40 Chaucer's Mission to Florence in 1^/2 



ing ship, or were carried away by the victorious Spaniards^ ; and 

 by Oct. 9 of that year, Edward, who had been cruising in the 

 Channel for several weeks, in a vain endeavor to bring succor to 

 his troops in Guienne, returned to England, having wasted 

 £900,000 in a hopeless enterprise.^ At the October Parliament, 

 'a heavy subsidy on wool was granted for two years, and a 

 fifteenth for one year, to meet the king's urgent need of money 

 for the expenses of the war.' A little later, Edward received 

 'a grant of customs, which was clearly an unconstitutional pro- 

 ceeding.'* These measures indicate the straits to which the 

 King was reduced, especially since in January, 1370, he had 

 received the grant of a tenth for three years from the clergy, 

 and yet borrowed largely from his subjects for the expenses of 

 the war.^ Guienne was being lost to England, because of the 

 financial embarrassment prevailing there.*' John of Gaunt's 

 disastrous raid through France in 1373 cost immense sums, for 

 which he was not only obliged to draw on his own princely 

 income, but also to pledge his credit in every direction, borrowing 

 here i2000, there £200 or 200 marks." Even before leaving 

 Guienne, toward the end of 1371, he was reduced to borrowing 

 so small a sum as £20^ — and this when he had permanently in 

 his pay a hundred knights and a hundred squires, of whom a 

 single individual might receive a yearly retainer amounting to 

 more than $25,000 of our money. ° Well might it be said of the 

 King that he was profuse in his expenditure^'^ ; well might it be 

 said of John of Gaunt ; and well might it be said of the Black 

 Prince.^^ At the time of Chaucer's appointment, Edward was 



" Froissart, ed. Luce, 8. 43, cf. p. xxvii; Walsingham, Hist. Angl. i. 

 314; Nicolas, Hist, of the Royal Navy 2. 145. 



^Walsingham i. 315; cf. Armitage-Smith, John of Gaunt, pp. 98-9. 



* Diet. Nat. Biog. 17. 67. 



"Diet. Nat. Biog. 17. 66. 



' Armttage-Smith, pp. 85, 88; Diet. Nat. Biog. 17. 100. 



' Armitage-Smith, pp. 102-3. 



^ Ibid., p. 117, note 2. 



" Ibid., p. 228. With the number of knights, cf. A'. T. 993, 2096, 2099. 



'"Diet. Nat. Biog. 17. 51. 



" When he was preparing in 1365 for the expedition which was to be a 

 principal means of losing England her French empire, he lent Peter the 

 Cruel 56,000 florins (£8,400 = $630,000 or more), and broke up his plate 

 to pay the soldiers whom he engaged on Peter's behalf. 



