It was desperation that drove the government in 1376 to call parliament into session after a hiatus of some two years, for the crown was strapped with debt and this was the only way to raise the money required to continue the war against the French. Edward III was now too old to maintain direct involvement in the military enterprise he had started nearly forty years earlier, and his widely admired son the Black Prince lay on his deathbed at Kennington and would not live to see the conclusion of the parliament. Under the direction of the king’s next eldest surviving son, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, the crown had begun to reevaluate the increasingly costly war with France, deciding to cut short recent losses by negotiating a truce that provided for a key English stronghold in Normandy to be handed over to the enemy. Both the truce and Lancaster himself were viewed with suspicion by a broad segment of the population who had either prospered from the benefits of the earlier successful campaigns or who had simply grown up with the war and believed wholeheartedly that the French were their enemy, and many Englishmen likely interpreted Lancaster’s very involvement in the diplomatic negotiations finalized at Bruges in 1375 as a sign that Edward’s age of chivalry was coming to a close.

Of more immediate concern to those who viewed the government’s policies with growing apprehension was the current status of Calais. The wool staple had been re-established at Calais in 1370 after a temporary suspension the year before, meaning that once again all wool intended for export to Flanders must pass through this locale. In previous years the revenue from the staple had been used to pay for the defence of the town, but as merchants now had the ready opportunity to purchase from the government licences to evade the staple altogether, the crown was stuck with the expense of some £8,000 per annum for the fortification of Calais. This expenditure signalled to some a gross mismanagement of funds on the part of the administration, and distress over the widespread evasion of the staple coupled with the suspicion that Lancaster was now running the show fuelled questions, accusations and criticisms regarding the administration.