A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



Charles de Savoisi, appeared off Looe in August. 1 After sinking nineteen fishing boats and drowning 

 the crews, they landed and attacked the town, and as it was unfortified succeeded in sacking and 

 burning it after such defence as the inhabitants could make. 2 They then dropped down to 

 Falmouth, 3 perhaps intending for Penryn or Truro, but, the coast now being up in arms, worked 

 back to ' Plamua.' Whether ' Plamua ' is Plymouth or Saltash must remain doubtful ; Mr. Wylie, 

 following a French chronicler, believes it to have been Saltash, but the story in La Pictorial seems 

 more apposite to Plymouth. Whichever it may have been the attack completely failed, and the 

 squadron left Cornish waters. If they went from Looe to Falmouth, it will be observed that on 

 both courses they passed Fowey without approach, which is significant of its reputation, for it is 

 doubtful whether at this time it was fortified. 4 



To crush privateering and piracy Henry V in 1414 instituted officials in every port, called 

 conservators of truces, who, assisted by two legal assessors, and holding their authority from the High 

 Admiral, were to have power of inquiry and punishment concerning all guilty of illegal pro- 

 ceedings at sea. They were to keep a register of the ships and seamen belonging to each port, and 

 acted as adjudicators in such cases as did not go before the Admiralty Court. 5 They seem, so far 

 as related to judicial functions, to have been a link on the civil side between the earlier keepers of 

 the coast and the vice-admirals of the coast we shall meet in the sixteenth century. That the 

 statute was strictly enforced, and helped to keep a little peace at sea, is shown by the fact that 

 two years later the king consented to some modification of its stringency by promising to issue letters 

 of marque when equitable. In 1435 it was entirely suspended, being found 'so rigorous and 

 grievous,' said the Commons, taking advantage of a weak rule ; in 1451 it was brought into force 

 again for a short time, and once more renewed by Edward IV. 



Henry V began his reign with the intention of having a great fleet of his own. The custom 

 of general impressment was now expensive both to the shipowner and the crown, slow and 

 inefficient, and the continual complaints of the merchant class, as voiced in Parliament, were not to 

 be neglected. The system could not be, and was not, at once abolished, but it became much less 

 frequent during the fifteenth century, and there is quite a modern note in the establishment of 

 cruisers along the coast in 1415, although Plymouth was the most westerly station. The great 

 fleet of upwards of 1,400 vessels required for the campaign of Agincourt included a con- 

 tingent from Cornwall, 6 but very many were hired in Holland and Zealand, the resources of 

 the kingdom being insufficient or Henry resolved not to tax them unduly. Another great fleet was 

 collected for the campaign of 1417, but out of 217 vessels of which we have details 117 

 belonged to Holland and Zealand. 7 Many of the English ports were unrepresented, and it may be 

 surmised that for political reasons the king found it preferable to hire foreign ships as transports rather 

 than to disturb English trade. For this service, however, Saltash sent one ship. An important 

 branch of English maritime traffic in the fifteenth century was the transport of pilgrims to enable 

 them to perform their devotions at the shrine of St. James of Compostella. They could only be 

 carried in licensed ships, and nobles and merchants seem to have been equally eager to obtain a share 

 in what must have been a profitable trade. Most of the ships belonged to the southern ports, and 

 Penzance, St. Michael's Mount, Looe, Fowey, Falmouth, Saltash, and Landulph had their share, 

 one of the ships, the Mary of Fowey, being of 140 tons. 8 As early as January, 1393-4, a licence 

 was obtained for the George of Fowey to carry 80 pilgrims, and there were several other Cornish 

 vessels similarly occupied about the same time. The growth of commerce and the consequent neces- 

 sity for improved accommodation is indicated by a petition in 1427 from William Morton, of 

 St. Michael's Mount, showing that between ' le Forlond of Lysard ' and the Land's End there was 

 no secure harbour for vessels of comparatively large tonnage, whereby many were lost, and that he had 

 commenced building a stone pier in Mount's Bay capable of sheltering 200 ships of any tonnage, 

 but desired the king's help. With the consent of Parliament the king granted to Morton, for seven 

 years, dues ranging from fourpence for vessels of 60 tons and under to one shilling for those of 

 1 20 tons and upwards, and one shilling yearly from 'strange' fishing boats coming for hake, the 



1 La Victoria!, Paris, 1867 (ed. Circourt et Puigaigre). 



'In 1403 a grant was made to the prior of St. Michael's Mount to maintain a garrison, as being 'a 

 fortress to protect the whole neighbouring country ' (FoeJera, viii, 341). 



3 'Alamua.' But perhaps Dartmouth. Cf. La Victoria!, p. 283, and J. H. Wylie, Hist, of Engl. 

 under Hen. IV, ii, 322. 



4 The ' island ' at St. Ives may have been walled (J. H. Matthews, Hist, of St. Ives, 1 6) ; this, 

 St. Michael's Mount, and the castle of Ennor in the Scillies (Pat. 35 Edw. I, m. 46 </.), seem to have been 

 the only Cornish coast fortifications in the mediaeval period. As to Fowey cf. infra, p. 484. 



5 2 Hen. V, stat. i, c. 6. 6 Rymer, FoeJera, ix, 218. 



7 Rot. Norman, (ed. Hardy), 1835, 3 2 -9- 



8 Rot. Fran. pass. The tonnage is not usually mentioned in the licence. There is a contemporary 

 song on the miseries suffered by the pilgrims at sea (Wright and Halliwell), Re/. Antiquae, pt. i. 



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