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1540.]
ANNE OF CLEVES: FALL OF CROMWELL.
295
dition—were to forfeit their security.[1] An Act was passed for the better maintenance of the navy; and next, bringing inevitable ill-will with it to the unpopular minister, appeared the standard English grievance, a Money Bill. In the preceding session the Duke of Norfolk had laid before the Lords a statement of the extraordinary expenses which had been cast upon the Crown, and of the inadequacy of the revenue.[2] Twelve months' notice had been given, that the Houses might consider at their leisure the demand which was likely to be made upon them. May 3.It appeared in a bill introduced on the 3rd of May, requiring a subsidy of four fifteenths and four tenths, the payments to be spread over a period of four years.[3]
The occasion of a demand of money was always carefully stated; the preamble set forth that the country had prospered and had lived in wealth, comfort, and peace under the King, for thirty-one years. His Highness, in the wisdom which God had given him, had brought his subjects out of blindness and ignorance to the know-- ↑ 32 Henry VIII. cap. 12.
- ↑ Lords Journals, 31 Henry VIII.
- ↑ It was so difficult to calculate at the time the amount likely to be raised by this method of taxation, or the degree in which it would press, that it is impossible at present even to guess reasonably on either of these points. In 1545, two fifteenths and tenths which were granted by Parliament are described as extending to 'a right small sum of money,' and a five per cent. income tax was in consequence added.—37 Henry VIII. cap. 25. Aliens and clergy generally paid double, and on the present occasion the latter granted four shillings in the pound on their incomes to be paid in two years, or a direct annual tax of ten per cent.—32 Henry VIII. cap. 23. But all estimates based on conjecture ought to be avoided.
