Page 149 of 155

     [* Hottom. de Feud. Disp. cap. 38, col. 886.]

     [** Lib. Feud. lib. iii. tit. 1; lib. iv. tit. 21,
     39.]

     [*** Lib. Feud. lib. i. tit. 21.]

     [**** Lib. Feud. lib. iv. tit. 44.]

     [****** Lib. Feud. lib. iv. tit. 14, 21]

     [******* Lib. Feud. lib. iv. tit. 14.]

     [******** Lib. Feud. lib. i. tit. 14, 21.]

     [********* Lib. Feud. lib. i. tit. 1.]

     [********** Spel. Gloss, in verbo Felonia]

     [*********** Spel. Glos. Glanville, lib. vii. cap.
     17.]

When a baron died, the king immediately took possession of the estate; and the heir, before he recovered his right, was obliged to make application to the crown, and desire that he might be admitted to do homage for his land, and pay a composition to the king. This composition was not at first fixed by law, at least by practice: the king was often exorbitant in his demands, and kept possession of the land till they were complied with.

If the heir were a minor, the king retained the whole profit of the estate till his majority; and might grant what sum he thought proper for the education and maintenance of the young baron. This practice was also founded on the notion that a fief was a benefice, and that, while the heir could not perform his military services, the revenue devolved to the superior, who employed another in his stead. It is obvious that a great proportion of the landed property must, by means of this device, be continually in the hands of the prince, and that all the noble familius were thereby held in perpetual dependence. When the king granted the wardship of a rich heir to any one, he had the opportunity of enriching a favorite or minister: if he sold it, he thereby levied a considerable sum of money. Simon de Mountfort paid Henry III. ten thousand marks, an immense sum in those days, for the wardship of Gilbert de Umfreville.[*] Geoffrey de Mandeville paid to the same prince the sum of twenty thousand marks, that he might marry Isabel, countess of Glocester, and possess all her lands and knights’ fees. This sum would be equivalent to three hundred thousand, perhaps four hundred thousand pounds in our time.[**]

If the heir were a female, the king was entitled to offer her any husband of her rank he thought proper; and if she refused him, she forfeited her land. Even a male heir could not marry without the royal consent; and it was usual for men to pay large sums for the liberty of making their own choice in marriage.[**] No man could dispose of his land, either by sale or will, without the consent of his superior. The possessor was never considered as full proprietor; he was still a kind of beneficiary; and could not oblige his superior to accept of any vassal that was not agreeable to him.

Fines, amerciaments, and oblatas, as they were called, were another considerable branch of the royal power and revenue. The ancient records of the exchequer, which are still preserved, give surprising accounts of the numerous fines anc amerciaments levied in those days,[****] and of the strange inventions fallen upon to exact money from the subject.

     [* Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 223.]

     [** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 322.]

     [*** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 320.]

     [**** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 272.]

It appears that the ancient kings of England put themselves entirely on the footing of the barbarous Eastern princes, whom no man must approach without a present, who sell all their good offices, and who intrude themselves into every business, that they may have a pretence for extorting money. Even justice was avowedly bought and sold; the king’s court itself, though the supreme judicature of the kingdom, was open to none that brought not presents to the king; the bribes given for the expedition, delay,[*] suspension, and, doubtless, for the perversion of justice, were entered in the public registers of the royal revenue, and remain as monuments of the perpetual iniquity and tyranny of the times. The barons of the exchequer, for instance, the first nobility of the kingdom, were not ashamed to insert, as an article in their records, that the county of Norfolk paid a sum that they might be fairly dealt with;[**] the borough of Yarmouth, that the king’s charters, which they have for their liberties, might not be violated;[***] Richard, son of Gilbert, for the king’s helping him to recover his debt from the Jews;[****] Serlo, son of Terlavaston, that he might be permitted to make his defence, in case he were accused of a certain homicide;[*****] Waiter de Burton, for free law, if accused of wounding another;[******] Robert de Essart, for having an Liquest to find whether Roger the butcher, and Wace and Humphrey, accused him of robbery and theft out of envy and ill will, or not;[*******] William Buhurst, for having an inquest to find whether he were accused of the death of one Goodwin out of ill will, or for just cause.[********] I have selected these few instances from a great number of a like kind, which Madox had selected from a still greater number, preserved in the ancient rolls of the exchequer.[*********]

Sometimes the party litigant offered the king a certain portion, a half, a third, a fourth, payable out of the debts which he, as the executor of justice, should assist him in recovering.[**********] Theophania de Westland agreed to pay the half of two hundred and twelve marks, that she might recover that sum against James de Fughleston;[*] Solomon the Jew engaged to pay one mark out of every seven that he should recover against Hugh d la Hose;[************] Nicholas Morrel promised to pay sixty pounds, that the earl of Flanders might be distrained to pay him three hundred and forty-three pounds, which the earl had taken from him; and these sixty pounds were to be paid out of the first money that Nicholas should recover from the earl.[*************]

     [* Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 274, 309.]

     [** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 295]

     [*** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 295.]

     [**** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 296. He paid
     two hundred marks, a great sum in those days.]

     [****** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 296.]

     [******* Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p 298.]

     [******** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 302.]

     [********* Madox, Hist. of the Exch. chap. xii.]

     [********** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 311.]

     [*********** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 311.]

     [************ Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 79,
     312.]

     [************* Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 312.]

As the king assumed the entire power over trade, he was to be paid for a permission to exercise commerce or industry of any kind.[**] Hugh Oisel paid four hundred marks for liberty to trade in England:[***] Nigel de Havene gave fifty marks for the partnership in merchandise which he had with Gervase de Hanton:[****] the men of Worcester paid one hundred shillings, that they might have the liberty of selling and buying dyed cloth, as formerly;[*****] several other towns paid for a like liberty.[******] The commerce indeed of the kingdom was so much under the control of the king, that he erected guilds, corporations, and monopolies wherever he pleased; and levied sums for these exclusive privileges.[*******]

There were no profits so small as to be below the king’s attention. Henry, son of Arthur, gave ten dogs, to have a recognition against the countess of Copland for one knight’s fee.[********] Roger, son of Nicholas, gave twenty lampreys and twenty shads for an inquest to find whether Gilbert, son of Alured, gave to Roger two hundred muttons to obtain his confirmation for certain lands, or whether Roger took them from him by violence;[*********] Geoffrey Fitz-Pierre, the chief justiciary, gave two good Norway hawks, that Walter le Madine might have leave to export a hundred weight of cheese out ot the king’s dominions.[**********]