ns and lordships on either side the Somme before pledged to him, and
further all the lands and lordships then possessed by Louis de {xx}
Luxemburgh count of St. Paul: retaining no feudal sovereignty over the
same, but conceding that the duke and his successors should in future be
esteemed as the sovereign princes thereof. It was further agreed that
Edward should be crowned and anointed king of France at Rheims,
notwithstanding that the county of Champagne was ceded to the duke of
Burgundy.

From this time the whole military population of England made constant and
earnest preparation for hostilities. They were retained by indenture to
serve the king for a whole year in his duchy of Normandy and realm of
France, each receiving the wages assigned to their respective ranks. These
were,--to a Duke xiij s. iiij d. by the day, to an Earl vj s. viij d., to a
Baron or Banneret iiij s., to a Knight ij s., to a Man at Arms xij d. by
the day and vj d. more as of reward, and to an Archer vj d. by the day.[30]

{xxi}

In December proclamations were made throughout England for all bowyers and
fletchers to pursue their labours with the utmost haste and diligence, the
latter to make only "shefe arrowes;" and purveyors were sent into several
circuits to superintend the delivery of their supplies.[31] Other
commissions were issued for impressing into the king's service carpenters,
wheelers, cartwrights, masons, smiths, plumbers, and other artificers; and
also for taking all ships of the burden of sixteen tons and upwards, for
the transport of the army.[32]

For all these expenses the large sums already voted by the lords and
commons in parliament, together with those granted by the clergy in their
convocation, were not sufficient. It was then that recourse was had to the
collections called Benevolences, to which allusion has been already made,
from their being so strongly advocated by the author of The Boke of
Noblesse. The process by which they were first brought into operation is
thus described by Fabyan the London chronicler:

"He sent for the mayer of London and his brethren the aldermen, and them
severally examined and exorted to ayde and assyst hym towarde the sayd
great journaye; of whiche the maier (Robert Drope, draper,) for his parte
granted xxxli. and the aldermen some xx marke, and the leest xli. And that
done he sent for all the thryfty commoners within the sayd cytie, and theym
exortyd in lyke maner, whiche for the more