A. D, 1412. 625 



cargoes, to whom, as it was a great, and apparently a new, undertaking, 

 the king gave letters recommending them to the tViendfhip and good 

 offices of the Genoefe government. But fo Uttle refped: did the Genoefe 

 pay to the king's letters, that they feized the vellels, and publicly fold 

 their cargoes in Genoa. In confequence of this acT: of hoflility, the king 

 ordered proclamation to be made in London and the other ports of Eng- 

 land, and in Calais, that none of his fubjeds, nor any Granger within his 

 dominions, fhould fend abroad any merchandize, money, or bills of ex- 

 change, for account of the Genoefe, or receive any merchandize brought 

 in Genoefe veflels, except fuch as fliould be brought in as prize in vir- 

 tue of the letters of marque, which he had granted to the injured merch- 

 ants, empowering them to take all Genoefe veflels they could find, till- 

 they fhould be reimburfed of ^^24,000, their prime cofl, and /^lo, 00c 

 for damages. Thus were a few merchants of London at war with the 

 whole republic of Genoa. [^Fadera, V. viii, pp. 717, 773.] 



In the North fea the Hanfeatic aflbciation, aduated by the fame fpir- 

 it, and utterly regardlefs of that probity, which conftitutes the princip- 

 al feature of the modern commercial charader, committed many out- 

 rages upon the Englifh. About the year 1390 they entered the harbour 

 of Bergen in Norway with a fleet of armed veffels, attacked the Englifli 

 merchants fettled there under the charter of the fovereign of the coun- 

 try, and burnt their houfes and merchandize to the value of /^2, 000, to- 

 gether with fecurities for debts to the amount of above £1 ,000 *. Not- 

 withftanding the interpolation of the king of Denmark in favour of the 

 Englifh, the Hanfe pirates continued to harafs and abufe them, and, ia 

 mere wantonnefs of cruelty, drowned loofifliermen belonging to the 

 coafl: of Norfolk, who had fled to a Norwegian port for fafety from ene- 

 mies. A fhipmafter of Bremen, whofe vefTel was chartered by fome 

 merchants of Lynne, was threatened with death, if he fhould perform 

 his contrad. Some Englifh merchants were robbed of hard fifh to the. 

 value of/^roo in Bergen, where the fovereign of the country feems to 

 have exercifed no government. The Hanfe merchants at Bergen enter- 

 ed into a combination to have no intercourfe with the Englifh fettled 

 there ; and by fuch means they hoped to drive them out of the North 

 fea. King Henry repeatedly arrefted the merchants of the Hanfe at 

 Bofton, in order to make them anfwer for the aggrefTions of their bre- 

 thren in Norway ; for, according to the reprefentation of the merchants 

 of Lynne, the whole of the Hanfe confederacy were combined in a de- 

 termination to diflrefs the Englifli trade : but they found means fome- 

 how to get out of his grafp. He then wrote to the alderman f of the 

 Englifh merchants at Bergen, and alfo to the alderman of the Hanfe merch- 

 ants there, defiring them to inquire into the truth of thti complaints, 



■* Perhaps this is the fame outrage, which is already noticeJ, under the year 14^:9, as committed In 



J394- 

 f The fame who was formerly called governor. 



Vol. L . 4 K 



