The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part C.: From Henry VII. to Mary — David Hume — John Shaqi
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part C.: From Henry VII. to Mary
David Hume · en
While the treaty with the emperor was negotiating, the king summoned a
new session of parliament, in order to obtain supplies for his projected
war with France. The parliament granted him a subsidy, to be paid in
three years; it was levied in a peculiar manner; but exceeded not three
shillings in the pound upon any individual.[**]
* Rymer, vol. xiv. p. 768; vol. xv. p. 2.
** They who were worth, in goods, twenty shillings and
upwards to five pounds, paid fourpence of every pound; from
five pounds to ten pounds, eightpence; from ten pounds to
twenty pounds, sixteen pence; from twenty and upwards, two
shillings. Lands, fees, and annuities, from twenty shillings
to five pounds, paid eightpence in the pound; from five
pounds to ten pounds, sixteen pence; from ten pounds to
twenty pounds, two shillings; from twenty pounds and
upwards, three shillings.
The convocation gave the king six shillings in the pound, to be levied
in three years. Greater sums were always, even during the establishment
of the Catholic religion, exacted from the clergy than from the
laity; which made the emperor Charles say, when Henry dissolved the
monasteries, and sold their revenues, or bestowed them on his nobility
and courtiers, that he had killed the hen which brought him the golden
eggs.[*]
The parliament also facilitated the execution of the former law by which
the king’s proclamations were made equal to statutes: they appointed
that any nine counsellors should form a legal court for punishing all
disobedience to proclamations. The total abolition of juries in criminal
causes, as well as on all parliaments, seemed, if the king had so
pleased, the necessary consequence of this enormous law. He might
issue a proclamation enjoining the execution of any penal statute, and
afterwards try the criminals, not for breach of the statute, but for
disobedience to his proclamation. It is remarkable, that Lord Mountjoy
entered a protest against this law; and it is equally remarkable that
that protest is the only one entered against any public bill during this
whole reign.[**]