four men, free or villein, and two knights for every hundred in the county, who took oath that faithfully and without fraud they would state how many carucates were contained in every township (with certain other particulars), and assessed to tax accordingly. The assessments were registered in four rolls, of which the knight commissioner had one; the clerk, another; the sheriff, a third; and the steward of every baron, so much of the fourth as related to his lord's land.

The collection was in the hands of two knights and the bailiff in every hundred; and they accounted to the sheriff, who, in his turn, accounted to the exchequer. But every baron was required, with the aid of the sheriff, to collect the tax from his tenants, and, in default, the amount was chargeable on his demesne. Freemen and villeins alike if convicted of perjury were to render to the king the amount lost through the perjury; while, in addition to this, the villein forfeited to his lord the best ox of his plough team, and the freeman was at the mercy of the king. The carcucate, or quantity of land that could be ploughed by one plough or team in a season, was fixed at 100 acres.1 In 1200 king John returned from Normandy and took a carucage of 3s. In 1220 Henry III. received a carucage of 2s., the rate of Richard's carucage in 1194. It was assessed and collected by the sheriff and two knights of the shire chosen in the full assembly of the county court, who sent the proceeds, under their seals, to London; and the sheriffs were strongly exhorted to be diligent in the business. As you love yourself and

1 Hoveden, iv. 46.

yours,' ran the writs, 'you shall so manage the affair that there be no occasion to complain of and inquire into the assessment and collection of the tax, to the great confusion of yourself and those connected with you in the assessment and collection.' 1

Another, and the last, carucage was granted, at the rate of 28., to the king in 1224, for the expenses of the struggle which had resulted in the fall of Falkes de Breauté, and the consequent liberation of the country from the influence of foreigners. The tax was difficult to assess, and in its incidence touched only the limited class of agriculturists. Henceforth the system of taxation by grants of fractional parts of moveables superseded this partial tax.

1 Writ for collection of a carucage, Close Rolls, i. 437.

2 Matt. Paris, Hist. Mag. p. 322. Falkes de Breauté was at the time sheriff of no less than six counties.

CHAPTER III

TALLAGE, THE TAXATION OF ROYAL DEMESNE.

1189-1334.

Tallages in the reign of Richard I. and John. Tallage not touched by Magna Carta. Tallage in the reign of Henry III. Liability of the citizens of London to tallage. Tallage is superseded by a system of general grants and falls into disuse.

TALLAGE, the special taxation of royal demesne, continued in practice after the reign of Henry II.; and in the first year of Richard I., 1189, the king's demesnes were tallaged.1 In 1194, the business of the judges, after the departure of the king for Normandy, included the exaction of a tallage from cities, boroughs, and demesne; and on this occasion tallage is termed for the first time a decima or tenth. After this there were other tallages in the same reign. King John, although notoriously severe in his exactions from the Jews and private individuals, was not inclined to press heavily upon the towns and demesne, relying in a measure upon them for support in his struggles with the barons.

2

An attempt appears to have been made to obtain in the great charter a limitation of the right to tallage demesne; for in the articles of the barons on which the

1 Madox, p. 486.

2 Hoveden, iii. 264. Madox, p. 503.

charter was founded, tallage is mentioned with scutages and aids, and more particularly the tallage of London; but all reference to tallage is omitted in the corresponding articles in the charter.1

This right of the king to deal with the tenants of demesne was again exercised in 1218, the second year of the reign of Henry III., when a tallage was set upon the king's manors and towns. In 1227, a heavy tallage was exacted, but only from the limited class of rich citizens and burgesses; in 1230 another tallage was collected; and in 1234 there was a general tallage of all the cities and boroughs and demesne manors throughout England.2

Nine years after this, when a tallage was demanded of London, the king's officers appear to have made personal applications to individual citizens, very similar to those made, in subsequent times, for 'benevolences.' They went from citizen to citizen saying, 'You must accommodate the king, who is carrying on war in foreign parts for the good of the kingdom, and is greatly in want, with such and such monies, until he is restored to his kingdom;' and according to the will and assessment of the extortioners (extortorum), the citizens were mulcted of their money.3 About the thirtieth

1 Articles, S. 11: 'Simili modo fiat de tallagiis et auxiliis de civitate Londoniarum et de aliis civitatibus quae inde habent libertates.' Charter Act, xxxii. : 'Simili modo fiat de auxiliis de civitate Londoniarum.' Pipe Roll, 2 Hen. III. Madox, p. 488. Ann. Theokesb. Ann. Monast. i. 69. Madox, p. 488. Ibid. p. 489. Chron. T. Wykes. Ann. Monast. iv. 77.

2

3 Matt. Paris, Hist. Mag. p. 600. Tyrrell, ii. 924. The king, before leaving England, had, on the refusal of the prelates to grant a general tax, obtained money by applying to them in the same way individually. Matt. Par. ii. 461.

year of the king, 1246, another tallage appears to have been exacted.

In or about 1255, when it was provided by the king's council at Merton that the king should tallage his demesnes in England towards the great expenses he had been at in foreign parts, the citizens of London raised a question as to their liability to tallage. According to the usual practice, application had been first made to them for a stated sum as a fine or composition for tallage. They had been summoned before the council. Ralf Hardel, the mayor, and several other citizens, had appeared, and the king had demanded of them a tallage of 3,000 marks. After a consultation with their fellow-citizens they returned and offered 2,000 marks by way of aid, saying, they could not nor would give more. Upon this, the king sent his treasurer, Philip Lovell, with others to Saint Martin's, to receive of the city a fine of three thousand marks for tallage, in case they would enter into such fine, and if they would not then the tallage was to be assessed per capita. The city refused to enter into that fine, or composition, and the treasurer and the other commissioners ordered the citizens to swear to the value of each other's chattels with a view to the assessment of the tallage per capita; but the citizens refused to make such oath, or to declare, upon the faith they owed to the king, the value of each other's chattels. So the treasurer and other commissioners came back, re infectâ. Afterwards the citizens came before the king and his council at Westminster on the Sunday after Candlemas, and the question was raised