Page:Robert the Bruce and the struggle for Scottish independence - 1909.djvu/393

1328 A.D.] King founded a chaplainry worth £4 a year "to pray for the soule of Elizabeth his spouse, quene of Scottis, quhilk deceassit in our said burgh of Culane, and her bowallis erdit in oure Lady Kirk thairof." Of her children mention will be made hereafter.

The national mourning for the Queen was merged in the brighter occupation of preparing for the wedding of her son. Peter the mechanic (Petrus machinarum), a Flemish trader in Berwick, was sent to purchase in foreign markets certain materials which could not be bought at home, such as cloths, furs, and spices, on which he was allowed to charge a commission of 10 per cent. The cloth for the knights' robes, the gift of the King, cost £173, 9s. 2d., and for the esquires and valets, £90. Hoods and capes of vair, miniver, squirrel's and other fur, and of lambskin were also provided. For the household, a great store of linen was laid in, besides 4360 lbs. of almonds, 600 lbs. of rice, 40 loaves of sugar, 180 lbs. of pepper, and mace, nutmegs, saffron, coarse sugar in barrels, in abundance. Twenty tuns of wine cost £75 and, strange to say, 2200 eels in barrels—provender which would be very unpalatable to modern Scots. The whole bill for the first cargo (for Peter had to take two trips) came to £941, 0s. 6d., a vast sum in those days.

Another trader, Thomas de Carnock (?) was also sent to Flanders to buy silks, satins, and other valuables, at a cost of £400, but the King, by a letter under his own hand, exempted his accounts from audit because he was so well assured of the fidelity