There He May Behold, Out Of William Of Malmesburie, A League Concluded Betweene The Most Renowned And Victorious Germane Emperour Carolus Magnus, And The Saxon King Offa, Together With The Sayd Charles His Patronage And Protection Granted Vnto All English Merchants Which In Those Dayes Frequented His Dominions.

There may hee plainly see in an auncient testimonie translated out of the Saxon tongue, how our merchants were often woont for traffiques sake, so many hundred yeeres since, to crosse the wide Seas and how their industry in so doing was recompensed.

Yea, there mayest thou obserue (friendly Reader) what priuileges the Danish king Canutus obtained at Rome of Pope Iohn of Conradus the Emperour, and of king Rudolphus for our English merchants Aduenturers of those times. Then if you shall thinke good to descend vnto the times and ages succeeding the conquest, there may you partly see what our state of merchandise was in the time of king Stephen and of his predecessor, and how the Citie of Bristol (which may seeme somewhat strange) was then greatly resorted vnto with ships from Norway and from Ireland. There may you see the friendly league betweene king Henry the second, and the famous Germane Emperour Friderick Barbarossa, and the gracious authorizing of both their merchats to traffique in either of their dominions. And what need I to put you in mind of king Iohn his fauourable safe conduct, whereby all forren merchants were to haue the same priuileges here in England, which our English merchants enioied abroad in their seuerall countreys. Or what should I signifie vnto you the entercourse of league and of other curtesies betweene king Henry the third, and Haquinus king of Norway; and likewise of the free trade of merchandise between their subiects: or tell you what fauours the citizens of Colen, of Lubek, and of all the Hansetownes obtained of king Edward the first; or to what high endes and purposes the generall, large, and stately Charter concerning all outlandish merchants whatsoeuer was by the same prince most graciously published? You are of your owne industry sufficiently able to conceiue of the letters & negotiatios which passed between K. Edward the 2. & Haquinus the Noruagian king; of our English merchants and their goods detained vpon arrest at Bergen in Norway; and also of the first ordination of a Staple, or of one onely setled Mart towne for the vttering of English woolls & woollen fells instituted by the sayd K. Edward last before named. All which (Reader) being throughly considered, I referre you then to the Ambassages, Letters, Traffiques, and prohibition of Traffiques, concluding and repealing of leagues, damages, reprisals, arrests, complaints, supplications, compositions and restitutions which happened in the time of king Richard the 2. and king Henry the 4. between the said kings and their subiects on the one partie; and Conradus de Zolner, Conradus de Iungingen, and Vlricus de Iungingen, three of the great masters of Prussia, and their subiects, with the common societie of the Hans-townes on the other partie. In all which discourse you may note very many memorable things; as namely first the wise, discreet, and cautelous dealing of the Ambassadors and Commissioners of both parts, then the wealth of the foresaid nations, and their manifold and most vsuall kinds of wares vttered in those dayes, as likewise the qualitie, burthen, and strength of their shipping, the number of their Mariners, the maner of their combates at sea, the number and names of the English townes which traded that way, with the particular places as well vpon the coast of Norway, as euery where within the sound of Denmark which they frequented; together with the inueterate malice and craftie crueltie of the Hanse. And because the name, office, and dignitie of the masters generall or great Masters of Prussia would otherwise haue been vtterly darke and vnknowen to the greater part of Readers, I haue set downe immediatly before the first Prussian ambasasage, pagina 158 [Footnote: This means, of course, page 158 of original edition.] a briefe and orderly Catalogue of them all, containing the first originall and institution of themselues and of their whole knightly order and brotherhood, with the increase of reuenues and wealth which befell them afterward in Italy and Germany and the great conquests which they atchieued vpon the infidels of Prussia, Samogitia, Curland, Liefland, Lituania, &c. also their decay and finall ouerthrow, partly by the reuolt of diuers Townes and Castles vnder their iurisdiction, and partly by the meanes of their next mightie neighbour the King of Poland.

After all these, out of 2. branches of 2. ancient statutes, is partly shewed our trade and the successe thereof with diuers forren Nations in the time of K. Henry the sixth.

Then followeth the true processe of English policie, I meane that excellent and pithy treatise de politia conseruatiua maris: which I cannot to any thing more fitly compare, then to the Emperour of Russia his palace called the golden Castle, and described by Richard Chanceller page 264. [Footnote: Ibidem.] of this volume: whereof albeit the outward apparance was but homely and no whit correspondent to the name, yet was it within so beautified and adorned with the Emperour his maiesticall presence, with the honourable and great assembly of his rich-attired Peers and Senatours, with an inualuable and huge masse of gold and siluer plate, & with other princely magnificence; that well might the eyes of the beholders be dazeled, and their cogitations astonished thereat. For indeed the exteriour habit of this our English politician, to wit, the harsh and vnaffected stile of his substantiall verses and the olde dialect of his wordes is such; as the first may seeme to haue bene whistled of Pans oaten pipe, and the second to haue proceeded from the mother of Euander; but take you off his vtmost weed, and beholde the comelinesse, beautie, and riches which lie hid within his inward sense and sentence, and you shall finde (I wisse) so much true and sound policy, so much delightfull and pertinent history, so many liuely descriptions of the shipping and wares in his time of all the nations almost in Christendome, and such a subtile discouery of outlandish merchants fraud, and of the sophistication of their wares, that needes you must acknowledge, that more matter and substance could in no wise be comprised in so little a roome.

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