[230] Journ. Arch. Assoc. xxvii. 463, 488.
[231] In Rye there was a tax “from every stranger, as though from a prisoner taken, payment of his finance for his ransom, and when he has entered the fortresses of the port for his passage thence, 3_s._ 4_d._; he having to pay towards the building of the walls and gates there what pertains to the common weal of the town.” (Hist. MSS. Com. v. 490.) For the strengthening of Canterbury wall against the French, (ibid. ix. 141.) It had twenty-one towers and six gates, and mayors in 1452 and 1460 left money for the gates. (Davies’ Southampton, 62-3, 80, 105. Hist. MSS. Com. xi. 3, 167.)
[232] Hist. MSS. Com. v. 518-24, 492-3. The Common House at Romney was only provided with bows until in 1475 a gun was laid on it. Burgesses were sometimes driven from towns by the excessive charges of war and of watch and ward. (Owen’s Shrewsbury, i. 205.) For Southampton, see Davies, 79, 80, Chester, Hist. MSS. Com. viii. 370.
[233] Hist. MSS. Com. viii. 370. In 1399, when the master-weavers and tradesmen came armed to the cathedral and led an attack on “William of Wybunbur and Thomas del Dame and many of their servants called journeymen in a great affray of all the people of the city against the peace of the Lord King.” Ibid. 367. See also Paston Letters, i. 408; Hist. MSS. Com. iv. 1, 432.
[234] Plumpton Correspondence, liv. lxii.
[235] Davies’ York, 183. For the directions given about the gathering of troops, see ibid., 152-157. For cost of arms and maintenance of troops to towns, see Stubbs ii. 309. Hist. MSS. Com. ix. 143.
[237] The authorities of York decreed that the soldiers sent on a Scotch campaign should be given their wages for the first fourteen days, and the captain should have in his pocket the money for the second fortnight. The troops struck, however, and insisted on having the whole twenty-eight days’ pay before they started, and the town had at last to give in as the only way of getting the expedition started. (Davies’ York 132-7.) The soldiers, once paid, often did no more than start on their journey and then “sraggle about by themselves” with their pay in their pockets. (Paston Letters ii. 1-2.)
[238] Eng. Chronicle, 1377-1461, pp. 71, 83, 90, 109.