Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/334

 326 SCUTAGE UNDER EDWARD I July abundant precedents for reduced service in the reign of Henry III constituted a strong argument in their favour. Moreover, the loss which the Crown sustained under the new conditions was more apparent than real. The value of a knight's service had increased enormously since the days of Henry II, and the fines pro servitio were paid at a proportionately high rate. Con- sequently the demand for scutage in addition, though in theory not unwarranted, wore in practice the aspect of an unjustifiable attempt to secure double payment for the same liability. Hence, in the struggle which ensued, the Crown was foredoomed to failure ; although it was not until more than half a century had elapsed that it was finally persuaded of the impossibility of enforcing its new policy. The first scutage of the reign of Edward I was levied in connexion with the Welsh war of 1277. On 12 November 1276 a ' full ' council of prelates, earls, barons, and others pronounced judgement upon Llewelyn for his repeated failure to perform the homage stipulated for in the treaty of Shrewsbury of 1267, and authorized the king to call out the feudal host for service against his recalcitrant vassal. 1 A month later, on 12 December, writs of summons were issued in the traditional triple form, providing for a muster at Worcester on 1 July 1277. 2 An examination of the roll of the proffers of service made at head-quarters and elsewhere during the first fortnight of July 3 shows that the service performed in 1277 was that which had been recognized in the later years of the reign of Henry III, and that the number of knights actually furnished did not exceed four hundred. 4 To these must be added the ' troopers ' or light -armed horsemen, who, as Dr. Morris has shown, usually accompanied the con- tingents of the earls and certain greater barons in the proportion of two or three to every knight registered ; 5 but even when this addition has been made the disparity between the numbers serving and the sum total of fees from which service was theo- retically due is still sufficiently striking. The majority of the great ecclesiastics, together with a certain number of female and other tenants in chief, who were unable or unwilling to send their due quotas, made fine for their service at a rate varying from 10 to 50 marks the fee. 6 On the return of the king from Wales after the submission of Llewelyn in November 1277, it was decided to impose a scutage in connexion with the feudal summons of the previous May. 7 1 Parliamentary Writs, i. 5. * Ibid. p. 193. 3 Ibid. pp. 197 seq. 4 Morris, p. 45, gives the actual numbers as 228 barons and knights, 294 servientes, two of the latter being considered equivalent to one knight. 5 Ibid. pp. 54-5. 6 Cal. of Fine Bolls, i, 1272-1307, pp. 85-7 ; Pipe Roll, no. 123, 7 Edw. I. 7 Chron. Thorn. Wykes, Annales Monastici, ed. Luard (Rolls Series), iv. 274.