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ferently-coloured hose for each leg, with short breeches, extremely tight, and hardly reaching to the middle of the thighs; and a coat also party. coloured. The beard was worn long, and the head was embroidered with figures of animals, &c. which buttoned beneath the chest, being sometimes decorated with gold and precious stones. The habits of the females likewise consisted of party-coloured tunics; very short lirippes, or tippets; remarkably small caps, fastened on with cords; girdles ornamented with gold and silver, and short swords, like daggers, hung before the stomach. The fifteenth century, carried the English dress to a still greater degree of absurdity, the most remarkable feature of which was, that jackets were worn so short as to call forth a statute in 1463, ordering them to be worn a certain length behind. The former follies were also continued, and the beaux of the time wore sometimes a boot on one leg, and a stocking on the other. In winter was added a large mantle, with what were called side and long sleeves, which hung down to the ground, and, as a poet of the period remarked, licked up the dirt of the streets whether it were wet or dry. The borders of this habit, were frequently embroidered with verses of Latin, hymns or psalms in gold, and the garment itself, was sometimes of red silk bordered with white. The female dress had likewise increased in absurdity, though its principal follies were brought from France; as the fashionable garments called a git, a hacqueton, a garberdine, a chevesail, &c. The head-dresses, in particular, were worn so immoderately high and broad, that in 1416, when Isabel of Bavaria kept her court at

Vinciennes, the doors of all the state apartments were raised and widened, that the head-dresses of the Queen and her ladies, might have room to enter. The fabric was supported by a horn on each side, and from the top of each was suspended a silken streamer, which sometimes fluttered in the wind, and sometimes crossed the breast, and was tied to the arm. The mustyrd devyllers, or moitié de velours, a kind of inferior velvet, already mentioned, was a favourite stuff used for the female gowns of this century, and a favourite dye was called grenouilliére, or frog-colour.

The wars and internal contentions of the fifteenth century, produced but little improvements in the manners and morals of England; though it could not justly be accused of inhumanity, since, in the domestic feuds, the leaders only were captured, slain, and executed, whilst their misguided followers received quarter. Still, however, the nation seems to have possessed much of a licentious and ferocious character; and there are numerous instances of females defending fortresses, and committing the most courageous and sanguinary actions in the discords of the times. The national animosity had also another evil consequence, for, in the early part of the reign of Edward IV., the whole number of Peers attending in Parliament amounted to one Duke, four Earls, one Viscount, and twenty-nine Barons.

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CHAPTER III.

FROM THE SIXTEENTH TO THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY.

THE liberal declaration of Henry VII., in a commission issued to his Almoner in 1486, shows that wise Sovereign to have been a true friend to commercial intercourse, whilst, at the same time, he perfectly understood its value. Despatched to Naples to establish a treaty of national traffic, the King observes to him in his instructions, “the earth being the common parent of us all, what can be more desirable and praise-worthy, than, by means of commerce, to communicate her various productions to all her children ?" Even the first year of this King, 1485, evinced his desire of extending the trade of his kingdom, although it was by those ungenerous principles, upon which the ancient commerce of England was too often founded,—the establishment of a monopoly: since he framed a navigation act, to prevent the importation of Guienne or Gascoigne wines, in any other ships than those of his own subjects. It may also be remarked, in noticing this ordinance, that the vessels of the Welsh are mentioned in it, for the first time. As prudence, however, was one of the predominant features of this monarch, which made

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him extremely cautious of partaking in any expensive scheme, he delayed acceding to the proposal of Bartholomeo, the brother of Christopher Columbus, to patronise his purposed discovery of America. It is, notwithstanding, believed, that at the time when the navigator sailed under the protection of Ferdinand of Spain, Henry was actually ready to have encouraged his design. It is worth noticing, that England was indebted to the same Bartholomeo for the first geographical maps and charts, which he had introduced here in 1488. But, during the early part of the sixteenth century, though the commerce of England had been both encouraged and increased, the Flemings, who were seated at their Stilyard, or Stapel Hoff, or Marthouse, on the banks of the Thames, engrosSed the greater part of its actual trade. They bought the goods of England, and distributed them over the continent; and the last century had closed with aspects favourable only to their interests. The party of the fictitious Duke had excited much discontent in England; and, in revenge for the encouragement which he had received from Margaret, Dutchess of Burgundy, Henry VII. had prohibited all intercourse with Flanders, and the importation of Flemish wares; which was answered by a similar restriction from Maximilian, King of the Romans, and his son, the Archduke Philip. The English merchants had therefore no other mart for their goods than Calais; which so decreased their credit and property, as greatly to reduce their fortunes, and render even their very continuance extremely doubtful. The Flemish merchants, on the contrary, though settled and protected in England, did not consider themselves

bound by this embargo, and still continued to trade with their own countries, supplying all which had been hitherto furnished by the citizens of London. This, as might be expected, excited all those feelings of envy and dislike, which the civic traders, held towards the foreign ones; and as the servants saw their own fall, in that of their masters, it frequently broke forth in acts of open revenge. The number of Flemings settled at London, is said to have been upwards of 15,000; but though they frequently experienced insult or plunder, their character, appears to have been of that peaceful kind, which is the best adapted for the establishment of commercial intercourse and prosperity. And perhaps it may be attributed to the warm disposition of the English, embittered as it then was, by the distresses and privations of a long course of civil war, that the attempts of Henry to extend the trade of his realm to distant countries, was followed by no better success. It is probable, that his subjects and his land, were neither safe nor desirable for traffic; but in his first year, 1486, in a treaty with Florence, he grants a safe conduct to such merchants as will visit the ports, &c. of England. King Henry must have been sensible, that great exertions were required to re-establish an intercourse of this nature; and therefore, it was perhaps equally to encourage the commerce which he wished to revive, as to accumulate that wealth of which he was so fond, that he himself became the owner of several merchant ships; by which, however, he gained considerable profit, and advanced the interests of navigation. In 1494, this king also attempted that important, but almost hopeless design, of reducing the national weights

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