[Footnote 435: In Coventry the wool buyers appear to have been the clothmakers. The dyers in 1415, who were "great makers of cloth," took "the flower of the woad" for their own use (_Rot. Parl._, iv. 75). In 1435 we hear of the clothmakers employing combers to card wool (_Leet Book_, 182), and in 1512 we find that a searcher examined the wool to see that it was free from filth for the clothier (_ib._, 636).] [Footnote 436: There are no _new_ ordinances relating to the weighing of wool at this time. Most likely the ordinance of 1440 (see above) was often evaded, and it was resolved that a stricter supervision should be exercised.] [Footnote 437: _i.e._ Godiva.] [Footnote 438: _Leet Book_, 556-7. Laurence afterwards committed William Boteler to ward for breach of regulations of leet doubtless, but "without authority."] [Footnote 439: For Robert Barlow, see Corpus Christi guild accounts, Corp. MS. A. 6, f. 5.] [Footnote 440: _Leet Book_, 564.] [Footnote 441: _Leet Book_, 567. One of the pieces of "civic poetry" quoted by Sharp, 235.] [Footnote 442: Sharp, _Antiq._, 235.] [Footnote 443: _Leet Book_, 574; Corp. MS. A. 79, f. 14. The poverty from which Laurence suffered now had probably not afflicted him earlier in his career.] [Footnote 444: It is noticeable that this bishop sympathized with the unruly people of York. See Miss Sellers, "The City of York in the Sixteenth Century" in _Eng. Hist. Rev._, ix. 275.] [Footnote 445: _i.e._ in prison.] [Footnote 446: _Leet Book_, 578. The MS. has _co'iens_ and _co'ialte_ throughout. Both sets printed in Sharp, pp. 235-6.] [Footnote 447: _Leet Book_, 578.] [Footnote 448: One of these, William Huet, probably a tailor or shereman, was one of the nine score wealthy men. In 1464, he--or one bearing this name--had been in trouble with the corporation (_v._ _ante_, p. 138). "Norfolk," the name of one other, was a regular _weaver's_ name in Coventry.] [Footnote 449: Corp. MS. A. 79, f. 19.] [Footnote 450: I am afraid that there is nothing further to be learned of Saunders. Professor S.R. Gardiner was so good as to make inquiries at the Record Office whether there were any Star Chamber records bearing upon his case, but none belonging to this period are in existence.] CHAPTER XIII _The Companies of the Crafts_ The men of Coventry, a city which, in later mediæval times, stood fourth among the wealthy towns of England,[451] gained a livelihood by the buying and selling of wool and the making of cloth.[452] As early as 1398 the traffic in the frieze of Coventry[453] extended beyond the modest limits of the city itself. In that year two hundred pounds' worth, the export of one merchant, lay in the port of distant Stralsund, on the Baltic Coast,[454] and in London and other places the cloth was in great request during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.