Note (Back to Main Text) — Chapter V · CALAIS.

Money had to be found somewhere. The harvest, happily, had been at last abundant, and wheat had fallen from fifty shillings a quarter to four or five. The country was in a condition to lend, and a commission was sent out for a forced loan, calculated on the assessment of the last subsidy. Lists of the owners of property in each county were drawn out, with sums of money opposite to their names, and the collectors were directed "to travail by all the best ways they might for obtaining the sums noted." Persons found conformable were to receive acknowledgments. Should "any be froward" they were to find securities to appear when called on before the privy council, or to be arrested on the spot and sent to London.[608] A hundred and ten thousand pounds were collected under the commission, in spite of outcry and resistance;[609] but it was not enough for the hungry consumption of the war, and the court was driven to call a parliament.