not bound to pay aid[1], or eſcuage[2]; and, when tenant by knight-ſervice paid five pounds for a relief on every knight's fee, tenant by grand ſerjeanty paid one year's value of his land, were it much or little[3]. Tenure by cornage, which was, to wind a horn when the Scots or other enemies entered the land, in order to warn the king's ſubjects, was (like other ſervices of the ſame nature) a ſpecies of grand ſerjeanty[4].
These ſervices, both of chivalry and grand ſerjeanty, were all perſonal, and uncertain as to their quantity or duration. But, the perſonal attendance in knight-ſervice growing troubleſome and inconvenient in many reſpects, the tenants found means of compounding for it; by firſt fending others in their ſtead, and in proceſs of time making a pecuniary ſatisfaction to the lords in lieu of it. This pecuniary ſatisfaction at laſt came to be levied by aſſeſſments, at ſo much for every knight's fee; and therefore this kind of tenure was called ſcutagium in Latin, or ſervitium ſcuti; ſcutum being then a well-known denomination of money: and, in like manner it was called, in our Norman French, eſcuage; being indeed a pecuniary, inſtead of a military, ſervice. The firſt time this appears to have been taken was in the 5 Hen. II. on account of his expedition to Toulouſe; but it ſoon came to be ſo univerſal, that perſonal attendance fell quite into diſuſe. Hence we find in our antient hiſtories that, from this period, when our kings went to war, they levied ſcutages on their tenants, that is, on all the landholders of the kingdom, to defray their expenſes, and to hire troops: and theſe aſſeſſments, in the time of Henry II, ſeem to have been made arbitrarily and at the king's pleaſure. Which prerogative being greatly abuſed by his ſucceſſors, it became matter of national clamour; and king John was obliged to conſent, by his magna carta, that no ſcutage ſhould be impoſed without conſent of parliament[5]. But this clauſe was omitted in his ſon Henry Ill's charter; where we only find[6], that
