to the merchants of London going or coming to or from the continent.

With the reign of John commences a series of notices in the Patent Rolls which give us several important items of information concerning the town. In 1205 a new charter was granted to each of the various ports, and Dover was to enjoy the same privileges it had under the charter of Edward the Confessor. The "Honours in our

Court," and the right of "den and strond" (use of shore and quay) at Yarmouth, and the charge of the king's "peace and justice" at the same place are granted to all the Cinque Ports alike. The privileges of the Court at Shepway were also confirmed, and, as it would appear that the itinerant justices of Henry II. had encroached upon the chartered rights of the Ports in trying civil and criminal cases within their liberties, this concession must have proved a considerable inducement to the barons to fit out the fleet which the king desired to enable him to recover his lost territory of Normandy. The "Honours in our Court" referred to in these charters was a recognition of the right of the barons of the Cinque Ports to select four of their number to carry a silken canopy, supported by four long lances, over the king at the coronation ceremony, and to sit at the right hand of the sovereign at the coronation banquet. The first recorded instance of their fulfilling this gratifying privilege was at the coronation of Richard I., but as it was then referred to as an ancient custom" it may certainly be presumed to have existed. for a considerable period of time. At the coronation of Henry III. the barons' right to this honour was disputed by the Lords Marchers, but this opposition was overruled, and no further dispute is recorded until the coronation of George III., when an attempt was made to deprive them of their seat at the right hand of the king.

66

In 1208, when the Pope laid an interdict upon the kingdom, the barons wavered in their allegiance to John, who rapidly proceeded against them with a hired fleet of fifty galleys and reduced them to obedience. They were punished by being compelled to buy back the king's favour, the price they paid, however, is not recorded. The Pope's bull of excommunication was for a considerable time kept out of England by the activity of the portsmen, and when he arrogantly gave the Crown of England to the King of France they threw themselves with ardour into the war against that monarch. They furnished the greater part of William de Longspée's fleet which delivered such a crushing defeat (vide page 323) upon the French fleet in 1213. It is from this time that the "barons of the Cinque Ports advanced to their place in the roll of English heroes. Perhaps till now the confederation had not, in respect of its Crown service, been looked upon as much more than a trustworthy force for guarding the narrow seas. It was now called out into the premier rank of the national forces, and became their acknowledged head." It is generally believed that King John issued orders to his ships that they should make all foreign vessels strike sails to them in the narrow seas, if this be true it speaks volumes for the reputation that the Cinque Ports' fleet had obtained at that time; and it is certain that Edward I. actually did so order. What part Dover took in these enterprises is not separately discoverable, but we may be assured that its barons did their full part.

During the stormy reign of Henry III., Dover, with the other ports, passed through many vicissitudes. Constant demands were made upon them for fulfilling their chartered duties, and their ships were constantly called out on the king's service. One especial duty seems to have been

given them amongst others, viz., that they should assist the Governor of the Channel Islands in defending his charge. To add to the troubles which came upon them owing to the disturbed state of the kingdom they were fully occupied with a pretty little quarrel of their own which had raged between them and the men of Yarmouth since it had been made a free borough, with all the usual privileges, in 1209. During the last eight years of the reign of John the annual fair became a scene of furious strife between the portsmen and the inhabitants of Yarmouth and the neighbouring towns on the east coast. Yarmouth endeavouring to throw off the ancient control of the Ports, the Ports clinging to their ancient privilege with greater tenacity as the assertion of it became more difficult. Neither was the strife confined to that locality, for conflicts between the two contending parties continually took place on the high sea.

The king and his council interfered on more than one occasion, but without much effect, and it was not until the reign of Edward I. that any effective steps were taken to check this internecine strife. The disastrous effect upon the fishing industry may well be imagined, and must, with the French war, have considerably checked the growing prosperity of the town. So violent was the ill-feeling engendered that the king found it necessary to issue a special mandate to the barons not to attack the Yarmouth vessels whilst engaged in conveying the queen to France in the year 1254.

In the year 1231 the king granted to a foreign nobleman, Simon de Montfort, the earldom of Leicester, which he claimed through his grandmother, and five years later he arrived in England to attend the marriage of the king. The important part that de Montfort played in English history is well known, and it was

partly owing to the zeal with which the men of the Cinque Ports attached themselves to his party that he was enabled to exercise so overwhelming an influence in the kingdom. It is curious to note that de Montfort, himself a foreigner, became the recognised head of the discontented barons whose chief cause of complaint against the king was his exaltation of Provençals and Poitevins over the heads of the native nobility. This, coupled with the exactions of the Pope, which were encouraged by the king, were the main sources of a growing discontent which soon developed into open rebellion.

In 1233 Peter de Rivallis of Poitou was made custodian of the port of Dover with all the emoluments attached to the office. He was a foreigner much esteemed by the king and had at various times many important posts in the kingdom. In the same year he was also made Custos of Sussex and Surrey for life, and Constable of Guildford, Hastings and Pevensey Castles, and a few months later Custos of Kent and sixteen other counties, and keeper of the forests of England. He is one of the numerous instances of those days of an ecclesiastic being knighted and occupying a different position to that which his clerical vows entitled him to take. On the rebellion of the barons against the king he was removed from his offices and was for a time imprisoned in the Tower at London.

The king sent to Dover in 1238 requesting six of the barons to come to him to "talk with the king on his business". It appears that "Scotch malefactors" had caused much damage to his shipping, and they were called upon to send one ship and eleven galleys to punish them. A similar request was made to the other ports, and the service was performed jointly. As this is one of the earliest mentions made of the Cinque Ports'

galleys it may be well to describe the class of vessel which the Five Ports supplied for the king's service at this period of their history. The ships were nothing more than great boats from twenty to fifty tons burden, and generally much nearer the former than latter size. These boats were built with bow and stern both curving upwards, and were fitted with one mast, which carried one square sail. In times of peace these vessels were used for mercantile purposes, but when called out for the king's service a "castle" or open square box was rigged up both at the stern and bow, a smaller castle was also hoisted to the top of the mast before an engagement commenced, the object of these erections being to give the fighting men an opportunity of sweeping the enemy's decks. The vessels were steered with oars, worked over the quarter, and not by rudders. If the galleys of those days resembled in any way those of later date they were boats of about 160 feet in length and twenty-two or more in beam. They were covered with a single sloping deck, rising from close to the water-line to the "corsia," which was a well some six feet wide, rising above the deck and running fore and aft, from which access was obtained to the various chambers in the hold. The rowers were seated on raised benches on each side of the corsia, and in bad weather the water shipped would run under their feet and out of the scuppers. A platform for the fighting men was built fore and aft, and in later days they were supplied with cannon. To enable them to pursue the tactics so dear to English sailors of all ages of running down their enemy, the galleys were often provided with metal beaks.

From the fragmentary remains of the Ports' Domesday Book we find that Dover furnished twenty-one ships during the thirteenth century. Each ship was manned