him, and let people say against him what they would; for he thought that the nature of political life was such that every one attacked the possessor of authority[45]. _Taxes levied without a grant of Parliament._ Economy did not suffice to secure for the government complete independence in administration: means had therefore to be adopted to increase the receipts. Tonnage and poundage, the amount of which had in a few years increased by £80,000, offered the principal resource for [A.D. 1633.] effecting this object. But when old records were searched, other crown rights of earlier date were discovered which had fallen into oblivion, and might be revived with advantage. How many persons, it was said, had been bound by old usage to appear at the King’s coronation, in order to be knighted! The government called to account all who had incurred the guilt of neglecting this duty, in order that a pecuniary fine might be levied on them[46]. Another feudal right of royalty had a still wider application. In April 1633 the Earl of Holland, who sometimes took part with the government although he did not love it, was seen driving through London in a royal carriage to Stratford in Essex, in order to hold his court there as Lord Forester in the fashion of the twelfth century. He cited all those who had built within the borders of the ancient royal forests to appear, that he might investigate their titles. The occupants in vain affirmed that the claims of the crown against them had long ago been redeemed by purchase: as they had no documentary proof of this, they were compelled to pay a sum in acquittance, which in Essex alone amounted to £300,000[47]. Lord Holland opened his court in August at Winchester, to try cases connected with the New Forest: in September, attended by five judges, he went into Northamptonshire to the site of those same woods, which had once served as a refuge for the Britons, and then as a hunting-ground for the Norman kings, that he might exact penalties for encroachments on the forest of Rockingham. Some of the leading nobles, the Earl of Westmorland, Lord Peterborough, Lord Newport, and the Earl of Salisbury, were condemned, the last-named on account of an estate which had been presented to his father, Robert Cecil, by Queen Elizabeth[48]. And these claims were constantly being stretched further: it appeared as if the greater part of England would soon be considered as having been forest-land [A.D. 1634.] in former days. Even the government now felt itself in a critical position from the agitation kindled by this conduct, and suspended proceedings for a moment[49].