198 THE WAR FINANCES OF HEN MY V, ETC. April exchequer between 1416 and 1422. In only one of the years in which there is complete record, 1420, was the English income so low, and then there was a deficit of £38,000. In 1419 and 1422 only, under Henry V, were the war expenses less than £84,000, and, of these, 1419 saw the first large payment of the ransom of Rouen which certainly went into the war chest, while the record for 1422 is incomplete, ending as it does with the death of the English king. Usually the expenditure from the English exchequer was at least £35,000 in excess of the above sum, without the war expenses paid from the Norman treasury. This inadequacy is still further illustrated by the fact that, in Bedford's first two years, the French and Norman treasuries together show a deficit of 4,942 livres tournois (£741), not to mention the unpaid wages of the troops. 1 The end of 1424, therefore, finds the regent faced with serious problems. His military prestige is at its height by reason of the victory at Verneuil in August, but Normandy is not tranquil, the enemy, although defeated, is not crushed, and, worst of all, his finances are beginning to prove insufficient for maintaining even a successful defensive. The alternative was a vigorous offensive pushed home while Normandy could still be taxed. Victory, by protecting the southern frontier would tranquillize the duchy, would beat down still further the dauphin's resistance, and might well include the capture of new cities upon which to levy indemnities and the conquest of new regions from which to draw financial support. Richard A. Newhall. 1 Bib. Nat., Fonds Fran^ais* 4485, p. 436, and Ritter, loc. cit.
