ons and civil
commotions.

Commerce was very little understood in this reign, as in all the
preceding. In particular, a great jealousy prevailed against merchant
strangers; and many restraints were by law imposed upon them; namely,
that they should lay out in English manufactures or commodities all the
money acquired by the sale of their goods; that they should not buy or
sell with one another; and that all their goods should be disposed of
three months after importation.[*]

* 4 Henry IV. cap. 15, and 5 Henry IV. cap. 9.

This last clause was found so inconvenient, that it was soon after
repealed by parliament.

It appears that the expense of this king's household amounted to the
yearly sum of nineteen thousand five hundred pounds, money of that
age.[*]

* Rymer, tom. viii. p. 610.

Guicciardin tells us, that the Flemings in this century learned from
Italy all the refinements in arts, which they taught the rest of Europe.
The progress, however, of the arts was still very slow and backward in
England.

CHAPTER XIX.

[Illustration: 1_256_henry5.jpg HENRY V.]

HENRY V.

{1413.} THE many jealousies to which Henry IV.'s situation naturally
exposed him, had so infected his temper, that he had entertained
unreasonable suspicions with regard to the fidelity of his eldest son;
and during the latter years of his life, he had excluded that prince
from all share in public business, and was even displeased to see him
at the head of armies, where his martial talents, though useful to the
support of government, acquired him a renown, which he thought might
prove dangerous to his own authority. The active spirit of young Henry,
restrained from its proper exercise, broke out into extravagances of
every kind; and the riot of pleasure, the frolic of debauchery, the
outrage of wine, filled the vacancies of a mind better adapted to the
pursuits of ambition and the cares of government. This course of life
threw him among companions, whose disorders, if accompanied with
spirit and humor, he indulged and seconded; and he was detected in many
sallies, which, to severer eyes, appeared totally unworthy of his rank
and station. There even remains a tradition that, when heated with
liquor and jollity, he scrupled not to accompany his riotous associates
in attacking the passengers on the streets and highways, and despoiling
them of their goods; and he found an amusement in the incidents which
the terror and r