Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/86

 74 not bound to pay aid, or ecuage ; and, when tenant by knight-ervice paid five pounds for a relief on every knight's fee, tenant by grand erjeanty paid one year's value of his land, were it much or little. 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 ubjects, was (like other ervices of the ame nature) a pecies of grand erjeanty.

ervices, both of chivalry and grand erjeanty, were all peronal, and uncertain as to their quantity or duration. But, the peronal attendance in knight-ervice growing troubleome and inconvenient in many repects, the tenants found means of compounding for it; by firt fending others in their tead, and in proces of time making a pecuniary atisfaction to the lords in lieu of it. This pecuniary atisfaction at lat came to be levied by aements, at o much for every knight's fee; and therefore this kind of tenure was called cutagium in Latin, or ervitium cuti; cutum being then a well-known denomination of money: and, in like manner it was called, in our Norman French, ecuage; being indeed a pecuniary, intead of a military, ervice. The firt time this appears to have been taken was in the 5 Hen. II. on account of his expedition to Touloue; but it oon came to be o univeral, that peronal attendance fell quite into diue. Hence we find in our antient hitories that, from this period, when our kings went to war, they levied cutages on their tenants, that is, on all the landholders of the kingdom, to defray their expenes, and to hire troops: and thee aements, in the time of Henry II, eem to have been made arbitrarily and at the king's pleaure. Which prerogative being greatly abued by his ucceors, it became matter of national clamour; and king John was obliged to conent, by his magna carta, that no cutage hould be impoed without conent of parliament. But this claue was omitted in his on Henry Ill's charter; where we only find, that Rh