schools, after provision had been made for life interests 1 -interests to which, it may be observed, greater regard than is usually supposed had been shown, on the redistribution of lands consequent upon the dissolution of the monasteries and the order of the Hospitallers.

1 1 Edw. VI. c. 14, 1547.

PART II.

KING EDWARD VI. AND QUEENS MARY AND ELIZABETH.

Debt left by Henry VIII. The subsidy on sheep and wool in 1548, repealed in 1549. Grant of fifteenths and tenths and a subsidy in 1553. The subsidy is released by queen Mary. The marquis of Winchester lord treasurer. Grants to the queen in 1555 and 1557. The debt at the accession of Elizabeth. The 'wasting of treasure' that had occurred. Restoration of the first-fruits and tenths to the crown. Grant of two fifteenths and tenths, and a subsidy for the war with France and the recovery of Calais. The economical policy of the queen. Grants in 1563 and 1565. Grant, in 1570, of two fifteenths and tenths and a subsidy for the expenses of suppressing the rebellion in the north. Inadequate yield of the subsidies voted in 1575. An addition made to the usual grant. Parsimony of the commons. Limited grants in 1581, 1585, and 1587. Grant for the defence of the country against the Armada of four fifteenths and tenths and two subsidies. Renewed parsimony of the commons. The lords refuse, in 1592, to assent to a less grant than three subsidies. Six fifteenths and tenths and three subsidies granted. A similar grant made in 1597. Produce of a subsidy only 80,000l. Grant for the war with Spain in 1601. Debate in the commons. Eight fifteenths and tenths and four subsidies granted. The Acts for the subsidies. The practice in assessment. The reason for the small yield.

6

KING HENRY VIII., who had commenced his reign with nearly two millions of savings accumulated by his father, and ample revenue wherewith to embellish state,' left, on his decease in 1547, a revenue considerably diminished by his alienations of demesne, and no small amount of debt to be paid by his successor. Hertford, now duke of Somerset and protector, was soon compelled to apply to parliament for a grant to the young king 'for the purpose of making a mass of

money to relieve and maintain the great charges of preparations made to meet any foreign power.' The clergy granted 3s. in the pound, payable in three years; and the laity, a fantastic subsidy-from his poor servants and little flock' to their little shepherd,' as the king is termed in the subsidy Act, charged upon sheep, at the rate of 3d. for every ewe, 2d. for every wether, and 1d. for every sheep kept on a common, and upon cloth at the rate of 8d. in the pound upon the value of all cloth made for sale in England, together with a subsidy on goods.1

This taxation of sheep and cloth may have been due to the strong feelings prevalent at the time against the conversion of tilled lands into pasture and the inclosure and appropriations of the common fields, which found their expression soon after this in the disastrous rebellion in Norfolk. For a large part of England had recently been converted into vast pasture farms, to the detriment of many formerly engaged in agricultural labour and in infringement of the rights of the commoners; and this was mainly due to the great profit that cometh of sheep,2 sheep being, as the author of the Book of Husbandry' wrote in 1534, the most profitablest cattel that man can have.'

This curious subsidy was payable in three years; but in the next year, the charge upon sheep and cloth was cancelled, and the subsidy continued only so far as it related to goods, with an addition of 1s. in the pound on goods, aliens to pay a double rate.3

1 2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. 36.

2 See 25 Hen. VIII. c. 13.

3 3 & 4 Edw. VI. c. 23.

The history of the unsuccessful government of Somerset, which ended in his fall, is summed up, from an adverse point of view, in the preamble to the next subsidy Act, which charges the late protector (who had been executed, on charges of felony, in January, 1552) with involving the king in war, wasting his treasure, involving him in much debt, embasing the coin, and having given occasion to a most terrible rebellion,1 and in fact, was a long accusation of Somerset prompted by the duke of Northumberland and his party.2

The subsidy granted consisted of a confirmation of a clerical grant of 6s. in the pound to be paid in three years, and two fifteenths and tenths and a subsidy from the temporality, to be paid in two years; and the grant was made in consideration of the great debt the king was left in by his father, the loss he put himself to in reforming the coin, and because his temper was found to be wholly set for the good of his subjects and not for enriching himself.' 4

6

6

But Edward did not live to fulfil the promise of a beneficent reign given by his youthful ability and amiable disposition- ostendent terris hunc tantum fata, neque ultra esse sinent;' he died before the subsidy was collected, and his sister, on her accession to the throne, released the lay subsidy by letters patent, an act which subsequently received confirmation in

1 The rebellion in Norfolk against inclosures and in the West against the new service-book, led to the appointment of lords-lieutenant of counties.

2 John Dudley, earl of Warwick, had been created duke of Northumberland, the Percy title being at the time extinct, in 1552; the earl of Wiltshire, marquis of Winchester; and lord Dorset, duke of Suffolk. Burnet, ii. 358.

37 Edw. VI. cc. 12, 13.

parliament, when the fifteenths and tenths granted to the late king were reserved to the queen.

The lord treasurer, Winchester, continued to hold the office to which he had been appointed in 1551 in succession to Somerset, a post which he held until his death in 1572.2

3

Further subsidies were granted to the queen, in 1555, when she received 6s. in the pound to be paid in three years from the clergy, and a subsidy from the laity; and in 1557, when she received 8s. in the pound from the clergy to be paid in four years, and from the laity, a fifteenth and tenth and an entire subsidy of 4s. on lands and 28. 8d. from those having goods to the amount of 51. and upwards, to be paid before June 24 then next. Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham were exempted from the subsidy, as liable to be ravaged by the Scots.1

When queen Elizabeth came to the throne, in 1558, the debt which had commenced four years at least before the death of her father remained unpaid; and this, with the debts left by her brother and sister,' all the while running upon interest, a course able to eat up not only private men and their patrimonies, but also princes and their estates,' 5 formed an incubus of debt which it took the queen, with her slender

1 1 Mar. sess. 2, c. 17.

2 In the 97th year of his age, leaving 103 issued from his own body. Burnet, ii. 625.

3 2 & 3 Phil and Mar. cc. 22, 23.

4 Par. Hist. i. 629. 4 & 5 Phil. and Mar. cc. 10, 11.

5 Sir Walter Mildmay, chancellor of exchequer, on the motion for granting a subsidy in 1675. The interest on some of the loans was at 14

per cent.