ships of twenty tons' burden [and upwards?] for
the passage of the King and his army to France, and to take (p. 127)
sufficient security that they be all ready by the 1st of May either at
Southampton, Portsmouth, Hamel in the Rys, or Hamel Stoke.

The records of the Privy Council (11 December, probably 1405,) supply
us with an instance (one out of many) which shows, at the same time,
the great injury which the public service sustained by this system,
and the ruinous consequences which it was calculated to entail on the
merchants and the owners of ships. Henry IV. had intended to proceed
in person to Guienne; and for that purpose, with the advice of his
council, had impressed all the ships westward. His voyage was
deferred; but the ships were still, as they had been for a long time,
under arrest. The masters had sent a deputation to him to implore some
compensation for their great expenses,[99] and some means of support.
Henry then wrote to the council, praying them [vous prions] to provide
some help for these poor men; and to assure them that no long time
would elapse before their services would be called for, since either
himself or his representative would undertake the voyage. In the same
letter he prayed the council also to write under his privy seal to the
King of Portugal, to beg of him a supply of galleys, sufficient to
enable him to resist the malice of his enemies the French, and to
protect his land and his realm.

[Footnote 99: "Par long temps a lour grantz
custages et despenses."]

We must not suppose that the French monarch found himself under (p. 128)
more favourable circumstances when he would prepare for any important
affair on the sea. The same system of impressment and hiring was
necessarily adopted in France. Thus we find, in 1417, when the French
government resolved to make a powerful effort to crush the navy of
England, the ships were first to be "hired, at a great sum of gold,
from the state of Genoa." These mercenary vessels formed the fleet
over which the Earl of Huntingdon gained a decided victory immediately
before Henry's second expedition to France.

Thus, too, (not to cite any more examples,) no sooner had Henry
determined to assert his rights on the Continent, and to enforce them
by the sword, than he despatched ambassadors to Zealand and Holland to
negociate with the Duke of Holland for a supply of ships; doubtless
assured that all which h