This, of course, is mere conjecture on the part of the author; but that he has, at least, probability on his side, may be inferred from the extraordinary outlay attending the Scottish expeditions, as proved by the following extracts from the Wardrobe Accounts—exhibiting the Revenue and Expenditure of Edward for the year 1300, and including the disbursements occasioned by the invasion of Scotland during that year:—
| Total amount of receipts, p. Exchequer, for this present 28. year of Edward I. — | L.49,048 19 10 |
| Fines levied, and proceeds of stores, horses, &c. sold | 9,106 16 2½ |
| Per fo. 15. | L.58,155 16 0½ |
| Charges on Scottish War. |
| For royal garrisons and castles in Scotland, fo. 154. | L.18,638 1 8 |
| ... replacing horses killed or destroyed in King’s service, belonging to knights, and officers, and gratification to messengers, servants, &c. fo. 187. | 4,386 4 5 |
| ... annual fees to knights of King’s household, wages of bannerets and simple knights, &c. fo. 210. | 3,077 19 0 |
| ... wages of engineers, archers, sergeants-at-arms of King’s household, esquires, &c. fo. ix. Observ. on W. A. | 1,038 10 7 |
| ... wages of foot-soldiers, crossbow-men, archers, artificers and workmen, fo. 270. | 4,446 9 11½ |
| ... wages of seamen belonging to the fleet of the Cinque Ports and other towns, employed in the King’s service, fo. 279. | 1,233 9 8 |
| Amount of charges for the year | L.32,820 15 3½ |
* * * * *
| Separate Disbursements. |
| Alms and charitable donations of the King and his family, fo. 47. | L.1,166 14 6 |
| Necessaries for the King’s household, travelling expenses, ambassadors, messengers to Court of Rome, wages of King’s servants not on the Marshall’s roll, &c. (Observ. on W. A. fo. viii.) | 3,338 19 3 |
| Expenses of messengers and others, despatched on King’s business, fo. 303. | 87 11 1 |
| Falconers, huntsmen, &c. fo. 309 | 77 6 11½ |
| Allowance to bannerets, knights, clerks, and other servants of the King’s household for their winter and summer robes, fo. 331. | 714 3 4 |
| Expenses of sundry furnishings for the Royal household, including separate expenses of the Queen and her household, amounting to L.3668, 2s. 9d., and Chancellor’s fee, amounting to L.581, 9s. 9d. fo. 360. | 15,575 18 5½ |
| “The account then states the payments contained in this book to amount to | L.53,178 15 0 |
| “To which are added the expenses of the household contained in a separate account, amounting to | L.10,969 16 0½ |
| And “the whole of the national expenditure, within this department, during one entire year,” is stated at | L.64,105 0 5 |
| It is added, “The account is corrected and approved by the comptroller in every page; but the balance is not struck. If we take, however, the sum told of the money received, which amounted to | L.58,155 16 2 |
| And deduct it from the money paid, we shall find a balance due to the accountant, amounting to | 5,949 4 3 ” |
On data furnished by the ascertained difference in the value of silver in 1300, which is stated to be “thrice as much” as it was in 1700, and the comparative value of certain provisions, estimated, as being in 1300, “five times as cheap” as in 1700. Bishop Fleetwood “makes the difference of the value of a shilling between the two periods to be fifteen;” and it is added, “supposing this calculation to be well-founded, computations might be made, so as to form a judgment of the difference between the latter of those periods and the present time.”—(Vide p. xii. Observations on Wardrobe Account, 1787.)
An estimate of the expense of the Scottish war, according to this mode of computation, would therefore present the following result, for (1700) the period alluded to by Bishop Fleetwood:—
| Charges on Scottish war for 1300 | L.32,820 15 3½ |
| For difference in the weight of silver | 3 |
| L.98,462 5 10½ |
| For the variation in the value of money | 5 |
| | L.492,311 9 4½ |
being an increase of the sum of 32,820l. 15s. 3½d. of the year 1300, to 492,311l. 9s. 4½d., or nearly one-eighth of 3,895,205l., the revenue of the kingdom in the reign of William III., according to Sir John Sinclair:—while, from a statement by the same respectable authority, the whole revenue of the kingdom under Edward I. is estimated at 150,000l; the disbursements for the Scottish war will therefore be found to exceed, within one department of the national expenditure, one-fifth of the national income.