ney
at his election."[6]

Such was the proclamation issued on March 22d by the king himself at
York.

Between Edward and Charles a new link had just been forged in the
chain of friendship. The Order of the Garter is thus acknowledged by
the duke:

"We have to-day received from our much honoured seigneur and
brother, the king of England, his Order of the Garter together
with the mantle and other ornaments and things appertaining to the
said Order and have ... taken the oath according to the statutes
of the Order.

"Done in our city of Ghent under our Grand Seal, February 4, 1469
[O.S.]."[7]

Now it was in consideration of needs that might arise in the near
future, following on the trail of these wide-reaching English
convulsions, that Charles felt it necessary to make preparations for
a strong military defence calculated to suit any emergency. Louis XI.
had a permanent force at his command. He had made the beginning of the
French standing army, the nucleus of one of those bodies that have
ever since urged each other on to expensive growth from opposite sides
of European frontiers. What one monarch possessed that must his near
neighbour have.

Feudal service, volunteer militia, paid mercenaries, were all alike
unstable bulwarks for a nation. Nation as yet Charles had not, but
he wanted to be betimes with his bulwarks. This was why he issued
an ordinance for the levy of a thousand lances, amounting to five
thousand combatants, to be paid with regular wages and kept ready at
call under officers of his own appointment. The ducal treasury could
not stand the whole expense. To meet the deficit, Charles asked from
his Netherland Estates an annual subsidy of 120,000 crowns for three
years. Power to impose taxes he had none. A request to each individual
province was all the requisition that he could make.

In this case, most of the provinces approached had acceded to the
demand, when the Estates of Flanders convened at Lille. Here the
Chancellor of Burgundy expounded to them the grounds of the demand,
and then the session was changed to Bruges, where they debated on the
merits of the request, urged on further by explanatory letters from
Charles. Finally, a deputation was appointed by the Estates to go over
to Ghent and present a _Remonstrance_ to their impatient sovereign
beggar.

Three points were set forth. The deputies objected to this grant being
asked only from the lands _de par d