1921 AND THE DUKE OF BEDFORD 195 The collection was made in three terms, January, March, and June, with very considerable success, only 5-5 per cent, being left to come in as ' arrears '.* Most of this latter can be accounted for by the inability to make collections in the border ' vicomtes ' of Avranches, Mortain, Verneuil, and Perche. This income financed the war for about nine months, during which the military effort that culminated in victory at Verneuil in August 1424 put such a strain on the treasury that a new grant of money was needed. On 1 October 1424 the Norman estates were again convened, at Paris. There, sitting conjointly with the French estates, they voted another levy of 60,000 livres tournois, like those collected in March and June. 2 Of this 50,000 livres tournois were for paying the troops the wages due to them up to Michaelmas 1424, 3,000 livres tournois were to be used on fortifications at Harfleur and Honfleur, and the remaining 7,000 livres tournois were intended to go towards the expenses of the Mont St. Michel expedition. 3 Returns, however, were less satisfactory than on previous occasions, only 49,371 livres tournois being collected punctually, and of this the regent felt constrained, while collection was in progress, to divert nearly half (23,430 livres tournois from Caen, Cotentin, and Alengon) to support of the expedition which was being organized against Maine. 4 And finally, in November, it was found necessary to restore the * gabelle ' to its old burdensome figure, to which it had been raised by the Armagnacs and which Henry V had reduced with a magnanimous flourish in 1418, 5 in order to maintain the new armies. 6 Was this taxation burdensome ? This question necessitates a comparison between the relations of tax to population in Eng- land and Normandy. At the end of the fourteenth century the 1 For details of these levies see Stevenson, n. i. 10 ; Bib. Nat., Fonds Francais, 26046, nos. 173-9, 190 ; 26047, nos. 224-5, 273-5 ; Add. Charter 11511. Summary : Collected. Shortage. I. Levy of January 1424 Levy of March 1424 . Levy of June 1424 Total collection . Total shortage . The apportionment to the frontier Fonds Francais, 4485, passim). 2 Stevenson, n. i. 9, 32 ; Bib. Nat., Fonds Francais, 26046, no. 181 ; 26047, nos. 329-32, 341. 3 Ibid. 26046, no. 181. 4 Ibid. 4485, pp. 114 ff. See also receipt of 24 September 1424 from tbe ' vicomte ' of Caen (Arch, de la Seine Inf., Occupation Anglaise, I, Pieces Melees, and ' Amendes tauxes tant en Diocese de Sees que en la Vicomte de Falaise sur le Fait des Aides ©rdonnees pour la Guerre ', Arch, du Calvados F, Fonds Danquin, Serie Falaise). 5 Norman Roll 9 (6 Henry V, pt. i), m. 25 d .
- Bib. Nat., Fonds Francais, 26047, nos. 342-4.
02 l.t. s. d. 76,104 6 1 56,595 1. 10 56,213 12* 7 188,913 6 l.t. s. d. 3,895 13 11 3,404 18 1 3,786 7 5 11,086 19 5 r ' vicomtes ' was 7,900 livres tournois (Bib. Nat
