forced loans

In Britain, the right of the Crown to demand money from its subjects without seeking the approval of parliament, especially in times of war. These were technically loans to be repaid and guaranteed with a receipt under the Privy Seal, unlike a benevolence, which was ostensibly a free gift. The practice appears to have started under Henry VII who did repay the money, but from the time of Henry VIII subsequent parliaments were used to cancel the debt. The loans of 1522-23 were converted by statute into gifts, and the last loan made to Elizabeth I was never repaid by her successor, James I.

Opposition to the practice grew in the reign of the Stuarts, by which time it had become little better than legalized extortion. Charles I raised such a loan after parliament refused to finance his foreign policy 1626 and several prominent nobles who refused to pay were arrested. The Five Knights' Case which resulted upheld the king's power to imprison at will. The uproar over Charles' behaviour led to the Petition of Right 1628, which demanded the king halt arbitrary arrests and not raise taxes without parliamentary consent. Forced loans were declared illegal 1689.