. p. 190.

*** Parliamentary History, vol. ii. p. 168.

**** It appears from many passages of Rymer, particularly
vol. ix p. 258, that the king paid twenty marks a year for
an archer, which is a good deal above sixpence a day. The
price had risen, as it is natural, by raising the
denomination of money.

Henry, till within a year of his death, owed debts which he had
contracted when prince of Wales.[*] It was in vain that the parliament
pretended to restrain him from arbitrary practices, when he was
reduced to such necessities. Though the right of levying purveyance
for instance, had been expressly guarded against by the Great Charter
itself, and was frequently complained of by the commons, it was found
absolutely impracticable to abolish it; and the parliament at length,
submitting to it as a legal prerogative, contented themselves with
enacting laws to limit and confine it. The duke of Glocester, in the
reign of Richard II., possessed a revenue of sixty thousand crowns,
(about thirty thousand pounds a year of our present money,) as we learn
from Froissard,[**] and was consequently richer than the king himself,
if all circumstances be duly considered.

It is remarkable, that the city of Calais alone was an annual expense
to the crown of nineteen thousand one hundred and nineteen pounds;[***]
that is, above a third of the common charge of the government in time of
peace. This fortress was of no use to the defence of England, and only
gave that kingdom an inlet to annoy France. Ireland cost two thousand
pounds a year, over and above its own revenue; which was certainly very
low. Every thing conspires to give us a very mean idea of the state of
Europe in those ages.

From the most early times till the reign of Edward III., the
denomination of money had never been altered; a pound sterling was still
a pound troy; that is, about three pounds of our present money. That
conqueror was the first that innovated in this important article. In
the twentieth of his reign, he coined twenty-two shillings from a pound
troy; in his twenty-seventh year, he coined twenty-five shillings.
But Henry V., who was also a conqueror, raised still farther the
denomination, and counted thirty shillings from a pound troy:[****]
his revenue therefore must have been about one hundred and ten thousand
pounds of our present money; and by the cheapness of provisions, was
equivalent to above three hundred and thirty thou