When Danegeld ceased to be paid is not precisely known, and it is uncertain whether it ever was a settled yearly revenue, since the Conquest. It was regularly paid during the reigns of Henry the First and Stephen, and occasionally in that of Henry the Second; since which time there is no positive record of its having been levied, though several charters made by Richard the First, and John, granting "freedom from Danegeld, and other exactions," prove that the power of raising it still existed. Danegeld was a land tax, being paid by men of the counties only; an auxilium or domum being exacted from the cities and towns, whenever Danegeld was required from the counties. According to Camden, it was a tax of one shilling, which was afterwards raised to two shillings, upon every hide of land throughout the kingdom.*

NOTE 83.

The customs paid to the king were formerly called consuetudines, and signified regal dues, ecclesiastical dues, and dues and payments and exactions of many kinds. In process of time they came to be called customs, by which name we first find them mentioned in the acts of Edward the First. The Italian merchants paid double custom in England on the goods they exported and imported till the year 1488, when Henry the Seventh, who was a great patron of commerce, granted them a considerable abatement on some articles of export for three years. This apparently had the desired effect of increasing the traffic between the two countries, for we find that a very brisk trade was at this time carried on with Italy; the Italian merchants taking off great quantities of English cloth, lead, tin, &c., for which they returned velvets, silks, gold lace, spices, sweet wines, sugar, drugs, and other precious commodities of the East.+

NOTE 84.

This tax, which is called poundage, was first granted to King Edward

* Madox's History of the Exchequer. Camden's Britannia.

+ Madox's History of the Exchequer. Henry's History of England. Anderson's History of Commerce.

the First, and increased from 3d. to 12d. in the pound by Henry the Seventh. When, by the increase of commerce, the coast-guard began to be considered of great importance, it was given by parliament to the king, A.D. 1406, to enable him to guard the seas, and protect the ships of the merchants from pirates.*

NOTE 85.

By an act, 14th Edward the Third, a duty was imposed of a mark upon every sack of wool carried out of the country.†

NOTE 86.

There was a company of merchants in England called Merchants of the Staple, who were bound by their charter to carry all the goods they exported to Calais; and to land them at any other port was made felony by act of parliament, A.D. 1439. This corporation was originally composed entirely of foreigners, but the English were admitted into it by degrees. Henry the Seventh, being offended with the Flemish for the assistance they had given to Perkin Warbeck, sent all their merchants out of England, and Calais was the only place where they were allowed any traffic with the English, during the remainder of his reign. This struck a fatal blow to the prosperity of Bruges, which had, before this time, been the great emporium of

commerce.

The English woolstaple at Calais was situated at the end of what is now called "la rue de la prison." It goes by the name of "la cour de Guise," from its having been given by Henry the Second, king of France, to the duke of Guise, after the capture of the town in 1557. Whilst it remained in the duke's family (from whom it was purchased by the town) it was exempted from all taxes. Very little of the original building, erected by Edward the Third in 1389, now remains, excepting the gateway, which has been much injured of late years by the removal of two large escutcheons over the arch, and the destruction of a handsome window above, between them. The wooden edifice constructed in the reign of Henry the Eighth for the interview of the field of the cloth of gold, was made after the design of the woolstaple, a picture of which, by Holbein, is at Hampton Court Palace.

* Jacob's Law Dictionary. Henry's History of England. + Jacob's Law Dictionary.

NOTE 87.

This statement is perfectly correct. In the year 1421, the receipts from the customs of wool at the staple amounted altogether to 40,6767. 19s. 9 d., whilst the charge of keeping Calais and her Marches was 21,1197. 5s. 10d., and that of the Scotch Marches was 19,5507.; making altogether the sum of 40,6691. 5s. 10d.*

NOTE 88.

Although the extortions practised upon widows at this time were very great, they were still more grievously oppressed before it was stipulated by a clause in Magna Charta, that "no widow shall be compelled to marry herself while she chuses to live without a husband, but so that she shall give security that she will not marry herself without our consent, if she holds of us, or without the consent of her lord, if she holds of another.' It appears by the records of the exchequer, that "Lucia countess of Chester paid 500 marks to King Stephen, that she might not be compelled to marry within five years." Alicia countess of Warwick paid King John 1000l. and ten palfreys, that she might not be forced to marry till she pleased. Hawise countess of Albemarle gave 15,000 marks that she might have her jointure, and not be forced to marry. And numerous other instances might be adduced of widows paying heavy fines to be allowed the privilege of remaining single. The sums that came into the king's exchequer by the marriage of his feudal vassals were enormous ; for those who wished to marry widows holding of the crown also paid the king for permission to do so. Thus, "Geoffry de Mandevile paid Henry the Second 20,000 marks, that he might have to wife Isabel countess of Gloucester, with all her lands, knight's fees, &c.," and others.

NOTE 89.

Great advantage was taken of this privilege of enjoying the revenues of a church benefice during a vacancy, by the kings, in the earlier periods of English history. William Rufus kept the see of Canterbury open for four years, that of Exeter for nine, and Durham for four. Henry the

* Rymer's Fœdera.

Madox's History of the Exchequer.

First kept Canterbury vacant for five years, Bangor for eleven, London for five, &c. Henry the Second kept York vacant for ten years, Lincoln for nine, Hereford for seven, &c. After it was settled by Magna Charta, that on the refusal of the king's congé d'élire the chapter might proceed without it, the kings no longer ventured upon such an extension of their privilege; but some months of the incomes of all the wealthy monasteries and bishopricks formed no inconsiderable item in their revenue.*

NOTE 90.

A carlino is a small piece of money, of which ten are equivalent to a ducat. They were first coined by Charles the Eighth, king of France, when he was in Italy, whence their name.

NOTE 91.

The large sums which Henry the Seventh received from France were in consequence of the treaty of Estaples in 1492, whereby Charles the Eighth, king of France, agreed to pay up the arrears of the pension due from his predecessor Louis the Eleventh to Edward the Fourth, which amounted to 125,000 crowns, as well as the debts contracted by his queen, as duchess of Brittany, to Henry, which amounted to 620,000 crowns more, making altogether 745,000 crowns. This sum king Charles and his successor regularly paid by instalments of 50,000 livres per annum, till the whole debt was liquidated. The value of the crown is fixed in the treaty at 4s. 2d.; and it appears that the ducat was the same, 50,000 livres at 10d. the livre being equivalent to 10,000 ducats at that rate, which accounts for the indiscriminate manner in which the writer computes sometimes by one coin and sometimes by the other.†

NOTE 92.

The tenths and fifteenths were levied according to the valuation made in the reign of Edward the Third.‡

*Nicolas' Synopsis of the Peerage. Blackstone's Commentaries.

+ Rymer's Fœdera, vol. xii.

NOTE 93.

The office of the lord high constable was formerly a place of the highest trust, as it commanded all the king's forts and garrisons, and took place of all officers in the field. It was at this time hereditary in the Stafford family, to whom it had descended from the Bohuns, and was forfeited with the rest of his titles by Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, on his attainder in 1521; since which time it has never been held by any subject for more than one day. It is only on great occasions, such as a coronation or a trial by combat, that any one is required to fill it; and his constable's staff is broken as soon as his commission is ended.

The office of the earl marshal formerly imposed upon its possessor the arbitration of army causes, which he decided according to civil law; he was also supposed to be the judge of the marshalsea court, and directed all points of precedency, solemn processions, &c. It is hereditary in the family of the duke of Norfolk, to whose ancestor, Thomas Mowbray, earl of Nottingham, it was granted by Richard the Second. The military duties formerly attached to it are now entirely at an end, as well as that of presiding over the marshalsea court, and it is merely an office under which certain acts at the great ceremonies of the king's court are performed.

The office of lord high admiral was one of such importance that it was usually given to one of the king's sons or kinsmen, or to one of the chief nobility. John de Vere, earl of Oxford, held it during the reign of Henry the Seventh. It was held by Prince George of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne, and by his late Majesty William the Fourth, when duke of Clarence; but it has seldom been put into requisition of late years, the affairs of the admiralty being generally managed by commission.

The office of lord high steward, which is a very ancient one, was formerly hereditary in the family of the Montforts, earls of Leicester; but since the attainder of Simon de Montfort, the last earl, in the reign of Henry the Third, it has only been revived on the occasion of a coronation, or the trial of a peer; and the white rod, the emblem of the office, is broken as soon as the commission is over.

The office of lord great chamberlain was hereditary in the family of the de Veres, earls of Oxford, from whom it has descended to the present

CAMD. SOC.