l6o TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS. 



The constant recurrence of such provisions points to the fact 

 that the appropriation of supply was essentially though irregu- 

 larly involved in the early parliamentary grants. On June 13, 

 the Parliament grants an additional five per cent, on all exports 

 and imports, if the exports and imports were made by aliens 

 or denizens, for one year. The merchants of the Hanse are to 

 be exempted from this charge on merchandise. This tax was 

 remitted on the petition of the Commons, and the release was 

 to begin from Oct. 2,2. 



On Dec. 2, 1407, the Parliament granted a fifteenth and 

 a half-fifteenth, a tenth and a half-tenth for the same object ; 

 the tax to be paid in three portions, on the Purification, on 

 the first of May, and on the Purification next following. The 

 other taxes were continued. At the same time they prayed the 

 king that these demands should no longer be made, and these 

 subsidies should cease. But a similar demand and a similar 

 grant were made on the 8th of May, 1410. No tax appears to 

 have been demanded in 1411. A Parliament was summoned 

 for 1413, but the king died before it could transact business. 



The long list of taxes given above explains the unpopularity 

 of Henry's government, the pecuniary difficulties in which he 

 was placed (probably by the fact of his usurpation, the necessity 

 which arose of conciliating the more powerful classes in the 

 community), his comparative inaction, and the boldness with 

 which the Commons advanced their claims to the king and 

 forced their reforms on him. On the accession of his son, the 

 same taxes of fifteenth and tenth, and of five per cent, on 

 exports and imports, were renewed on May 25. 



The popularity of Henry the Fifth, and his evident deter- 

 mination to revive the glories of his great-grandfather's reign, 

 made the task of managing Parliament and acquiring extra- 

 ordinary grants easy. On May 28, 1414, the grants on 

 merchandise were renewed in a Parliament at Leicester. In 

 another held at Westminster on Nov. 19, the Commons grant 

 two entire fifteenths, and two entire tenths. On Monday, 

 Nov. 4, 1415, the Commons grant the taxes to the king for life, 



