When peace was restored the good relations between England and the Netherlands continued until 1515, when a dispute with reference to the interpretation of treaties arose. The intercourse between the two countries was still based on the great treaty of 1496, supplemented by later ones, and more especially that of 1506, which was so unpopular with the Flemings. The young Prince Charles, afterwards the Emperor Charles V, who succeeded Margaret of Savoy as Regent of the Netherlands in 1515, determined to better the position of his subjects, and denounced the validity of the treaties on the ground that they terminated with the death of the contracting parties. New duties were imposed and English merchants complained that they were worse treated in the Low Countries than in Spain and Portugal. Charles, or rather his guardians and councillors, attempted artificially to revive the decaying prosperity of Bruges by so arranging tolls and dues as to compel the English to resort only to that place. However, the English, as had been abundantly shown in the reign of Henry VII, had in the last resort the whip-hand, and rumours of a new cessation of intercourse brought about an agreement in July to postpone the whole matter for six years until Prince Charles should come of age, and in the meantime to maintain the operation of the original treaties. In spite of this, the unfriendly treatment of the English continued, and a complaint of 1516 mentions that tolls were exacted at different places on the same goods, damage was done by customs officers in examining goods, and that Englishmen were hindered in buying and generally obstructed by officials. Some of the disputes were settled in 1517, and others were provided for in an agreement between the English merchants and the town of Antwerp, signed on June 1, 1518. In 1520 a general commercial treaty, to endure for five years, was signed between England and the emperor. It provided, in the main, that intercourse and duties should continue on the former basis. The vexed question of the Malus Intercursus of 1506 was again left unsettled.[[153]]
The inconveniences of trade above described were normal to the time and, in spite of them, the relations between England and the Netherlands during the first part of Henry’s reign may be described as good. In 1525, however, owing to the overwhelming success of Charles in his war with Francis I, culminating in the capture of that monarch at Pavia on February 24, the balance of Europe was in danger of being upset, and a change of policy was initiated in England which entailed far-reaching consequences. Wolsey’s new plan was an alliance with France, to be sealed if possible by a royal marriage. The idea of a divorce from Katherine of Aragon was taken up eagerly by Henry, but received in his mind a direction totally unforeseen by Wolsey. Henry was soon intent, not on a marriage with a French princess, but on a union with Anne Boleyn, a lady of his own court. When it is remembered that Charles V was a nephew of the king’s existing wife, it will be seen that the divorce proposals could not fail to have a bad effect on the relations between England and the Imperial dominions.
Moreover, owing to the course which affairs took, the whole question of the religious position of England was opened up, to the detriment of the papal power. Charles was committed to the pope’s side in religious affairs in Germany, while Spain, also under his rule, was fanatically Catholic. Hence a fresh cause of strife appeared between him and England. The divorce case began in the middle of 1527, and, from the first mention of it, the emperor showed himself violently hostile. A hint of the possibilities of retaliation on the English side to any imposition of commercial disabilities was contained in a proclamation by the mayor of Calais on July 13. It was announced that English and foreign merchants might trade at Calais on the same terms as at Antwerp, and that the governor and Fellowship of the Merchant Adventurers should have the same jurisdiction at Calais as formerly at Antwerp.[[154]] This could not fail to recall to the Flemings their sufferings during the restraint of 1493 when a similar transference had taken place. The prospects, however, became worse instead of better, and in March 1528 a panic was caused by reports of the detention of all English merchants in Spain and Flanders. There was a general paralysis of trade, workmen were discharged, and large stocks of cloth remained unsold at Blackwell Hall. It required all the skill of the Government to ‘quench the bruit’ and restore confidence.[[155]] The crisis slowly passed away and the Merchant Adventurers returned to Antwerp. A diet for settling grievances was held at Bourbourg, near Dunkirk, in 1532. Another similar period of depression and fear of war with the emperor occurred in 1535. The worst crisis of all, that of 1538–9, has already been considered in a previous chapter.
The organization of the Merchant Adventurers was of political as well as commercial importance. Their colony at Antwerp, with its governor and council of twenty-four, constituted an English outpost in the Low Countries almost if not quite as valuable as Calais, and without the disadvantage of requiring a large military outlay for its maintenance. Just as the possession of Calais enabled English wool to be sold at a vast profit to the Crown, so, until the competition of the Hansa became severe, the produce of English craftsmen was disposed of at Antwerp on more favourable terms than could have been obtained by a less centralized organization. The merchants themselves were an intelligent and respected class, and their governor was usually selected for the possession of such qualities in the highest degree. Consequently it is frequently found that there was the closest understanding between him and the home Government, to which he was able to make himself useful in many ways. Valuable information was sometimes acquired by the merchants and transmitted before it reached the ears of the regular diplomatic representative. They were also especially well placed for keeping a watch on the movements of political exiles and traitors of all kinds. In 1533 John Coke, the Secretary of the Merchant Adventurers, was in constant correspondence with Cromwell, sending him information as to disloyal books and speeches about the king’s marriage with Anne Boleyn. A few years later John Hutton, the governor, acted as Cromwell’s political agent at Antwerp, while in the troubled times of Edward VI and Mary the tie became closer, and financial aid was commonly rendered by the one party, to be paid for by official attacks upon its rivals by the other.
The circumstances of the time required the maintenance of strict discipline in the Company, and for this purpose the governor was by the charter of 1505 endued with full powers. In 1536 a merchant was condemned to pay a fine of £150 for ‘misshipping’ cloths; and in the following year William Castlyn, one of the most prominent members of the Company, was fined 100 marks for shipping certain kerseys to Flanders in ships other than those appointed to be used.[[156]] Here it may be remarked that it was usual for the merchants to accumulate their stocks of cloth in London until the date of the mart at Antwerp was at hand, and then to ship all their cargoes at the same time in certain ships specified for the purpose. As many as sixty vessels sometimes composed one fleet, although they seldom exceeded 100 tons in burden. This dispatching of merchantmen in large fleets was a characteristic of all branches of maritime trade and afforded a convenient means of protection and supervision.
In spite of the powers to fine and imprison enjoyed by the governor, discipline was not easy to maintain, and the misfortunes due to the growing hostility between Henry and the emperor did not conduce to the better conduct of the English in the Netherlands. In 1542 a letter from the deputy governor complained of the growing decay of good order and the violation of their privileges, showing that internal dissension went hand in hand with attacks from without. The office of governor was vacant, and there was a difference in opinion between the merchants at Antwerp and those in London as to the filling of the post. Two successive appointments made by the Antwerp section were annulled by the London head-quarters, who finally called in the aid of the Privy Council. The latter addressed a strongly-worded letter to the refractory brethren at Antwerp. The London party were described as ‘ancient, grave and substantial men’ to whose choice the young and inexperienced at Antwerp ought to submit. The latter were further upbraided for wishing to have as their governor ‘one most unfit’ (John Knotting), who had been living as a naturalized citizen of Antwerp and abjuring his own nationality. The letter concluded by charging them to accept William Castlyn, the London candidate, without demur, in default of which John Knotting and the secretary were to repair to London for an investigation of the case.[[157]] The chief leader of the older or London party in this affair was Sir Richard Gresham, father of Thomas Gresham, the future founder of the Royal Exchange. The division of the Company into two factions, here indicated, became more or less chronic, and it was perhaps inevitable that such should be the case. In a period of change the interests of the older men, whose fortunes were made, lay rather in keeping things as they were and resisting any alteration of the rules of the game, while the young members, impatient to be rich, must frequently have been guilty of actions offensive to their more conservative seniors.
As will be remembered, the critical state of international politics in the years 1538–9 caused Henry VIII to proclaim that for the space of five years foreigners might trade with England on payment of the same duties as were exacted from native merchants. This edict was modified in 1540 by an Act of Parliament which stated that foreigners availing themselves of the privilege must ship their goods in English bottoms. The resulting quarrel with the Imperial Government prejudiced the position of the Merchant Adventurers, more especially as, in the end, Henry was obliged to exempt the Flemings from the operation of the Act. Scarcely was this dispute settled than another arose owing to the imposition by the Regent of the Netherlands of a new duty of 1 per cent. on the value of all exports, payable in addition to existing duties. The new tax—called the centième—was for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the war against France, and at first the English Government was not inclined to cavil at it. The merchants, however, viewed the matter differently and made strenuous protests. Finally, since an alliance was in process of formation between England and the Empire, the matter was compromised by the Merchant Adventurers paying a benevolence of £1,000 and being excused from the duty on goods sent into England.[[158]] The new alliance was not of long duration; in 1544 Charles made a separate peace with France, leaving Henry to continue the war alone. The English were furious at the trick played on them, and English warships and privateers exercised little discrimination in making prizes of any vessels suspected of carrying an ounce of French goods. The Flemings complained of the damage thus done to their shipping and, in retaliation, all the Merchant Adventurers at Antwerp were placed under arrest on January 6, 1545.[[159]] The arrest lasted for some time, and the Easterlings improved their opportunity by obtaining a firm grasp on the cloth export, from which it was afterwards found so difficult to dislodge them. It is true, of course, that they had exported cloth to the Low Countries before, but it was during these years of hostility between Henry and Charles V that their competition, coupled with the disadvantages under which the English merchants laboured, threatened in the end to extinguish altogether the trade of the latter. As early as August 1538 a letter from Antwerp complained that, although money was plentiful and good sales had been made, the Easterlings had been beforehand with cloth shipments, ‘which hath skatched us in our sales more than two thousand pound’.[[160]] In any case English cloth, by whomsoever sold, was able to hold its own against anything of the same sort which the Netherlands could produce, because it could be sold ready finished at Antwerp for less price than the Flemings had to pay for a proportionate amount of the raw wool at Calais.
The arrest of the Merchant Adventurers in 1545 seems to have done more harm than good to the Flemings. An English emissary, writing to the Council from Antwerp,[[161]] describes the consternation produced, all the merchants remaining ‘in a marvellous stay, the Bourse unhaunted, their hearts damped and made cold with fear that they had never to recover again such things as were taken upon the seas. All the inhabitants of this town shrunk at it, fearing the utter decay of their traffic. Great numbers of fullers, shearmen, dyers, and others thought their livings were utterly bereaved from them, so that if it had continued a little longer it would have brought a wonderful alteration of things here. This little arrest hath made many to confess to me that it were better for this country to have twenty years’ war with France than one with England, in so great fear were they of it’. The arrest was over and cloth was again being dispatched to Flanders by the middle of May.
The course of events and the financial necessities of the Government in the reigns of Edward and Mary threw considerable political power into the hands of the Merchant Adventurers. The way in which they availed themselves of it to secure the downfall of the Hansa has been described in the previous chapter.
The strife of factions among the Adventurers at this time became accentuated. On account of a dispute with the city of Antwerp they were ordered in 1547 and 1548 not to resort to that town, but to make Bergen-op-Zoom their temporary head-quarters. Some of them disregarded the injunction and even talked of electing a new Governor and Secretary, a sharp reprimand from the Privy Council being necessary to bring them to order.[[162]] A letter from Thomas Chamberlain, the Governor, in this connexion, is worth quoting: