king was thus indulging himself in pleasure, he
was roused from his lethargy by a prospect of foreign conquests, which,
it is probable, his desire of popularity, more than the spirit of
ambition, had made him covet. Though he deemed himself little beholden
to the duke of Burgundy for the reception which that prince had given
him during his exile,[*] the political interests of their states
maintained still a close connection between them; and they agreed to
unite their arms in making a powerful invasion on France. A league
was formed, in which Edward stipulated to pass the seas with an army
exceeding ten thousand men, and to invade the French territories:
Charles promised to join him with all his forces: the king was to
challenge the crown of France, and to obtain at least the provinces of
Normandy and Guienne; the duke was to acquire Champaigne and some other
territories, and to free all his dominions from the burden of homage
to the crown of France: and neither party was to make peace without
the consent of the other.[**] They were the more encouraged to hope for
success from this league, as the count of St. Pol, constable of France,
who was master of St. Quintin and other towns on the Somme, had secretly
promised to join them; and there were also hopes of engaging the duke of
Brittany to enter into the confederacy.

The prospect of a French war was always a sure means of making the
parliament open their purses, as far as the habits of that age would
permit. They voted the king a tenth of rents, or two shillings in the
pound; which must have been very inaccurately levied, since it produced
only thirty-one thousand four hundred and sixty pounds; and they added
to this supply a whole fifteenth, and three quarters of another;[***]
but as the king deemed these sums still unequal to the undertaking, he
attempted to levy money by way of benevolence, a kind of exaction which,
except during the reigns of Henry III. and Richard II., had not been
much practised in former times, and which, though the consent of
the parties was pretended to be gained, could not be deemed entirely
voluntary.[****]

* Comines, liv. iii. chap. 7.

** Rymer, vol. xi p. 806, 807, 808, etc.

*** Cotton, p. 696, 700. Hist. Croyl. Cont. p. 558.

**** Hall, fol. 226. Habington, p. 461. Grafton, p. 719.
Fabian, fol. 221.

The clauses annexed to the parliamentary grant show sufficiently the
spirit of the nation in this respect