The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. 03 [of 13] : $b containing an account of the cruel civil wars between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, of the possession of Paris and Normandy by the English, their expulsion thence, and of other memorable events that happened in the kingdom of France, as well as in other countriesMonstrelet, Enguerrand de
History
The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Vol. 03 [of 13] : $b containing an account of the cruel civil wars between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, of the possession of Paris and Normandy by the English, their expulsion thence, and of other memorable events that happened in the kingdom of France, as well as in other countries
Monstrelet, Enguerrand de
Europe -- History -- 476-1492 -- Sources; France -- History -- House of Valois, 1328-1589; Hundred Years' War, 1339-1453
'The first advice we shall give regards your finances, that they
may be put under a better administration as speedily as may be. We
therefore recommend it as expedient for you to shut the hands of all
your treasurers, directors and receivers, without any exception, and to
dismiss them from their offices, taking, at the same time, possession
of all their fortunes, moveable and immoveable, and having their
persons secured, until they shall have rendered you a just account of
their administration.
'Item, we think it necessary that you should annul all assignments
of grants and extraordinary pensions. We advise, that you instantly
command, under pain of death and confiscation of goods, all receivers,
treasurers, and other officers in the country, as well of your domain
as of other taxes, to bring you the whole sums they may have in their
hands, and that they make no payment whatever, by way of assignation,
to any one, however great his rank, excepting to such as yourself shall
then order; that, at the same time, they bring you their books, and all
papers concerning their receipt, and that, on their arrival, they have
no communication whatever with the aforesaid directors, under pain of
the above punishments.
'Item, in order the more effectually to establish order in your
finances, seeing the great waste and misapplication of the large sums
that have been raised for your personal defence, and in support of the
war, you will order the whole of the receipt of taxes to be produced
before you, as is your right, that henceforth they may be applied
according to the true intent of raising them, and as the urgency
of events may require. When the great need of such an ordinance is
considered, no one ought to be dissatisfied; and on this subject have
the goodness to keep in remembrance the prudent conduct of your father
king Charles, whose soul may God receive! who nobly employed his taxes
in driving the English out of his kingdom, and by this means made
himself master of fortresses that were not before under his subjection:
his officers and army were, at the same time, well paid; and there
remained to him an overplus, which served him to purchase many precious
jewels.
'Item, should these means not be sufficient for your immediate wants,
it seems to us that as you have treasuries in different parts, you may
justly take from them, for they are alike your own. There are also a
number of very rich persons, to the number of sixteen hundred, who
can at any time be named to you: these ought to assist in the support
of the poor,--for one third of them do not pay, one with another, one
hundred francs, which certainly cannot oppress them; but repayments
may be made them when the treasury shall be better filled, according to
the most advised plan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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