Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/341

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1922 SCUT AGE UNDER EDWARD I 333 the whole of the amount was paid in the year of the summons. The discontent aroused by the new scutage policy of the Crown seems gradually to have paralysed the entire feudal military system. On 18 and 19 July it was found necessary to order the distraint of various tenants by the sheriffs for the payment of their fines pro servitio, 1 but in spite of these measures the roll affords evidence that in many cases payment was delayed for a number of years. The results of the campaign of 1300 fell much below the expectations of the king, and two years later preparations were begun for a renewed conquest of Scotland. By writs dated 7 November 1302, the feudal host was summoned to assemble at Berwick-on-Tweed in the following May, 2 the tenants in chief being called upon, as before, to furnish more than their customary quota of knights. A marshal's roll for this army is extant, but as it is incomplete it affords little satisfactory guidance as to the numbers of the cavalry produced by the feudal levy. On 16 April 1303 the sheriffs were instructed by writ to make pro- clamation that all ecclesiastics, women, and others unfit for service should appear before the exchequer at York on or before 17 May, to make fine with the king at the reduced rate of 20 the fee. The official total of 1,777 Is. 8d. s shows that more tenants availed themselves of the opportunity for compounding for their service in 1303 than on the previous occasion, but as before payment of the sums promised was exceedingly slow. 4 No attempt appears to have been made to raise a scutage in connexion with either of the above campaigns until 1305. In the parliament held at Westminster from the February to the April of that year, it was agreed by the prelates, earls, barons, and others that levies should be put in charge for the armies of Scotland of 28 and 31 Edward I within two years, ' si placuerit regi ' ; and in return the king consented that all who had per- formed their service in those armies should be granted their scutage. 5 On 26 April the constable and marshal were accordingly directed to send into the chancery all rolls of recognizances, services, and fines in their custody, with the names of those who had performed their service or fined for it in 1300 and 1303 ; 6 while the treasurer and barons were similarly required to furnish a list of those who had paid fines into the exchequer on these 1 Exch. Mem. Roll, Lord Treas. Rem., no. 71, Brev. Ret. Trin., m. 54 d. 2 Part. Writs, i. 366-7. 3 Exch. Lord Treas. Rem. Misc., Roll 1/13, m. 2. 4 Ibid. Many fines were not paid until the fifth or sixth years of Edward II.

  • Rot. Parl. i. 166, no. 69.

6 Cal. of Close Rolls, 1302-7, p. 262. The date is here given as 22 April ( Mem. de Parliamento, 1305, p. 124, from Close Roll).