Carucage was a medieval English land tax introduced by King Richard I
in 1194, based on the size of the estate owned by the taxpayer. It was
a replacement for the danegeld, last imposed in 1162, which had become
difficult to collect because of an increasing number of exemptions.
Carucage was levied just six times: by Richard in 1194 and 1198; John,
his brother and successor, in 1200; and John's son, Henry III, in 1217,
1220, and 1224, after which it was replaced by taxes on income and
personal property. The taxable value of an estate was initially
assessed from the Domesday Survey, but other methods were later
employed, such as valuations based on the sworn testimony of neighbours
or on the number of plough-teams the taxpayer used. Carucage never
raised as much as other taxes, but nevertheless helped to fund several
projects dear to the kings' hearts. It paid the ransom for Richard's
release in 1194, after he was taken prisoner by Leopold V, Duke of
Austria; it covered the tax John had to pay Philip II of France in 1200
on land he inherited in that country; and it helped to finance Henry
III's military campaigns in England and on the European continent.
Carucage was an attempt to secure new sources of revenue to supplement
and increase royal income increase in a time when new demands were
being made on royal finances. 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 regularly assessed tax.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carucage>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1301:
The title of Prince of Wales was granted for the first time to an heir
apparent to the English throne, Edward of Carnarvon.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_II_of_England>
1795:
The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting the
ability of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to sue U.S. states in
federal courts, was ratified in order to overrule the U.S. Supreme
Court decision in Chisholm v. Georgia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution>
1863:
In New Zealand's worst maritime tragedy, HMS Orpheus of the British
Royal Navy sank off the coast of Auckland, killing 189 crew out of the
ship's complement of 259.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Orpheus_%281860%29>
1907:
Over 3,000 women trudged through the cold and the rutty streets of
London in the Mud March, the first large procession organized by the
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, to advocate for women's
suffrage.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_March_%28Suffragists%29>
2009:
A series of 400 individual bushfires ignited across the Australian
state of Victoria on Black Saturday, eventually resulting in 173 total
deaths, the highest ever loss of life from a bushfire in Australia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_bushfires>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
hoity-toitily (adv):
In a pompous or snobbish manner
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hoity-toitily>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of
it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who
read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of
thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the
formation of the first link on one memorable day.
--Charles Dickens
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens>