England the capacity of a ship is still better understood by the number of keels she can carry than by her registered tonnage.
Henry VI. crowned, A.D. 1422.
Marauding expedition of the Earl of Warwick.
It is not our province to notice the long and terrible
wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster
which followed the accession of the infant Henry VI.
to the throne of England.[1] War, in all cases, would
seem to have encouraged hordes of marauders to fit
out armed vessels, too frequently under the pretence
of the national defence, but practically for their own
gain and aggrandisement. But the war which now
raged for supremacy between the rival claimants to
the crown of England was, perhaps, the one of all
others which offered the greatest encouragement to
these disgraceful expeditions. Forms of licence were
hardly necessary, as the flags of Lancaster or of
York were sufficient covers to many crimes. Thus,
under plea of aiding the cause of the House of York,
the Earl of Warwick, "the king-maker," fitted out
a fleet on his own account, with which he attacked,
in the Straits of Dover, a fleet of Genoese merchantmen
bound for Lubeck, with a cargo of Spanish merchandise,
of which he captured six, rendered worthless
twenty-six, slaughtered one thousand of their crews,
and plundered merchandise to the value of 10,000l.
sterling, with the loss, it is said, of only fifty of his
own men. In the face of such an act as this, perpetrated
by one of the most exalted of the English
nobility, who filled the highly responsible office of
- ↑ To what extent England had been depopulated by the wars with France, may be seen from the fact noticed in the Act 9 Henry V. Stat. 1-5, that the sheriffs were to remain in office, instead of being changed annually, because a sufficient number of persons duly qualified for the office could not be found.
