Description

A history of the development of French royal finance in the 14th century. An earlier work studied the crown's finances between 1322 and 1356 when France was still in the "age of the war subsidy" and taxes were temporary wartime expedients. This book, a sequel to that study, shows how the capture of King John II in 1356 led to a critical change in the history of royal taxation. In the king's absence, the Estates General failed to secure adequate revenues, fell victim to factional strife, and were discredited. To ransom the monarch, the government imposed the first regular taxes in French history. With these annual revenues, the monarchy was able to finance an army that won important victories in the 1370s. This vol. continues the detailed political history of royal taxation up to 1445.