BOOK V.

THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR.

FROM THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FIFTEENTH AND TENTH IN 1334, TO THE END OF THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR, 1453.

CHAPTER I.

THE DIRECT TAXES, INCLUDING FIFTEENTHS AND TENTHS, POLL TAXES AND LAND TAXES.

CHAPTER II.

THE CUSTOMS SUBSIDIES OF WOOL, SKINS AND LEATHER, TUNNAGE ON WINE AND

POUNDAGE ON GOODS.

CHAPTER I.

THE DIRECT TAXES, INCLUDING FIFTEENTHS AND TENTHS, POLL TAXES AND LAND TAXES.

PART I.

1334-1377.

Settlement of the fifteenth and tenth in 1334. Amount of a fifteenth and tenth. Practice in local assessment and collection. Grants of fifteenths and tenths after 1334 down to the peace of Bretigni, 1360. Recommencement of the war in 1369. The novel tax on parishes in 1371. Extraordinary miscalculation of their number. Return to the old form of fifteenths and tenths.

IN 1334, four years before the hundred years' war with France commenced with the assumption by Edward of the title of king of France, an alteration was made in the form of the direct tax usually employed, which it is of supreme importance clearly to understand.

The general twentieth granted by the earls, barons, and commonalty of counties, and towns and demesne in 1327, the first year of the reign, had been assessed and collected in the usual manner.1 But the fifteenth and tenth granted five years after this, in 1332, on the withdrawal of the writs for the collection of a tallage on demesne, though assessed and collected under writs in the ordinary form, had been enforced with much

1 Par. Rolls, ii. 425.

more strictness than was usual; while the taxors and collectors and their clerks and assistants were accused of acting in an arbitrary, unfair, and fraudulent manner, levying divers sums of money from many in the kingdom, that they might spare them in the assessment and collection, and extorting certain other sums from others under colour of office, applying the proceeds to their own use, and inflicting other hardships on the people.' Thus assessed and collected, the tax seemed to be four times heavier than the last fifteenth and tenth, and gave rise to considerable complaints.

In consequence of these, on the grant in the next year of another fifteenth and tenth, in order as far as possible to avoid the oppression, extortion, and hardships that had occasioned the complaints, and to promote the advantage and quiet of the people,' a power was inserted in the writs issued for the assessment and collection of the tax, which amounted to a direction to the royal commissioners to treat with the communities of the cities and boroughs, the men of the townships and ancient demesne, and all others bound to pay the fifteenth and tenth, and settle with them a fine or sum to be paid as a composition for the fifteenth and tenth. The sum thus fixed was to be entered on the rolls as the assessment of the particular township. And the taxpayers in the townships were required to assess and collect the amount upon and from the various contributors. Only in the case of a refusal to compound was the usual machinery of assessment and collection. to be enforced; and in that case the amount to be

levied was not to exceed the amount assessed for the fifteenth and tenth of 1332.1

Henceforth, from 1334, the sum thus fixed by composition as for the fifteenth and tenth granted in 1334, was accepted as the basis of taxation; and on the grant of a fifteenth and tenth it was usual to declare that they should be levied in the ancient manner, according to the ancient valuation,2 that is to say, that there should not be any new assessment, but that every particular county and town should pay the usual

sum.

6

In the aggregate the sums amounted to between 38,000l. and 39,000l.; and henceforth, as far as the exchequer is concerned, a fifteenth and tenth' was practically a fiscal expression for a sum of about 39,000l.; and when a fifteenth and tenth was granted every county knew the amount to be raised in the county for the fifteenth, and every city and borough, the amount to be raised therein for the tenth.

The method of assessment and collection, prescribed by an ordinance of assessment, was not in practice rigidly observed, and in process of time every particular county, city, and town assessed and collected the amount charged upon the district by means of the method they found most convenient to them.

Upon the basis of this settlement of the fifteenth and tenth in 1334, direct taxation mainly proceeded from this date until it became the practice to add to 1 Par. Rolls, ii. 447.

2 A lever meisme la somme en la manere come la darreine quinzisme a lui grantez feust levee, et ne mye en autre manere.'-Par. Rolls, ii. 148 (1344).