pulled or beat out every day, until this exorbitant Revenue of fum was paid, which the unhappy Ifraelite was at during the laft compelled to do on the eighth day, after feven Saxon Line. of his teeth had been ftruck out'. England The only circumftance, which can prove in any Magna respect agreeable to the reader, during the whole Charta. courfe of his reign, is the confirmation, extorted from this monarch with confiderable difficulty, of the rights and liberties of the people of this country, in the deed fo emphatically named, The Great Charter of the Liberties of England. By this important inftrument, a variety of regulations were enacted, favourable to the vaffals of the crown, by which the pecuniary burdens of the feudal law were confiderably diminished; and by the 14th, 15th, and 16th articles it was declared, that no fcutage or aid fhould be impofed on the kingdom in general, and in particular on the city of London, or any of the other cities, towns, or boroughs of the kingdom, unlefs with the confent of the common council of the realm, excepting for ranfoming the king's perfon, making his eldest fon a knight, or marrying his eldest daughter; and even then, only a reasonable aid was to be demanded and by another claufe, fines and amerciaments, which had formerly been very grievous and oppreffive, were reftricted within proper M. Paris, p. 220. Madox Excheq. p. 151. Tovey's Anglia Judaica, p. 70. * See the famous Petition of Right, claufe 3. # 2 bounds. England during the Saxon Line. Revenue of bounds. On the whole, this charter, though it does not contain a complete system of civil liberty, is, at the fame time, without doubt, the most important, extensive, and valuable compact entered into between a reigning monarch and his fubjects, to be met with in the hiftory of almost any age or country. Cufoms. anti It appears from the forty-eighth article of Magna Charta, that fome duties were paid on goods at that time, and had been formerly exacted. The merchants were to trade, "fine omnibus malis "toltis." But, at the fame time, the articles in which they dealt, were to pay custom " per "quas et rectas confuetudines." What those ancient and equitable duties were, is now unknown; but they must have been very inconfiderable, as they were let in farm, in the fourth year of John's reign, for only 1000 marks". John continued the dangerous practice, begun by his brother Richard, of felling the offices under the crown. Nay, he ventured to difpofe of the high employment of chancellor, to one Gray, during his life, for only 5000 marks. u An. 1202. See Madox, p. 529. It appears also from p. 530. that the cuftoms of all England, and the profits arifing from its principal fairs, amounted only to L. 4,958:7:31 from the faft of St. Margaret in the fourth, to the feast of St. Andrew in the fixth year of this monarch's reign. HENRY HENRY III. At the age of nine years, Henry III. inherited Revenue of England the crown of England. He mounted the throne, at a time when the greatest experience, and the Saxon Line. moft fplendid abilities, were neceffary, to preferve the kingdom from the ruinous confequences of inteftine wars and foreign invafion. Fortunately, William Earl of Pembroke, the Marifchal of England, and confequently by his office, in times of fuch turbulence and confufion, at the head of the government, was poffeffed of virtue and abilities adequate to fo dangerous a crifis; and, by means of his prudence, vigour, and exertions, and the return of many of thofe barons to their allegiance, who, from hatred to their late monarch, had thrown themselves into the arms of France, Henry at laft acquired the peaceable poffeffion of his dominions, both in England, and on the continent. The reign of this monarch, which lafted upwards of fifty-fix years, is the longest in the annals of this country. Unfortunately, it cannot boast of plendour equal to its duration: it was neither happy at home, nor refpectable abroad. His fubjects complained of the weakness of his government, of his rapacity and profufion; whilft his enemies had no reafon to tremble at the vigour or abilities of their opponent. Henry's character, perfectly well adapted to the ftill life of a private citizen, H 3 Revenue of England during the Saxon Line. citizen, was but ill fitted for the buftle and intrigues of a court, or the tumults of hoftility and war. His attachment to unworthy favourites, and proRevenue. fufe liberality to the minions who were about him, in a great measure occafioned the miferies of his reign. By his inconfiderate bounties, he had reduced the income of the crown to 60,000 marks per annum, and he was not fcrupulous as to any means of making up the deficiency. It would be trefpaffing upon the reader's patience, to attempt an enumeration, of the number of fcutages, aids, talliages, carrucages, hydages, tenths, fifteenths, benevolences, &c. which this king, by different means, and under various appellations, obtained, or extorted from his fubjects, in the course of his long administration. He is faid to have taken 400,000 marks from the Jews", His expences in a vain attempt to conquer Sicily for his fecond fon, are faid by Matthew Paris to have amounted to 950,000 marks. In the fortythird year of his reign, he was reduced to the greatest neceffity. And when Lewis king of France, who was not perfectly fatisfied with his right to Normandy and Anjou, offered him 300,000 livres Tournois, and lands to the value of 20,000 livres per annum, in full of his claim to the fovereignty of thofe two provinces, x M. Paris, p. 647. ▾ Stevens Hift. of Taxes, p. 48. M. Paris, p. 918. This is the probable meaning of a paffage which has puzzled many of our hiftorians. 、 for England Saxon Line. for that trifling confideration, he renounced all his Rexenue of pretenfions to the ancient patrimony of his family, during the and ever after, ftruck out from his other titles, thofe of duke of Normandy, and earl of Anjou. To this king and his minifters may be attributed a new device to raife a revenue, of which his fucceffors afterwards, availed themselves. The mode was, to compel every one who poffeffed fifteen or twenty pounds a-year in landed property holden of the crown, either to take the order of knighthood, or to pay a certain fum of money in its ftead, by way of compofition. This was a fure mode of raising money; for those who did not compound, were obliged to pay confiderable fees at their creation, which all went into the exchequer. The miferable ftate to which Henry was re- Confeduced, is fufficient, one fhould imagine, to deter quences of any monarch from imitating his extravagance and fion. profufion. He found the utmost difficulty to pay his eldest fon Edward, the fmall pittance of 15,000 marks per annum, for his fupport. His debts, amounting to about £300,000 he was totally unable to discharge. In order to raife money, he was obliged to fell the very furniture of his palace; to pawn the jewels of the crown; nay, the fhrine of St. Edward the Confeffor, for whom he had always expreffed the highest veneration. He is reprefented as wandering about the country, foli Noy's Rights of the Crown, chap. viii. Stevens, p. 70. |