Hello everyone, welcome to the history of England, episode 115, The Rotten Apple.

Last time, the war with France had resumed, but what a different war to the glorious fort

ages and fifties. England had to learn a new kind of war, they had to learn how to

defend a kingdom, people with unreliable and unwilling subjects, and with a new generation

and military leaders to fight. England was fighting adversaries in Charles V and

Guescalar, who had learnt from the failures of the past and had a clear if sometimes painful

strategy. Stay inside the towns when an English army appears, attack key points in force

before the English can respond, and talk the nobility into deserting on mass.

The disappointment of 1370 were a shock for many reasons for the English. There was obviously

the horrid realisation that the world had changed, and that the English needed to do

more than shove a few archers over the channel and watch everything sold itself out.

But there was also the question of money. Essentially, Edward had financed the expeditions

of 1370 out of his accumulated war chest. And that war chest was now done, so Parliament

needed to be made to stomp up.

The Chancellor William Wickham and the King did not enjoy the Parliament of February 1371,

because the Commons just couldn't get it. Now look, they knew that in Edward they had

a king who could not be defeated at war. He was the modern Maccabee, the undefeated

war leader. That was a fact, now arguing with that. But on the other hand, apparently

we'd been given a kicking in the north and lost vast suaves of territory in the southwest,

so um, basically. And to cap that basic conundrum, they were being asked for money.

Ha! It was years since Parliament had been asked to do more than vote the export wool

subsidies. And the idea of a tax horrified them so much that they called it an oppressive

...