freehold tenure (“_nec de alio libero tenemento_”). No freeholder, whether in socage, serjeanty, or frankalmoin, could in future be compelled to render services not legally due. ----- Footnote 530: See the authorities cited _supra_, p. 85, nn. I and 2. Footnote 531: In the so-called “unknown Charter of Liberties” (see Appendix) John concedes to his men “_ne eant in exercitu extra Angliam nisi in Normanniam et in Brittaniam_,” a not unfair compromise, which may possibly represent the sense in which the present chapter was interpreted by the barons. ----- If the barons thought they had thus settled the vexed questions connected with foreign service, they deceived themselves. Although this chapter (unlike those dealing with scutage) remained in full force in all subsequent confirmations, it was far from preventing disputes. Yet the disputants in future reigns occupied somewhat different ground. From the days of William I. to those of Charles II., when the feudal system was abolished, quarrels frequently arose, the most famous of which culminated in 1297 in Edward’s unseemly wrangle with the Earls of Norfolk and Hereford, whose duty it was to lead the royal army as hereditary Constable and Marshal respectively, but who refused point-blank to embark for Gascony except in attendance on the king’s person.[532] ----- Footnote 532: Walter of Hemingburgh, II. 121. Cf., on the whole subject of foreign services, _supra_, 154. ----- It has been shown in the Historical Introduction[533] how the obligations of a military tenant fell naturally into three groups (services, incidents, and aids), while a fourth group (scutages) was added when the Crown had adopted the expedient of commuting military service for its equivalent value in money. Feudal grievances also may be arranged in four corresponding groups, each redressed by special clauses of Magna Carta: abuse of _aids_ by chapters 12, 14, and 15; abuse of the feudal _incidents_, by chapters 2 to 8; abuse of _scutage_, by chapters 12 and 14; and abuse of _service_, by the present chapter, which thus completes the long list of provisions intended to protect tenants against their feudal lords. ----- Footnote 533: _Supra_, 72–86. ----- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. Communia placita non sequantur curiam nostram sed teneantur in aliquo loco certo. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be held in some fixed place. An attempt was here made to render royal justice cheaper and more accessible. Law-suits in which the Crown had no special interest, common pleas, were to be held in some one, fixed, pre-appointed spot, and must no longer follow the king as he moved about from place to place. The full extent of the boon conferred by this reform will be better appreciated after a short consideration of the method of dispensing justice adopted by Henry II. and his sons.