Hearth tax and became widespread in the 14th century when the royal finances were unable to bear the rising costs of war and state agents. In particular, "fouages" were levied in 1342 and 1349. The "hearth-penny" was an Anglo-Saxon term for "Peter's pence". In England, hearth tax, also known as hearth money, chimney tax, or chimney money, was a tax imposed by Parliament in 1662, to support the Royal Household of King Charles II. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Parliament calculated that the Royal Household needed an annual income of £1,200,000. The hearth tax was a supplemental tax to
Pronunciation of English ⟨a⟩ well as in foreign borrowed words like "spa", "taco", "llama", "drama", "piranha", "Bahamas", "pasta", "Bach", many of which vary between and among different dialects of English. Some of these developments are discussed in detail in the following sections. In late Middle English, pairs such as "cat", "cart", were pronounced , respectively, distinguished only by the presence or absence of . However, by the late 17th century they were also distinguished by the quality and length of the vowel. In "cat", the vowel had been fronted to , while in "cart" it had been lengthened to . This latter change seems