t
France. Money must be had. Every monastery and every church throughout
England was ransacked for treasure, and the sum of L2,000, found in St.
Paul's Church, was appropriated for the public service.(321) The dean was
seized with a fit (_subita percussus passione_) and died in the king's
presence.(322)

(M204)

Instead of invading France, Edward found his own shores devastated by a
French fleet, whilst at the same time his hands were full with fresh
difficulties from Scotland and Wales. In the summer of 1295, the city
furnished the king with three ships, the cost being defrayed by a tax of
twopence in the pound charged on chattels and merchandise. John le Breton,
then warden, advanced the sum of L40, which the aldermen and six men of
each ward undertook to repay.(323) In the following year (1296) the city
agreed, after some little hesitation, to furnish forty men with
caparisoned horses, and fifty arbalesters for the defence of the south
coast, under the king's son, Edward of Carnarvon.(324)

(M205)

Edward again turned his attention to Scotland, and, having succeeded in
reducing Balliol to submission, he carried off from Scone the stone which
legend identifies with Jacob's pillow, and on which the Scottish kings had
from time immemorial been crowned,(325) By Edward's order the stone was
enclosed in a stately seat, and placed in Westminster Abbey, where it has
since served as the coronation chair of English sovereigns.

(M206)

From Berwick Edward issued (26 Aug., 1296,) writs for a Parliament to meet
at Bury St. Edmund's, in the following November. The constitution of this
Parliament was the same as that which had met at Westminster in November
of the previous year (1295) and which was intended to serve as a model
parliament, a pattern for all future national assemblies. The city was
represented by two aldermen, namely, Sir Stephen Aswy, or Eswy, who had
been confined in Windsor Castle ten years before for his conduct towards
the king's justiciars at the Tower, and Sir William de Hereford.(326) From
this time forward down to the present day we have little difficulty in
discovering from one source or another the names of the city's
representatives in successive parliaments. Edward, of course, wanted
money. The barons and knights increased their former grants; so also did
the burgesses. The clergy, on the other hand, declared themselves unable
to make any grant at all in the face of a papal prohibition,(327) and