Page:Seventeen lectures on the study of medieval and modern history and kindred subjects.djvu/263

 Besides these, we have to include in the list of the king's resources, first the heavy loans which were exacted by a regular process, not very far removed from compulsion, in the years 1522-8 and 1542, and which were so fully remitted by the parliaments of 1539 and 1543, that even those unlucky creditors whom the king had paid were obliged to refund the money; secondly, the exactions from the clergy under the threat of præmunire in 1531, amounting to about £120,000; thirdly, the very large payments of tribute from France under the treaties of Edward IV and Henry VII; and, fourthly, the enormous revenue, enormous at the lowest estimate, which accrued during the last years of the reign from the spoils of the shrines and the plunder of the monasteries. Besides these, there was an occasional devotion money, like that collected in 1544 nominally for war against the Turks; a benevolence, or amicable contribution, such as in 1535 produced considerable disaffection in the country; and lastly, enormous sums raised under occasional forfeitures. I shall not attempt a summary of these taxes, but may mention a few data that may be relied upon: the value of a tenth and fifteenth was £30,000; of a clerical tenth, £10,000; the estimated amount of the subsidy of 1513 was £160,000; the estimate for the royal expedition made in 1522, £372,404 18s. 8d.; the estimated sum of the loans of 1523 was £260,000; the income from the monasteries cannot be stated in reasonable figures; but of this a considerable part was during the few years that it accrued expended in pensions. Of estimated outlays we have but a few illustrations; the expenses of the household were a little over £20,000 a year, but these of course .represent only the fixed charges, not the king's lavish personal expenditure; Wolsey's estimate for the war of 15 13 was £640,000; and when we find Giustiniani estimating the outlay at half of the ten millions of ducats which was the treasure supposed to be left by Henry VII, we are inclined to conclude that the estimate was not below the mark; anyhow the cost of the expedition to Tournay was such as to recommend a peace policy for several years.

The time may come when these accounts may be subjected