THE FRENCH WARS 



Thomas Neville. 



On the death of Warwick the majority of his ships were seized by 

 Thomas Neville, a natural son of the Earl of Kent, who started out on a 

 king-making venture of his own. He secured the support of a large 

 part of the garrison at Calais, found many adherents in Kent, and landed 

 at the mouth of the Thames with a huge army to restore the imprisoned 

 Henr>^ VI. He was of infinitely smaller calibre than his kinsman, 

 and soon had to beat a hasty retreat to Sandwich, where he 

 surrendered on promise of pardon. He could not be trusted in any- 

 thing, however, and being detected soon after conspiring once more he 

 was deservedly beheaded. 



The Channel Patrol. 



During the first half of the fifteenth century the experiment of putting 

 the work of keeping the seas out to contract was made more than once. 

 The first occasion appears to have been by King Henry IV in the year 

 1406, when the work was undertaken by certain merchants, who were to 

 have the right to keep all the prizes they made, with the proviso that 

 important captives could be taken over by the King at a reasonable 

 price. After a few months' trial the idea was given up as a failure, but the 

 Cinque Ports were in no state to take up their old duties and it was 

 soon revived. Tunnage and poundage, which had been instituted in 

 1347 for the protection of the Narrow Seas and the support of the Navy, 

 was made over to these contractors, and on more than one occasion a 

 loan was raised in the ports on the security of these dues. For many 

 years they had been fixed at two shillings on every tun of wine brought 

 into the country and sixpence in the pound on merchandise, but in 1425 

 these were raised to three shillings and a shilling. After several attempts 

 to put the business on a sound footing the custody of the sea was handed 

 over in 1454 to the Earl of Salisbury, who was given the added incentive 

 of being allowed to make prize of any British and neutral goods found in 

 enemy ships. The last case was in 1462, when the Earl of Warwick was 

 appointed at a salary of £1,200 a year, but it would appear that after a 

 few months he appointed the Earl of Worcester as his deputy. In the 

 case of these two nobles, however, there is no doubt that the appoint- 

 ments were political rather than a serious attempt to revive the old 

 custom. 



The Burgundian Navy. 



According to contemporary authority the Burgundian Fleet was so 

 powerful by the year 1470 that no man dare stir in the Narrow Seas for 

 fear of it. At this time it was apparently composed principally of armed 

 merchant ships with distinctly piratical instincts. Charles the Bold was 

 Duke at that time, and pitted against such an unscrupulous enemy as the 

 King of France, he could not afford to be particular as to the means that 

 he used, w^hile a free hand as to prizes was in his eyes, and those of most 

 of his contemporaries, the very best way of paying a navy. 



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