Cinque Ports and the Sea: Herring Fishery and its Significance for the Development of the Confederation

Abstract

The sea played an important part in the life of the Confederation of the Cinque Ports, an association of ports in Southeast England. This article explores herring fishery and its role in the development and structure of the confederation. One of the main privileges granted by the kings to the Cinque Ports was the right of “den and strand at Yarmouth”, which allowed the inhabitants of the towns-members to unload and dry their nets there at no charge, as well as control the local herring fair that took place from Michaelmas to St Martin’s Day. This privilege led to a prolonged feud between Yarmouth and the Cinque Ports, which manifested itself in open hostilities between the two sides, including the plunder of ships and merchants and destruction of their fleets. All the attempts by the royal power to reconcile the two remained ineffective for a long time, although in 1277 a charter was issued that determined the order at the fair in Yarmouth. The importance of the herring fair at Yarmouth is confirmed by the mid-fourteenth-century statutes that were to resolve its problems, i.e., the dearness of herring and protection of the fair’s interests against competition. The necessity to keep peace and order during the fair and to appoint its officials (bailiffs) led to the appearance of a regular assembly of the head ports’ representatives at Brodhull which gathered at least twice a year. Although the confederation in general had a rather loose structure and its members maintained their autonomy to a considerable degree, this assembly became an important factor of their consolidation and coordination of their joint actions to defend their privileges.