A. D. 1478. 697 



Eurgundian territories, and the fubjedts of Burgundy fliould have fimilar 

 liberty in England : — that the court-mafter of the Englifh merchants 

 fhould not prefume to fix the prices to be paid for goods at the fairs of 

 Antwerp or any other place in the dominions of Burgundy, or to make 

 ordinances againfl buying from the inhabitants of any town or any in- 

 dividual, or againfl buying till near the end of the fair, by which the 

 fellers, tired out with attendance, had formerly been obliged to let their 

 goods go at an under-value ; neither fhould they ufe different weights in 

 buying and felling, as they had formerly done : — in cafe of any Englifli 

 merchant being injured by a Netherlander, no other Netherland merch- 

 ant fliould be liable to be arrefted or injured on that account. [^Foedera^ 

 V. xii, /». 67.] 



At the fame time the commiflioners made many regulations, refpedl- 

 ing the recovery of debts, and againfl frauds in the package, fliipping, 

 and fale of wool. \Foedera, V. yX\, p. 76.] 



Odlober 22* — King Edward followed the example of his predecelTor in 

 infringing the adl of parliament refpeding the flaple of Bergen, and the 

 treaty with Denmark, which had recently been renewed, as appears by 

 two licences to Robert and Thomas Alcock, authorizing each of them 

 to employ a fhip of 240 tuns in carrying goods, not belonging to the 

 flaple, to Iceland, and trading for fifh or any other commodities of that 

 ifland, during a year. \Fcedera^ V. -^n, pp. 57, 94.] 



1479, February 14"' — In the year 1475 King Edward landed with an 

 army in France, having previoufly promifed to give fome provinces of 

 that kingdom to the duke of Burgundy for his alllftance in the conquefl 

 of it. But ' Lewis the XI, being a very wife prince and philofopher 

 * above the common fort *,' diverted the threatened calamity from his 

 kingdom, without the effufion of any blood but that of the grape, by 

 agreeing to give Edward a prefent payment of 75,000 ecus (fcutes or 

 crowns), 50,000 more as a ranfom for Margaret the widow of King 

 Henry VI, and an annual penfion of 50,000 for life f . Neither was he 

 fparing of entertainments, prefents, and penfions, to Edward's counfelors, 

 nor negledful of his foldiers, whom he gratified by a prefent of 300 

 cart-loads of wine. The king of France paid the annuity very regular- 

 ly for feveral years, and now even entered into a new treaty, whereby 

 he bound his fuccefTors to continue the fame payment during one hun- 

 dred years after the deceafe of himfelf or Edward, whichever of them 



• Thefe are the words of Rymer in his dedic- Old ecu of France 042 Englilh. 



ation of the eleventh volume of the Fccdcra to new ecu of the fun o 4 3 1 

 Quecn Anne. great groat o o 4-J- 



f The following rates of currency for the coins \_FaJera, V. xii,/>. 115.] 

 of England, as fettled by the commiflioners of the There were two commiflions in 1474 and 1478 



two countries in January 14S0 may be ufeful for for fettling the ratiis of the money of England and 



uiiderllanding fome of the tranfaAions of the age. that of the Burgundian dominions. But the fet- 



Englifh rofe noble [,'},$ o French money. tlements do not appear. ^Rymcr's MS. record:, 



angel 234 Ediu. IV, fal. ii, no. 117; Vol. iii, tta. zS.j 



filver groat 026 



Vol. L 4 T 



