Preparations for war with France, 1337.
At length, the friendly attitude which Philip of Valois had taken up towards Scotland, much to Edward's prejudice, determined the latter to go in person to France for the purpose, not only of defending his possessions there, but also of enforcing his claim to the French crown. The year 1337 was devoted to active preparations for the struggle. The City of London, in spite of its franchise, was called upon to furnish 500 men at arms, and to send them to Portsmouth by Whitsuntide.[494] The date was subsequently altered to Trinity Sunday.[495] The king took occasion to find fault with the city's dilatoriness in executing his demands, as well as with the physique of the men that were being supplied. At the request of the mayor, Sir John de Pulteney (he had recently received the honour of knighthood[496]), the number of men to be furnished was reduced to 200, the rest to be supplied on further notice.[497]
Charter, 26 March, 1337.
When Parliament met in London in February, the City made presents of money to the king, the queen, the chancellor, the treasurer, and others,[498] for no other purpose apparently, but to win their favour. In the following month the City obtained a charter[pg 181] declaring its liberties and customs to be unaffected by the recent statute establishing free trade,[499] when presents in money or kind were again made to the officers of state.[500]
The services of John de Pulteney, Mayor.
The services which the mayor had done the city in the work of obtaining this charter were acknowledged by a gift of two silver basins and the sum of £20 from his fellow citizens.[501] It was by Pulteney's influence that the king consented to allow a sum of 1,000 marks to be taken into account at a future assessment for a fifteenth, instead of insisting upon its being a free gift from the citizens.[502]
The king monopolises the wool of the country.
In March, 1337, a statute forbade the importation of wool, as a preliminary to the imposition of an additional custom, and in the following year parliament granted the king half the wool of the kingdom.[503] The Londoners having no wool of their own, paid a composition,[504] and were often reduced to sore straits. Thus in April, 1339, an assessment had to be made in the several wards of the City to discharge a debt to the king of 1,000 marks. The men of Aldersgate ward refused to pay their quota of £9. A precept was thereupon issued to the sheriffs to levy the larger sum of £16 10s., on the lands, tenements, goods, and chattels of the ward, and pay the same into the Chamber of the Guildhall by a certain day.[505] The citizens of London, and the nation generally, would[pg 182] the more willingly have borne these exactions if any adequate good had resulted from them. But Edward's first campaign resulted in nothing more than the assumption by him of the name and arms of the King of France, at a cost of £300,000.[506]
Naval and military preparations in the City.
Among the ships which had been prepared for the king's expedition to France, three were known as "La Jonette," of London; "La Cogge," of All Hallows; and "La Sainte Marie Cogge." The last mentioned belonged to William Haunsard,[507] an ex-sheriff of London, who subsequently did signal service in the great naval battle of Sluys. Prior to the king's departure, measures were taken for the safe custody of the city during his absence.[508] The City had difficulties in raising a contingent of soldiers, for many of the best men had joined the retinue of nobles, and all that could be mustered amounted to no more than 100 men, viz: 40 men-at-arms, and 60 archers.[509]