Gascony and the king's other dominions
beyond sea were the outworks of England, nor could the people ever be
secure from war at their thresholds, unless these were maintained. They
lastly insisted that the king ought to be rich through the wealth that
had devolved on him from his grandfather. But this was affirmed, in
reply, to be merely sufficient for the payment of Edward's creditors.
Thus driven from all their arguments, the commons finally consented to a
moderate additional imposition upon the export of wool and leather,
which were already subject to considerable duties, apologizing on
account of their poverty for the slenderness of their grant.[143]

The necessities of government, however, let their cause be what it
might, were by no means feigned; and a new parliament was assembled
about seven months after the last, wherein the king, without waiting for
a petition, informed the commons that the treasurers were ready to
exhibit their accounts before them. This was a signal victory after the
reluctant and ungracious concession made to the last parliament. Nine
persons of different ranks were appointed at the request of the commons
to investigate the state of the revenue and the disposition which had
been made of the late king's personal estate. They ended by granting a
poll-tax, which they pretended to think adequate to the supply
required.[144] But in those times no one possessed any statistical
knowledge, and every calculation which required it was subject to
enormous error, of which we have already seen an eminent example.[145]
In the next parliament (3 Ric. II.) it was set forth that only
22,000_l._ had been collected by the poll-tax, while the pay of the
king's troops hired for the expedition to Britany, the pretext of the
grant, had amounted for but half a year to 50,000_l._ The king, in
short, was more straitened than ever. His distresses gave no small
advantage to the commons. Their speaker was instructed to declare that,
as it appeared to them, if the affairs of their liege lord had been
properly conducted at home and abroad, he could not have wanted aid of
his commons, who now are poorer than before. They pray that, as the king
was so much advanced in age and discretion, his perpetual council
(appointed in his first parliament) might be discharged of their
labours, and that, instead of them, the five chief officers of state, to
wit, the chancellor, treasurer, keeper of the privy seal, chamberlain,
and ste