The English Channel and the North Sea thus became full of dangers, and no merchant ship could put to sea without grave risk of capture. One nationality was as bad as another, and a kind of international vendetta went on in revenge for the losses by piracy. It became, indeed, a matter of high politics, far too serious to be ignored, so that the kings of England at various dates had to enter into negotiations with the foreign authorities. Thus at the beginning of the fifteenth century the Chancellor of England demanded from the Master-General of Prussia full restitution and recompense for “sundry piracies and molestations offered of late upon the sea.” During the next reign Henry IV, writing to the same personage, admitted that both English and Prussian merchants had suffered by these pirates “roving up and downe the sea.” It was finally agreed that English merchant ships should be allowed to enter Prussian ports unmolested, and that if Prussian cargoes were captured in the North Sea by English pirates, and this merchandise was brought into an English port, the “governour” of the port, if he suspected piracy, was to have such goods taken out and put ashore in safe keeping. And between this same Henry and the Hanseatic towns a similar agreement was made which bound the cities of Lubeck, Bremen, Hamburg and others to recompense the injured parties “for all injuries, damages, grievances, and drownings or manslaughters” done and committed by the pirates. The following incidents well illustrate the risks which these merchantmen ran whilst pursuing their calling. About Eastertide in the year 1394 the merchant ship _Godezere_, owned by four Englishmen, set out from the Tyne for Prussia, loaded with a cargo of woollen cloth and red wine. She was a 200-ton ship, her value with that of her sails and tackle amounting to £400; her cargo, plus certain sums of money on board, aggregating 200 marks. In the North Sea she encountered a Hanseatic ship who gave the English craft such a hot time that the _Godezere_ was captured, two of her crew slain, and the rest of them were imprisoned for three years. In the same year the Hanseatic pirates also attacked the Hull ship named the _Shipper Berline of Prussia_, belonging to a Richard Horuse, and from her they took away goods to the value of 160 nobles. Next year, off the coast of Norway, they molested a ship called the _John Tutteburie_, and relieved her of 476 nobles worth of cargo. A year later still, these Hanseatic pirates captured the Hull ship _Cogge_, belonging to one William Terry, and took £200 worth of woollen cloth as well. The pirates were no respecters of ships so long as valuable goods were being taken across the North Sea, for Dutch, Zeeland and English merchantmen and fishing craft were all made to suffer. If the merchants and crew were not killed, they were thrown into prison and not allowed their liberty until ransom was paid, so altogether the trading ship had quite as exciting a time in the north