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⟩ varieties of English, by analogy with "father". The table below represents the results of broadening before fricatives in contemporary Received Pronunciation. In general, all these words, to the extent that they existed in Middle English, had ("short A" as in "trap") which was broadened to . The exceptions are: The words "castle", "fasten" and "raspberry" are special cases where subsequent sound changes have altered the conditions initially responsible for lengthening. In "castle" and "fasten", the was pronounced, according to a slight majority of 16th and 17th century sources. In "raspberry" we find rather than . The pattern of lengthening shown