As to increasing wealth by war, that has never yet happened to this
nation; and, I believe, rarely to any country. Our former kings most
engaged in war were always poor, and sometimes excessively so. Edward
III. pawned his jewels to pay foreign forces; and _magnam coronam
Angliae_, his imperial crown, three several times--once abroad, and
twice to Sir John Wosenham, his banker, in whose custody the crown
remained no less than eight years. The Black Prince, as Walsingham
informs us, was constrained to pledge his plate. Henry V., with all his
conquests, pawned his crown, and the table and stools of silver which he
had from Spain. Queen Elizabeth is known to have sold her very jewels.