The Poll Tax of 1379 was granted to the King by the lords, commoners and clergy of England in order to finance the Hundred Years' War.
[1] The fiscal exigencies of the Hundred Years' War compelled the Bad Parliament of 1377 to grant to the King a tax of four pence or a groat to be taken from the goods of each man and woman in the kingdom over fourteen, with the exception of genuine beggars.
[4] The war continued with French attack on the southern coast of England, the towns of Dartmouth, Plymouth, Winchelsea and others suffered.
This grant did not produce the sum of money required for the war, and the third parliament of Richard II repealed in and replaced it with a poll tax that would be easier and faster to collect.
[4][5] The new poll tax of 1379 was graduated according to each taxpayer's rank or social position, thereby avoiding dissatisfaction based on inequality and unfairness.