Cely Papers - Richard III Society - New Zealand Branch

XIV THE CELY PAPERS.
But at the period when the Letters were written, from the latter
part of Edward the Fourth's to the earlier part of Henry the
Seventh's reign, it appears that the Celys, at all events, were prosperous
men. They own land, they buy hawks and horses, they
give rich presents, they turn over 2,000£, worth of iwool a year, and
negotiate with rich gentlemen for their daughters in marriage.
The Spanish wools had not yet come into serious competition with
the English in the markets of Flanders, and in political affairs it is
only the Flemish civil wars, and the progress of French aggression,
which give them real cause for uneasiness.
The great customers for the wool at Calais were, of course., the
Netherlanders. Bruges, Ghent, Ypres, Mechlin, Middleburgh, and
Delft seem to have been the places whence the principal dealers
came to the Celys. The Venetians and Lombards-the Florentines
are once named also-did some trade. But the real market was
Flanders. The political relations, therefore, of England with the
Flemish towns, or with their nominal rulers, not always by any means
allied parties, became of the highest consequence. It is scarcely
too much to say that our relations with Flanders were the dominant
influence in English foreign politics for the whole of the fifteenth
and most of the sixteenth century.
Calais, the gate of English trade with Flanders, was itself a
Flemish town in origin. Baldwin IV. of Flanders, overlord of
Boulogne and Guines, had begun the port in the early part
of the eleventh century, when the decay of the harbour of
issant, the Roman Portus Itius, the ancient harbour of that
coast, had become serious, from the encroachments of the
sand. But it was not till 1228 that Philip, Count of Boulogne,
fortified Calais, and turned it from a village into a walled town
with a castle. It was in the county of Guines, which had passed
from Flanders to the direct overlordship of France, under Philip
Augustus. This king's natural son Philip married the heiress of
Boulogne, and the overlordship of Guines was granted to him.
In 1282 Guines was bought by the French Crown, but was