After the time of Henry I. important changes had taken place in the matter of taxation, many of which have been noticed in our former pages. Henry II., as we saw, introduced the payment of scutage, by which the land-owners contributed money instead of serving personally in arms. He likewise got rid of Danegeld, and consulted the towns and shires on the amount of grants required, by means of his itinerant judges. Until now all taxation had been defrayed by the land, except in the boroughs, where the contribution required was often raised by a poll-tax, an equal sum per head imposed on every inhabitant. Towards the end of the reign of Henry II. the custom of taxing movables, household furniture, and stock was introduced; first, in order to raise the national contribution for the Crusade, known as the Saladin tithe. Great part of the money required for Richard’s ransom was levied in the same way, and under John and Henry III. this became the most common way of taxing. A seventh, a tenth, a fifteenth, or a thirtieth of “movables” was from time to time asked for, and the more frequent the need became the more fully was developed the idea that the tax-payer had a right to be consulted on the amount which he was to pay, and to gain, if he could, some advantage in return. John’s frequent demands for money, and the illegal ways in which he took it, led to the exaction of the famous promise embodied in the 12th article of the Great Charter; “No scutage or aid shall be imposed in our kingdom unless by the common counsel of our kingdom, except to ransom our own person, to make our first-born son a knight, and to marry once our first-born daughter.” The 14th article describes the assembly which is to be called when any such impost is required: “We will cause our archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons to be summoned severally by our letters, and besides we will cause all who hold of us in chief to be summoned by general summons by our sheriffs and bailiffs.” [Sidenote: The revenue under Henry III. ]