1386. Armourers are forbidden to increase the prices of their wares. _Rymer, III_, 546.
1408. Oct. 12. Petition to the Mayor and Aldermen of London against foreign importers who use marks similar to English marks, and praying to keep the price fixed and regulated by the masters of the cutlers and bladesmiths jointly. Agreed to by the Mayor. _City of London Letter Books, 1, fol. lxxi._
1434. This is very similar to the Ordinances of the Hastings MS. noticed in _Archæologia_, LVII. It is given here in full, as it is the only literary effort of an armourer that is known in England. _Treatise on Worship in Arms_, by Johan Hill, armourer (Bod. Lib. Ash., 856) (see Appendix C).
1436. Proclamation forbidding the armourers to increase their prices. _Fœdera_, Rymer, X, 647.
1509. Sir Nicholas Vaux, Lieutenant at Guisnes, orders all the garrison to be English except gunners, crossbow-makers, spies, beer-brewers, armourers, and smiths. _Cal. State Papers, Hen. VIII, Vol. I._
1511. Payments made for a forge for Milanese armourers at Greenwich.
1514. The armourers from Brussels are installed by Henry VIII at Greenwich.
1515. Almain or German armourers mentioned as King’s servants.
1544. A complete account of the charges of the King’s Armoury, with wages of the workmen. _Brit. Mus., Cott. App. XXVIII_, 75 (see Appendix F).
1556. Sir John Mason reports to the Council that he has obtained 50 fardels of plate for harness provided by the Schorers from Augsburg. In _Considerations delivered to Parliament in 1559_ it is suggested “that iron mills be banished out of the realme, where wood was formerly 1d. the load at the stalk now by reason of the iron mills it is 2/- the load. Formerly Spanish iron was sold for 5 marks the ton now there are iron mills English iron is sold at 9/-.” This may be the key to the question of importation of armour ready made. Evidently the use of wood in iron-smelting presented a serious difficulty. As may be seen in the chapter on Iron (p. 40), the use of wood in the furnaces was considered a grave danger, as it took material which should have been used for shipbuilding. The English forests were limited and had not the vast acreage of the German woods, so that the deforestation was merely a question of time.