Ordinary Revenue

Ordinary revenue

money collected regularly without permission of Parliament

Crown lands

• lands held by the king, by inheritance or confiscating from traitors

• Henry VII increased the land he had as a result of attainders, the Act of Resumption (1486) and forfeitures

• 1495: Henry was given access to all of Richard III’s land

  • £3000 per annum in early yrs

  • Crown land = 5x larger by the end of Henry’s reign

Feudal obligations

• paid in return for wardship, livery, relief, escheats and marriage dues

  • 1487: £350+ per annum

  • 1494: £1500+ per annum

  • 1507: £6000+ per annum

Bonds and recognisances

• bonds = written agreements whereby a person promised to pay a sum of money if they didn’t keep their promise

• recognisances = formal acknowledgements of a debt or an obligation that already existed, with the understanding to pay money if the obligation = met

  • 1491: friends of the Marquis of Dorset signed bonds of £10,000 on promise of his good behaviour

Custom duties

• to pay for English defences

• prerogative duties on exports of wool, leather, cloth and some imports

• import and export duties on tunnage (wine), poundage (certain other goods) and subsidy on wool export - granted for life in 1485 Parliament

  • £40,000 per annum under Henry VII - later increased in 1507 due to inflation

Profits of Justice

• fees paid for royal writs and letters - no court action could start without them

• fines levied by courts - Henry VII had policy of punishing by fine, even in treasonable cases (should’ve had death penalty)

  • varied yr-by-yr

  • difficult to know how much because weren’t collected in cash