Carucage
Carucage
The taxable value of an estate was initially assessed from the
Carucage was an attempt to secure new sources of revenue to supplement and increase royal income in a time when new demands were being made on royal finances. Although derived from the older danegeld, carucage was an experiment in revenue collection, but it was only levied for specific purposes, rather than as a regularly assessed tax. Also new was the fact later collections were imposed with the consent of the barons. However, the main flow of royal income was from other sources, and carucage was not collected after 1224.
Background
In medieval England there was no clear separation between the king's household and the treasury.
English taxation after the
Most information about the carucage comes from the financial records associated with its collection, but there is no detailed description of the way it was collected or assessed, unlike the account of the workings of the Exchequer given in the
Under Richard I
Under Henry's son, King Richard I, a new land tax was collected, the first since 1162. It was organised by Hubert Walter, the justiciar of England who was in charge of governing England while the king was gone. Like the geld, the carucage was based on the amount of land owned,[15] thus targeting free men rather than serfs, who owned no land and were therefore exempt.[16] First collected in 1194, and the first land tax collected in England since the geld,[17] carucage was based on the size of the estate as measured in either hides or carucates[15] (a unit of land that could be ploughed by an eight-ox plough-team in a year,[18] which was normally considered equivalent to a hide).[19][e] The original property assessment of the carucage was based on the Domesday Survey, a survey of land holdings in England that was completed by 1087.[20][21]
Collected again in 1198,[20] and usually called the "great carucage",[14] it was initially assessed at a rate of 2 shillings per carucate (estimated at 100 acres (40 ha)[20] or 120 acres (49 ha)[22]), but later an additional 3 shillings per carucate was imposed.[14] This 1198 collection was to provide the king with money for his military campaigns in France,[23] and raised about £1,000.[24] Some fines were subsequently imposed on taxpayers for evading payment,[f] suggesting that the 1198 tax was not very successful.[25]
According to the late 12th century chronicler
The lower clergy and bishops resisted Richard's attempt to impose the 1198 carucage on their estates. In response, Richard withdrew their access to his royal courts which forced them to buy access to the courts back for a sum greater than the carucage would have collected.[28][g]
Under John
King John, Richard's brother and successor, collected the carucage only once, in 1200. John set the amount to be collected from each carucate at three shillings.
The
Under Henry III
John's son, King Henry III, assessed the carucage on three occasions, in 1217, 1220, and 1224. A new approach in 1217 and 1220 was to secure the consent of leading noblemen for the tax to be levied.
The 1220 carucage, which was imposed on both laymen and clergy,
The 1224 carucage was a tax levied only on the clergy,[45] and the revenues from it did not appear in that year's Pipe Roll. It is likely that the clergy who owed the carucage also collected the tax. Records indicate that the bulk of the money raised was paid into the Wardrobe, the king's personal treasury, rather than the Exchequer.[46] The 1224 assessment was based on plough-teams,[22] and was imposed to pay for the restitution of the lost lands in France.[40]
Legacy
The last carucage was imposed in 1224,[22] after which most of the medieval government's revenue was raised by levying taxes on moveable or personal property, instead of on land;[47][48] taxes on moveable property were first assessed in 1207.[49] A probable reason for the abandonment of land taxes was the greater revenues raised by taxes on property and income.[50]
Carucage was an attempt to secure new sources of revenue to supplement existing sources of income.[51] It was also intended to increase royal revenues in the face of new demands placed upon them. Although derived from the older geld, carucage was an experiment in revenue collection, but it was only levied for specific purposes, rather than as a general tax regularly assessed. A novel feature was the consultation with the barons and other leading members of the ruling classes.[51] Despite its intermittent use during the reigns of Richard I, John, and the early years of Henry III, the main source of royal income at that time remained scutage, feudal dues such as feudal reliefs or feudal aids, and royal rights such as the profits from the justice system.[49]
Notes
- ^ This includes the revenues that the sheriffs collected from the shires, the farm of the shire, which included not only taxes but also rents and other payments from the king's lands.[6][7]
- ^ The numbers do not add up to 100% exactly because of rounding and because a few sources of income do not fit into the above categories. These include income from the royal forests and money gained from the Jews in England.[7]
- ^ A hide was a variable amount of land, often equated to the amount of land required to support a family for a year, or the amount of land an eight-ox plough-team would plough in one year. The total amount varied wildly depending on the fertility of the land. The size could be as small as 40 acres (16 ha) in Berkshire, up to 120 acres (49 ha) elsewhere.[9]
- ^ Because the first collection of the carucage was levied to pay Richard's ransom when he was imprisoned during his return from the Third Crusade, this incident of the tax can also be considered a feudal aid—a payment from a feudal vassal to their overlord required when the latter had to be ransomed.[20]
- ^ These are recorded in the 1199 Pipe Roll.[25]
- ^ The royal courts were the best way for non-serfs to litigate when they were dispossessed of land by other freemen, as well as being the main way of obtaining justice in criminal matters.[29]
- ^ Or possibly "from the justices" in place of "by the justices".[31]
Citations
- ^ Hanawalt Ties that Bound p. 125
- ^ Staff "Carucage" Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ Mantella and Rigg Medieval Latin p. 220
- ^ Saul "Government" Companion to Medieval England pp. 115–118
- ^ Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p. 165
- ^ Coredon Dictionary p. 120
- ^ a b c Barratt "English Revenue of King Richard" English Historical Review pp. 645–646
- ^ a b Huscroft Ruling England pp. 98–99, 166
- ^ Coredon Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases p. 154
- ^ Huscroft Ruling England pp. 166–167
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 129
- ^ a b Mitchell Taxation p. 135
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 136
- ^ a b c d e Mitchell Taxation pp. 14–15
- ^ a b Richardson and Sayles Governance of Mediaeval England p. 105
- ^ Coredon Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases p. 255
- ^ Lyon Constitutional and Legal History p. 253
- ^ Coredon Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases p. 61
- ^ Hudson Formation of the English Common Law p. 241
- ^ a b c d e f Lyon Constitutional and Legal History p. 269
- ^ Bartlett England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings p.194
- ^ a b c Mitchell Taxation p. 154
- ^ a b Mitchell Taxation p. 179
- ^ Barratt "English Revenue of King Richard" English Historical Review p. 637
- ^ a b Barratt "English Revenue of King Richard" English Historical Review p. 642
- ^ a b c Warren Governance of Norman and Angevin England pp. 147–148
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 29
- ^ Lyon Constitutional and Legal History pp. 305–306
- ^ Saul "Justice" Companion to Medieval England p. 152
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 65
- ^ a b Mitchell Taxation p. 83
- ^ Quoted in Mitchell Taxation p. 83
- ^ Warren King John pp. 148–149
- ^ Barratt "Revenue of King John" English Historical Review p. 839
- ^ Knowles Monastic Order pp. 366–367
- ^ a b c Lyon Constitutional and Legal History p. 384
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 92
- ^ a b c Mitchell Taxation p. 19
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 109
- ^ a b c Harriss King, Parliament, and Public Finance p. 33
- ^ Lawrence Medieval Monasticism p. 214
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 34
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 105
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 137
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 67
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 20
- ^ Lyon Constitutional and Legal History pp. 382–384
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 113
- ^ a b Campbell "Some Observations on English Government" Transactions of the Royal Historical Society pp. 51–52
- ^ Mitchell Taxation p. 237
- ^ a b Harriss King, Parliament, and Public Finance pp. 9–15
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