Taxation Flashcards
What was taxation?
The most important cause of protest in early Tudor England
What happened in 1515?
Henry VIII returned payments from nineteen Yorkshire towns and villages as they were so impoverished
When was tax levied and how many people were eligible to pay?
Only occasionally when there was an emergency
60%
What happened in 1489?
Parliament had voted to allow Henry VIII £100,000 to meet the costs of a campaign against France
Why was the 1489 tax unfair?
Traditionally people in the south funded wars against France while the northern counties met the costs of defending the Scottish border
What had Henry VII done in 1489?
Exempted the counties of Northumberland, Westmorland, and Cumberland on account of poverty
Why did the Yorkshire rebels of 1489 take exception to the tax?
The protestors were affected by a bad harvest in 1488
The unpopular Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland was to lead the tax commission
What happened in January 1497?
Parliament had voted for £60,000 to fund a war against the Scots; the grant was an innovation and the money would be levied on individuals at rates assessed by royal commissioners
What did the chronicler Holinshed say in 1497?
That the rebels wanted ‘to punish those responsible for the tax imposed on the people’
Why did the Cornish rebels of 1497 take exception to the tax?
Customarily wars against Scotland were paid by a scutage or land tax and only only by the northern counties
What councillors were blamed during the Cornish rebellion of 1497?
John Morton, the Lord Chancellor
Reginald Bray, the king’s chief financial adviser had been responsible for finding ways to increase revenue
What was the Amicable Grant?
A parliamentary tax which commissioners were ordered to collect in 1525
What had Wolsey done in 1522?
Raised £260,000 in forced loans which had not yet been repaid
What had Wolsey done in 1523?
Tried to get parliament to vote for a subsidy of £800,000 but only received £151,000 payable over four years
The Church was expected to pay £120,000
What did the Grant do?
Made excessive demands on the laity and clergy
Since 1513 Wolsey what had Wolsey done?
Introduced tax assessments based on land, income, and personal assets, and collected whichever yielded the highest tax
What did Wolsey’s assessments end, what were the laity required to pay, and what did this mean?
The principle of paying a fixed rate
A tax of 5% if they were rated below £20 and 16.6% if rated above £50 a year
Many of the protestors would’ve been paying tax for the first time
What were the clergy to pay in 1525?
At a rate of 25% of their annual revenue or value of their goods worth less than £10, and 33% for those above £10
What was the economic situation in 1525?
There was a shortage of coinage
Rising unemployment following a fall in wool prices
What did the Amicable Grant protestors say to the Duke of Norfolk?
‘since you ask who is our captain, for sooth his name is Poverty, for he and his cousin Necessity, have brought us to this doing’
What did Item 14 of the Pontefract Articles request?
To ‘be discharged on the fifteenth and taxes now granted by act of parliament’
What did the POG rebels not want to do but what was the case?
Pay the taxes due from the Subsidy Act of 1534
The subsidy’s yield of £80,000 was small and affected only a few people, but many claimed they couldn’t afford it
What did the articles presented by rebels in Yorkshire argue?
The king was only allowed to collect taxes in defence of the realm, whereas the preamble to the Act claimed that costs incurred in defence of the realm were the same as if the country was at war
What alarmed people in Lincolnshire?
Rumours that the tax was a prelude to further fiscal exactions, such as a tax on white meat and horned cattle
What was the 1534 subsidy?
The only attempt to collect taxes in peacetime that had provoked a popular protest
What were the objectives of the Duke of Somerset’s Subsidy Act of 1549?
To raise as much money as possible at a time of acute shortage
To encourage more farmers to return their lands to tillage
What did the Duke of Somerset levy?
A tax of 1d on a sheep and 1/2d on every pound of woollen cloth
What was the impact of the 1549 tax?
Hit poorer peasants and tenants most of all as wealthy clothiers and sheep farmers raised their prices to offset its cost
Why did the Subsidy Act of 1549 add to the lists of grievances against the government?
The tax was due to be assessed two weeks after the introduction of the English prayer book
What was Devon in 1549?
A largely enclosed county and was affected more than most
