Western Civilization II / Unit 2 WC2 0102 short lesson, about 20 seconds
A Poor Crown: Parliament's Purse and the Gentry
Captions available
The idea
The English crown had a small bureaucracy, no standing army, and revenue only from taxes that parliament, a body dominated by the gentry, could approve or refuse. Whether parliament could make law stayed an open question.
In practice
Kings, the anchor says, had to beg, plead and bargain.
Where people slip
France taxed without asking; England could not.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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