Several times the Governor and Council requested the Burgesses to authorize them to lay taxes not to exceed a specified sum and for a limited period. In 1661 the House did grant such a power, but thereafter, despite several attempts, the Governor and Council met with emphatic refusals. In 1680, when Charles II was aiming deadly blows at liberty in the colonies, the Burgesses yielded to threats, and surrendered a part of the people's birthright by voting a perpetual revenue to the King. When the Parliamentary fleet came into the James in 1652 to force the Virginians to recognize the Commonwealth, the Assembly insisted on inserting in the articles of surrender the promise "that Virginia shall be free from all taxes, customs, and impositions whatsoever, and none to be imposed on them without the consent of the General Assembly."[27] In 1675, when the Virginia Assembly sent agents to England to petition for a charter, they took pains to point out that "neither his Majesty nor any of his ancestors or predecessors had ever offered to impose any tax upon this plantation without the consent of his subjects here."[28] It was so universally accepted that only the Assembly could tax the people, that the agents thought it necessary to explain why they considered it wise to insert an article confirming this right. "Not being taxed but by the General Assembly, as it hath been ever the practice there and the other plantations, so it is a power given them by royal instructions, which we conceive ought to be confirmed under the Great Seal, for though it might be taken for granted that as they never have been, so they never should be otherwise taxed, and that as of right they ought to be; yet the power of the Assembly being only in instructions, we ordered this further confirmation of it."[29] Certain historians have assumed that the Americans a century later annunciated a new principle in claiming that taxation without representation is tyranny. The fact is that the principle was older than the colonies themselves. All the Revolutionary patriots did was to give it a new and more striking wording. When Parliament passed the Stamp Act they were taking an unprecedented step, a step which violated the age-old rights of Englishmen. And in so doing, they struck a deadly blow at liberty in America. The most common and the most hated source of income in Virginia was the poll tax. It was not entirely unequal since it was imposed on all male whites over sixteen, all white women over sixteen who worked in the fields, and all slaves old enough to work. Thus the poor man paid only for himself and members of his family, while the rich man paid for his servants and slaves as well. The poll tax provided revenue, not only for the general government, but for the counties and parishes.