Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/507

 governor of Calais, the reader of English history need not feel surprised at the acts of piracy which too frequently disgrace its pages. On the dethronement of Henry VI., after an inglorious reign of nearly forty years, the Earl of March, who had shortly before become Duke of York by his father's death on the field of Wakefield, was proclaimed king of England as Edward IV.

These intestine commotions and civil wars, combined with the impolicy of the crown, had reduced the merchant shipping of England to a state of great distress. A few merchants, however, during the long but unfortunate reign of Henry VI. had been, by special favour, enabled to realize large fortunes. John Taverner, a ship-owner of Kingston-upon-Hull, having built in 1449 one of the largest merchant vessels of the period, received a licence to take on board wool, tin, lambs'-skins, hides, or any other merchandise, the property of English or foreign merchants, and carry them to Italy, on "paying alien's duty." William Canynge, an eminent merchant of Bristol, who sent his factors to foreign parts, was likewise favoured by letters from the king to the grand master of Prussia and the magistrates of Danzig, recommending to their good offices the representatives of "his beloved and honourable merchant." Although prohibited by Act of Parliament, Canynge, when mayor of Bristol, on account of services said to have been rendered to the king, had a special licence to employ two ships, of whatever burden he pleased, during two years, in the trade between England and Iceland and Finmark, and