TREATY OF CALAIS 91 



fish, such as herrings, sprats, eels, whiting, 

 plaice, cod and mackerel, were allowed to be 

 unloaded at Billingsgate, and this permission 

 is apparently the origin of the legal fish 

 market. 



In 1482 Parhament ordered that herring 

 packed in barrels were to be fish all caught 

 at one time, salted at one time, and as good and 

 well packed in the middle of the cask as at the 

 ends, the magistrates of the different towns 

 being required to provide inspectors to superin- 

 tend the packing in order to prevent mixed or 

 inferior fish being sold as prime herring. 



In 1521 King Henry VIII. appointed Car- 

 dinal Wolsey to act as mediator between the 

 Emperor Charles V. and Francis I. of France, 

 and among the terms of the treaty, concluded 

 at Calais in 1521, we read that as the war 

 carried on by the two princes had done griev- 

 ous damage, and had occasioned many mari- 

 time depredations, attacks at sea should cease, 

 and at the approaching fishing season the 

 herring fishers both of the Emperor and the 

 King of France should fish unmolested from 

 the date of the agreement (October 11th, 1521) 

 to the end of the January following, even 

 though there should be war between the two 

 princes in question, while the fishermen of both 

 nations were to be allowed to return home 

 without molestation after the fishing was over. 



It is also recorded by the historians that when 

 the Cardinal washed and kissed the feet of 



