A. D. 1558. 125 



1558 After England had held the town and port of Calais (with 



its dependent garrifons of Guifnes and Hamme) for 211 years (the 

 only part of the continent of France till now held by England), during 

 which time it was not only a door always open for the invafion of 

 France, but, which is more to our purpofe, was extremely well fituated 

 for a ftnple port, to difperle, in more early times, the wool, lead, and 

 tin, and in later times the woollen manufafbures of England into the 

 inland countries of the Netherlands, France, and Germany, the lofs 

 of this mofl; important place was imdoubtedly a confiderable prejudice 

 to the commerce, and not a little to the honour and influence of Eng- 

 land. Thefe confiderations fo affeded Queen Mary, that fhe i'aid, if, 

 when after her death, fhe fhould be opened, Calais wouid be found at 

 her heart. Hereupon the flaple for wool, &c. was removed to Bruges, 

 to the great benefit of that city, now declining from its antient opulence 

 and grandeur. 



The Ruffians, having in this year conquered Narva in Livonia, and 

 thereby gained an opening into the Baltic fea, eftablifhed it as an em- 

 porium or ftaple port for the trade of Ruffia with the reft of Europe. 

 The Hanfeatic merchants hereupon removed their comptoir from Re- 

 vel, where it had been fixed fince the Mufcovites hadbarbaroufly driven 

 them from Novogrod. Thuanus [L. li.] only obfervcs, that the Ruffians 

 removed the ftaple to Narva, which, as far as related to their own trade, 

 it was in a great meafure in their own power to do; yet the great mafter 

 of the Teutonic knights of Livonia, and alfo the archbifhop of Riga, 

 made grievous complaints to the Emperor Ferdinand of the great in- 

 jury done to the empire, by drav/ing the trade from Revel to Narva ; 

 for at txie fame time the Engliffi, Dutch, and French nierchants remov- 

 ed alfo rroTTi Revel to Narva. Werdenhagen affigns two other reafons for 

 the removal of the Hanfeatics from Revel to Narva, viz. I) The felfifhnefs 

 of the Revaiians, who fain v.'ould have monopolized the entire com- 

 merce. TI) Their other motive for removing to Narva, was chiefly 

 v.'ith a view to be nearer to Novogrod, their antiently beloved refidence, 

 where they much longed to fettle again, (and whither, it feems, they 

 fent envoys in the year 1603, for that end, and where, in 1620, the 

 czar Demetrius gave them leave to ered a houfe for their commerce, 

 though, by reafon of the great declenfion of the general commerce of 

 the Hanfeatics, little good came of it.) The removal of the ftaple to 

 Narva was the handle which Eric XIV of Sweden foon after made ufe 

 of to feize the fhips of Lubeck returning from Narva, (lays our Han- 

 featic hifiorian), and to carry them to Revel and Stockholm, which 

 produced a war of eight years between the Hanle towns and Sweden, 

 to which a period was put by a treaty at Stetin in 1571 : Yet the 

 Hanfe league was flill confiderable enough for the Emperor Ferdinand. 



Q.2 



