Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/183

 1921 AND THE DUKE OF BEDFORD 175 their fellows a new incentive to support the plans for further conquest. 1 As the war progressed, parliament renewed the taxation which had been inaugurated to fit out the invading army. Allusion has already been made to the collections of February and November 1417 under the vote of the previous October. 2 By parliamentary action in December 1417, 3 supplemented by votes of the two convocations, 4 a tenth and fifteenth was levied in February 1418 and another in 1419. In 1420 there were two collections, a whole tenth and fifteenth in February, and a third of the same in November. 5 Authority to contract loans upon the security of these levies having been accorded when the grants were voted, commissions to negotiate such loans were immediately issued, 6 but the results amounted to little. 7 Not until the spring of 1421, when the disaster of Bauge made an expedition imperative, and that in a year when no new subsidy was to be collected, 8 did the king resort to extensive borrowing. Over £40,000 was thus obtained during the Easter term (23 March- 29 September 1421), 9 of which £14,000 came from the bishop of Winchester. 10 It is against this levy of forced loans u that Adam of Usk inveighs so bitterly. 12 Parliament, meeting in May, authorized the royal council to give security for the debts thus contracted. 13 At the end of the year, however, the burden of Henry's campaigns, with the prospect of more fighting to come, necessitated another vote of a tenth and fifteenth to be collected by halves in February and November 1422, 14 and another tenth from the clergy. 15 The income from this grant was 1 Rymer, ix. 442, 446 ; Hardy, Rotuli Narmanniae, p. 217 ; Brit. Mus., Additional Charters 72, 11434, 11448 ; Issue Roll 633, in. 11 ; La Tremoille pendant Cinq Siecles, i. 134. 8 Under the February levy was collected £73,500 3«. from the laity and £32,812 Is. Id. from the clergy (Receipt Rolls 675, 677). The November collection of 1417, together with early returns for February 1418, brought in £42,397 14s. d. from the laity and £9,238 18s. d. from the clergy {ibid. 680). No deductions have been made for arrears of former levies. 3 Rotvli Parliam. iv. 107. 4 Second Report of the Deputy Keeper, app. ii. 188 ; Wilkins, iii. 381, 389. 6 Rotuli Parliam. iv. 117. 1 Rymer, ix. 815 ; Col. of Pat. Rolls, Henry V, ii. 249-52. 7 In the three terms from Michaelmas 1419 to Easter 1421 only £7,871 3s. 9d. was borrowed, while nearly twice the sum is recorded (£14,460 8s. lOd.) as used in repaying debts (Receipt Rolls 692, 693, 694 ; Issue Rolls 643, 645, 646). 8 The parliament of December 1420 had not been asked for a new grant of money (Rotuli Parliam. iv. 123). 9 Receipt Roll 696 ; Col. of Pat. Rolls, Henry V, ii. 372, 384-6 ; Sloane MS. 4603, fo. 93. 10 Rohdi Parliam. iv. 132 ; Col. of Pat. Rolls, Henry V, ii. 372. 11 Rymer, x. 96 ; Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, ii. 280-1. 12 Chronicon Adae de Usk (ed. Thompson), 2nd ed., pp. 133, 320. 13 Rotuli Parliam. iv. 130. 14 Ibid. p. 151 ; Col. of Pat, Rolls, Henry V, ii. 416-17. 15 Wilkins, iii. 399, 403.