Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/296

282 the turn of the tide Lord Lisle bore down on the enemy, and sunk a galley with its men, and the French vessels then bore away to the main fleet.

As the French could not provoke the English to come out of harbour, though they burned the villages and farmhouses along the coast, they held a council of war, and resolved to attempt the conquest of the Isle of Wight. The invasion of the island was essayed in three places, but the inhabitants repulsed the soldiers as they landed, with great spirit; and, after committing some ravages, the French thought it best to retire. They then sailed along the coast of Sussex, making occasional descents, and finally anchored before Boulogne, to prevent the entrance of supplies for the army there. Another object was to prevent reinforcements of ships from the Thames reaching Portsmouth, but in both these endeavours the superior vigilance of the English prevailed; provisions were conveyed into Boulogne, and thirty sail of ships arrived at Portsmouth. At length Lord Lisle received orders from Henry to put to sea and attack the enemy; he expressed himself highly delighted, but nothing came of it, for the two fleets manœuvred for some time in the face of each other, exchanged a few shots, and then retired to their respective ports. And thus ended the boastful enterprise of Francis.



If Francis had done little, Henry was still apprehensive that he might do more, and he was in no condition to raise adequate forces for defence. After all that his father had left him, and after the enormous receipts from the Church property, never was monarch in greater straits for money. Wriothesley, writing to the Council in September of this year, draws a wofulwoeful [sic] picture of the finances. "As concerning the preparation of money, I shall do what is possible to be done; but, my lords, I trust your wisdoms do consider what is done and paid already. You see the king's majesty hath this year and the last spent £1,300,000, or thereabouts; and his subsidy and benevolence ministering scant £300,000 thereof, I muse sometime where the rest, being so great a sum, hath been gotten; so the lands being consumed, the plate of the realm molten and coined, whereof much hath risen, I sorrow and lament the danger of the time to come, wherein is also to be remembered the money that is to be paid in Flanders; and that is as much and more than all the rest, the great scarcity that we have of corn, wheat being in all places in manner, Norfolk excepted, at twenty shillings the quarter, and a marvellous small quantity to be gotten of it. And though the king's majesty should have a greater grant than the realm could bear at one time, it could do little to the continuance of these charges, which be so importable, that I see not almost how it is possible to bear the charges this winter till more may be gotten. Therefore, good my lords, though you write to me still, 'Pay! pay! prepare for this and that!' consider, it is your part to remember the state of things with me, and by your wisdom to ponder what may be done, and how things may be continued."

At the commencement of the reign the ounce of gold and the pound of silver were each worth forty shillings: by repeated proclamations Henry raised them to forty-four, forty-five, and finally to forty-eight shillings. He then issued a new coinage with a plentiful alloy, and obtained possession of the old coinage by offering a premium for it at the Mint. This succeeded, and he then debased that, and so on, by successive acts in the same process, he went, until, before the end of the war, he had equalised the silver and the alloy in his coinage; and in