Taxation in medieval England

During the Anglo-Saxon period, the main forms of taxation were land taxes, although custom duties and fees to mint coins were also imposed.

After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, the geld continued to be collected until 1162, but it was eventually replaced with taxes on personal property and income.

The Emperor Honorius told the Britons in 410 that they were responsible for their own defence,[1] and from then until the landing of Augustine of Canterbury in the Kingdom of Kent in 597 as part of the Gregorian mission, little is known about Britain's governmental structures or financial systems.

Although other early Anglo-Saxon kings are not mentioned as collecting taxes, the medieval writer Bede does mention that land in Anglesey and the Isle of Man were divided up in hides, defined in Ine's law as a unit of land that could be used for collecting food and other goods from the king's subjects.

[3] In early Anglo-Saxon England, the hide was used as the basis for assessing the amount of food rent (known as feorm) due from an area.

Tenants had a threefold obligation, based on their landholding, they had to provide manpower for the so-called "common burdens" of military service, fortress work, and bridge repair.

[4][5] With increasing problems from raiding Vikings, the Anglo-Saxon leaders raised taxes, also based on the landholding (or hidage) of their tenants.

The Burghal Hidage contains a list of over thirty fortified places and the taxes, recorded as numbers of hides, assigned for their maintenance.

[6] Long after Alfred's death, his great-grandson Edgar developed the tax system further by periodically recalling and reminting all the coinage, with the moneyers being forced to pay for new dies.

In 1051 Edward the Confessor abolished heregeld and saved money by selling off his navy, giving the responsibility of naval defense to the Cinque ports in return for various privileges.

[10] From the reign of King Henry II, Pipe Rolls form a mostly continuous record of royal revenues and taxation.

[12] Because the geld was assessed on landowners, it only applied to free men who owned land, and thus serfs and slaves were exempt.

Likewise, the Saladin tithe, imposed in 1188 to raise funds for a proposed crusade by King Henry II, was levied at the rate of 10% of all goods and revenues, with some exceptions for a knight's horse and armor and clerical vestments.

[13] In 1194, in part from the need to raise the huge sums required for the ransom of King Richard I who was captive in Germany, a new land tax was instituted.

[15] By the middle of the 13th century, the tax on the moveable property had become fixed by convention at a fifteenth for those in the country, and a tenth for those living in towns.