At the beginning of our affairs with the English, you may remember that the King of England had no great inclination to make this descent; and as soon as he came to Dover, and before his embarkation there, he entered into a sort of a treaty with us. But that which prevailed with him to transport his army to Calais, was, first, the solicitation of the Duke of Burgundy, and the natural animosity of the English against the French, which has existed in all ages; and next, to reserve to himself a great part of the money which had been liberally granted him for that expedition; for, as you have already heard, the kings of England live upon their own demesne revenue, and can raise no taxes but under the pretence of invading France. Besides, the king had another stratagem by which to content his subjects, for he had brought along with him ten or twelve of the chief citizens of London, and other towns in England, all fat and jolly, the leaders of the English commons, of great power in their country, such as had promoted the war, and had been very serviceable in raising that powerful army. The king ordered very fine tents to be made for them, in which they lay; but, that not being the way of living they had been used to, they soon began to grow weary of the campaign, for they expected they should come to an engagement within three days after their landing, and the king multiplied their fears and exaggerated the dangers of a war, on purpose that they might be better satisfied with a peace, and aid him to pacify the murmurs of the people upon his return into England; for since Arthur’s days, never King of England invaded France with so great a number of the nobility and such a formidable army. But, as you have heard, he returned immediately into England upon the conclusion of the peace, and reserved the greatest part of the money that had been raised to pay the army for his own private use; so that in reality, he accomplished most of the designs he had in view.[482] The King of England was not of a complexion or turn of mind to endure much hardship and labour, and those any King of England who designs to make any considerable conquest in France, must expect to suffer. Besides our king was in a tolerable posture of defence, though in all places he was not so well prepared as he ought to have been, by reason of the variety and multitude of his enemies. Another great design the King of England had in view, which was the accomplishment of the marriage between our present King Charles VIII. and his daughter[483], and this wedding, causing him to wink at several things, was a great advantage to our master’s affairs.