. v^pp- 679, 681, 688, 691. — R. de Avejbury^ 

 p. 184. — Murim. contin. p. 102 *.] 



This year 1,350 veflels failed from Bourdeaux, loaded with 13,429 

 tuns of wine, being nearly 100 tuns in each veflel on an average, and 

 paid ;,^5,i04 : 16 : o Bourdeloife money in duties [Record in the exchequer 

 in London, quoted in Mem. de litterattire., V. xxxvii, ^. 350]. 



The king granted to the burgefll^s of Newcaftle upon Tine the right 

 of digging coals and ftones in the Caftle-field and the Frith, both ad- 

 jacent to their town f \Rot, pat. tertia 24 Ediv. Ill, m. 6]. 



1351 — King Edward, diftrefl^ed by the debts he had incurred in his 

 chimerical attempt to conquer France, and defirous of paying his cre- 

 ditors with lefs money than he had borrowed, had ordered two hundred 

 and fixty-Jix pennies to be made out of the pound of ftandard fllver in 

 the year 1344 : and in 1346 he further diminiflied the money by mak- 

 ing two hundred and feventy pennies out of a pound. By thefe alterations 

 his own, and all other, creditors were defrauded, at firfl: of about a tenth, 

 and afterwards a ninth, part of their property \ ; and the whole body ot 



* The hiftorians here quoted date the battle on of Richard II in the Tower \_Rot. pal. qmnt. i 



the 24'" of July, on which day the king was at R'lc. J I, ot. i], which contains charters to New- 



Weftminftcr. Later hiftorians have other dates, caftle by the lollowing kings, viz. John, in his 17"" 



and make the number of prizes twenty-fix. year, with reference to fome poffellions of the cor- 



f It appeared afterwards by an inqueft, that the poration in the time of Henry II, but without a 

 lands called the Caftlc-field and Caille-moor, ad- word of coals or the Caftle-field ; Henry III, in 

 jacent to Newcaftle, had belonged to the town his 18"" and 36'" years; Edwai-d I, in his 22"* year; 

 froni time immemorial, but had not been exprefs- and Edward III in his 31" year (A. D. 1357), 

 ly granted by any charter : therefor the king in without any mention of this one in his 24'" year. 

 May 1357 confirmed to the corporation the pro- It is certain, however, that coals v.'ere dug in the 

 pcny of thofe lands ; and, in confideration of their neighbourhood of Newcaftle and fiiipped from that 

 fufFerings by the plague and other calamities, which port in earlier times, as appears by tlie Cliartulary 

 difabled them from paying their annual fee- farm of of Tluemouth, quoted in Brand's Hift. of Neia^ 

 ^100, he gave them a right to dig coals and cafde (fee above, pp. 497, 504, and alfo 395) : 

 ftones in thofe lands, without making any mention about the year 1364 we find fome Icafes of coal 

 of this previous grant, which, for ought I can mines near Gatelhead (the Southwark of New- 

 fee, Is thejirjl wherein any notice of coal or ftonc, caftle) by the biftiop of Durham confirmed by the 

 as belonging to the coiporation of Newcaftle, is king \_Rot , pat . fic. 38 Ediv. Ill, m. 26] : and in 

 found. the county of Cumberland we find coal mines be- 



This obfervation becomes neceflary, becaufe it longing to the priory of Carlile in the 14"" year of 



has been aflerted, that the burgefles of Newcaftle Edward I [_Rot. pat. prim. 5 EJiv. Ul, m. 8]. 

 were warranted by royal authority to dig coal and X It may be obferved, that King Edward, in 



ftone in the Caftle-field fo early as in the reign of his manifefto to the people of France in the year 



King John. But in the very ample charter given 1340, affured them, that he would not feek his 



them by that king there are no fuch words, as I own lucre by making sny change in the money, 



have found upon examining an infpcximus charter when he fliould be received as their king, ^Fatd- 



era, 



