HIST-102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Stephen Langton, False Friend, Robert Grosseteste
Document Summary
The merchants were organizing into guilds and developing international trade connections, the commercial economy was gaining ground on the rural as a percentage of realm-wide revenue production. John did his best to encourage this trend by granting numerous municipal charters and developing a unified commercial tax code. He tried to raise money as well by insisting on higher feudal reliefs from his barons and charging fees for favors granted by the crown. These new demands for money need not have been his undoing but for the fact that they took place within the context of the inept loss of the continental possessions that provided the bulk of the king"s revenue. John followed nearly every loss with new demands for higher taxes and reliefs in order to raise yet another army to take to france. The decisive capetian victory at bouvines in 1214 was the last straw.