We sometimes find them fitting out double the number of ships specified
in their charters; and when larger ones were thought necessary, they
have equipped a smaller number, at an expense equivalent to that which
their service by tenure demanded. In the reign of Elizabeth they had
five ships, of one hundred and sixty tons each, at sea for five months,
entirely at their own charge; and in the reign of Charles the First,
they fitted out two large ships, which served for two months, and cost
them more than eighteen hundred pounds.

The honours and privileges granted to the Cinque Ports, in consideration
of these services, were great and numerous. They were each to send two
barons to represent them in parliament; they were, by their deputies,
to hear the canopy over the king's head at his coronation, and to dine
at the uppermost table, on his right hand, in the great hall; they were
exempted from subsidies and other aids; their heirs were free from
personal wardship, notwithstanding any tenure; they were to be impleaded
in their own towns, and nowhere else; they were to hold pleas and
actions real and personal; to have conusance of fines; and the power
of enfranchising villeins; they were exempt from tolls, and had full
liberty of buying and selling, with many other privileges of less
importance.

To direct the energies, to enforce the due performance of the important
services, and to protect the extraordinary privileges of the Ports, an
officer was created, and styled Lord Warden, Chancellor, and Admiral of
the Cinque Ports, an officer of such high dignity and honour, that it
has been sometimes executed by the heirs-apparent to the crown, often by
princes of the blood royal, and always by persons of the first rank in
the kingdom.