The History of Parliamentary Taxation in England

CHAPTER II. Feudal and Royal Taxation: the Norman and the Angevin Kings,

FEUDAL AND ROYAL TAXATION: THE NORMAN AND THE ANGEVIN KINGS, 1066-1215 12

William the Conqueror--His National Council and its part in taxation--Domesday Survey--William Rufus--Henry I and his Charter--Question of assent to taxation in the shire moots and the National Council--Stephen--Henry II--His controversy with Becket over the Sheriff’s Aid--Scutage--Theobald’s complaint--Early step toward a tax on movables--The Saladin Tithe and its assessment by juries of inquest--Richard I--His ransom--The king the authority for taxes--Refusal of Hugh of Lincoln--John--His scutages a cause leading to Magna Carta--Inquest of Service--John’s demand for a thirteenth of movables--Council at St. Alban’s, 1213--Summons to Oxford--Magna Carta--Chapters 12 and 14--Advance toward Parliamentary taxation.

CHAPTER III

THE CUSTOM OF PARLIAMENTARY GRANTS, 1215-1272 71

Henry III--Reissues of the Charter--Assessment of a carucage by the Council--Conditional Grants--Rejected offer of a disbursing commission--Supervision of expenditures--Representation as it was in Henry’s National Council--Knights of the shire called, 1254--Provisions of Oxford--Knights of the shire summoned by Henry and Simon de Montfort to national assemblies--In Parliament, 1264--Simon de Montfort’s Great Parliament, 1265--First instance of burgher representation--House of Commons foreshadowed.

CHAPTER IV

LAW OF PARLIAMENTARY TAXATION, 1272-1297 107

Edward I--His first Parliament and its grant of a custom on wool--His second Parliament--Attendance of knights of the shire declared “expedient”--Provincial assemblies at Northampton and York grant taxes--Seizure of wool, 1294--Separate meeting of knights of the shire--The Model Parliament, 1295--“What affects all by all should be approved”--Parliament of 1296--Struggle with the barons over service in Gascony--Contumacy of Bohun and Bigod--Principle that grants must wait upon redress of grievances--Confirmatio Cartarum--De tallagio non concedendo.

CHAPTER V

TAXATION BY THE COMMONS, 1297-1461 154

Character of the period--Parliament of Lincoln--Tunnage and poundage and other customs--Tallage--Edward II--Tentative abolition of the New Customs--The Lords Ordainers--Abolition of the New Customs--Tallage of 1312--Deposition of Edward II--Edward III--Tallage of 1332 and its withdrawal--New Customs a regular means of revenue--The wool customs--Statutory abolition of the Maletolt and of all unauthorized taxation--Parliament the sole taxing authority in law--Checkered history of the wool customs--Appropriation of Supplies--Examination of Accounts--Death of Edward III--Separate sessions of the houses--Richard II--Trouble over audit of accounts--Special treasurers--The Rising of the Villeins--Richard’s despotism and dethronement--Henry IV--Initiation of tax levies in the House of Commons, 1407--Henry V--Henry VI--Declaration for appropriation of supplies--Accession of the Yorkists.

CHAPTER VI

EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY EXACTION, 1461-1603 213

Edward IV--Benevolences and forced loans--Richard III--Prohibition of benevolences--The Tudors--Henry VII--The “New-found Subsidy”--Morton’s Crotch--Early taxation of Henry VIII--Cardinal Wolsey’s breach of privilege--Henry’s commissions and benevolences--Forced loans--Profits of the Reformation--Parliament the confirming authority in clerical grants--Elizabeth--Liberality of her Parliaments--Assertion by the commons of their right to originate money bills.

CHAPTER VII

THE STUARTS, 1603-1689 236

Divine right as against Parliamentary supremacy--James I dictates the composition of the House of Commons--Tunnage and poundage for life--Royal poverty--The Bate Case--Opinions of the Barons in the Bate Case--The position of Parliament--The Book of Rates--Remonstrance from the Commons--Cowel’s “Interpreter”--The Great Contract--Petty extortion after the dissolution of Parliament--The “Addled” Parliament--Case of Oliver St. John--James’s Third Parliament--Delay of a supply pending redress of grievances--Revival of impeachment by the Commons--James’s last Parliament--Charles I--His early Parliaments--Forced loans--Threats of non-Parliamentary exaction--The Petition of Right--Omission of the customs--Tunnage and poundage--Charles’s eleven years without Parliament--His financial expedients--Ship Money--Extra-judicial opinions--Hampden’s Case--Judgment for the Crown--The Short Parliament--The Long Parliament--Royal exaction of tunnage and poundage declared illegal--The Ship Money Act--The Grand Remonstrance--The Puritan Revolution--Charles II--Appropriation of Supplies--James II--William and Mary--The Bill of Rights.

INDEX 309

PARLIAMENTARY TAXATION

THE SAXONS: CUSTOMARY REVENUES AND EXTRAORDINARY CONTRIBUTIONS

THE English Constitution looks ever backward. Precedent lies behind precedent, law behind law, until fact shades off into legend and that into a common beginning, the Germanic character. Standing upon the eminence of 1689, one sees the Petition of Right, and then in deepening perspective, Confirmatio Cartarum and Magna Carta. The crisis of 1215 points to the Charter of Henry I, and behind that are the good laws of Edward the Confessor. The Anglo-Saxon polity looks back of the era of Alfred, to the times when Hengist and Horsa were yet unborn, and the German tribesmen were still living in their forests beyond the Rhine without thinking of migrating westward. And there, behind the habits of those barbaric ancestors of Englishmen, lies the national character, the Anglo-Saxon sense of right and wrong, of loyalty, justice, and duty. The growth of the English Constitution has been as subject to the laws of evolution as the development of man himself. The germ of national character evolved habits of thought and action, and these habits, or as they are better termed, institutions, were beaten upon by conditions and fused with the institutions of another people, until at last they took on the shape of free government.

An account of the advance toward the laying of taxes by representatives of the people must begin with some notice of the idea of taxation which actuated the German tribesmen. Tacitus writing of them as they were at the beginning of the Second Century A. D. makes this remark: “It is customary amongst the states to bestow on the chiefs by voluntary and individual contribution a present of cattle or of fruits, which, while accepted as a compliment, supplies their wants.” Here, then, is the earliest idea of a tax, a voluntary contribution for the support of the princeps. It was prompted by the essentially personal relationship existent between people and chieftain, the sense of attachment of the people to the leader. Direct taxation laid by the princeps upon the tribe, was as unknown in Germany as it was foreign to the Germanic spirit.

When the conquering Saxons, therefore, swept westward across the German Ocean, they carried with them scarcely more than a semblance of taxation. Between men and leader the personal relationship still subsisted, but as time went on, the Anglo-Saxon king became less the father of the people, and more their lord. Lord of the national land he was as well, but he did not rule by reason of that fact. The two claims upon popular support were therefore distinct, the one as personal leader, the other as lord of the national land; and during the major part of the Anglo-Saxon era they afforded a sufficient means for the maintenance of the king and his government. Until the moment of a supreme emergency the king did not have to seek extraordinary sources of income.

As lord of the national land, the king had a double source of revenue. The folkland, or land subject to national regulation and alienable only by the consent of the Witenagemot, presented the king with its proceeds, much of which went for the maintenance of the royal armed retainers and servants. Deducible from this right to the public lands, was the claim of the king to tolls, duties, and customs accruing from the harbors, landing-places, and military roads of the realm, and to treasure-trove. Aside from this, the king was one of the largest private landowners in the kingdom, and from it he derived rents and profits which were disposable at will.

The other sources of the royal revenue, which at least in the beginning may be said to have accrued to the king by reason of personal obligation, were the military, the judicial, and the police powers. By reason of the military power vested in him, the king could demand the services of all freemen to fulfill the trinoda necessitas,--service in the militia, repair of bridges, and the maintenance of fortifications. Further, in accordance with the system of vassalage incident to his military power, he had the right of heriot, according to which the armor of a deceased vassal became the property of the king. The judicial authority, also, was a fruitful source of income; from it the king adduced a right to property forfeited in consequence of treason, theft, or similar crimes, and to the fines which were payable upon every breach of the law. The third great power vested in the royal person was the police control; under it the king turned to account the privilege of market by reserving to himself certain payments; also the protection offered to Jews and merchants was paid for, and the king pocketed the bulk of the tribute. Beyond these,--and here we have the analogy of the later royal claim to purveyance,--the districts through which the king passed or those traversed by messengers upon the king’s business, lay under obligation to supply sustenance throughout the extent of the royal sojourn.

It is apparent that an extraordinary occasion had to arise before this large ordinary revenue should prove to be inadequate to meet all reasonable royal necessities. The whole matter is shrouded in obscurity, yet it is unlikely that this extraordinary occasion arrived before the onslaught of the Danes. There is no record of an earlier instance.

It was in 991 that the Saxon army under Brihtnoth, Ealdorman of the East Saxons, suffered decisive defeat at the hands of Danish pirates. King Ethelred the Unready found himself at the mercy of foreign enemies, and his only recourse was bribery. Under this necessity, a levy of £10,000 was made, and secured momentary peace from the truculent Danes. But it was only momentary; they returned in 994 and took away £16,000. They repeated, under various pretexts, their profitable incursions in 1002, 1007, and 1011. In 1012, having been bought off for the last time, the Danes entered English pay, and the Danegeld instead of being an extraordinary charge, became a regularly recurrent tax. It continued until 1051, when Edward the Confessor succeeded in paying off the last of the Danish ships. The chronicler accounts for the abolition of the Danegeld after the manner of his time. Edward the Confessor, so goes the story, entered his treasure-house one day to find the Devil sitting amongst the money bags. It so happened that the wealth which was being thus guarded was that which had accrued from a recent levy of the Danegeld. To the pious Confessor the sight was sufficient to demonstrate the evil of the tax and he straightway abolished it.

Continue reading The History of Parliamentary Taxation in England free in the Wunder reader →