First Fruits and Tenths (Queen Anne's Bounty)

Historical Context Note

Shelley King (Queen's University at Kingston Ontario)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Domains

Legislation (Bills, Acts, Laws ...)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1535-1704

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Appointees to ecclesiastical positions were traditionally required to return to the Church the “first fruits” of their labours, a sum equal to the revenues from the first year of the appointment; thereafter they were to return annually one tenth of their earnings. In England prior to the Reformation these ecclesiastical taxes were returned to Rome, but in 1535 Henry VIII decreed that the fund known as First Fruits and Tenths would henceforth accrue to the State (26 Hen 8) and become part of the public treasury. First Fruits and Tenths continued to be used for State purposes up to 1704, when they were directed to a fund known as Queen Anne's Bounty established to ameliorate the poverty of the poorest Church of England clergy. The …

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141 words

Citation: King, Shelley. "First Fruits and Tenths (Queen Anne's Bounty)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 November 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1687, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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First Fruits and Tenths (Queen Anne's Bounty)

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