Note 34 — Chapter III
Reading edition
The king’s ordinary revenue consisted—
(1.) Of fines paid by feudal tenants.
(2.) Of rents accruing from lands belonging to the crown.
(3.) Of fines and fees paid in courts of justice.
(4.) Of forfeitures of lands and goods for offences.
(5.) Of the first-fruits and tenths of all spiritual preferments in the kingdom. The first-fruits or annates were the first year’s whole profits by a valuation made in the thirteenth century (1288–1292). The decimæ were the tenth part of the annual profit of every living by the same valuation. These taxes, originally paid to the pope, were annexed to the crown by an act passed in the twenty-sixth year of Henry VIII. (By a statute of 2nd and 3rd Anne, the revenue of first-fruits and tenths has been vested in trustees for ever, to form a perpetual fund for the augmentation of poor livings.)
(6.) Of the custom duties, when granted to the king for life. To these however, Charles had no legal claim. See p. 31.