Parliament opened on 4 November 1548. On 12 March 1549 it granted what it termed a 'relief' over three years. In fact, the tax was similar to a subsidy, although initially it embraced a poll tax on sheep and a purchase tax on cloth (both described under separate heads) and never included a tax on income from land. The relief proved difficult to assess, and in the following year, the tax on cloths and sheep was repealed and replaced by a further (fourth) year of the subsidy on goods, at the same rates.

Individuals with moveable goods worth more than £10 were taxed on them at 12d. per pound if they were native-born and at double this rate if they were foreigners. Aliens with moveable goods worth between 20s. and £10 were also assessed, paying 12d. in the pound. Those aliens who did not qualify for assessment on moveable goods paid a poll tax of 8d. per head, apart from married women, soldiers and children under 12, who were not liable.

The dates by which assessments were to have been completed were: 20 March 1549 for payment by 6 May 1549; 20 January 1550 for payment by 20 April 1550; 20 January 1551 for payment by 20 April 1551; 20 January 1552 for payment by 20 April 1552.

However, since the Acts of Union of England and Wales (27 Henry VIII, c. 26 and 34 and 35 Henry VIII, c. 26) had specifically reserved the right to marcher lords, including the monarch as such, of levying customary payments known as a 'mise' or payment on first entry into their possessions, special arrangements were now made for the administration of this and subsequent taxes in the areas concerned. These were chiefly Wales (excluding Monmouthshire) and Cheshire, and where tenants of crown lands and others were contributing to the mise at this time, and provision was specifically made in the Act to delay payment towards the subsidy until 1 May next after payment of the final instalment of the mise. Subsequent payments were to be made before 1 May annually and when the reliefs of sheep and cloth were repealed, the additional instalment was also to be paid before the same date in the fourth year of collection. The date of the last payment of the mise was to be certified in the Exchequer by 11 November 1549 and the document at E 179/363/2 may represent one such certificate for Brecknockshire. In this, the date of the final payment of the mise in the lordship of Brecon and hundred of Defynnog, for example, is given as 30 November 1549, after which point the inhabitants would contribute to the relief. Other surviving documents for those areas of Wales concerned, such as E 179/263/35 Part 2 for Carmarthenshire, also reflect this delay. Since payments towards the relief were delayed, this also caused payments towards subsequent taxes to be put back, and this and further payments towards mises caused by the accession of new monarchs in 1553 and 1558, created a backlog of payments which does not appear to have been fully settled until around the 1570s (see the grant notes for subsequent subsidies up to and including the subsidy of 1576).

Letters patent commissioning the collection were issued on 26 March 1549, almost a week after the assessment period for the first payment should have commenced (E 179/190/234), and there are other indications that the payment date for the first payment may have been postponed. The assessment of Southwark for the first payment cites the payment date as 20 May 1549 (E 179/185/241), while the assessment of Canterbury for the same payment, dated 4 October 1549, refers to payment being due by the following 1 November (E 179/126/328). The certificate of assessment for the first payment of the tax in the town of Nottingham states that the money was to be paid on 6 May 1549 or within one month after that date (E179/159/177). A similar document for part of Leicestershire (E 179/134/163) notes that, as they received the king's commission so late, the commissioners there were unable to execute the relief in time for certification and payment at the specified times.

A book listing the tax commissioners and collectors for the first two payments, and various details of the sums due, is now at E 179/281/10, while a book containing the names of some of the collectors is at E 179/281/8. Also, a roll containing a form of writ and list of commissioners dated 4 May 1559 to collect all payments of the relief in Wales (excluding Monmouthshire) is at C 212/22/3.

(|Stat. Realm|, IV Part I, pp 78-93, 122-4.

enrolled account: E 359/45.