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⟩ the more conservative in the 17th century, and was "generally accepted by careful speakers by about 1670". This vowel (that of "trap", "cat", "man", "bad", etc.) is now normally denoted as . In present-day RP, however, it has lowered to a fully front . Such a quality is also found in the accents of northern England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the Caribbean. In North America, however, there is a trend towards tensing (raising) of this vowel. Raised pronunciations are also found in Southern Hemisphere English, and are also associated with Cockney. For the possibility of phonemic length differentiation, see "bad–lad"