The taxation system so far had been based on a fixed tax on 10th and 15th's which produced an unequal system where the poor were asked to pay the same amount, if not more, as the wealthy. Subsequently this resulted in the poor struggling to pay their tax without fearing starvation and the wealthy paying without a problem, while building their personal fortune. The divide between the classes was continuously worsened. Wolsey changed this by introducing a new tax revenue based on the taxpayers income as every citizen now had to pay one shilling for every pound they earned. As a direct result of this change in policy the divide between the rich and the poor shrunk drastically, the poverty of the lower classes was lightened while the rich contributed
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Previous forced loans from 1522 and 1523 which had been used to support the previous campaigns in France had not been repaid and subsidies from 1523 were still being collected leaving the commons without financial security or the means to pay out further loans or taxes. Discontent spread rapidly and many regions reported a lack of funds and an inability to respond to the new demands made by the crown. A few counties refused to pay and went into a rebellion, namely in Essex, Kent, Norfolk, Warwickshire and Huntingdonshire, and gathered more than 10.000 men in support of their rebellion, making it the most serious rebellion since 1497. The King was forced to react as he was not only facing this rebellion but also demands from London that the new payments were not supportable and that changes would have to be made. Wolsey's plan crumbled apart, although the rebellion was crushed the grant had to be abandoned and Henry was forced to lower the subsidy payments of 1523. This meant that the plan once made in order to gain money for the crown had now cost money instead, destroying any further war plans Henry had for France and forcing peace between the two nations. Wolsey found himself humiliated by the events but begged his King for mercy for those who had
Previous forced loans from 1522 and 1523 which had been used to support the previous campaigns in France had not been repaid and subsidies from 1523 were still being collected leaving the commons without financial security or the means to pay out further loans or taxes. Discontent spread rapidly and many regions reported a lack of funds and an inability to respond to the new demands made by the crown. A few counties refused to pay and went into a rebellion, namely in Essex, Kent, Norfolk, Warwickshire and Huntingdonshire, and gathered more than 10.000 men in support of their rebellion, making it the most serious rebellion since 1497. The King was forced to react as he was not only facing this rebellion but also demands from London that the new payments were not supportable and that changes would have to be made. Wolsey's plan crumbled apart, although the rebellion was crushed the grant had to be abandoned and Henry was forced to lower the subsidy payments of 1523. This meant that the plan once made in order to gain money for the crown had now cost money instead, destroying any further war plans Henry had for France and forcing peace between the two nations. Wolsey found himself humiliated by the events but begged his King for mercy for those who had