CHAPTER V. 



TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS. 



THE English sovereign was charged with the maintenance of 

 domestic order, called emphatically the king's peace, with the 

 administration of the law, and with the charges of the royal 

 household. To carry out these duties, the Crown was possessed, 

 (i) of a great estate, in lands which it cultivated or let out at 

 rent to tenants, as convenience suggested- (2) of ancient 

 revenues derived from a variety of sources, the most important 

 of which were those obtained from the enfranchised boroughs ; 

 (3) the fees of the royal courts, including escheats and for- 

 feitures ; (4) the feudal dues, derived from tenants of the Crown, 

 whether free or base ; (5) casualties, such as treasure- trove ; 

 (6) the receipt of the customs, which appear to have been 

 granted for short periods as compensation for the duty of pro- 

 tecting the narrow seas with a competent navy. To these general 

 sources of revenue the Lancastrian kings added those of their 

 very extensive and scattered duchy. This was made a separate 

 estate of the royal family, but was not part of that which had 

 been to a greater or less extent the estate of the king in his 

 regal capacity, the original dimensions of which had been defined 

 and described in Domesday. After the Duchy was united to 

 the Crown by Edward IV, it remained and still remains under 

 a separate administration. The theory of the constitution was 

 that except in the presence of extraordinary emergencies, the 



