These final passages of the book, which so urgently recommend a voluntary contribution in aid of the intended war, were certainly written in the year 1475, with which date the whole composition concludes: for it is recorded by the historians of the day that it was on this occasion that king Edward the Fourth, after he had already raised all the supplies he could obtain by the ordinary methods of taxation, adopted the new device of a contribution nominally voluntary and its amount optional, and therefore termed a Benevolence,[[22]] but which eventually, when repeated, was regarded with peculiar repugnance and discontent.
After this review of the contents of the Work, we will proceed to notice the circumstances of the occasion for which it was professedly composed.
The English invasion of France in the year 1475 originated in the events of 1470 and 1471. The temporary deposition of Edward the Fourth from his throne had been abetted by the aid which the King-making earl of Warwick derived from that forger of all mischief Louis the Eleventh of France. At that time Edward took refuge with his brother-in-law the duke of Burgundy, a man as ambitious of aggrandisement as king Louis, but whose disposition instigated him to pursue it by the more ordinary path of martial enterprise. His enmity to the king of France was bitter and inveterate; and it doubtless formed the topic of much of his discourse with the exiled English monarch. Edward, on his part, vowed an ample revenge when the forces of England should be again at his command: and the result was a mutual understanding between these princes to prosecute their common quarrel at the earliest opportunity.
Having this object in view, Edward summoned a parliament[[23]] in the autumn
of 1472, in order to obtain the requisite supplies; and on the last day of November an act was passed whereby the commons granted to the king a force of 13,000 archers (the like number which had been granted to his predecessor in the 31st year of his reign[[24]]), assigning as their motives for so doing, that "for the wele and suerte of this your reame inward, and the defence of the same outeward, to assiste youre roiall astate, ye verraily entendyng, in youre princely and knightly corage, with all diligence to youre highnes possible, all your bodely ease leyde apart, to resiste the seid confedered malice of youre and oure seide ennemyes, in setting outeward a myghty armee, able by the helpe of God to resiste the seid ennemyes." The archers were to abide in the king's service by the space of a year, each receiving the pay of six pence a day; and the commons granted for their support a disme, or tenth part of the income from lands, tenements, and possessions of every temporal person, not being a lord of parliament: but, if the said army held not before the feast of Saint Michael in 1473, the grant was to be void, and the money repaid. [[25]]
The lords spiritual and temporal made a similar grant, on the consideration "that the kyng oure soverayn lord is disposed by the grace of God in his owne persone to passe forth of this his seid reame with an armee roiall, for the saufegarde of the same reame, and the subduyng of the auncien ennemyes of hym and of his seid reame."[[26]] In the next session, on the 8th April 1473, the commons granted to the king a fifteenth and a tenth, because, among other causes, "that ye verraily entend, as we understond, to aredye youre self, by all measnes to you possible, in youre moost noble persone to goo, departe, and passe with an arme roiall to the parties outward, to subdue by the myght of God youre and oure auncien enemyes, to the weele of you and prosperite of this youre reame."[[27]]
Notwithstanding these earnest intentions and costly preparations, the season of 1473 wore away without any embarkation for France; and, at the close of the session on the 1st of February 1473-4, the chancellor, by the king's command, informed the commons that the parliament was prorogued to the 9th of May following,[[28]] "because in the matter of foreign war the king was not certainly
informed of the disposition of his brother of Burgundy, and on that account he had lately sent his ambassadors to his said brother."
The treaty with Burgundy was concluded in July 1474. The principal documents[[29]] respecting it bear date on the 25th of that month, on which day they were ratified both by king Edward and duke Charles. The former undertook to land in Normandy, or in other parts of France, with more than ten thousand men, before the 1st of July following (i.e. 1475); and the latter agreed to support the king's part in person and with his forces, in order to accomplish the recovery of the duchies of Normandy and Aquitaine, and the kingdom and crown of France, from Louis, then unjustly occupying them. The king engaged not to treat with Louis, without the consent of the duke of Burgundy; and the duke in like manner covenanted not to treat with him without the consent of king Edward. Henceforth Louis was to be deemed and proclaimed their common enemy.
By further articles, dated on the next following day, the contracting parties agreed that, when either of them waged war, they should have liberty to demand from the other aid to the amount of six thousand armed men; which were to be paid at the expense of the party requiring them, unless the war were in his own defence, in which case he was to pay only three fifths, and the other party two fifths of the soldiers' wages. By a further treaty, also dated on the 26th July 1474, king Edward ceded to the duke of Burgundy the duchy of Barr, the counties of Champagne, Nevers, Rethelle, Eu, and Guise, the barony of Douzi, the cities of Tournay and Lingon, with their dependencies, the castle and town of Picquigny, all the towns and lordships on either side the Somme before pledged to him, and further all the lands and lordships then possessed by Louis de