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Single person record details
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Person code |
NA20926 |
Corporate name |
Crown Revenues |
Activity |
By the mid-twelfth century the crown was drawing its ordinary income from well-established sources of revenue. These included the terms or other rents from royal estates, with the terms of royal burghs (later called burgh maills); tribute in cash or kind, enjoyed by the king in virtue of his lordship or regality with another important sub-division, customs; regular feudal dues. e.g. reliefs and the profits of escheats, wardship and marriage: and the profits of justice. To these might by added extraordinary revenue from taxation. All these sources are identifiable in the surviving exchequer accounts or the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the crown's revenues were divided into those arising from the 'property' and those from the 'casualty'. The former came to the king from the crown lands which he owned and exploited in his own right, the latter arose from the occasional sums due to him as a feudal superior. These revenues were managed by the Comptroller and Treasurer respectively (see E21-E37). The property included the burgh maills of royal burghs, almost all set at a fixed sum by their charters, and the customs, which discussed separately (see E71-E77). The casualty included feudal dues and the profits of justice, for which the sheriffs were nominally accountable, though increasingly the actual revenue went direct to the Treasurer in the form of compositions. Between 1425 and 1542 the demesne lands held by the crown in its own right were greatly increased by forfeitures, notably those of the Douglases under James II and the Lords of the Isles under James III and IV. Various statutes from 1455 onwards annexed some lands to the crown inalienably. After James V's death, however, there was a strong trend towards dispersal, beginning with reversal of the most recent forfeitures and followed by alienation of other lands, including some which had been annexed. The character of the remainder was also affected by extensive feuing, lands being granted to former tenants or others for a fixed annual feu duty. In some areas this process was virtually complete by 1600. As feuing was not considered to be alienation, the lands concerned remained part of the 'property'. After the forfeiture of the Earl of Gowrie (1600) forfeitures ceased to provide a permanent source of expansion, though they did bring some lands into crown possession for varing periods (see E57-E58). However the seventeenth century did see a blurring of the old distinction between property and casualty and between the old sources of land revenue and newer ones such as the treasury of the new augmentation (E49). After the Restoration, the Solicitor-General, Sir William Purves, was active in discovering and recovering the crown's land revenues. By then, however, they were far surpassed in volume and importance by revenues arising from customs, excise and taxation. |
Dates |
12th century-17th century |
Non preferred term |
maills, taxes |
Subordinate |
Scotland |
Associated records |
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E | Records of the Scottish Exchequer, Treasury and Exchequer Court | 1287-1981 |
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