While so much official ineptitude was being displayed, a private citizen exhibited remarkable energy and patriotism. John Mercer, a Scotsman, had collected a flotilla of Scots, French, and Spanish adventurers, and had taken several ships belonging to Scarborough. The Government did nothing towards the repression of these piracies; and John Phillpott, a wealthy merchant of London, took the matter into his own hands. At his own cost, he equipped a thousand men and a number of ships, and not only recovered the captured vessels, but also made himself master of fifteen Spanish craft which had gone to Mercer's assistance. He was informed by the Council that he had acted illegally in sending an armament sea without their consent. "I did not," he replied, "expose myself, my money, and my men to the dangers of the sea, that I might deprive you and your colleagues of your knightly fame, nor to acquire it for myself; but from pity for the misery of the people and the country, which, from having been a noble realm with dominion over other nations, has, through your supineness, become exposed to the ravages of the vilest race; and, since you would not lift a hand for its defence, I exposed myself and my property for the safety and deliverance of our country."[1] This brave trader seems to have been at the time Mayor of London. His patriotism, shown on more than one other occasion, deserves recollection.
Once more, after the meeting of Parliament in 1378, the state of the navy was made the subject of warn remonstrances, the occasion being a demand on the part of the Crown for a further aid; but nothing was done to remedy the situation.[2] The only naval changes of the year were the supersession on September 10th of the Earl of Arundel by Sir Hugh Calverley as Admiral of the Western; and, on November 5th, of the Earl of Warwick by Sir Thomas Percy[3] as Admiral of the Northern fleet.[4]
For the naval necessities of 1379, large sums of money were borrowed from private individuals.[5] To Parliament, which met in April, it was reported that Scarborough had been attacked, and that
- ↑ Evesham, 6; Walsingham, 213.
- ↑ Parl. Rolls, iii. 34, 35, 42, 46.
- ↑ Sir Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, was second son of Henry, Lord Percy, a near relative of the famous Hotspur, and was born about 1311. He obtained a Garter about 1376. His appointments as admiral were in 1378, 1385, and 1399, when he was made Admiral of England and of Ireland. He had been created Earl of Worcester in 1397. He was beheaded in 1403 for complicity with Hotspur.
- ↑ Fr. Rolls, 127.
- ↑ 'Fœdera,' vii. 210, 211.
