In order to provide the funds to repel a renewed French offensive in Boulogne and Calais, it became necessary to levy another prerogative tax, and on 16 May 1546 commissioners were appointed to seek a 'loving contribution', usually referred to as the 'free and voluntary contribution' (E 179/185/233).

The contents of the instructions enclosed with the commissions are in many respects similar to the instructions issued for the levy of the benevolence of 1545. The assessments made for the last subsidy were to be used as the basis for the charges, with allowances for changed circumstances, including the addition of new names. The commissioners were to call before them all taxpayers in groups of 10 or 12, beginning with the wealthiest, and after declaring the king's purpose and necessity, were to persuade them to contribute 'with encouraging words'. They were to treat with each person individually, 'lest one unreasonable man go about to seduce the rest', and request him to inform the commissioners of any who spoke against the contribution. As in 1545, anyone who refused to pay was to keep quiet about it, although the king's council was to be certified of the commissioners' proceedings with him, and the refuser would be required to appear before the council. By 20 June the commissioners were to have appointed collectors, all of whom were to be substantial persons of at least £20 per annum of income from land or in possession of 500 marks' worth of goods.

Two different rates were to be imposed, depending upon whether the contributor was assessed on his lands or his goods. A rate of 4d. in the pound was payable by all those holding lands to the value of 40s. per annum or more, and a rate of 2d. in the pound was chargeable to all those with goods worth £15 or more. The tax was payable monthly for five months, beginning at the end of June 1546. All clergymen with benefices worth £10 per annum or more were also to contribute. Household servants without independent landed holdings of at least £10 per annum, or at least £15 worth of goods, were not liable to pay.

These instructions survive in several copies and are calendared in |Letters & Papers, Henry VIII|, XXI (1), no 844, and printed in full in |Illustrations of English History|, ed. E Lodge (1791), I, pp 71-77.

The collectors were to pay the receipts of the contribution to Sir Edmund Peckham, the king's cofferer, who was appointed receiver-general by the king's letters patent on 18 June 1546 (E 179/241/320). His accounts survive, although they are not complete. Returns for individual counties can also be found in E 179, including that for Radnorshire at E 179/224/557, which states that monies were to be paid to the Lord President of the Council of the Marches. In addition, on 2 February 1548 Peckham drew up a certificate of the arrears of the loans and prerogative taxes for the collection of which he had been responsible over the previous five or six years, now E 179/240/276.

(Hoyle, |Tudor Taxation Records|, p 39)

enrolled account: E 370/2/23 (incomplete)