Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth CenturiesRound, John Horace
History
Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
Round, John Horace
Domesday book; Feudalism -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- History -- Norman period, 1066-1154; Normans -- Great Britain
It would be easy to assume that this was the abuse renounced by Henry
I.[279] But _distinguo_. The above abuse was quite distinct from the
practice of annexing to the revenues of the crown, during a vacancy,
the temporalities. This, which was undoubtedly renounced by Henry,
and as undoubtedly resorted to by himself and by his successors
afterwards, was, however distasteful to the church,[280] a logical
deduction from feudal principles, and did not actually wrong any
individual. It could thus be retained when the crown abandoned such
unjust exactions as the Worcester relief, and it afforded an excellent
substitute for wardship, though practically mischievous in the impulse
it gave to the prolongation of vacancies.
There are many other points suggested by the record I am discussing,
but they can only be touched on briefly. It gives us a singularly
early use of the remarkable term 'honour', here employed in its
simplest and strictly accurate sense; the same term was similarly
employed, we have seen, in the case of Abingdon (1097), where we also
find the fief described as reverting to the crown _vacante sede_.[281]
It further alludes to a special assessment by 'barons' deputed for
the purpose; it affords a noteworthy formula for distraint in case of
non-payment; and it gives us, within barely nine years of the great
survey itself, a list of the tenants of the fee, which should prove of
peculiar value.
If the sums entered be added up, their total will amount to exactly
£250. It is tempting to connect this figure with a _servitium debitum_
(_teste episcopo_) of fifty fees at the 'ancient relief' of £5 a fee;
but we are only justified in treating it as one of those round sums
that we find exacted for relief under Henry II, especially as its
items cannot be connected with the actual knights' fees. The appended
analysis will show the relation (where ascertainable) of sums paid to
hides held.
DOMESDAY, 1086 THE RELIEF, 1095
_h._ _v._ _£_ _s._
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