MARITIME HISTORY 



Calls to arms were frequent during the reign of Henry III, but they were seldom followed by any 

 action worth notice. Complaints relating to the piratical proceedings of the Cinque Ports ships also 

 gave frequent cause for inquiry. In 1225 there is a licence for a London merchantman loading at 

 Bosham, no doubt from Chichester, to sail in spite of an embargo laid upon shipping ; l another 

 embargo of 1226 is addressed to the bailiffs of Bulverhythe and ' Wythering,' as well as to those 

 of the better known ports. 2 A five years' truce with France expired in 1 24 1 , and in the following year 

 sporadic raptorial proceedings commenced again at sea. During the preparation of a large fleet to 

 transport an army to Poitou, the Cinque Ports, with which Dunwich was coupled, were ordered at 

 once to ravage the French coasts ; 3 this they did more piratico rapinis, says Matthew Paris, 

 sparing their fellow-countrymen as little as their enemies. Another order of the same period directs 

 the arrest of all vessels in the Cinque Ports capable of carrying sixteen or more horses. 4 This is 

 one of several items of evidence that, besides the 'service' by charter, which was mainly of local 

 application, the Kent and Sussex ports were also sometimes called upon for ships in the same 

 manner as those of the rest of the coast. In 1235 Hastings was required to send one vessel for 

 forty days' service, instead of the normal fifteen, at its own cost, 5 and there are instances where 

 seamen to serve in the royal ships were demanded from the Cinque Ports ; this was not textually 

 authorized by the charters even if the ' service,' either in part or whole, was not in commission at 

 the moment. 



A feature of the maritime history of the thirteenth century is the appointment of one or more 

 persons, sometimes for one county and sometimes for a group of counties, as keepers of the coast, a 

 step towards the organization of systematic defence. As the Warden of the Cinque Ports was in 

 control in east and south Kent and part of Sussex the keepers had little authority in those counties ; 

 we find in 1224 that when Geoffrey de Lucy was appointed his command began at Pevensey, the 

 Warden being ordered to act in unison with him. 6 The existence of the keepers, whose duties were 

 both military and judicial in keeping the peace at sea and punishing crime, should however be 

 mentioned here, seeing that, historically, they were the ancestors of the conservators of truces 

 instituted locally by Henry V, and of the later vice-admirals of counties established by Henry VIII. 

 Possibly a large measure of the saturnalia of piracy and murder which characterized the maritime 

 proceedings of the Cinque Ports during the reign of Henry III was due to the fact that the only 

 restraint to which they were subject, nominal and ineffective, was that of the Warden, and that they 

 were seldom under the command of the king's captains and keepers. A part of the system of 

 defence under the care of the keepers was the line of beacons, corresponding to the modern coast- 

 guard stations, which encircled the coast. They were usually placed on the hills nearest to the 

 shore, and in war time were guarded by a watch from the neighbouring parishes. 7 



The Cinque Ports favoured Simon de Montfort during the civil troubles of the later years of 

 Henry's reign, but there is no doubt that the positive value of the maritime assistance they gave him 

 has been considerably exaggerated. Pevensey Castle was held for the king, but that does not 

 necessarily predicate the sympathy of the townsmen. After the death of the elder Simon at 

 Evesham the Ports, or some of them, still held out for the principles he had upheld, or for the 

 licence to which they had become accustomed ; the younger Simon found a refuge and followers 

 among men to whom piracy had become the ordinary business of life. 8 Edward was compelled to 

 storm Winchelsea in 1265, but he did not seek revenge, and after causing as little bloodshed as was 

 possible in that age, told the townsmen ' henceforth not to apply themselves to plundering like 

 pirates.' 



The Welsh wars of 1277 and 1282, and the Scotch war of 1295, were mainly fought by the 

 feudal armies, but squadrons of Cinque Ports ships assisted in all the campaigns, and the services ren- 

 dered in 1277 were so strategically important as to be rewarded by the charter of incorporation of 1 2 7 8. 

 In August, 1277, Edward granted the Portsmen all plunder taken from the Welsh, and the ransom 

 of all prisoners except those desired by himself, but with the proviso that the_grant was not to be a 

 precedent. 9 In 1277, however, there were only 18 Cinque Ports ships out of the total of 27 with 

 Edward; in 1282 there were 40, most or all of which came from the Ports, 10 the barons being 



1 Pat. 9 Hen. Ill, m. 6. 



1 Close, 10 Hen. Ill, m. 27 d. This is Wittering in West Sussex ; it occurs again as Wodering' 

 (Pat. 26 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. u). ' Close, 26 Hen. Ill, m. 4. 



4 Pat. 26 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 1 1. A similar writ issued in 1254 to Hastings, Rye, Winchelsea, 

 Pevensey, Seaford, and Shoreham (ibid. 38 Hen. Ill, m. 5). ' Pat. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 14. 



6 Ibid. 8 Hen. Ill, m. 4. In 1295, however, Wm. de Stokes was keeper of the maritime portions of 

 the rapes of Lewes, Pevensey, and Hastings independently of the Warden (ibid. 23 Edw. I, m. 2). 



7 'Signa consueta vocata beknes per ignem.' See Southey, Lives of the Admirals, \, 360 (quoting 

 Froissart), for the method of constructing them. 



8 Cronica Maiorum . . . Londiniarum (Camd. Soc.), pt. ii, p. 82. 



9 Pat. 5 Edw. I, m. 6. 10 Morris, Welsh Wars of Edw. I, 128, 173. 



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