The Bay Fleet Capture : an act of corruption and piracy between England and the Hanseatic League, 1449

The Bay Fleet (Baienflotte) was a naval convoy of around one hundred Hanseatic, Dutch, Flemish, and Zealander ships that annually assembled in Flanders and braved the English Channel to trade for salt in France. In 1449, English privateers contracted for seakeeping captured the fleet, plundered its cargoes, and seized the Hanse ships, with much of the spoils going to the King’s Council, sparking a minor trade war. Little research has focussed on the capture in detail. This thesis reconstructs the event and interprets its causes and consequences from archived fifteenth-century chronicles, parliamentary rolls, and Hanse correspondence. The capture demonstrates the consequences of the politicisation of trade for corrupt politicians’ personal gain. Greed and shortsightedness in the Lancastrian government of King Henry VI and the Duke of Suffolk allowed for polarising tariffs and piracy while English merchants ultimately bore the cost, contributing to the outbreak of Jack Cade’s Rebellion in 1450.