Benevolence, the name of a forced tax exacted from the people by certain kings of England, and which, under Charles I., became so obnoxious as to occasion the demand of the Petition of Rights (q.v.), that no tax should be levied without consent of Parliament; first enforced in 1473, declared illegal in 1689.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Benevento * Benfey, Theodor