Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/77

] are said to have been first brought into England by Edward IV., on his return from Flanders in 1471. Ships were also supplied with small guns.

The commerce of England continued to flourish and extend itself through this century, in spite of the obstacles and ruinous effects of almost perpetual war. Our kings, however warlike they might be, were yet very sensible of the advantages of commerce, and during this century made numerous treaties in its favour. Henry, the historian, says:—"It would be tedious to enumerate all the commercial treaties that were made by the kings of England, with almost all the princes and states of Europe, in this period. These treaties were very necessary to restrain the piratical spirit that reigned in the mariners of all nations in those times; but they were very ill observed, and few seamen of any country could resist the temptation of seizing on weaker vessels, when they fell in their way, though belonging to a friendly power. This occasioned continual complaints of the breach of treaties. No fewer than four commercial treaties, for example, were concluded between France and the Hanse Towns in the space of three years, from 1472 to 1474, and all to little purpose; and we have copies of eighteen such agreements between England and Flanders in this period, which is a sufficient evidence that none of them were well observed."



At the same time, it is curious, that, even when two countries were at war, such was the spirit of trade, that the merchants went on trading whenever they could, just as if there was no war at all. This was the case especially between England and Flanders. Our monarchs were already ambitious of reigning supreme masters of the seas, and this doctrine was as jealously urged upon them by the nation. In a rhyming pamphlet, written about 1433, and to be found in Hakluyt, vol. i., p. 167, the writer says, "that if the English keep the seas, especially the main seas, they will compel all the world to be at peace with them, and to court their friendship."

Henry IV., though harassed by the difficulties of a usurped crown, strenuously set himself to promote commerce, and to put an end to the continual depredations committed upon each other by the English and the merchants of the Hanse Towns, as well as those of Prussia and Livonia, subject to the grand master of the Teutonic order of knights.

Henry V. was as victorious at sea as at land; and by his fleet, under his brother, the great Duke of Bedford, in 1416, and again in 1417, the Earl of Huntingdon being his admiral, swept the seas of the united fleets of France and Genoa, and made himself complete master of the ocean during his time. This ascendancy was lost under the disastrous reign of Henry VI., but was re-gained by Edward IV., a monarch who, notwithstanding his voluptuous character, was fully alive to the vast benefits accruing to a nation from foreign trade, and thought it no dishonour to be, if not a merchant-prince, a prince-merchant. He had ships of his own, and when they were not otherwise employed in peace, he did not suffer them, as in our day, to rot in harbour, but freighted