ert them into
fixed annual payments. The nobles refused, and the scheme was abandoned.

In the succeeding reign, the attempt to stretch royal power beyond its
due limits led to resistance by force, but it was no longer a mere war
of nobles; their power had been destroyed by Henry VII. The Stuarts had
to fight the people, with a paid army, and the Commons, having the
purse of the nation, opposed force to force. The contest eventuated in
a military protectorship. Many of the principal tenants-in-fee fled
the country to save their lives. Their lands were confiscated and given
away; thus the Crown rights were weakened, and Charles II. was forced to
recognize many of the titles given by Cromwell; he did not dare to
face the convulsion which must follow an expulsion of the novo homo in
posession of the estates of more ancient families; but legislation went
further--it abolished all the remaining feudal charges. The Commons
appear to have assented to this change, from a desire to lessen the
private income of the Sovereign, and thus to make him more dependent
upon Parliament, This was done by the 12th Charles II., cap. 24. It
enacts:

"That the Court of Ward and Liveries, primer seizin, etc., and all fines
for alienation, tenures by knight's service, and tenures in capite, be
done away with and turned into fee and common socage, and discharged of
homage, escuage, aids, and reliefs. All future tenures created by the
king to be in free and common socage, reserving rents to the Crown
and also fines on alienation. It enables fathers to dispose of their
children's share during their minority, and gives the custody of the
personal estate to the guardians of such child, and imposes in lieu of
the revenues raised in the Court of Ward and Liveries, duties upon beer
and ale."

The land was relieved of its legitimate charge, and a tax on beer and
ale imposed instead! the landlords were relieved at the expense of
the people. The statute which accomplished this change is described by
Blackstone as

"A greater acquisition to the civil property of this kingdom than even
Magna Charta itself, since that only pruned the luxuriances that had
grown out of military tenures, and thereby preserved them in vigor; but
the statute of King Charles extirpated the whole, and demolished both
root and branches."

The efforts of James II. to rule contrary to the wish of the nation,
led to his expulsion from the throne, and showed that, in case of future