586 



A. D. 1377. 



independent of any loverelgn authority, about this time rendered them- 

 felves the terror of France, Spain, and Italy *, alfo fet themfelves up 

 as chiefs of retinues of armed idlers. The retinues or bands of each 

 chief were diftinguifhed by uniform hats and clothing, which were call- 

 ed liveries f , and ferved as a fymbol of union and attachment. The 

 parliament, fenfible of the pernicious tendency of fuch affociations, pro- 

 hibited the ufe of liveries under pain of imprifonment and forfeiture. 

 [^Statute I Ric. //, c. 7.] But the law, though feveral times renewed, 

 had little effed ijl, till the extenfion of manufactures and commerce, by 

 which the lower claiTes of the people found ufeful employment and were 

 enabled to eat the bread of independent honeft induftry, and the nobles 

 found more agreeable means of employing their redundant wealth, gra- 

 dually, but much more effectually, relieved the kingdom from the nuif- 

 ance of chiefs, who were above the law, and vaflals, who knew no law 

 but the commands of fuch chiefs. 



1378, Summer — John Mercer, a merchant of Scotland §, who ufed 

 to trade to France, and was in great favour with the king of that country 

 on account of his prudence and good fervices, when returning home to 

 Scotland in the year 1 377, was driven by flreis of weather upon the coaft 

 of England, feized, and confined in the caftle of Scarburgh, till an or- 

 der from court efFeCted his difcharge||. His fon, to revenge the injury, 

 cruifed before Scarburgh with a fleet compofed of French, Scots, and 

 Spaniards, and took feveral vefTels. John Philpot, an opulent citizen of 

 London, thereupon took upon himfelf the protedtion of the trade of 

 the kingdom, negledled by the duke of Lancafler, who, without the 

 name of regent, governed the kingdom in the minority of his nephew, 

 and having hired a thoufand armed men, fent them to fea in fearch of 



* The companions confided chiefly of Enfrlidi cloth, fome of them fcarlet and others gilded 



and French foldiers, difbanded after the peace of (' deauratos'), among knights, fquires, valets, and 



Bretigny in the year 1360, who, unwilling or in- others, his dependents. [^Knyghton, col. 2727.3 

 capable to return to honell induftry, affociated un- § He feems to have been a burgefs of Perth, 



der the banners of profligate chiefs, and fupport- apparently the chief port of Scotland after the 



ed themfelves by plunder. The king of France lofs of Berwick, till the royal refidence, pcrman- 



feized the opportunity of the civil war in Spain to ently fixed at Edinburgh, gave Leith a fuperiority 



perfuade them to enter into the fervice of Henry over the other ports of the kingdom. He obtain- 



of Tradamare, who by their means became king ed charters for feveral tenements in and near Perth ; 



of Callile. Tiie two daughters, legitimate or illc- and he alfo iield lands of the earl of Douglas, who 



gitimate, of Peter the Cruel, the dethroned ty- calls him his vafTal in a letter fent to King Richard, 



rant, were brought to England, and married to rcmonllrating upon the injullice of the feizure. 



King Edward's two fons, John and Edmund, the l^Iiri!>erlfon's Index, pp. 66,74, '20, 129. — Original 



former of whom immediately alfnmed the title of kller in Bib. Colt. Vejp. F vii,y. 34.^ 

 king of Caftile and Leon, and thereby drew the || WaUingham fays, if he had been releafed as 



enmity of King Henry upon England. a captive for a ranfom, the king and the whole 



t The name and the uniformity of drefs dill re- kingdom would have got ineflimable riches by it, 

 main m the fmall retinues of noblemen and gentle- and he regrets the lofs of it. This is furcly over- 

 men, rating the opulence of Mercer at a prodigious rate. 



X So little regard was paid to this law by the The narrow-minded monk, blinded with, what \\e 



courtiers, that Simon Burley, warden of the Cinque fuppofed, patriotic zeal, did not fee any injuftice 



ports and a great favourite with King Richard, in detaining a man a prifoner in time of peace., 

 every Chriftmas gave from 140 to 220 pieces of 4 



