238 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
a like diminution of taxation as the result of the destruction of their 
taxable property. Upon the basis of the returns from both lay and 
ecclesiastical taxes, it is possible to gain a concrete idea of the destruction 
caused by the Scots to place alongside of the generalizations of con- 
temporary writers. 
The opening year of the reign of Edward II was a peaceful prelude 
to the disasters of the later period. Robert Bruce, after the death of 
the conqueror of Scotland, was busily engaged in his attempt to bring 
order out of the chaos in which Edward had left the country.‘ The 
northern counties, therefore, paid to the twentieth and fifteenth of the 
year 1307, sums which may be taken as standards for the reign of Edward 
II. Northumberland paid £916 18s. 11d.; Cumberland, £529 7s. 83d.; 
Westmoreland, £256 7s. 1o}d.; Lancashire, £397 135. 29d.; and 
Yorkshire, £3,867 10s. 10#d.2_ The second subsidy of the reign, that 
of the year 1309, a twenty-fifth, indicated the beginning of trouble along 
the border. The men of Northumberland paid nothing to this tax, 
though writs for its collection had been issued. The unrest in the 
north rapidly increased in intensity. In 1311 and 1312 the whole of 
the north was ravaged, Durham was sacked, and the men of this district, 
hopeless of receiving aid from their weak king, were forced to 
buy peace for themselves. In spite of the fact that he received 
large amounts of money from loans and a tallage, the king was unable 
either to meet his expenses or to repel the Scots, and called upon the 
country for another subsidy, a twentieth and fifteenth, in the year 1313.° 
The result of the two years of disorder are very apparent in the exemp- 
tion of the men of Cumberland, Westmoreland and Northumberland 
from making any payments to this taxation.° Evidently the same 
t Lane, A., History of Scotland (ed. 1900), Vol. I, pp. 212 ff. 
2L.T.R. Enrolled Accounts, Subsidies, No. 14, m.2 and m.2d. For the totals of these counties 
in 1297 and 1301 see Yorkshire Archaeol. Society, Record Series, Vol. XVI, pp. xxi-xxv; Vol. XXI, pp. xx-xxiii. 
3L.T.R. Enrolled Accounts, Subsidies, No. 14, membranes 3-4. The writs in Rotuli Parliamen- 
torum I, 445, 446; Calendar Patent Rolls, 1307-13, 183-86. 
4 Lane, A., History of Scotland (ed. 1900), Vol. I, p. 215; Letters from Northern Registers (Rolls Series), 
Pp- 203-6. 
s On the gifts and loans see Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1307-13, pp. 325, 348, 350, 358, 381, 520; London made 
a gift of 1,000 marks, Calendar Letter Books, London, Letter Book D, p. 252. Writs for the collection of the 
tallage, C.P.R., 1307-13, pp. 520, 521. 
6L. T.R. Enrolled Accounts, Subsidies, No. 14, m. 5. The names of these counties are omitted from 
this summary of the subsidy, which is sufficient proof that no money was brought into the Exchequer. 
