2 8o THE ROYAL FORESTS OF ENGLAND 



purprestures, rents, advowsons, liberties, etc., to his uncle 

 Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, in part satisfaction of the sum of 

 1,000 a year granted to him to maintain his ducal rank. 



In the days of Henry VI. the character of the miners and 

 tenants of the forest had grown worse. The men of Tewkes- 

 bury, in a petition to Parliament of 1430, charged them with 

 attacking their vessels, by which they conveyed goods down 

 the river to Bristol, " with great ryot and strengthe in manner 

 of warre," despoiling them of their merchandise and their 

 wheat, malt, and flour, sinking their boats and drowning those 

 who resisted them. 



The Crown was continuously appointing, during the latter 

 part of the fifteenth century, to various offices in this forest, the 

 duties of which were generally discharged by deputy, or grant- 

 ing charges on the receipts to their servants. Thus in 1480, 

 Edward IV. granted to Robert Mutton, "gentilman," the 

 office of porter of St. Brivel and receiver of the forest of Dean ; 

 to William Sclatter, the king's servant, in 1481, the parkership 

 of Whightmede park and 4^. daily from the forest issues ; and 

 to John Grenehill, one of the Crown yeomen, in the same year, 

 6d. daily from the issues of the king's mines. Richard III., 

 in 1484-5, granted to George Hyett the office of riding forester, 

 together with that of "ale cunner" in the parish of Newland ; 

 and to John Peke the life office of one of the rangerships. 



The suppression of the monasteries brought about much con- 

 fusion in this and other forests. Dean forest was more 

 especially effected by the dissolution of the abbeys of Flaxley 

 and Tintern. The Kingstons, father and son, to whom much 

 of the monastic properties and forest privileges were granted, 

 were insistent on their rights, but failed to discharge the 

 obligations that had been fulfilled by the religious houses. 



It has been stated both by Fuller and Evelyn that the 

 Spaniards so fully recognised the great value of Dean forest, 

 as supplying the best timber for England's navy, that special 

 instructions were given to the admirals of the Armada, to 

 accomplish the devastation of these woods, even if they were 

 not able to subdue the nation and make good their conquest. 



A grant was made to William Earl of Pembroke, in 1611, of 

 the castle of St. Briavel and of the forest, with all its appurte- 

 nances, save the timber, for forty years at a rental of .83 13$. <\d. 



