Oral and scribal texts in early modern England.

Parliamentary histories tell us that on 22 February 1671 Charles II, present at the Lords for the second reading of the Subsidy Bill, was an unwilling listener to a severe critique of his policies from John, Lord Lucas. Lucas spoke on behalf of peers who would have been severely taxed under the bill, and who also objected to the methods of collection proposed, which they saw as an attack by the Commons on the Lords' privileges. He and his kind had been loyal cavaliers in the past but were now beginning to exhibit ‘country’ inclinations that would flower mightily during the coming decade. Should the King upon a good occasion require a quarter or (in some versions) a half of his estate, Lucas would willingly give it; but the present predicament was not of this kind, nor was he able to meet even the more modest levy proposed: “For in ye tyme of ye last usurping powers, though great Taxes were exacted from vs, wee had then meanes to pay, wee lett our Lands, & sold our Corne, & Cattell, & there was plenty of Money through ye Nation, now there is nothing of this. Bricke is required of vs, & noe Straw allow'd vs to make itt with, for that our Lands are thrownevpon our hands, our Corne, & Cattell of little value is notorious to all ye World...” Huge subsidies voted to the crown had been ‘poured out into the Purses of priuate men’, many of whom ‘att his Maties returne were worth little, or nothing’, but who nonetheless kept ‘their Coaches, & sixe Horses, their Pages, & Lacqueys’ while loyal cavaliers had ‘scarce sufficient left, to buy them Bread’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]