Note 122 — Chapter IV · 1555-1558

Philip had written to Feria a day or two before saying that the English orders for powder, &c., in Flanders were so excessive that if they were made public the dealers would at once put up the price to his detriment, and he begged that the amount might be reduced. In Rymer’s “Federa” there is a list of the munitions which Gresham was to obtain in conjunction with the Italian banker Bonvisi, who had advanced a loan to Mary: “3,500 hackequebutts, 1,000 pistolets, 500 pondera (lbs.) de Mauches, 100,000 pondera (lbs.) petre salse (saltpetre), 3,000 corselets, 2,000 mourreyens, 3,000 iron cappes, 8,000 lances and pikes.”