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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

hoity-toitily (adv): In a pompous or snobbish manner http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hoity-toitily

___________________________ 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