328 ROYAL RANSOMS. CHAP. xii. 



John, King of France, was brought prisoner to 

 England. The circumstances of his capture, 

 and the state of his kingdom, with the claims 

 the English monarch, set up to the whole of his 

 dominions, were thought to justify the demands 

 for an enormous ransom. At length the amount 

 of the ransom was fixed at three million crowns 

 of gold of three shillings value each, being, ac- 

 cording to our estimation, about one million 

 two hundred and fifty thousand pounds of our 

 present money. The first payment was to be 

 one fifth of that sum, and the remainder in sub- 

 sequent instalments. " This first payment," 

 says Voltaire, in his General History, "was found 

 so great, and France was so exhausted, that it 

 was not possible to furnish it ; so they were 

 obliged to recall the Jews and to sell to them 

 the privilege of living and trading in France l , 

 and the successor of John was himself reduced 



1 John died in the Savoy in 1364. From his first arrival 

 in England that monarch had employed secret agents in Lon- 

 don and in other places, who privately collected the picked 

 gold money of the realm, consisting of the nobles of the first 

 and second coinage. These he had formed into plates, and 

 packed in barrels to be carried to France. On his death-bed 

 he sent to King Edward, confessed to him what he had done, 

 and requested his forgiveness, which was granted ; but Ed- 

 ward ordered what had been thus collected to be seized, and 

 punished with severity the Lombards who had been accom- 

 plices in the transaction. See Knighton, column 2627, who 

 having died, according to Holingshead, in 1386, must have 

 been alive and well acquainted with the facts. 



