Following his accession to the throne in January, the young Edward III was determined to continue the war with Scotland, and on 7 August 1327 summoned a parliament to meet at Lincoln on 15 September. No records of the parliament survive, but the levy of a twentieth must have been decided on by 23 September, when commissions for its assessment and collection were issued.

The threshold was to be 10s (Willard, p.88), but initial commissions do not cite any payment dates, but later commissions, issued on 5 and 12 October, reveal that the first instalment of the tax was due to be paid by 3 February 1328. In London, however, the first payment was not due until 8 July 1328.

Only the commission issued for the levy of the tax in London specifies a date for the second payment - 29 September 1328 - although the date may have applied generally. The second payment would not appear to have been received at the Exchequer before 20 August 1328, because on that date the collectors in most counties were ordered to pay part of their receipts to the Bardi merchants, in order to settle the king's debts.

The levy of the tax may have met with some resistance: the head collectors in Great Yarmouth were reportedly attacked. Note a writ at E 179/242/63, rot 12, sch 1, requesting a copy of the assessment for Great and Little Ponton and Stroxton, Winnibriggs wapentake, Lincolnshire, dated 1 December 1338, and the requested duplicate at rot 12: perhaps proceedings were still being followed against defaulters more than ten years later.

(|Foedera|, IV, p 301; |CPR 1327-1330|, pp 172-173, 286; |CCR 1327-1330|, pp 311-312); Willard, |Parliamentary Taxes on Personal Property|.

enrolled account: E 359/8A, rot 1; E 359/14, rots 16-17