ake such high demands, either from his past
successes or future prospects, they were totally rejected by Philip, who
agreed only to a prolongation of the truce.

The king of France soon after detached the emperor Lewis from the
alliance of England, and engaged him to revoke the title of imperial
vicar, which he had conferred on Edward.[**] The king's other allies on
the frontiers of France, disappointed in their hopes, gradually withdrew
from the confederacy. And Edward himself, harassed by his numerous and
importunate creditors, was obliged to make his escape by stealth into
England.

* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 64. Avesbury, p. 65.

** Heming, p. 352. Ypod. Neust. p. 514. Knyghton, p. 2580.

The unusual tax of a ninth sheaf, lamb, and fleece, imposed by
parliament, together with the great want of money, and still more, of
credit in England, had rendered the remittances to Flanders extremely
backward; nor could it be expected, that any expeditious method of
collecting an imposition, which was so new in itself, and which yielded
only a gradual produce, could possibly be contrived by the king or his
ministers. And though the parliament, foreseeing the inconvenience, had
granted, as a present resource, twenty thousand sacks of wool, the only
English goods that bore a sure price in foreign markets, and were the
next to ready money, it was impossible but the getting possession of
such a bulky commodity, the gathering of it from different parts of the
kingdom, and the disposing of it abroad, must take up more time than the
urgency of the king's affairs would permit, and must occasion all the
disappointments complained of during the course of the campaign. But
though nothing had happened which Edward might not reasonably have
foreseen, he was so irritated with the unfortunate issue of his military
operations, and so much vexed and affronted by his foreign creditors,
that he was determined to throw the blame somewhere off himself and
he came in very bad humor into England. He discovered his peevish
disposition by the first act which he performed after his arrival: as
he landed unexpectedly, he found the Tower negligently guarded; and he
immediately committed to prison the constable and all others who had the
charge of that fortress, and he treated them with unusual rigor.[*] His
vengeance fell next on the officers of the revenue, the sheriffs, the
collectors of the taxes, the undertakers of all kinds; and besides