in England, would be greatly inconvenient. He therefore summoned, by writ, provincial councils or assemblies at Northampton and York, in which the counties were represented by four knights from each shire, and the towns, by two men from each city, borough, and market-town. The result was a general grant of a thirtieth of moveables, presumably the amount previously granted by the magnates at Ruddlan. This thirtieth was assessed by royal commissioners, and collected by them and the sheriffs of counties.1

The practice of taking tallage as a separate levy from cities, towns, and demesne, may be considered to have come to an end at this date. The instances in which it was used in future were exceptional. In 1288, when, after the absence of the king from the kingdom for three years, the barons, headed by the earl of Gloucester, refused to make any grant for his expenses in the war with France, until he should return, the bishop of Ely, then treasurer, enforced the obligation of the tenants of demesne in the old form, and began to tallage the cities, boroughs, and demesne. As this section of the community had to bear the weight of taxation alone, the treasurer's proceedings are stigmatised as the imposition of intolerable exactions.2

Tallage was again used in 1294, when a grant was obtained by separate negotiation with the cities and boroughs, on an occasion when no representatives of

1 See Writ for the Collection of a Thirtieth, 1283, Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 458.

2 Chron. T. Wykes, Ann. Monast. iv. 316.

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their interests had been summoned to parliament, and the barons and knights had granted, on their part, a tenth of all their moveables. London made the liberal grant of a sixth of moveables, that it might show an example to the other demesne towns;' and the sixth was levied in the other towns by royal commissioners appointed for the purpose of asking, requiring, and effectually inducing personally the tenants of demesne' to make the grant by all ways that they should see expedient.1'

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Again, ten years after this, in 1304, a tallage was enforced by Edward, probably in supplement of the scutage of 1303 for the war in Scotland. The grant made by London in 1294 was taken as a precedent, and the sixth penny according to the taxation of their goods' was exacted from the cities and towns." Writs were issued to sets of three commissioners, any two to act within the county or counties to which the writ was issued, to assess the tallage in the cities, boroughs, and demesne separately, by communities or by heads, as they might deem most expedient for the advantage of the king, but according to the ability of the tenants, and so that the rich be not spared, nor the poor too heavily taxed.' The tallage rolls were to

1 Int. Record de An. 23 Edw. I. Roll 73. 'De sexta parte concessa in London.' Tyrrell, iii. 182.

2 W. Hemingford, ii. 233.

3 Par. Rolls, i. 266. Occasionally, when tallage was collected by poll (which, however, was rarely the case), cause for complaint had been given to the poorer citizens, who observed that the burden fell upon them, the tax not being fairly assessed according to the value of the property of the citizens. The outbreak in London under William Fitzosbert in 1196 was caused by such an unjust levy.

be delivered, under the seals of the commissioners, to collectors chosen by them, who were to account for their collection to the exchequer. The sheriffs were ordered, at the request of the commissioners, to compel the attendance before them of all persons in the cities, boroughs and demesnes whom they might consider useful for the assessment, and to aid and assist them in the performance of their duty.

Again, in 1312, the royal council, acting under the advice of Walter Langton, who had recently resumed the office of treasurer, ordered a tallage of a fifteenth of moveables and a tenth of rents. This raised opposition from London, on the ground of the guarantee to them of their ancient rights in Magna Carta, and also in Bristol. Eventually a respite was purchased by loans, and the tallage became merged in the twentieth granted in the next parliament. The old form of writ was used on this occasion.1

Lastly, in 1332, Edward III. attempted to revive tallage, and issued writs, in the old form, for a fourteenth of moveables and a ninth of rents; 2 but parliament now took up the question by granting a fifteenth from the counties outside demesne, and a tenth from cities, towns and demesne. On his acceptance of the grant, the king recalled the commissions for the assessment of the tallage, and promised in future not to cause such tallage to be assessed in any other manner than had been the practice in the time of his ancestors, and as he might of right.' 3

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Tallage now fell into disuse. The articles usually

1 Par. Rolls, i. 449.

2 Ibid. ii. 446.

3 Ibid. ii. 66.

known as the 'Statute de Tallagio non concedendo' were, for a long time, considered to have suppressed this form of levy, but are now held to be an abstract, imperfect and unauthoritative, of the Regent's act of confirmation of the pardon of Humfrey de Bohun and Roger Bygod, the earls of Hereford and Gloucester.

Superseded by the more convenient form of general taxes on moveables granted by parliaments in which the cities and boroughs were properly represented, it left its trace in, and is subsequently recalled to mind by, the tenth, which formed the fractional grant for towns and demesne, as opposed to the fifteenth for the counties outside demesne.

CHAPTER IV.

TAXES ON MOVEABLES.

A.D. 1189-1334.

This system continued. Variety of the grants. The thirteenth of 1207. Its assessment. The fifteenth of 1225. The jury system again applied. The fortieth of 1232. The charge. The thirtieth of 1237. The charge. The fifteenth of 1275. Complaints of rigid assessment. General grants commence in 1283. Complaints of the rigid assessment of the fifteenth in 1290. Principal subsequent grants in the reigns of Edward I., Edward II., and Edward III. Practice in assessment. Issue of writs. The roll or ordinance of assessment. Schedules of the assessment.

THE method of taxation by means of grants of fractional parts of moveables, introduced into this country for the Saladin tithe, continued in use for about a century and a half. Sometimes the grant included rents and moveables; sometimes, rents only, and sometimes, moveables of particular descriptions.

The fractional part granted varied in the earlier grants from a fortieth to a fourth. This fourth, an exceptional grant, formed part of the aid for the ransom of king Richard in 1193, and was charged upon every person in the kingdom, in respect of rents and goods; while a fortieth, which is at the other end of the scale of fractional parts, was granted on two occasions the first in 1201, when king John received for the crusade a fortieth of rents; the other