

TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS. 169 



o per cent, for all income in excess of 200. Tenants in ward 

 are to be exempt, but their guardians are to pay. Every person 

 having an office, wages, fee or fees, and term of years, is to pay 

 2 \ per cent, on an income exceeding 40^. ; up to zo annual 

 income, and between 20 and 200, 5 per cent. If any have 

 above 200 a year in such an estate, he is to pay for the excess 

 10 per cent. 1 he proceeds of the tax are to be paid to four 

 persons, named in the grant, who are to receive each 4^-. a day 

 wages, and they are to be assisted by local authorities to be 

 named in Commission issued under the Great Seal. The 

 parties rendered liable to this tax are to be exempt from the 

 obligation of taking knighthood for two years. No member of 

 Parliament is to be a Commissioner. The Commons, protest- 

 ing their poverty, declare that they cannot make the usual 

 grants, and concede this assistance under the urgent necessities 

 of the Crown. Spiritual persons are not to be charged on any 

 of their tenements, except such as have been amortized since 

 20 Ed. I. The Bill, of which I have given a summary, was 

 thought reasonable by the Lords, and agreed to by the king. 



Tresham next proceeded to deal with the debts of the Crown, 

 and especially those of the household. He appropriated from 

 122 sources of revenue the sum of 5582 i8.y. ^\d. to the 

 king's household, with the addition of so much of the Duchy of 

 Lancaster as remained after the queen's jointure was satisfied, 

 and the fees, wages, reparations, costs, and expenses of the 

 Duchy were met. These were Tresham's financial expedients, 

 sufficient apparently for the immediate necessity. 



He had however a far higher function to perform. The 

 Commons had resolved on impeaching Suffolk, on reviving 

 a parliamentary proceeding which had been rarely and that 

 remotely used. That the duke (he had been raised to the 

 highest rank of the Peerage in 1448) anticipated his unpopu- 

 larity, is implied in the measures taken five years before, and 

 commented on above. He was aware that the storm was 

 gathering against him, and on Jan. 22, 1450, besought the 

 king that he might meet and refute impending charges. The 



