50 



Broughton Gifford. 



is taxed at £10, and that the ninth part of grain, wool, and lambs 

 is worth this year, in the parish aforesaid, £8 and not more ; that 

 the rector of the church aforesaid hath by gift to his church 40 

 acres, which are worth per annum 13s. 4d., the tithe of hay and 

 other small tithe, (which) are worth per annum 26s. 8d. There is 

 no chapel situate within the said parish : nor are there any other 

 temporalities than those declared above ; nor is there any one living 

 within the said parish who gets his living otherwise than by agri- 

 culture and store of sheep : and therefore cannot be taxed for a 

 fifteenth. This Presentation was made at Marleberg before Robert 

 Selyman and his fellows, assessors and setters of the ninth aforesaid, 

 3 April, 15 Edward III. 1341. In witness whereof the parties 

 hereto have severally affixed their seals to this Indenture. Dated 

 on the day, at the place, and in the year aforesaid." 



The explanation to be given of the assessment is this. The feu- 

 dal military system, however available for home defence, was not 

 adapted to the prosecution of those foreign wars in which Edward 

 III. engaged. These demanded money, money was procurable 

 only by taxation, taxation was imposable only (as all the Edwards 

 found) by the authority of Parliament and Convocation, for civil 

 and ecclesiastical property respectively. From the date of the 

 Statute de tallagio non concedendo, 1297, which had been extorted 

 from the necessities of the first Edward by the firmness of Arch- 

 bishop Winchelsea and the Earls of Hereford and Norfolk, it had 

 been unlawful (though the thing had been occasionally done) to 

 raise supplies, either by aid or by tallage, on the sole authority of 

 the King. The Parliament was the more liberal in granting legal 

 aids, through jealousy of ro} r al tallages. The amount assessed 

 was a fractional part of the value of moveable property, and was 

 called a subsidy. In 14 Edward III. Parliament granted a ninth 

 and a fifteenth. In the same year the clergy granted a tenth for 

 two years. But, notwithstanding this liberality, they were ass- 

 essed to the ninth. Archbishop Stratford remonstrated, and redress 

 was given. A commission was issued to the Royal Commissioners, 

 instructing them to ascertain, on the oaths of some of the principal 

 inhabitants, the value of the ninth of such moveable goods as corn, 



