EDWARD III. AND RICHARD II. 125 



This act it was that led the popular King of 

 Navarre to select "two swift-running horses of 

 great beauty " from his stable and send them as 

 a present to Edward III. ; a compliment which 

 pleased Edward greatly and that he quickly 

 acknowledged. 



In this reign, also in the reign of the succeed- 

 ing monarch, Richard II., Acts were passed 

 which directly tended to encourage the breeding 

 and rearing of good horses. Indeed the sums 

 spent by Edward III. in connection with this 

 must have been prodigious, for it is on record 

 that upon one occasion he purchased from the 

 Count of Hainault alone horses to the value of 

 some 25,000 florins. 



Many of the horses that he bought, however, 

 came direct from the Low Countries. Among 

 the royal manors where he established large studs, 

 especially studs of war horses, were Woodstock, 

 Waltham, Odiham, and of course Windsor, a 

 proportion of the expense of inaugurating and 

 supporting these stud farms being defrayed by 

 the sheriffs, according to royal command. 



Yet, in spite of all this, the supply of horses 

 obtainable was not equal to the demand when 

 the great war with France broke out. At 

 the battle of Crecy, in 1346, only a proportion 

 of the army of Edward III. and the Black 

 Prince had horses, though we know that almost 

 on the eve of the campaign considerable sums 



