From all that has been said, it may appear evident that it becomes a King to see, together with his nobles, what things are convenient for the government of the kingdom, and what are expedient for the preservation of peace; and that the King have natives for his companions, not foreigners nor favourites for his counsellors or for the great nobles of the kingdom. THE MISERIES OF CIVIL WAR (1264). +Source.+--_Chronicon Thomæ Wykes_, pp. 157-159. (_Annales Monastici_, vol. iv.--Rolls Series.) But to return to the course of events in England, we must not pass over in a feigned silence the wickedness or madness of the inhabitants of the Cinque Ports, and the many hardships which they brought upon the English people. For they gathered together a large fleet of pirate vessels, with which they constantly scoured the seas, to prevent by force the bringing of provisions to England; all those whom they were able to capture on the seas, natives as well as foreigners, they cruelly slew, and, casting the bodies into the deep, put to their own use the ships and all they contained; they became crueller, in their destruction, than the whirlpool of Scylla or Charybdis, for they despoiled of all their goods and slew, without respect of persons, the merchants who were accustomed to bring us stores. Wherefore the supply of foodstuffs, which generally had been more plentiful in England than in all other regions, so diminished, that wine, previously sold at forty shillings, easily fetched ten marks; and wax, which generally did not exceed forty shillings, was worth eight marks and more; and a pound of pepper, formerly scarcely worth sixpence, was sold for three shillings. To be brief, there was such a scarcity of salt, iron, steel, cloth, and all manner of goods, that the people suffered terribly from want, and even divers merchants were forced to beg, for the people could not send their goods out of the kingdom; wherefore, had not Divine Providence come quickly to succour the country in its misery, the supply of money would have failed, as well as that of goods. And the Earl--_i.e._, Simon de Montfort--wishing to soothe the popular ear by foolish fancies, announced and caused it to be proclaimed abroad that the inhabitants could easily be provided for out of the produce of the country itself, without bringing in provisions from abroad--an idea which is clearly absurd: for, indeed, the interchange of goods between two countries brings divers benefits to each in turn; nevertheless, some, wishing to please the Earl, wore garments of white cloth, refusing to put on coloured ones, lest they should be seeming to seek for necessaries from abroad.