Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/471

 HISTORY OF KI.MJ IIKMtY VII. time of King Edward the Fourth. But by this v;iy he raised exceeding great sums. Insomuch as the city of London, in those days, contributed nine thousand pounds and better; and that chiefly levied upon the wealthier sort. There is a tradi tion of a dilemma, that Bishop Morton the chan cellor used, to raise up the benevolence to higher rates; and some carted it his fork, and some his crutch. For he had couched an article in the in structions to the commissioners who were to levy the benevolence; &quot;That if they met with any that were sparing, they should tell them, that they must needs have, because they laid up : and if they were spenders, they must needs have, be cause it was seen in their port and manner of living.&quot; So neither kind came amiss. This parliament was merely a parliament of war; for it was in substance but a declaration of war against France and Scotland, with some statutes conducing thereunto : as, the severe pun ishing of rnort-pays, and keeping back of soldiers wages in captains ; the like severity for the de parture of soldiers without license ; strengthen ing of the common law in favour of protections for those that were in the king s service ; and the setting the gate open and wide for men to sell or mortgage their lands, without fines for alienation, to furnish themselves with money for the war; and lastly, the voiding of all Scottish men out of England. There was also a statute for the dis persing of the standard of the exchequer through out England ; thereby to size weights and mea sures ; and two or three more of less importance. After the parliament was broken up, which lasted not long, the king went on with his prepa rations for the war of France ; yet neglected not in the mean time the affairs of Maximilian for the quieting of Flanders, and restoring him to his authority amongst his subjects. For at that time the Lord of Ravenstein, being not only a subject rebelled, but a servant revolted, and. so much the wore malicious and violent, by the aid of Bruges and Gaunt, had taken the town and both the cas tles of Sluice, as we said before: and having, by the commodity of the haven, gotten together cer tain ships and barks, fell to a kind of piratical trade ; robbing, and spoiling, and taking prisoners the ships and vessels of all nations that passed along that coast towards the mart of Antwerp, or into any part of Brabant, Zealand, or Friezeland ; being ever well victualled from Picardy, besides the commodity of victuals from Sluice, and the country adjacent, and the avails of his own prizes. The French assisted him still underhand ; and he likewise, as all men do that have been of both sides, thought himself not safe, except he depend ed upon a third person. There was a small town some two miles from Bruges towards the sea, called Dam ; which was a fort and approach to Bruges, and had a relation also to Sluice. This town the King of the Romans had attempt ed often, not for any worth of the town in itself, but because it might choke Bruges, and cut it off from the sea, and ever failed. Hut therewith the Duke of Saxony came down into Flanders, taking upon him the person of an umpire, to compose things between Maximilian and his subjects ; but being, indeed, fast and assured to Maximilian. Upon this pretext of neutrality and treaty he re paired to Bruges, desiring of the States of Bruges to enter peaceably into their own town, with a retinue of some number of men of arms fit for his estate ; being somewhat the more, as he said, the better to guard him in a country that was up in arms: and bearing them in hand, that he was to commu nicate with them of divers matters of great im portance for their good. Which having obtained of them, he sent his carriages and harbingers be fore him, to provide his lodging. So that his men of war entered the city in good array, but in peaceable manner, and he followed. They that went before inquired still for inns and lodgings, as if they would have rested there all night ; and so went on till they came to the gate that leadeth directly towards Dam ; and they of Bruges only gazed upon them and gave them passage. The captains and inhabitants of Dam also suspected no harm from any that passed through Bruges; and discovering forces afar off supposed they had been some succours that were come from their friends, knowing some dangers towards them. And so perceiving nothing hut well till it was too late, suffered them to enter their town. By which kind of slight, rather than stratagem, the town of Dam was taken, and the town of Bruges shrewdly blocked up, whereby they took great discouragement. The Duke of Saxony, having won the town of Dam, sent immediately to the king to let him know, that it was Sluice chiefly, and the Lord Ravenstein, that kept the rebellion of Flanders in life : and that if it pleased the king to besiege it by sea, he also would besiege it by land, and so cut out the core of those wars. The king, willing to uphold the authority of Maximilian, the better to hold France in awe, and being likewise sued unto by his merchants, for that the seas were much infested by the barks of the Lord Ravenstein ; sent straightways Sir Ed ward Poynings, a valiant man, and of good service, with twelve ships, well furnished with soldiers and artillery, to clear the seas, and to besiege Sluice on that part. The Englishmen did not only coop up the Lord Ravenstein, that he stirred not, and likewise hold in strait siege the maritime part of the town, but also assailed one of the cas tles, and renewed the assault so for twenty days space, issuing still out of their ships at the ebb. as they made great slaughter of them of the cas tle ; who continually fought with them to repulsfl them, though of the English part also were slain