FOOTNOTES:
[526] Domesday Book.
[527] Peter Langtoft says that Richard’s own ship was called the “Trenche-le-mer,” a good name for a swift sailing vessel; and the name of Trenchemer occurs frequently in subsequent records, even as late as Henry V., as that of commanders of ships.
[528] Geoffry de Vinisauf, ap. Gale, Script. Hist. Anglic., vol. ii.
[529] These numbers are given from Richard of Devizes (p. 17), who appears to be the only writer who gives details of the fleet at Messina. The number given subsequently, during the passage of Richard to the Holy Land, by Vinisauf and others, is considerably larger, and probably comprehends vessels of all descriptions.—Sir H. Nicolas’s “Hist. Roy. Navy,” vol. i. p. 77, &c.
[530] Buss, Bussa, Buscia, or Burcia, and Dromon, or Dromond, seem to have been used indifferently for large vessels. As the specific name given to the large ship belonging to Saladin which Richard I. captured, it has been supposed that the word Dromond is of Arabic origin.—Spelman in voc. Dromunda.
[531] The whole of these and of the more ancient maritime laws have been recently edited (A.D. 1828-1847) by a learned French lawyer, M. Pardessus. According to his researches, it appears most probable that these documents belong to the ancient French code, called the “Rôles ou Jugemens d’Oleron.” It is impossible to determine now who first compiled them, hence they have been claimed for different nations and tribes; Selden, Coke, Prynne, Godolphin, and others, deemed them of English origin, and due to Richard I., but there is no evidence that he ever went to Oleron. M. Pardessus has shown from the authority of MSS. at Oxford and in the British Museum, and from their coincidence with a very early translation into Spanish, that the first twenty-six articles are the most genuine. The others he considers to be later additions, as, indeed, their intrinsic evidence tends to show. The place of the departure of the ships being generally Bordeaux suggests that they were originally embodied for the coasting trade of the west of France.—Pardessus’ “Collection de lois Maritimes,” Paris, 4to, 1828-47. Sir Harris Nicolas, quoting from Brompton, Hoveden, and others, states that Richard drew up at Chinon, on his way to Marseilles, what he calls “the earliest articles of war.” (“Hist. Roy. Navy,” pp. 89-91.) Still more recently (1871) Sir Travers Twiss, in his edition of “The Black Book of the Admiralty,” has examined very fully the real or supposed claims of Richard to be the author or the editor of the “Rôles d’Oleron.” In doing so he quotes a memorandum of 12 Edw. III. (A.D. 1284), stating that these laws (i.e., the ten last articles of the Rôles) “were by the Lord Richard, formerly king of England, on his return from the Holy Land, corrected, interpreted, and declared, and were published in the island of Oleron, and were named in the French tongue (Gallica lingua) ‘La Ley Olyroun.’”—Introd. pp. lvii.-lviii.
[532] We need not point out that the order of precedency differs nowadays. The supercargoes in after years claimed priority in everything except in that which related to the navigation of the vessel.
[533] Some of the following rules are noted in the “Ordinances made by King Richard to be observed among sea-faring men.” See [Appendix No. 2]. No. 2, 628.
[534] This is the fourteenth article in Pardessus, p. 333. His article thirteen relates to charter-parties to different places between Bourdeaux and Yarmouth.
[535] The old Gascony phrase was Oster la touaille, which signifies denying him the table-cloths or victuals for three meals, by which was understood one day and a half.
[536] The fishermen of Blankeness, on the Elbe, and the sailors of the Levant, and in various other places, still navigate in shares for wages.
[537] This article affords some evidence that these laws were drawn up in France for French sailors.
[538] Pardessus refers to an unedited Rhodian Law, as having suggested this article, p. 337.
[539] It was further ordained, that the wines on board the ship should be sold at the price customary at the place to which she had come.
[540] It has been shown by Pardessus and others that these so-called “Rhodian Laws” are a compilation of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and distinct from the one famous Rhodian Law whose title, “De Jactu,” has been preserved.
[541] Pardessus retains this form of the word, but the MSS. read “lodman” (i.e. leading-man, pilot), which is probably the true form.—See Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 7965, fol. 89, &c.
[542] A French law, so late as Aug. 22, 1790, sent a pilot to the galleys for three years who accidentally lost his vessel; and sentenced him to death if he did so wilfully.—Pardessus, p. 341.
[543] These and the following Articles, which, doubtless, faithfully represent the manners of the times, are found in early editions of Garcia and Cleirac, but not in the MSS.—Pardessus, p. 346, note 3.
[544] “Kenning” is a very ancient word in sea language. It means view, or course, “course by course,” and was employed when navigation was performed by views and by observation from one land to another, prior to the use of the compass. Admiral W. H. Smyth, in his “Sailor’s Word Book,” states that “it was a mode of increasing wages formerly, according to whaling law, by seeing how a man performed his duty.”
[545] For notice of whales caught so far south as Biarritz, see “Syllabus of Rymer’s Fœdera,” [Appendix No. 8, p. 648, s. a. 1338].
[546] In the island of Gothland, Baltic. These laws are believed to have been reduced to three, their present form, by Magnus, who became king of Sweden in A.D. 1320. (Pardessus, p. 426.) They are almost identical with those in the Rôles d’Oleron, North German names of places of departure, &c. being substituted for Bordeaux, &c.
[547] Cap. 30.
[548] King John, in his edict of Hastings, A.D. 1200, ordered his captains to seize and to confiscate the cargoes of every ship that did not strike their topsails to them. (Selden, “Mare Clausum,” ii. c. 26.) He is also said to have destroyed the whole naval force of France. Trivet, “Ann. ad ann. 1214,” quoted by Spelman, in his Glossary.
[549] M. Paris, p. 298. Ann. of Waverl. p. 183. Gale, ap. Robert of Gloucester, p. 515.
[550] See [Appendix No. 4, pp. 629-632], for charter of Edward I. (1272-1307) to the Cinque Ports. This appears to be the earliest charter that has been preserved, but it is only confirmatory of the charters given by previous kings.
[551] M. Paris, p. 589.
[552] There is constant notice of intercourse between England and Norway during this period of English history. See [Appendix No. 3, p. 629.]
[553] This was about A.D. 1220. This “Guild-hall” (“Gildalla Teutonicorum”) was distinct from the guildhall of the merchants of the Steel-yard. (Madox, Hist. Excheq. ii. 2.) The former obtained a charter from Henry III. in A.D. 1259. Rymer, Fœd. v. 2.
[554] Hakluyt’s “Voyages,” vol. i. p. 130.
[555] Atkins’s “Manchester,” p. 332. Liverpool appears to have had burgesses as early as A.D. 1207. Rot. Patent. 9 Johan.
[556] M. Paris, p. 889.
[557] Stow’s “Survey of London,” p. 130. Rymer, Fœd. vol. v. p. 105.
[558] Lambecii, Orig. Hamburg, ii. p. 26.
[559] The following are the legends, on the five seals, respectively:—
1. Sandwich—sigill. consilii. baronvm. de. sandwico.
2. Poole—sigillvm. commvne. de. la. pole.
3. Dover—sigillvm. commvne. baronvm. de. dovoria.
4. Faversham—sigillvm. baronvm. de. faversham.
5. Suffolk—sigillvm. michaelis. stanhope. armigeri. vice-admiralli. comitatvs. svffolcie.
[561] Hakluyt’s “Voyages,” vol. i. p. 17.
[562] A charter granting these privileges will be found at length in Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 135. It was confirmed by Henry IV. and Henry V.
[563] Rymer, “Fœdera,” v. p. 691.
[564] Ibid. v. p. 298.
[565] Act. ii. Edward I.
[566] Ayloffe’s Calendar, p. 335.
[567] The Act of Edward I. prohibiting the exportation of bullion, and relating to his new coinage, was ordered to be sent to all the chief ports in the kingdom. For the wages of the sailors in the fleets of Edward I., see [Appendix No. 5, pp. 632-4.]
[568] To this day the visitor to the quaint old town of Winchelsea may observe under houses, now cottages, extensive cellars—some with roofs of Gothic arches. The Ward-robe books of the 25th, 29th, and 32nd years of Edward I. (now in the British Museum) give ample details on all these subjects.
[569] Mr. Wright, in his excavations at Uriconium (Wroxeter), found abundant evidences of the use of coal. Roman candles have also been met with in some of the neighbouring mines. As early as A.D. 1253 there was a lane behind Newgate, in London, called Sea-coal Lane. Ayloffe’s Calend., p. 11. It appears also that coal was used in A.D. 1337 in the manufacture of iron anchors. See “Syllabus of Rymer’s Fœdera,” [Appendix No. 8, p. 648, s. a. 1337].
[570] Stow’s “Survey of London,” p. 925.
[571] See [Appendix No. 6, pp. 634-6], where the original documents preserved in the Cotton and Harleian Collections are given in parallel columns, to show their variations. At the end of this roll are also notices of some of the more remarkable items in the repairs of Edward III.’s galleys from another contemporary MS. [Appendix No. 7, pp. 636-641].
[572] It appears also from the warrants contained in a MS. of the Harleian Collection, No. 433, that besides the trade with Iceland from Bristol, many vessels went thither from the ports of Norfolk and Suffolk. See [Appendix No. 12, p. 654].
[573] Rymer’s “Fœdera.”
[574] The great wealth of Flanders at this time is well shown by the fact that, in A.D. 1339, the Duke of Brabant paid Edward 50,000l. as the dowry for his daughter on her espousal to Prince Edward.—Rymer, Fœd. v. pp. 113, 118.
[575] See a specimen of the “Safe Conduct” usually given on these occasions from a MS. in the Harleian Collection. [Appendix No. 6].
[576] Rymer’s Fœd. v. pp. 179-203.
[577] The following are the most important dates in connection with the history of this celebrated confederacy.
Great German Hansa established A.D. 1241, with the view of clearing the Baltic and adjacent coasts of pirates. Their first cities were Lubeck and Hamburg, then Bremen, ultimately Bergen and Brunswick; they were supported, generally, by the emperors as a commercial counterpoise to the feudal nobility—Lubeck was chosen as queen of the Hansa.
In 1281 the citizens of the Hanseatic League were placed on the same footing as those of London.
From A.D. 1303 to 1475 they possessed many houses in London, with a jury, half English, half foreign, to try their causes, and two English aldermen to act as their chiefs. This was the period of their greatest power. The power of the League began to decline in 1547, after the death in this year of Henry VIII. Though Edward VI. renewed their privileges, the English “Merchant Adventurers” proved too strong for them.
In 1666 their buildings of the Steel-yard were burnt in the great fire of London, but were reconstructed in 1680.
In 1852 the premises of the Hanseatic League were finally alienated, and are now built over by the Cannon Street railway station.