Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/493

 commercial states of Italy and Spain by the act of the second year of Richard II., was renewed.

The short and, as it has been called, "brilliant reign of Henry V." was disastrous to the commercial interests of England, in that it was devoted more to foreign conquests than to the internal affairs of his people. He had, indeed, hardly ascended the throne (March and April 1413), when he resolved to assert his claim to the crown of France by force of arms. Every vessel in England, of twenty tons and upwards, was pressed into the service and ordered to assemble at London, Southampton, Sandwich, Winchelsea, and Bristol, ready for immediate action. Nor could the ports of England supply his wants. Commissioners were despatched to engage on hire whatever vessels could be obtained in Holland and Zealand; his whole force, when collected ready for the invasion of France, consisting of fifteen hundred vessels, English and foreign, manned to a large extent by crews collected through the instrumentality of the press-gang.

Perhaps no finer fleet had before been despatched from the shores of England, but it was created at an enormous cost. In vain the Parliament remonstrated against the outlay, and "humbly" represented that the conquest of France would be the ruin of England, while the merchants and ship-owners, exhausted by former unprofitable wars, were equally opposed to what they considered a vain-glorious expedition. But Henry paid no attention to either their remonstrances or prayers. He had fixed his mind upon the expedition. The expense was to him a matter