1. Frankalmoin, _temp._ Hen. II.--2. Knight Service, 1308--3. Grand Serjeanty, 1319--4. Petty Serjeanty, 1329--5. An action on the feudal incidents due from land held by petty serjeanty, 1239-40--6. Free socage, 1342--7. Commutation of a serjeanty for knight service, 1254--8. Commutation of service for rent, 1269--9. Subinfeudation, 1278--10. Licence for the widow of a tenant in chief to marry, 1316--11. Marriage of a widow without licence, 1338--12. Alienation of land by a tenant in chief without licence, 1273--13. Wardship and marriage, 1179-80--14. Grant of an heir's marriage, 1320--15. Wardship, 1337--16. Collection of a carucage, 1198--17. An acquittance of the collectors of scutage of a sum of 10l. levied by them and repaid, 1319--18. Payment of fines in lieu of knight service, 1303--19. The assessment of a tallage, 1314--20. A writ _Precipe_, _c._ 1200--21. Articles of enquiry touching rights and liberties and the state of the realm, 1274--- 22. Wreck of sea, 1337. The general characteristics of feudalism as a system by which the administrative, legislative and judicial functions of the state had their basis in the tenure of land, are well known. In the following documents an attempt has been made to illustrate the development of English feudalism under the direction of a strong central government, which succeeded in controlling the centrifugal force of feudal institutions and in establishing a national administration dependent on the crown and antagonistic to local franchise. By the end of the thirteenth century the crown was firmly entrenched behind well developed courts of permanent officials, having at the same time retained its control of local affairs by preventing the office of sheriff from becoming hereditary; in the sphere of justice, the central courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, supplemented by the itinerant Justices of Assize and by the energy of the Chancellor in devising new remedies and new legal actions, were slowly but surely undermining the manorial justice of the greater tenants, a process well understood by the framers of _Magna Carta_; while the creation of Parliament brought into being an institution destined to rival and ultimately to supersede the exclusive claims of the lords, the feudal council, to advise and control the crown. While therefore the worst tendencies of feudalism were neutralised, the sovereign's hold on the land was tightened, and feudal obligations were reduced to a rigid system which persisted until the Civil War of the seventeenth century. The administration of this branch of royal rights, facilitated by the existence of Domesday Book and the rapid development of the Exchequer, was locally in the hands of the sheriffs for a century and a half after the Conquest; but the growth of business, due to the increase of population and the subdivision of the original knights' fees, necessitated the creation of a separate official.