A. D. 1430. 647 



als, but alfo their receivers and encouragers, were made liable for com- 

 penfation to the perfons injured, or to punifliment. It was agreed, that 

 aggreffions by the fubjeds of either king fliould not occalion a breach 

 of the truce. [Foedera, V. x, p. 482.] Thefe were all the mutual accom- 

 modations afforded to each-other's commerce by the governments of the 

 fifter kingdoms. 



1431 , January 5'" — * King James foon gave a proof of his fincerity by 

 idling apparently beyond the fpirit of the treaty. On the complaint 

 of three Englifh merchants he iflued letters empowering all perfons in 

 authority in the ports of England, Holland, Zeland, and Flanders, to 

 arreft fevcralofhis own fi;bjedts, therein named, accufed by thofe 

 merchants of having, about the end of November 1428, taken two 

 vefTels belonging to them with their cargoes, valued at /!^ 1,500, which 

 they conveyed to fome foreign country in contempt of the former 

 treaty. The king, in his eagernefs to do juftice to the injured perfons, 

 defired, that not only the four principal malefaftors particularized by 

 name, but alfo (if there is no error in tranfcribing or printing) any 

 other merchants or mariners of Scotland, ihould be arrefted at the re- 

 queft of the Englifh claimants. Surely juftice did not require that the 

 innocent fhould fuffer for the guilty. 



At this time Bruges was the ftaple of the Scottifh trade in Flanders, 

 which was found fo beneficial on both fides, that the merchants of Scot- 

 land, authorized by their fovereign, entered into a treaty with the magi- 

 ftrates of Bruges (undoubtedly alfo fandioned by their fovereign the 

 duke of Burgundy) for the continuance of their commercial intercourfe, 

 and for certain privileges to be enjoyed by the Scots at Bruges, during 

 a period of one hundred years f . 



January — The law of the B'** year of Henry VI, which prohibited all 

 fales to foreigners except on the terms of receive and deliver, having 

 produced a ftagnation in the woollen manufadure of England and a 

 deficiency in the cuftoms, the Englifh merchants were now permitted 

 to give credit to foreigners, but not to let it exceed fix months. \^Ad 9 

 Hen. VI, f. 2.] 



1432, May — Many of the Englifh merchants complained, that their 

 merchandize was feized by the king of Denmark, apparently for viol- 

 ating his laws of the flaple. Within a year pafl the merchants of York 

 and Hull had lofl ;)(^5,ooo, and thofe of other ports of England ^{"20,000, 

 by fuch feizures. As no Danifh fubjeds traded to England, no reprifals 



* King James's letter is dated 5'" Januafy 1430 expiration of it in a treaty for renewing it for an- 



(chat is 143 1 reckoning the v'^ of January the be- other term of one hundred years, dated at Bruffels 



gining of the year), and the twenty-fixth of his 24'^ July 153 1. [MS. Bib. Hai-l. ifi-^l V. iii.] 



reign. The twenty-fifth year did not expire till It Is alfo mentioned in feveral letters of the year 



5'' April 1431. But the correfponding date in 1531 (as appears by their contents, for the year 



King Henry's order to his own fubje<as (hows that is omitted in the dale of eveiy one of thcmV 



143 1 is right, andy^ATM printed inftead ol qmnto. prcfervcd in the Cotton library. 



f This treaty is known from the mention of the 



