| Description | From: [Richard II], king of England
To: the collectors of the moiety of the tenth and the fifteenth
Edward I granted that the men of the Cinque Ports, or claimed to be of the liberty of the ports and wished to enjoy the same, should contribute to maintaining the ships of the Cinque Ports according to their means ('iuxta facultates suas'), because the ships could only be maintained at great expense. To settle disputes about the phrase 'according to his means' and to enable the barons of the Cinque Ports to contribute more conveniently, Edward III, the king's grandfather, in Parliament in the 1st year of his reign [1327-1328], granted that the mayors and jurats or the constable of Dover Castle could compel the barons and men of the ports to contribute to maintaining the ships, and that their goods inside or outside the ports which were assessed for ship service should not be assessed for tallages and other burdens with the goods of those not of the ports ('homines forinsecus'). In Parliament in the 15th year of his reign [1341-1342], the king ordered that the barons and others of the Cinque Ports should be exempt from tallages and all other national taxations because they contributed towards maintaining the ships.
The king commands the collectors to suspend the demands for the moiety of the tenth and fifteenth which have been made to the barons or others claiming to be of the ports and to release any distraints which may have been made. No date. [Date: handwriting and date of original.] Original dated 18 Sep 1384. |