3. [56] Besechen mekely all the communes of this reaume: that howe by a statuit made in the parlement of Kyng Richard the .ij.[de], the yere of his reigne .xvij. it was ordined þat every man of his reaume myght make as wele clothes of kerseys, as other clothes, of soche lenght and brede as it liked hem, and the same clothes selle, paying the awnage and subsidie, and oþere duetes after the rate, that is to seme, of every clothe and ych pece of cloth after the rate, ony estatuit, ordenaunce, proclamation or defence to the contrarie made natwithstondyng; and þat the saide clothes shold be mesured by the awnours, as in the same statuit pleinly it appereth.
And after þat, in the parlement of Kyng Henry the .iiij.[te] at Westmynstre þe first day of Marche the yeere of his reigne þe .vij. hit was ordeigned and stabled, that clothe of colour shold conteigne in lenght .xxviij. yerdes, mette by the crest, and in brede .vi. quarters di', as in the said statuit it is conteigned. And if the makers of clothes made her clothes of lesse lenght or brede, that the clothes shold be forfayted to the kyng, as in the same statuit it appereth; and also in the parliament of the said Kyng Henry the .iiij.[te], the yere of his reigne .xi. hit was ordined þat proclamation shold be made þurghoute the roialme, þat no persone makyng soche manere cloth and doseins withine the said reaume, þe same clothes or doseins ne shall nat takke ne plyte, afore the awnour have duely made his serche and oversight of soche clothes and doseins, that thei holde her lenght and brede, by the said last estatut ordeigned, up peine of forfaiture of the same; upon which estatutes made in tyme of the said Kyng Henry, diverses oppinions by divers justices and barons of the eschequer been hold, þat no clothe shold be made but of the lenght and brede aforeseid, except soche clothes as been comprehended in the same statutes, as kerseys and rayes, which shold be grete hynderyng and utter destruction to the seid communes þat erne used to make clothes called streytes of tyme oute of mynde. ...
Legal.
[LexP PROME (Hen. VI: Parl. of July 1433, item 56 (part 1)) 1433]
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