The system of restrictions to which commerce was then subject is exhibited by the royal license required before a liegeman of this earl could take a cargo of goods from Lewes across the channel.
"Our Lord the King has granted to the Earl de Warenne, that the vessel, in which the goods and merchandize of the said earl's liegeman, Bartholemew of Poictou, are loaded, may for one voyage be carried across from Lewes to Flanders, and to other places, except those within the power of the King of France, with the goods and merchandize of the said Bartholemew; and the bailiffs of the port of Sefford are commanded, after receiving security from the same, that he will not turn aside with his goods and merchandize into the power of the King of France, to allow the said vessel freely and without impediment to pass. Westminster, February 8, (1225)." Rot. Claus. ii, 15b.
Hubert de Burg, to whom the next letter is addressed, and who experienced so many vicissitudes of court favour and disgrace under Henry III, was allied to this sixth Earl de Warenne, by his marriage with Beatrix de Warenne. The letter seems to have been written before his creation as Earl of Kent, in 1227. The Earl de Warenne was one of de Burg's bail, in 1232, when the king was persecuting him.
The Countess d'Eu, whose arrival the letter announces, was Alicia countess in her own right, as sole heiress of Henry, Count d'Eu, and Matilda, daughter of Hamelin, Earl de Warenen. She mentions the writer of the letter as her uncle (avunculo meo) in a charter dated 1219,[1] being then widow of Ralph d'Issoudun, a brother of Hugh de Lusignan, who married King John's widow. A writ was issued in August, 1219, to give her possession of "Tikhull," co: York, and she quitted England in 1225. Her seal, on a Norman deed, exhibits the arms of "barry, a label of sable points." Her niece, Alice de Lusignan, became, in 1247, the wife of John, the seventh Earl de Warenne, then a minor.
"To his most dear friend, Hubert de Burg, Justiciary of England, his in all things (suus in omnibus), William, Earl de Warenne greeting, and the fullness of entire love.
"As I think you will be rejoiced at the arrival in England of the lady
- ↑ Rot. Scacc. Norman, ii, 231.
