140 A. D. 1564, 



may in this place remark, that in proportion as the northern crowns in- 

 creafed their correfpcndence with the foathern parts of Europe, they 

 improved in their naval flrength and commerce ; and in nearly the 

 fame proportion did the Hanfeatic towns decline in both thofe refpeds, 

 efpecially thofe within the Baltic fea. Mr. Burchet, in his Naval hiftory, 

 obferves, that as Denmark poflefles many iflands, and a large extent of 

 country along the ocean, the Danes have for many ages had a confider- 

 able naval force. Whereupon he inflances the above named (which he 

 calls fignal) vidory over the Svvedifh fleet, and their admiral fliip of 200 

 cannon, which he fays was called the Nonefuch. He adds, that a little 

 before, King Chriftian III, at the inftances of the French king Hen- 

 ry II, aided the Scots againfl England with a fleet of 100 fail, manned 

 with 10,000 men; which tranfacT:ion is however very flightly touched 

 by mod: Englifli hiflorians. 



Sir William Monfon (who w^rote his Naval trads in the year 1635) 

 has the following hiftorical remark on this fubjed, viz. till of late, which 

 perhaps (lays he) few will believe, moft of our fliips of burden were 

 bought from the Eafl:-country men (on the fouth fide of the Baltic fea), 

 who likewife enjoyed the greateft trade of our merchants in their own 

 veflels. And, to bid adieu to that trade and thofe fliips, the Jefus of 

 Lubeck, a veflel of great burden and fl;rength in thofe days, was the 

 laft fliip bought by the queen, which in the year 1564 was caft away in 

 the port of St. John de Ulloa, in New Spain, under Sir John Hawkins. 



A charter, dated 8th July 1564, granted to the company of merchant- 

 adventurers of England, conft;ituted them a body politic or corpora- 

 tion in England. The queen thereby grants them a common feal, per- 

 petual fuccefllon, liberty to purchafe lands, and to exercife government 

 in any part of England. ' But if any freeman of this company fliall 

 ' marry a wife born beyond fea, in a foreign country, or fhall hold 

 ' lands, tenements, or hereditaments in Holland, Zealand, Brabant, 

 ' Flanders, Germany, or other places near adjoining, he fhall be dif- 

 ' franchifed from the faid fellowfhip of merchants-adventurers, and be 

 ' utterly excluded from the privileges thereof.' Wheeler (as already 

 noted under the year 1560) obferves, that this charter gave them firft 

 the name of merchants-adventurers of Englai:id, i. e. as an Englifli cor- 

 poration of that name ; for in a charter or grant of privileges from 

 King Henry VII in 1505, we have feen them called by that name, 

 though tliey never were till now properly a corporation in England. 



This year a patent was granted to the Hamburgh company for ever. 

 With liberty to export 30,000 cloths, though not wrought or dreffed ; 

 whereof 25,000 to be above the value of L3, and under the value of 

 L6 per cloth ; and the other 5000 to be above the value of L4 per 

 floth *. 



* Til's appears from an aft [6 Ann, c. 9] for the exportation of white woollen cloths. 



