156 TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS. 



on its own account, and therefore documents which might 

 illustrate the facts of the case are less numerous, we find that 

 it paid fifteenths from its Oxford estates as well as from others. 

 We may conclude, then, that the inquisition was unfavourable 

 to the College. There is reason of course to think, that when 

 the propriety of liberating an estate from general taxation was 

 committed to the judgment on oath of a local jury, the crown 

 would be generally advised that such a course would be in- 

 expedient. 



Sometimes the tax was permanent, and issued annually from 

 the land. Thus Cheddington pays annually ten or eleven 

 shillings to the crown under the title of " Forinsecum servitium 

 domini regis," and Cambridge also four shillings and ten- 

 pence under the name of u Hagablum Regis a ." It would seem 

 that when Cheddington was called on to pay a parliamentary 

 tax it was relieved of the annual charge. Not so with Cam- 

 bridge, with whom the levy of this gabelle is regular. The 

 property of Merton College on the north side of Cambridge 

 was parcel of the honour of Lancaster, and the estate pays 

 the customary aids to the Earl of Lancaster. So the manor 

 of Barkby is dependent on the honour of Belvoir, and ordinary 

 aids are contributed to the Lords de Ros. The collection of 

 taxes gives instances of similar aids paid to the king and the 

 royal princes. Thus, for instance, the aid for the marriage 

 of Edward the First's daughter is levied in 1302 ; the knight- 

 hood of the Black Prince is recorded under 1346, as is the 

 marriage of the Earl of Lancaster's daughter in the same year. 



The taxes levied by authority or with consent of parliament 

 were of very various amounts, though apparently all of a 

 similar character a property-tax, namely, on chattels. The 

 attendance of the military tenants, or, in lieu of such attend- 

 ance, an impost called escuage, formed, with other incidents 

 of this tenure, the contribution of those persons from the 

 annual profits of their lands, to that which in effect was the 



a By an oversight the abbreviations used for these taxes, F., S., and H., are not explained 

 in the heading to the table of Taxes in the second volume. 



