[613] Chaucer is generally believed to have been born in 1328, and to have died in 1400: it is certain that he flourished in the time of Edward III. and of Richard II. The orthography of this extract is from Bell’s ed. of Chaucer, 1855.
[614] Voluminous papers on this subject are given in Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 157, et seq.; with the letter of Henry IV. to the master-general of Prussia, together with the treaty itself, and the Hanse-Towns agreement.
[615] Rymer’s Fœdera, vol. viii. pp. 601-603. Hakluyt, vi. pp. 154-157. There seems some doubt as to the date of this transaction. See Macpherson, i. p. 625.
[616] Macpherson has collected from various sources all the details of the disputes between the Hanse and English merchants, of which the above is a condensed notice, vol. i. pp. 620-623, s.a. 1408-9.
[617] Rymer’s Fœd., vol. viii. p. 437.
[618] Rymer’s Fœdera, v. ix. p. 26-72.
[619] Ibid. v. ix. p. 13, ap.
[620] Fœdera, ix. pp. 215, 216-218, 238. Walsingham, p. 390.
[621] The same names of ships, and the place of their construction (then called Hampton), are given in the “Dominion of the Sea,” as preserved in Hakluyt, vol. i. See also the Chronicle of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Winchester, in which, too, is a notice of the action off Harfleur A.D. 1416. Sir H. Nicolas, quoting from the “Issue Roll” of Henry V., states that 496l. was paid at Southampton for the “Holy Ghost,” and 500l. for the “Grâce Dieu;” but this could have been only a portion of the real cost of these ships. (Hist. Roy. Navy, ii. 406.)
[622] Hakluyt, vol. i. pp. 187-203.