Henry VII: Government - Extraordinary Revenue

Question 1

Definition of Extraordinary Revenue

Answer 1

• This revenue came from the duty of the subjects of the king to help him in times of need

Question 2

Bonds & Recognisances

Answer 2

• These were raised for political and financial purposes
• Payments made as a guarantee of good behaviour
• A bond was a lump sum of money payable only if a condition was not observed
• A recognisance was formal acknowledgement of a debt
• Payments were enforced by the Counsel Learned in Law
• After Bosworth the Earl of Westmorland was made to sign over £10,000 for loyalty

Question 3

Loans

Answer 3

• Voluntary loans could be raised from richer subjects and institutions e.g. merchants and town corporations
• Henry repaid these loans
• Organised by the Royal Council
• Payments enforced by the Council Learned in Law
• In 1496 Henry asked wealthy subjects for loans of £10,000 to fight the Scots and Warbeck - there was little resentment as Henry ensured he paid these loans back
• Over the reign, Henry raised some £203,000 in loans

Question 4

Benevolences

Answer 4

• These were loans that were forced with the threat of sanction, and were not repaid
• These obligatory loans could not be seized, but had to be handed over
• Could be requested from individuals and institutions
• Organised by the Royal Council
• Enforced by the Council Learned in Law
• In 1491, the King raised £48,000 to fund the invasion of France

Question 5

Feudal Dues

Answer 5

• All tenants-in-chief were obliged to pay an aid to the King on the knighting of his eldest son and marriage of his eldest daughter
• Gifts were paid by leading nobles, but Parliament was also expected to make a grant on behalf of the people it represented
• Henry exploited this source of income fully – for example, he received £30,000 from Parliament in 1504 for the knighthood of Prince Arthur (who had died in 1502)

Question 6

Clerical Taxes

Answer 6

• Special taxes which the King could levy on the Church
• Convocation (the Church assembly) matched each parliamentary subsidy
• Another source of income from the church was vacant bishoprics. When a bishop died, the King might not appoint a successor, and so keep the revenue
• Practice called ‘simony’ where men were charged for church offices - banned in Church, but widely practised
• Later in the reign, several bishops died enabling Henry to raise over £6,000pa from vacant bishoprics
• Henry raised £300 for the post of Archdeacon of Buckingham for example
• In 1489 the convocation (like the parliament of the Church) awarded Henry £25,000 toward war with France

Question 7

Parliamentary Taxes

Answer 7

• Fifteenth and Tenths were the usual form of taxes with fifteen percent of a subjects’ movable goods taxed in the countryside and ten percent in the towns
• Parliamentary taxes were available but were often unpopular, and triggered two rebellions in Henry’s reign (in Yorkshire in 1489 and Cornwall in 1497)
• He avoided parliamentary taxes as much as possible