Parliament opened on 17 March 1628, but it was not until satisfactory answer had been made by the king to their grievances - primarily his assent to the Petition of Right - that the commons granted him five subsidies. The subsidy bill was sent to the lords on 16 June and received royal assent before the adjournment of parliament on 29 June.

The tax was to be paid in four instalments. The first two subsidies were to be paid in one payment, and the other three were payable individually. The rates were otherwise the same as those for the previous subsidies. For the first payment, that of two subsidies, individuals and corporations would have had to pay 5s.4d. per pound for moveable goods worth £3 or more, and 8s. per pound for lands worth 20s. or more per annum. Aliens and recusants, paying double these rates, would have had to pay 10s.8d. per pound for their moveable goods, and 16s. per pound for their lands, while the poll tax on those aliens and recusants possessing no estate was 16d. per head.

For the single subsidies levied in the second, third and fourth payments, individuals and corporations were charged 2s.8d. per pound for moveable goods worth £3 or more, and 4s. per pound for lands worth 20s. or more per annum. Aliens paid double these rates (5s.4d. per pound on goods and 8s. per pound on lands), or a poll tax of 8d. per head.

These hefty charges were payable over an unprecedentedly short period of time - less than eight months. The first two subsidies were to be assessed by 30 June, certified at the Exchequer by 9 July and paid by 10 July 1628; the third (second payment) was to be assessed by 20 September, certified by 10 October and paid by 20 October 1628; the fourth (third payment) was to be assessed by 30 November, certified by 10 December and paid by 20 December 1628; and the fifth (fourth payment) was to be assessed by 10 February, certified by 20 February and paid by 1 March 1629.

At least one assessment roll for the levy of the first two subsidies was never returned to the Exchequer, that of four of the six hundreds of Nottinghamshire, but is among the Coke-Steel MSS at Trusley Hall, Derbyshire (ref: SR/4). However, most of the surviving assessments for the levy of these subsidies are among the E 179 documents.

From other extant records relating to these taxes, it is evident that payment of the fourth and the levy of the fifth subsidies did not conform to the schedule set out in the statute. Two paper volumes in the British Library contain assessments for the levy of the first two subsidies in the hundreds of Samford, Bosmere and Claydon in Suffolk (BL, Add MS 21,055, 21,038), and another similar volume records the assessment of Bosmere and Claydon for the third subsidy (BL, Add MS 21,039). Both books also include rare surviving warrants containing instructions to the local constables for the levy of the subsidy.

The latter volume also contains a letter dated 31 March 1629 from the privy council to the Suffolk commissioners explaining that the levy of the fifth subsidy had been delayed in order to lessen the burden on the 'poore sorte', and to give time for the gentlemen who had attended the 1628 parliament to cool their tempers, and remember that they were only assessed 'half as much as in former times'. The commissioners were told to improve their performance in the levy of the last subsidy, complaining that 'the former payments have been collected and retorned with so loose a hand that half of the last subsidy being payable the 10th of December last is not yet received', and were cautioned against under-assessing. Documents from the West Riding of Yorkshire indicate that a variety of revised payment dates were authorised, even for different areas within the same county; the collectors for Staincross wapentake were to make payment by 20 May 1629, Agbrigg and Morley by 26 May, and Staincliffe and Ewcross by 5 June (E 179/209/362, 360, 253). However, another extant original commission, dated 8 January 1629, for the levy of the fifth subsidy in Wiltshire, indicates that no delay was thought necessary there (BL, Add Charter 40,103).

A book containing lists of commissioners and collectors for the entire country for all four collections of this tax survives at E 179/283/24. In addition, assessments for the members of the nobility for each of the last two payments of this tax are at E 178/5491.

(|Stat. Realm|, V, pp 23, 39-52; Russell, |Parliaments and English Politics|, pp 323-389)

enrolled account: E 359/70