One other is,that Hollingshead in his Chronicle making mention of a voyage made by the black Prince from Burdeaux into Languedock doth cite the Letter of one Sir John Wingfield,a principal Servant to the Prince,wherein he saith,That the Countries and good Towns,which were wasted at this Journey,found to the King of France every year more to the maintenance of his War than half his Realm besides,except the Exchanges of his Money which he maketh every year,and his Customes of Poitou.But the standard of his Moneys was stabely kept from Charles the Fifths time till the first year of Charles the Seventh,at which time the English being in possession of the greatest part of France,Charles the Seventh having no other means to maintain the Wars,did from the year one thousand four hundred seventeen,to the year one thousand hundred twenty three,raise the silver by several degrees from eight livres nine sols the mark to 360livres the mark,so as the Money was raised in six years above forty times the value of what it was before;of all which neither our Chronicles nor those of France do make but ???nder mention,in respect of what they speak of the Pucelle d'Orleans:And yet the Truth of it is evident by the Records of the Mint:and all those who have written of the affairs of the Mint,in that Kingdom,do unanimously agree that this was the Principal mean by which is as strange as all the rest,is,that at one instant the Money was reduced again to seven livres,ten sols the mark;and from that time there have not been any raising of Money in France of this nature,although the Moneys there have been continually raised ever since,either to follow the People,who did first raise their Moneys by their estimation,or to follow the raisings of other Nations,or to raise above other Nations,to draw their Money into that Kingdom.
In England there is but one Example of raising in this kind,which was begun in the eighteenth year of Henry the Eighth,and continued in divers Princes Reigns after,and was not absolutely reduced,until the fourteenth year of Queen Elizabeth;and this raising,although it were far short in Proportion to those formerly recited,it was much more inexcusable than they were,for that this Action though it be never justifiable,yet in a case of extream and unresistable Necessitie,it may be excused,which was not the case of Henry the Eight,for although he wanted Money,yet there were much more justifiable wayes to supply it;and it was not imployed to avoid his own ruin,but in ambitious Enterprises.