Taxing Beards!

Queen Elizabeth I was always in the lookout for expanding tax revenue sources. At a time when beards were in style, she and her government decided to tax people with whiskers to increase their source of revenue. Interestingly, Elizabeth I's father, King Henry VIII of England, who wore a beard himself, introduced the tax, which varied according to the wearer's social position. Talk about royal hypocrisy! His daughter kept up the tradition by taxing every beard of more than two weeks' growth. Needless to say, the elite of the society wanted to remain in vogue and so paid the tax in return for the permission to keep their facial hair. The queen's treasury thus soon bulged with the revenue extorted from subjects with beards.

— Collected by UPASHANA SALAM