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 did not yet know how to weave fine cloth, so our wool was all exported to Flanders, and Parliament said that every sack that was sent there should pay the King 6s. 8d. The ‘Flemings’ (men of Flanders) wove the cloth and sent it all over Europe. This trade made it more important than ever for our kings to keep the sea clear of pirates, and Edward worked hard at this task. There were other rich trades, such as that in wine with Bordeaux, and in furs and leather with North Germany; foreign merchants had to pay the King something for leave to come to sell and buy, for as yet there were very few English merchant-ships.

Edward I’s quarrel with the clergy was a very short Edward and simple affair. The English Church had been long growing more and more a part of the nation and less and less dependent on the Pope. But still the Pope was the head of all European churches, and had to be obeyed if possible. In 1296 Pope Boniface VIII startled the whole of Europe by absolutely forbidding any clergyman to pay any taxes to any king. It was only a few years since Edward had got his regular system of taxing the clergy comfortably arranged. He and the King of France rose in wrath against this absurd suggestion. Edward simply told his clergy that he would put them ‘out of law’ (i.e. withdraw all legal protection from them) if they obeyed the Pope; and he seized all their wool by way of precaution. They very soon gave way. The King of France went much further; he sent men to Italy who maltreated the haughty Pope, and the Pope died, perhaps in consequence of the rough handling he got. He put a creature of his own on the Papal throne, and compelled him to come and live in, or close to France. For seventy years this ‘Captivity’ of popes lasted (1305–78), and,