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 sailors, who took a whale near London Bridge, were paid 20s. for their pains.

A circumstance which happened in 1310, when England was at peace with France but at war with Scotland, with which, however, there was a truce, deserves notice, not only because of its intrinsic interest, but also because it concerns Ravensrode. A French vessel had been to Scotland to trade there, when, on her return, she was forced into Ravensrode by stress of weather, and there seized as coming from Scotland. Philip of France requested the release of ship, crew, and goods, and Edward complied, begging, however, his brother of France to prevent his subjects from having intercourse with the enemies of England. Ravensrode, the scene of the seizure, was an important seaport, but had not long been so. After a brief career, it was swept away by the enroachments of the sea. It was a peninsula beyond Holderness, joined to the mainland by a low beach of sand and stones; and although Henry IV. landed there in 1399, and Edward IV. in 1471, there was no trace of it visible in the middle of the sixteenth century. It was also known as Ravenspur and Ravenser, and was in the parish of, though at a distance of four miles from, Easington. Sunthorpe, hard by, has also been submerged.

The king confirmed the privileges of the Cinque Ports in 1313, and added, that although liberties or freedoms granted in the previous charters might not have been used, yet they might, nevertheless, be fully enjoyed by the barons, their heirs and successors, without any impediment from the king and his heirs. Something has already been said about the lawlessness which prevailed in the Narrow Seas during this reign. One example, which might have been cited with the instances given on an earlier page, has been reserved for notice here, because it led to what is the first plain and undoubted admission by foreigners of the claim of the kings of England to the sovereignty of their seas.

For some time the seamen of England and those of Flanders had been attacking and plundering each other, though the countries were at peace; and at length, when some particularly flagrant acts of piracy had been committed by Englishmen "sur la mere d'Engleterre devers les parties de Craudon," the king and the Count of Flanders agreed to adopt decisive measures. Commissioners were appointed on both sides, and after several years of intermittent negotiations,