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194 THE WAR FINANCES OF HENRY V April In January 1423 Bedford directed the expenses for maintaining 200 men-at-arms and 300 archers besieging Meulant and defending St. Valery and Gamaches, to be paid from the French revenues. 1 To clear the Armagnacs from the region south of Paris a special subsidy was levied on the capital, appeals against which, made to the parliament, were overridden by mandates from the regent. 2 Meanwhile certain of Charles VI 's jewels were sold and the income similarly devoted to military expenses. 3 The duke attempted to tax the French clergy on the plea of sending a special embassy to defend the Gallican liberties at a council which Martin V proposed to hold at Pavia in May 1423, but the clergy, at least in the province of Rheims, openly resisted. 4 On undertaking to capture Le Crotoy Bedford collected some of the expenses from the surrounding region. 5 But when summer came in 1423 it became evident that the military effort was in excess of the resources, in hand or in prospect, even before the February ' taille ' had been collected. It is necessary to consider [wrote Bedford on 4 June 1423] how to pay the soldiers and men-at-arms retained at the King's wages for the defence of Normandy on St. John's Day (24 June), when a quarter's pay falls due, for there is nothing to give them, because the funds intended for the soldiers have been spent on the siege of Le Crotoy, which still drags along, on the journey to Amiens, and on the expeditions into Champagne and Brie. In consequence, the estates were reassembled at Vernon in July and persuaded to vote another ' taille ' of 60,000 livres tournois for paying the army defending and operating to the southward. 6 But again the progress of events necessitated still further exer- tions, and the prospects for the future required heavier taxation. For a third time, in December, the Norman estates assembled, this time at Caen, and responded to the government's demands with a grant of 200,000 livres tournois for the recovery of Mont St. Michel, Ivry, Dreux, Gaillon, Nogent-le-Rotrou, Senonches, and Beaumont-le-Vicomte, and to extirpate brigands ' qui en divers lieux de notre dite duchie ont fait ou temps passe et font presentement maulx, pillories et roberies '. 7 At the same time a ' dime ' was levied on the clergy ' sans congie du pappe 8 1 Ritter, Bibliotheque de VEcole des Charles, lxxiii. 472. 2 Journal de Clement de Fauquembergue, ii. 127-8. 3 Bib. de Rouen, Collection Leber, 5870, t. iii, fo. 227. 4 Soullie, 'Opposition des Chapitres Cathedraux de la Province de Reims au Gouvernement de Bedford (1423-8) ' in Revue de Champagne et de Brie, 2 me serie, ii. 744. 5 Prarond, Notice sur V Arrondissement d' Abbeville, ii. 169 ; Ledieu, Documents inedits sur le Siege du Crotoy, p. 389. Cf. Dusevel in Mem. de la Soc. d' Emulation d' Abbeville, 2 me serie, xi. 201. 6 Beaurepaire, Les Stats de Normandie, p. 365. 7 Bib. Nat., Fonds Francais, 4485, p. 1. 8 Ibid. p. 126 ; Cochon, Chronique Normande, p. 393.