In the long interval of misrule the financial straits of the king forced him to heap exaction on exaction.

The Forest Laws were used as a means of extortion, sees and abbeys were kept vacant, loans were wrested from lords and prelates, the Court itself lived at free quarters wherever it moved.

Supplies of this kind however were utterly insufficient to defray the cost of the king's prodigality.

A sixth of the royal revenue was wasted in pensions to foreign favourites.

The debts of the Crown amounted to four times its annual income.