38 A. D. 1510. 



Alio the Florentines and Genoefe might hereby freely refort either to 

 France or England ; provided the Venetians did no injury to the fub- 

 jeds of either king, in their going or returning. 



Ill) That no letters of marque or reprifal fhould beiflued from either 

 country, but folely againft the principals themfelves and their cffedts, 

 and this not till juftice had been manifelHy denied. [Fcedera, V. xiii, 

 p. 270.] 



About this time flourifhed the famous and eminent philofopher and 

 aftronomer, Nicholas Copernicus, of Thorn, in Polifh PrufTia, who tra- 

 velled to Rome and other parts of Europe, to converfe with the moft 

 famous men of the age, on the true knowlege of the appearances, po- 

 fitions, and motions of the planets, fixed ftars, &c. fo ufefiil to navigat- 

 ors and cofmographers ; and introduced fuch a new and excellent 

 fyftem of aftronomy, as, with fundry great improvements fince made, 

 remains univerfally approved of by all nations to this day. He was 

 born in the year 1473. 



1 5 1 1 . — Whilft tlie Lubeck fleet (fays Meurfii Hiftoria Danica) was fly- 

 ing from the fuperiority of the Danifli one, a Dutch fleet, homeward 

 bound from Livonia, confifl:ing of 250 merchant-fliips, and four fliips 

 of war, appeared in fight of the Lubeckers ; who, it feems, thought 

 this a fair opportunity to be revenged of the Hollanders for invading 

 the commerce of the Eafl: lea, which the Vandalic towns flill imagined 

 they ought entirely to engrofs to themfelves, as they had, indeed, done 

 for feveral centuries pafl: ; for the old controverfies between them and 

 the Hollanders, cf)ncerning the rights of commerce in thofe feas, fiiill 

 iubfifted. So vaft a prize then allured thofe monopolizers of commerce 

 to fall on the Dutch fleet, many of which they took, and others they 

 burnt ; the refl; fled to Bornholm, where the vidorious Danifti fleet 

 then lay ; and the Hollanders imploring their afllftance to revenge the 

 injury juft done by the Lubeckers, the Danes readily complied, and 

 purlued the Lubeckers, who, to avoid falling into their hands, were 

 forced to let go fome of the fiiips they had taken from the Hollanders, 

 and were glad to efcape into their own port of Traveaiund, with a few 

 of the Dutch prizes; the refl:, which the Danes had recovered from the 

 Lubeckers, they reflored to the Hollanders, who neverthelefs loft a 

 good part of this large fleet. This fliows how early the Hollanders had 

 a confiderable commerce in the Baltic fea, and, at the fame time, how 

 infolent it was in thofe Vandalic Hanfe towns, who were alfo under 

 the protedion of the Gerii^an empire, to attack the fubjedls of the em- 

 peror Maximilian in fo outrageous a manner ; no wonder, tlicrefore, 

 their downfall was now approaching ; for the Danes, at this time, rode 

 triumphant in the Baltic, and feized the Vandalic fliips every where*. 



* A valuable Scottifh (hip, commanded by John return from Sluys in Flanders, by two Portuguefc 

 Sartan, had been taken in the year 1476, on her armed ft'.ips, in fight of a Portuguefe fleet, vrhith 



