of the Revenues BY reason of the great charges and expences which the Kings of England were at through their severall Generations to protect and defend themselves and their people though some of them as in all other conditions and sorts of men were sound to be less provident then others and more easie to the flatteries of Courtiers or the necessities or importunities of Favourites or Followers as King Edward the second and King Richard the second sixty thousand Knights Fees or maintenance for them given away by William the Conquerour of which the Religious Houses then or in the near succeeding times came to be possessed of 28115. the yearly value of which number of Knights Fees if now they should be estimated but at ten thousand and valued but at the rate of twenty pounds per annum as they seemed to be at the making of the Statute of 1 Ed. 2. would be worth two hundred thousand pounds per annum and if at three hundred pounds per annum which is now the least of the improvement Sir Edward Coke reckoning eight hundred and others six hundred and eighty acres to a Knights Fee and others at the least allowing a large proportion would make three millions per annum sterling two hundred and eighty Manors given to Godfry Bishop of Constance which he left to his Nephew Moubray the Isle of Wight Earldome of Devon and Honour of Plimpton given by Henry the first to Richard de Ripariis or Rivers Earldome of Gloucester to Robert Fitz Henry great possessions given away by King Stephen to purchase love and fidelity the great Estates in Land which Maud the Empress was inforced to grant and her Son King Henry the second afterwards to confirme to divers of the great men and Nobility as the Earldom of Oxford to Awbrey de vere Earldome of Arundel to William de Albeney Earldome of Hereford to Miles of Gloucester and of Essex to Jeofrey Magnauile to forsake the usurping King Stephen and the great charge which those twenty years warres expended the wars of King H. 2. in France and with his own Sons there and at home and of seven and forty thousand three hundred thirty three pounds six shillings eight pence expended and given towards the warres of the Holy land great somes of gold and silver sent to the Pope charges of the voyage or expedition which King Richard the first made in person into Asia and the Holy Land and his ransome the Earldomes of Mortaigne Cornwall Dorses Somerset Nottingham Derby and Lancaster with all their great possessions being a great part of the Crown Revenues given to his brother John and a great part of the remainder sold The troubles of King John with his boisterous Barons the Stanneries Castles and Honor of Barkhamstead and County of Cornwall granted by King Hen. 3. to his Brother Richard his great warres and turmoils in the Barons warres which drove him to such wants and perplexities as he and his Queen as Matthew Paris tells us were somtimes enforced to seek their daily and necessary sustenance from Monasteries charge of endeavoring at a great rate and price though unsuccesfully to make his Son Edmond King of Sicily and furnishing his Son Edward afterwards King E. 1. with an Army to Jerusalem that of King Ed. 1. in his wars against the Scots and subduing that Kingdom the raising and advancing the unhappy Favorites Gaveston and the two Spencers Father and Son by King Edward the Second and his troubles great expences of Edward the Third in his Conquering of France the Dukedom of Cornwal and Earldoms of Chester and Flint setled upon the Black Prince his Son and the eldest Sons and Heirs of the Kings of England successively preferring of Lionel Duke of Clarence and his many other Sons restoring of Don Pedro to the Kingdom of Castile by the aid of the Black Prince the Earldom of Salisbury Isle of Man Castle and Barony of Denbigh given to Mountacute and one Thousand Marks Lands per annum besides to him and his Heirs for taking Roger Mortimer Prisoner at Nottingham Castle one thousand pounds per annum with the Town and Castle of Cambridge to William Marquess of Juliers and the Heirs of his body Honor of Wallingford and Earldome of Cornwall escheated given to John of Eltham his Brother the penalties and fines of Labourers Artificers and Servants in anno 36. of his reign given to the Commons for three years to be distributed amongst them the maintaining and humoring of severall Factions of the great Nobility by King Richard the second his voyage into Ireland and after misfortunes raising of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset and John Holland his half-Brother to be Earl of Kent and Duke of Exeter dissentions and troubles in the Reign of King Henry the fourth preferring another of the Beauforts to be Earl of Dorset and his establishment as well as he could in his own usurpations Chirk and Chirk Lands in Wales given by King Henry the fifth to Edmond Beaufort second Son of John Beaufort Earl of Somerset the charge of his Conquest of France the seeking to preserve and keep it by Henry the sixth long and bloody Factions and Warres of York and Lancaster Kendal and other great possessions given to John de Foix a Frenchman in marriage with Margaret the Sister to William de la Poole Duke of Suffolk the Earldome of Shrowsbury to the high deserving Talbot the Isles of Guarnsay and Jersey and the Castle of Bristol to Henry Beauchamp Duke of Warwick the charge of King Edward the fourth in his getting the Crown the Earldome of Pembroke given by him to William Lord Herbert the making of friends and parties by King R. 3. pacifying of Interests by King Hen. 7. his gifts and grants to Stanley Earl of Derby and the dying the white Rose into the Red or uniting of them the voyages and warres of King H. 8. in France preferring of Charles Brandon to be Duke of Suffolk Seymour to be Earl of Hertford Ratcliffe Earl of Sussex Thomas Manors Earl of Rutland Sir Thomas Bolein to be Viscount Rochford and Earl of Wiltshire his contest with the Pope and other great Princes large and great quantities of Religious and Ecclesiasticall Lands given away to divers of his Nobility many of whom had been the former Donors thereof and to divers of the Gentry to corroborate what he had done bring them into a better liking of that action and to be the more unwilling to leave those Lands which he had given them a remission of all debts without schedule or limitation in anno 21. of his Reign endowing six Bishopricks and Cathedrall Churches Pensions for life to many which were turned out of their Cloisters a perpetuall maintenance to the Professors of the Greek and Hebrew Tongues Civill Law Divinity and Physick in both the Universities and to twelve poor Knights at Windsor the warres of King Edward the sixth in Scotland creating of John Dudley Earl of Warwick Duke of
to the damage done by such attempts and Rebellions and the charge of suppressing them and defending themselves and their people to reconcile the Heirs Posteritie and Allies of such as had been attainted and induce them to a better obedience and love of their Country The no small charges susteined heretofore by granting yearly Pensions or Annuities to severall of the Nobility to serve extraordinary besides the ordinary duty of their Tenures with certain numbers of gens d' armes and Bowmen in times of warre or upon necessity the building and endowing of many Colleges and Halls in the Universities Eaton and Winchester Schools and endowing with great yearly Revenues the Famous Hospitalls of Bridewell and Christ-Church in London and St. Thomas in Southwark building and endowing a great part of the Cathedrals in England the Castle and Chappel of Windsor and Palaces of Sheene Woodstock Richmond repair of the Tower of London Castle of Dover c. Charges for the honour of the King and Kingdome in making and installment of Knights of the Garter and the costly ceremonies thereof and not seldome sending Ambassadours with it to forraign Princes expences in making of Knights of the Bath and in the reign of our more antient Kings for Furres and rich Vestments in making Knights Bachelors Charge of the Courts of Justice and Circuits to preserve the peoples Rights Properties and Liberties protect them from injuries and punish the transgressors now taking away yearly from the regal Revenue fifteen or sixteen thousand pounds per ann which in honester and cheaper times was in the Reign of Henry the sixth as much as worshipfully defrayed as the Record saith the expences of his then no small retinue and houshold with the greater charges now more then formerly in all other the necessaries and affairs belonging to the Kingly Office A daily and almost hourly distribution and giving of Royall favours and munificence and necessity of much of it when as that which amongst private men is accounted providence thrift and good husbandry would be an unbecoming sparing in Princes and an avarice and temptation to oppress the people and that which in others would be prodigality or a wast and consumptions of their Estates and reckoned as a folly is in Kings and Princes most necessary in their bounties and favours wherewith to satisfie and keep in quiet as well as they can multitudes of people whose numberless passions iniquities ill humors designs necessities and interests are by the Sword of Justice in one hand and the Royal Scepter of grace and Benevolence in the other to be kept in order by love honor obedience and loyalty the best increasers maintainers and preservers of publick peace and tranquility which those who have suffered in the want of it but some daies or moneths or a year or few years or our last twenty years folly and miseries may know how to esteem and value A dayly or very often craving and petitioning of some or many of his Subjects and the largeness of a royal heart and hand like an over indulgent Parent taking a pleasure and content to divest himself to enrich and give them content The vast difference betwixt the charges of Navies and Armies now more then formerly when a Hobler or Dragoon Horseman which was wont to be heretofore hired at three pence per diem now hath no less then two shillings six pence a Footman eight pence the pay of a Troop of horse cannot be under four thousand pounds per annum and of one hundred and eighty men in a Garrison three thousand six hundred pounds per annum The course of warre iâ— the later ages growing more and more tedious and chargeable and so immense as the Dutch notwithstanding their sout gelt or Tax upon salt their vectigal frumenti for corn grinded at their Mills the eighth part of the price of Pears and Apples a seventh of all Cattel sold to the Butchers an eighth for wood a Tax upon Candles and an Ezcise upon all things eaten drunk or worn upon Law Suits Servants Wages Ships Coaches and Carts a sixth penny upon all lease Lands Assessments upon demeasne Lands Gardens and planted Grounds an eighth upon Houses demised or let hooft gelt being a Dutch Floren for every poll or head scoorsâ—engelt a like payment for Chimney money with many other great Taxes besides their many profitable and succesfull depredations in the East and West Indies c. great aides from France and England of men and money for many years during their warres great riches got by the greatest commerce of Christendom and ransacking Sea and Land for it have been in sixty years warres with Spain left very much in debt at the end of the warres And are yet notwithstanding since the warres ended some millions of money in debt and so much as they were for many years after and are yet enforced to continue their Excise and most of their Assessments and Taxes upon the people When the King of Spain notwithstanding his vast Dominions twenty millions of Duckets which is above six millions of our sterling money yearly Revenues great exactions and impoverishing of his people by yearly Taxes and Assessments the golden Mines of Peru Mexico and Potozi and other inestimable treasures of the West Indies which Pâ—â—hero a Spanish Ambassadour in a brag or vie with the treasurie of Venice could say had no bottom and having the Sun for its Lord Treasurer daily to generate and increase its gold hath yearly for many years yeilded the Crown of Spain by and out of the Fifths sometimes ten and sometimes fifteen millions of gold and so much as in the year 1638. two hundred and sixty millions of gold did by the Records of the Custome-house of Sivill appear to have been in seventy four years then last past brought from the West Indies into Spain and from Potozi in nine years inclusivè from 1574. to 1585. one hundred and eleven millions of silver hath notwithstanding with his wars with the Dutch and a warr of late years with France chargeable bribes and intelligences and a thirst after an universal Monarchy consumed that and all that he could borrow besides from the Bankers of Genoa And France with all her Taxes and Gabells beggering and very much enslaving of her common people hath in a warre of thirty years last past with the Spaniards fought it self almost off its legs and into a consumption Which a long and late experience may forbid our wondring at when as the late long pretending but no performing Parliament could with the spoils of the Kings and Churches Revenues the Estates of the Nobility Gentry and good people in England Scotland and Ireland and more Taxes and burdens imposed by them and Oliver their man of sin in twenty years then our Kings of England in five hundred years last past all put together had before laid upon them could not leave their Oliver when their sins and his tricks had made him to be
in his houshold expences as formerly now that his Pourveyance is taken away looseth two hundred and fifty thousand pounds per annum by the loss of his Tenures and Pourveyance is at eighty thousand pounds per annum charge for the maintenance of the Garrison of Dunkirk above five hundred thousand pounds per annum for the Navy and Land forces hath to procure a publick quiet paid many hundred thousand pounds of the Arrears of the Navy and Army employed against himself and left in Arrears by his Enemies must be ten times a giver if he should grant every ones Petition to one that he shall be a gainer or receiver discontents himself to content others and forgetting that old rule and practice of the world sibi proximus is enforced to provide for others and not for himself and in the midst of his own necessities is to be the rewarder of virtue and still as well as he can the raging waves of the multitude is the Asylum or refuge of all that are distressed and bears or lessens their burdens out of his own Revenues And when Neighbour Princes are not usually without ambitions and taking all opportunities to enlarge their power and Dominions by the weaknesse of others or to weaken and oppress any of their Neighbours and make advantages of their troubles and necessities doe seldome want pretences of titles or revenging Injuries done to them or their people by Kings or their people and can lay aside their sworn Leagues and Confederacies as soon as their Interest or Designs shall invite them thereunto when the French King hath by computation an ordinary yearly Revenue of above twenty millions of Crowns which makes above five millions sterling per annum besides his extraordinaries which by Taxes and Tallages in the late warres being now by a habit and custome grown something easie and familiar to them may be raised to vast yearly sums of money and more then treble the ordinary when the King of Spain aboundeth in his Revenues in his Dominions in Christendom besides his extraordinary Aids Assesments and vast treasures and supplies from the West Indies which is a ready or rich pawn or credit for borrowing of monies upon all extraordinary emergencies occasions or necessities of State affairs The City of Venice with her Territories hath above a million sterling per annum in her yearly Income besides extraordinaries and a treasure of money enough to pay six Kings ransomes with Jewels and Plate unvaluable And the Dutch have one million and two hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum yearly ordinary Revenue out of Amsterdam besides what they have yearly out of all other Cities Towns and Places by their huge Excises and Assessments upon all the seven United Provinces And the King of England who was wont to be Arbiter totius Europae hold and keep the Ballance of Christendom even and if he do not it cannot be either safe or well for his own Kingdomes and People and their Trade and Commerce must pine and wither away languish and groan under so great expences and necessities whilest he is to preserve himself and people in peace plenty and safety and hath so little to doe it withall when at home all men do seem to love and serve him very many doe ask and get what they can from him and too many deceive him And as that prudent and great Statesman Cecil Earl of Salisbury Lord Treasurer of England observed to the Parliament in the Reign of King James it is a certain rule that all Princes are poor and unsafe who are not rich and so potent as to defend themselves upon any sodain offence and invasion or help their Allies and Neighbours Hath a small Revenue to govern an unruly People one part of them ready to runne mad with mistaken opinions in Religion and too many of the residue overgrown with vice and luxury a burden of burdens laid upon him the burdens of his people and the burdens of his Ancestors by their bounties expence and necessities and are by so much greater or heavier then theirs as his Revenues are consideratis considerandis a great deal lesser CHAP. I. The Remedies WHich a small or ordinary repair will not help but requires new and more sollid and lasting foundations endeavoured seriously and attempted by King James about the seventh year of his Reign by the advice of his Parliament and Privy Council but not then or any time since brought to perfection And may in a legall and well pleasing way to the people without the unwelcome raising of the Tenths of the Abbie and religions Lands to the present yearly value which may be of dangerous consequence and the Tenths and First-fruits of the Bishops and Clergy of England who have been over much pared already or a Resumption of the Crown Lands which unless it be of such wherein the King or his Father have been grossely deceived and the first money paid for the purchase upon an account of the mesne profits and interest satisfied will hugely disturb the Interest and House-gods of too many of the Nobility Gentry and rich men of the Kingdome and without any new or forreign devices or Talliages to raise monies and Fricasser or tear in pieces the already too much impaired estates of a Tax-bearing tired people which that Monarch of virtues and blessed Martyr King Charles the first did so abhorre as he caused Mr. Selden Mr. Oliver St. John to be imprisoned in the Tower of London a bill to be exhibted in Star-chamber against them and the Earl of Clare and others for having only in their custody and divulging a Manuscript or writing of certain Italian projects proposed to him by Sir Robert Dudley a Titulado Duke in Tuscanie and with out the gawling grating and most commonly unsuccesfull way of Projects which if set up will be thrown down again by the after Complaints and discontents of the people or hunting and vexing them with informations or calling their Lands and Estates in question to the ruine of them and their Families upon defective Titles or by Monopolies or a trebling abuses by pretending to reform them or Essayes of new wayes of profit framed or found out by such as designe more to themselves then for the good either of King or People and either know not or cannot or will not foresee the many evills and sad consequences which may as effects from causes fatally and unavoidably follow such or the like attempts which the necessities of Kings or want of competent revenues may either put them or their servants and followers upon Be as is humbly conceived prevented by severall Acts of Parliament to be made upon the propositions following which will not only encrease the Kings Revenues but encourage and make the People very willing and well contented therewith when as what they shall for the present loose thereby shall at the same time by enacting of some good Laws for them be abundantly repenced By a generall inclosure of
be by some good Laws restrained and suppressed and that the Aulnage aswell of Cloth as Stuffs may according to sundry Acts of Parliament and other provisions be better looked unto and put in execution That the great and many Deceipts Abuses and Adulterations now used in most or too many Trades and Manufactures surpassing all the Cheats and Tricks of Hocus Pocus or which the Pillories the Court of Star Chamber heretofore punished ingrossings of Commodities or carrying them beyond the Seas on purpose to make a scarcity and bring them in again at double or greater Rates unlawful confederacies to make the Manufactures so slight or evil wrought as they may the sooner be worn out or by a small price paid to the Workmen get the greater Rate in the Retail Bonds or Securities enforced from Workmen not to make or sell at that rate to any other Combinations to inhaunce Prices and so many more ungodly Artifices imployed as Tricks and Trades are now grown to be Termes convertible and the Divels Registers have not precedents enough for them whereby not onely numberless great oppressions are daily exercised upon the people to the impoverishing of many of them by those that like Pikes in the Fish Ponds do live only better then others by devouring and undoing the smaller Frye and industriously imploy themselves therein and at the same time cry out of injustice and oppression where it was not and busied themselves about Religion and Gospel Purity when they never intended nor could not afford to practice it whereby all our English Trade and Manufactures are disparaged and brought into a slight esteem and made to be unsaleable or at very low rates in the parts beyond the Seas and to give place to the Commodities and Manufactures of other Nations more honestly made and if not speedily remedied will render all his Majesties cares of reviving and promoting the English Trade and Merchandise of no avail as long as that Canker or a principal cause of the decay and ruine of it shall be permitted may by some good Laws be restrained and suppressed That the many good propositions heretofore made by Mr. Henry Robinson and some others concerning the Regulation or bettering of the ways of Trade and Merchandise may now after a Committee of Trade in the times of Usurpation and Confusion sleeping too much over it and doing nothing whilst Trade it self came to be almost ruined be taken into a more serious consideration and some good Laws enacted in pursuance of them That the Manufacture of Linnen Cloth the importation whereof from Flanders and other Foreign parts expends the Nation little less then 100000 l per annum by reason that too many of our Wives in England have exchanged their good Housewisfery for Gallantry and Spinning for spending may be more incouraged in England by Injoyning six Acres in every hundred Acres of errable Land in England and Wales to be yearly sowed with Hemp Flex and that there be an Aulnage of Linnen Cloth as well as of Stuffs and Woollen Cloth That our Laws be not as too many of them use to be Still Born or expiring by that time they can be read or recorded or Starved at Nurse but that some good Laws may be made to prevent or cure their Swouning or Convulsion fits and bring them up to the good ends or purposes for which they were ordained and put them in execution That our Paths being restored we may rejoyce in our Laws and Constitutions and abhor those wandring after Dark Lanthorns or the ignis fatuus of newlights which have lead us into many great miseries and confusions That the Excise of Ale Beer Perry and Syder and the charges affliction and troubles which it brings upon the people which before our times of misery would have brought death and ruine any private contriver and was at the first created by Oliver and his Impes to maintain a cursed Rebellion and set up a destroying and detestable Anarchy may be abolished and taken away and the Nation restored to the freedom and quiet which they formerly enjoyed under this our ancicent and excellently composed Monarchy That his Majesties Ancient and just Rights of Royal Pourveyances upon a due Regulation of any evils or oppressions which may be proved to have been committed in the manner of taking of them may be restored to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and that very great Consumption of his Estate occasioned by an enhaunce and trebling of the Rates and prices of Provision for his Houshould which hath laid heavy burdens upon his too small and overmuch impoverished Revenues multiplyed his wants and necessities disturbed and disparaged the order and honor of his house and produced very many great Inconveniences worthy to be remedied by the Parliament and the care which they usnally take for the support of his Imperial Crown and Dignity may be cured And when a long and generall observation and experience can tell every man who is not a stranger to his own affairs or of other men how hard a thing it is for one that is behind hand to overcome his Povertie and get before hand how impossible it will be for a private man to live out of Debt when his yearly and necessary expences and disbursements shall far surmount his Receipts and Revenues how necessary a Treasury Banke or overplus of money which is Robur belli fundamentum ac firmamentum pacis is for a King in times of War and its many chargeable occasions and the power and reputation of it in times of Peace to preserve it and that all Kingdoms and people never were or could think themselves safe without it That in order to publick good and to consolidate the hoped for happiness of King and People which the pretended Parliaments of our late Times of Usurpation busying themselves in laying Burdens and Taxes upon the People for the maintenance of a War and an Arbitrary power and Tyranny and the continuance of their miseries could never find the way or leisure to establish A Royal and Princely yearly Revenue may be settled upon his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and to the end to make the Plaister or the Tent proportionable to the wound and to the cure intended and not make the repaires of his Revenues to be insufficient or more chargeable and burdensome by doing it by parcels or at several times whereby it may ruine before it can be repaired or suddainly after and for the better satisfaction of some of the Purchasers who were the cause of their own and his Majesties troubles and miseries and of the Kings Loyal Party who suffered with him in it The highest monethly Assessement or Tax which in our late times of confusion was One hundred and twenty thousand pounds per mensem may by Assessement or Subsidies or some other way proportionable unto it for the next two years if the Parliament shall think fit be assented unto and yearly collected
Somerset and others attainted added by King Edward the sixth the forfeitures of the Duke of Northumberland William Parr Marquess of Northampton John Earl of Warwick Sir Thomas Wyat and others to Queen Mary the Lands of the Duke of Norffolk Philip Earl of Arrundel the Earls of Westmerland Essex and Southampton Sir John Perrot Leonard Dacres and others in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and hers as well as King Edward the sixth's ill advised and unhappy clypping and lessening the Lands and Revenues of many Bishopricks Deans and Chapters forfeitures of the Lord Cobham Sir Walter Rawley and of Winter Grant and other the Gunpowder Traytors the great revenues of the Earles of Tyrone and Desmond and other large confiscated Escheats and forfeited Estates in Ireland which came to King James for before his reign and the subduing of Tyrone that Kingdome as to the publick was a greater charge then profit addition of Scotland and all the Appennages and Lands of the royal Brethren and Princes of the blood of England in their several times and ages falling into the Regal Revenues would have made a plentifull support for the Crown of England if they had tarried as they did not one for another and continued unwasted and unaliened CHAP. II. Supplies and Additions to the Royall Revenues and the many cares taken therein by Parliaments and otherwise WHich could not be prevented by a thousand sixty one pounds and three half pence per diem revenue ex justis reditibus which William the Conqueror had in daily revenue after his Knights Fees and his large gifts and rewards given to his friends and followers which in the now value of money and rates of provision would a great deal more then treble that summe as Ordericus vitalis who was born in his reign and died in the beginning of the reign of King Stephen hath informed us exceptis muneribus regiis reatum redemptionibus aliisque multiplicibus negotiis quae Regis Aerarium quotidie aduagebant besides Gifts Presents Confiscations and other things which did daily increase his riches nor by sixty thousand pounds sterling 〈◊〉 by him in his Treasury his Censas Nemorâ—m rents or profits of Woods Escheats and incidents of Tenures in Capite and by Knight service Hidage Danegeld Sponte oblata for all Grants or Favours which passed from him Cambium Regium or benefit of Exchanges rating of the Fees of the Officers of his Household to a certainty per diem taking accounts upon oath for all his monies issued out or imprest for repair of his Castles and Houses and fines for granting of Priviledges and Liberties Contributions to William Rufus towards the building of Westminster-Hall three shillings upon every hundred Acres or Hide of Land in England to King Hen. 1. and his providence in making every third year a survey of his Woods and Forrests changing of the penalites of mutilation of members into pecuniary mulcts turning of his rents which were formerly paid in corn and other houshold provisions into money and six pence overplus in every pound for any loss or abatement which might happen in the value of money which being then by reason of his often absence and residence in Normandy reckoned to be good husbandry proved shortly afterwards by the change of times dearer rates of provision to be the contrary and a great disadvantage to his Successors one hundred thousand pounds in money besides Plate and Jewels left by him in his Treasury and possest by King Stephen resumption of divers Lands aliened from the Royal Revenue reforming of the Exchequer by Hen. 2. revoking of all Grants of Lands aliened from the Crown of the Castles of Clebury Wigmore and Bridgnorth from 〈◊〉 Mortimer City of Gloucester and Lands belonging unto it from Roger Fitz Miles Earl of Hereford Castle of Scarborough from William Earl of Albemarle with many other Lands Towns and Castles and from William Earl of Mortain and Warren base Son to King Stephen the Castle of Pemsey and City of Norwich notwithstanding that himself had granted them to the said William Earl of Mortaign in his agreement with King Stephen alledging that they were of the Demeasnes of the Crown and could not be alienated calling of certain of his great Ministers of Estate to account and imposing a Tax of two pence upon every yoke of Oxen in Ireland and two pence in the pound by Act of Parliament of every mans Lands and goods in Normandy to be paid in the year 1166. and a penny in every pound to be paid for four years following for the relief of the Christians in the Holy warre enquiring by his Justices Itinerants and Articles in Eyre in England of the rights of his Crown and Exchequer taxing in the 32. year of his reign all his Dominions in France with the Tenth of the Revenues for that year of all as well Clergy as Laity but such as went in person to the Holy warre the tenth of all their moveables as well gold as silver and the tenth of the moveables of two hundred of the richest men in London and of one hundred in York banishment of William de Ipre Earl of Kent with his Countrymen and followers when they grew to be a burden to the Kingdome nine hundred thousand pounds in money besides Plate and Jewels inestimable left in the Treasury to his Son King Richard the first great summes of money gained by him by renewing Charters and Fines imposed upon Sheriffs and Accomptants and such as had taken part with his Brother John in his usurpations the tenth of all moveables granted to him and the City of London giving him a voluntary contribution towards his voyage into the Holy Land banishment of Otho Earl of York the Son of his Sister and all the Bavarians a fourth part given him by Parliament of all spirituall and temporall Revenues as much for moveables and twenty shillings for every Knights Fee resumption of many Grants of Lands and Annuities two shillings of every plough land taken for preparation of a journy to Normandy examination of the Accounts of his Exchequer Officers five shillings laid upon every plough land for another forrain voyage and a general survey made of his Lands and Profits Three shillings for every plough land granted by Parliament to King John for his affairs in Normandy one hundred thousand pounds taxed upon the Clergy towards his charges in Ireland a thirteenth of all Spirituall and Temporall mens goods twenty six shillings eight pence for every Knights Fee two shillings upon every plough land an Ayde of twenty six shillings and eight pence of every Knights fee towards his warres in Wales with Escauge of such as held of him besides Benevolences Escheats and Americiaments twenty shillings of every Knights see towards his charges in Normandy forty shillings at another time and an Ayde for the marriage of his Sister Isabel to the Emperor Frederick The fifteenth part of every mans moveables to King Henry the third for a confirmation of
Northumberland Seymour Duke of Somerset Russell Earl of Bedford St. John Earl of Wiltshire Rich Willoughby Paget Sheffeild Barons his giving away great quantities of Ecclesiasticall and Chantry Lands Viscount Mountague Lord Howard of Effingham Lord North advanced by Queen Mary the Subsidie of four shillings in the pound for Lands and two shillings for Goods granted to King Edward the sixth in the last year of his Reign remitted by her and nine thousand two hundred pounds land per annum of the Crown given away paying at the same time twelve pound per cent Interest for twenty thousand pounds borrowed of the City of London and the greater charges and Expences of Queen Elizabeth in protecting the Neatherlands and United Provinces which cost her five hundred thirty four thousand pounds and four hundred thousand pounds in succouring King H. 4. of France besides what was disbursed for other Protestant Allies guarding the Back-door of Scotland relieving guarding the young King who was afterwards her Successor endeavouring to reduce Ireland to its former obedience which in a few years cost her as the Lord Treasurer Cecill Earl of Salisbury in the Reign of King James informed the Parliament nineteen hundred twenty and four thousand pounds and defending her self from the Assaults and machinations of the Pope King of Spain and other Catholick Princes advancing and enriching Cecil L. Burghley Sackvile L. Buckhurst Charles Blount Lord Mountjoy Knowles Wotton Sidney Carew Petre Compton Cheney Norris and Stanhop to be Barons and creating of the Earls of Essex Leicester Lincoln and Warwick Remission of a Subsidie granted to Q. Mary Farming of her Customs to Smyth but for thirteen thousand pounds per annum afterwards to forty two thousand pounds and raising them after that only to no more then fifty thousand pounds per annum five hundred thousand pounds spent by King James in a totall subduing of Ireland three hundred and fifty thousand pounds paid for Queen Elizabeth's debts to the City of London for which some of the Crown Lands were mortgaged and for debts to the Army Admiralty and Wardrobe and discharging the reckoning of brass money in Ireland with the same sums in silver his vast expences by Treaties and Ambassadours amounting in the seventh year of his Reign unto five hundred thousand pounds to keep us in our envied peace and plenty four hundred thousand pounds disbursed in relieving the Dutch besides what was spent in satisfying the greedy cravings of the Scottish Nation preferring and raising of the Duke of Richmond Ramsey Earl of Holderness Earls of Carlisle Kelley Morton and Dunbarre Howard Earl of Northampton Carr Earl of Somerset Herbert Earl of Montgomery Villers Duke of Buckingham Cranfeild Earl of Middlesex Cecill Earl of Salisbury Howard Earl of Suffolke Mountague Earl of Manchester Ley Earl of Marleborough and Digby Earl of Bristol All which and many more which might be here enumerated did not only as was usuall in the Reigns of our former Kings by necessary bounties encouraging of virtue and valour rewarding of merits and high deservings of Ministers of State and great Atchievements of men of warre through a successiion of ages accidents occasions and reasons of State draw and derive their honours from those fountains of Honour but large Revenues and Lands many times likewise to support and maintain their Dignities and sometimes upon the Petitions of the Commons in Parliament as to conferre upon John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the Dukedome of Acquitaine in the reign of King Edward the third to make John Holland the Kings half-Brother Earl of Huntington in the reign of King Richard the second and to preferre and advance the Lords John and Humphrey Sons of King Henry the fourth and sometimes great Pensions and Annuities were given for life untill Lands could be provided to support them in reward of virtue and their services done or to be done for the good of the Nation and to continue them and their posterities as props and pillars of the Royall Throne in a gratefull acknowledgment of the favours received from it And besides those former rewards and Ennoblishments puts it at this day for Creation money paid to the Dukes Marquesses and Earls to no less a charge then one thousand pounds per annum by which the people were in all ages no loosers when the Honour strength and defence of the Kingdome was maintained and increased by them and themselves kept in peace and plenty the manner of living in ancient and better times being with little money and small rents great services by the thankfull and ready duty and affections of Tenants to their Benefactors and mesne Lords not only made them great in power but enabled them to imitate their Princes as much as they could in great hospitalities deeds of charity and almes building and endowing of Churches Abbies Priories and Religious Houses and giving large Inheritances to their Servants Friends and Followers pro homagio servitio and other dependances Common of Estovers and of great quantities of Lands to severall Cities Towns and Villages and in such a plentifull manner distributed and gave their Lands as if the Lands in Capite by Knight Service Coppyhold Lands Commons which our King's Nobility and Gentry bestowed heretofore upon the inferiour sort of people and what they dedicated to God by giving to Churches Religious Houses Colleges Churches and Chappels should be surveyed and measured they would amount to no less then two parts in four of the Lands of the Kingdome The quondam lethargie sleepiness and unactivity of many of the Officers of the Exchequer who should be as the Argus eyes to guard the Royall Revenue the indulgence heretofore or neglect of some of her Officers and their not remembring that they were to be the Kings and his Treasurers Remembrancers respiting or nichiling of his debts upon feigned Petitions which can tell how to deceive the most carefull Barons or Judges of that Court when their Soveraign suffered in the mean time very great damage for want of the money the not duly estreating of all Fines and Amerciaments corrupt compounding for such as were estreated by under Officers at easie rates granting to the City of London their Fines and Amerciaments want of looking after as they doe in other Nations the execution of those multitudes of penall Lawes which otherwise will be to little purpose and assisting the collection of the Kings legall profits arising thereby the heretofore carelesness or corruption of some of our former Kings Officers who for fees of favour enlarged their Charters and Grants to bodies politique Cities Towns and Corporations and to as many private persons as would petition for them and decked them with the flowers of the Kings Crown which were not to be parted with so easily So as what by Grants or Prescription which in many cases is but the incroachment or filchings of liberties and priviledges concealed or not well looked after covered and drawn into a property by a time beyond
all wast Lands Commons belonging to the Kings Queens and Princes revenues in England and Wales allotting equall and reasonable proportions for satisfaction of Commoners and by disafforrestation of some Forrests and Chases remote from London or the Kings ordinary Residences the imbanking and taking in of all Lands infra fluxum refluxum Maris high and low watermarks derelicted and forsaken by the Sea or brought thither by Alluvion and added to the firme Land and together with the Lands and Revenues now belonging to the Crown of England never to be aliend rent-charged or leased more then for 21 years or three lives which besides the addition of revenues and profit to the King will very much adde to the livelyhood and industry of many of the people who will be maintained thereby better the Lands and increase subsidies when there shall be occasion And causing the like to be done by a generall inclosure of all that now lies wast and in common in particular and private mens Revenues in England and Wales amounting to some millions of Acres will produce the like benefits to the owners and Commoners who in a gratefull acknowledgement thereof may out of their severall allotments as freewill-offerings to their King pay yearly three pence per Acre to him and his Heirs and Successors That Banks or Mount Piete's be erected in several places of England and Wales as at London York Durham Golchester Norwich Ludlow Denbigh where mony may be lent and Pawns or Securities taken not exceeding the Interest of twelve per cent for a year or proportionably for greater or lesser times and that Commissioners in the manner of a Corporation or otherwise may in every of those places be from time to time appointed by his Majesty his Heires and Successors to order and supervise the management thereof for which his Majesty his Heires and Successors may out of the increase and profit of the said Interest receive and take forty shillings per cent no one particular person being permitted to imploy or put into the said Bank at interest above the sum of five hundred pounds and that no private or particular person putting their monies into the said Bank shall have and receive above the sum of the current or usual Interest in the Kingdom or any other gift or reward whatsoever whereby the intollerable oppression of publick and private Brokers those Baptizati Judaei and Pawn-takers which like Wolves gnaw and devour the poor as sheep when as driven to them by their necessities they are inforced to come to them for succour and give after the rate of fifty or sixty per cent which the hate of Jews to Christians never arrived to and a Christian and Protestant Kingdome ought not to countenance That by sumptuary Lawes concerning Apparrel to be worn by all degrees and orders of people the excess thereof may be regulated and abated with great penalties to the infringers thereof which Athens Sparta and Rome being heathen Common-wealths and England heretofore by sundry good Laws and Statutes unhappily repealed in anno 21 Jac. Spain by Pragmatico's and France by a late Reiglement have found to be an universall good and the Common-wealth of Venice held it to be necessary Nè civium patrimonia nimia intemperantia abliguriantur to keep their Citizens from wasting and spending their Estates being Laws now more then ever wanting in England when as that which wil quickly undo private or particular Families which by their universality do make a Kingdome is so frequent and every where almost to be found in a daily practise and pursuit of pride and that cheating one another to maintain it is the most of the peoples cares and consciences every house almost as to the excess of their vanities and expences beyond their Estates hath a Mark Anthony and Cleopatra in it and too many men and women though not so good or well able to bear it as King William Rufus doe think their clothes not costly enough many of the Nobility and Gentry have wasted and spent themselves almost quite out of themselves and left themselves little more then their Titles and Pedigrees The Citizens doe all they can to our-doe them infolly the Farmers Yeomanry and Countrymen all they can to overtake them and the Servants to come as near as they can to their Masters Ladies or Mistresses And they that first spend themselves to nothing or very near it are like to quit the race to those that come after and they which come last to the brink of ruining their fortunes which will be probably the common and lower ranks of the people are likely to learn by those that ruined themselves before them to stay where they left be Masters of the others Estates And that such as shall wear any habits or kinds of Apparrel forbidden be rated in all publick Assessments according to the estate and quality of such persons as are allowed to wear the like that whosoever shall not be of the degree and quality to keep a Coach or live in the Country not farre distant from the Parish Church and keepeth one shall forfeit and pay 5. l. for every year in which he shall so keep it that the Justices of Peace in every Country be the Collectors of all the penalties concerning Apparel Habits and keeping of Coaches and to have a â—ourth part of the forfeitures upon the receipt conviction or recovery thereof that the Masters and Mistresses of Servants trangressing that Act shall out of the wages due to such Servants pay and answer every of the penalties forfeited by the Servants not exceeding their said wages and stop and detain the same and for their care therein have and receive to their own use one third part in four to be divided of the said penalties and that the residue of all the said penalties ordained and forfeited by the said Act shall be collected and answered to the use of the King and his Heirs and Successors Whereby that grand improvement of all Sins and Wickedness which hath now overspread the Kingdome that consumption of Estates and destruction of good Manners And that high unparralleld and inordinate excess of Apparel and pride which being the canker of all honesty and virtue ruined Rome the Conqueror and Mistress of all the World and as Histories have told us never failed to undo many other Kingdoms permitting or allowing it which our Ancestors and former inhabitants of England would have abhorred and blushed at may be restrained and those sinfull necessities and plenty of all manner of knaveries dishonesties Cheatings and villanies to maintayne it depressed and extinguished which the book of God danger of Sinne Hell and Damnation and all that can be said and done by the Bishopps Ministers Preachers and men of holy Church without the assistance of such sumptuary Lawes can never as experience hath sufficiently told us be able to beat downe extirpate or lessen Which the pretended loss of the Kings Customes by Silkes
dayes often committed oppression by a tyranny of the rich over the poor and needy and to keep the Wolves from their morning and evening preys and rejoycing in the spoil of the widdows and fatherless the hungry and necessitous which by a cheating and blinding of their consciences they will whether the Laws of God and man will or no suppose to be lawfull because it is their Trade and the misteries of it or because their Fathers or their Masters did it before them every one else doth it and every man must live and make use of their time labour calling or opportunities The people of this Kingdom being so universally endamaged by the evils happening by them and concerned and like to be benefitted by the remedies may as those of Spain Florence and other forreign Countries who in bearing some burdens and Taxes laid upon them are many times rather gainers then losers by the benefit of a Bands or rule of rating Butchers and many other Commodities to be bought or sold so as children cannot be cozened Be very willing that their representatives in Parliament shall consent That upon every Tun of wine French Spanish and Rhenish to be vented in England there be by the first buyer forty shillings per Tunne paid to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors and accounted for half yearly in the Court of Exchequer That instead of an Excise upon Ale Beer Perry and Sider every one that shall in a publick Alehouse sell Ale Beer Perry or Sider shall yearly pay to the King his Heirs and Successors forty shillings per annum and every publick Brewer twenty pounds per annum and a further rate proportionable to the quantities of their Brewings And that to restore this antient Monarchy and heretofore famous and flourishing Kingdome to its former honour safety and defence and an ease from the charge of mercenary Armies and Guards and to prevent the great and many dangers and inconveniencies which may happen thereby as also to fatherless Children by Guardianships and breaches of trust his Majesty and his Heirs and Successors may have and enjoy his and their antient rights of Tenures in Capite and by Knight Service and all mesne Lords their Heirs their Tenures by Knight Service with all incidents thereunto belonging allowing unto every one holding of the King by those Tenures the liberty of being freed from the marriage of his Heir to be compounded for by yearly paying unto the King into the Exchequer or into the Court of Wards next after his age of one and twenty years and livery sued forth the sum of twenty pounds per annum rent for every Knights Fee which he shall hold or proportionably according to the partes thereof 1. That in the granting of Wardships to the Mother or next friends according to the Instructions of King James with those reasonable cares and considerations of debts and younger children used by the Court of Wards and Liveries the marriages of the Wards and Rents of their Lands during all the time of their minorities computed together be never above one years improved value which will be but the half of that which is now accompted to be a reasonable Fine and is frequently paid by many Copihold Tenants whose Fines are certain 2. That the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Durham who by antient exemptions and priviledge are to have the wardships of Tenants holding of them by Knight service in their minorities though they hold other Lands in Capite and by Knight service of the King may be ordained to doe the like favours 3. That all that hold in Capite and by Knight service be according to their antient liberties and rights granted by the Charter of King Henry the first freed as in reason they ought from all Assessments of their demeasn Lands touching warre 4. That Primer Seisins be taken away of such kind of Tenures and no more paid 5. That the Lands holden in Socage or of any other mesne Lords in case of minority of any in ward to the King by reason of Tenure in Capite or pour cause de gard being taken into consideration only as to the Fine for the marriage may not be put under any Rent or Lease to be made by the Court of Wards but freed as they were frequently and antiently by Writs sent to the Escheators 6. That the King in recompence thereof may have and receive of every Duke or Earl dying seized of any Lands or Hereditaments in Capite and by Knight service two hundred pounds of every Marquess Viscount and Baron two hundred marks and of every one that holdeth by a Knights Fee twenty pounds for a Relief or proportionably according to the quantity of the Fee which he holdeth 7. That incroachments and wast grounds holden in Capite and by Knight Service may be no cause of wardship or paying any other duties incident to that Tenure if it shall upon the first proof and notice be relinquished 8. That only Escuage and Service of warre except in the aforesaid cases of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Durham and all other incidents except Wardships due by their Tenants which hold of them by Knight service be restored to mesne Lords and that the Reliefs of five pounds for a whole Knights Fee or proportionably according to the quantity of Lands of that kind of Fee holden shall be after the death of every such Tenant twenty pounds 9. That to lessen the charges of Escheators and Juries for every single Office or Inquisition to be found or taken after the death of every tenant in Capite and by Knight Service the time of petitioning within a moneth after the death of the Ancestor may be enlarged to three moneths and the Shire Town City or principall place of every County be appointed with certain dayes or times for the finding of Offices to the end that one and the same Meeting and one and the same Jury with one and the same charge or by a contribution of all parties concerned may give a dispatch thereunto 10. That in case of neglecting to petition within three moneths after the death of the Tenant in Capite and by Knight Service or otherwise concealing any Wardships or not suing out of Livery if upon information brought issue joyned and witnesses examined or any time before Hearing or Tryall of the Cause the party offending or concerned shall pay the Prosecutor his double costs and satisfie the King the mesne rates he shall be admitted to compound 11. That the unnecessary Bonds formerly taken in the Court of Wards at two shillings six pence or three shillings charge upon suing out of every Diem clausit extremum or Writ to find an Office obliging the Prosecutor thereunto may be no more taken when as the time limited for petitioning to compound for Wardships and the danger of not doing of it will be engagement sufficient 12. That Grants Leases and Decrees of the Court of Wards may not to the great