Note 1031 — CHARLES I 1625-1649 PART I—THE SEAMEN
Reading edition
The sale of gunpowder was at this time a crown monopoly (Fœdera, xx, 107). Charles’s sad and picturesque dignity of appearance did not imply such a delicate sense of honour as to prevent him turning a penny by forcing contraband of war through the fleet of a friendly power and supplying the privateers who were the scourge of English commerce.