Feudal Statistics 97 



mons were to take it into consideration, possibly 

 in alarm lest it might be utilised to meet the 

 exigencies of their unfortunate monarch, who is 

 reported to have been benefited to the extent of 

 100,000, or 173,537 98. 6d., by the compositions 

 for Knighthood of the 40 librate holders.* 



The popular idea of the servitium debitum is Popular 

 clearly stated by J. A. C. Vincent {Lanes. Lay^^f n 

 Subs., p. 1 1 6), in his expansion of a writ Qf exercitu - 

 military summons, to wit, in the proportion of one 

 Knight to each fee, whereas the mandate requires 

 habeant ibi pro se servicium suum nobis debitum ; 

 the simplicity of a theory asking credence for the 

 muster of the whole Knight Service of the 

 kingdom to a particular place on a given day 

 one very much admires at. Like views appear 

 to be expressed in Feudal England (pp. 270-1, 

 J. H. Round), and p. 292 where that author Unanimity 



V i i i c of authors 



labours hard to equate a scutage or 2 marcs per there- 

 fee with the service of a Knight for 40 days ; in anent> 

 the excellent work of the Bishop of Oxford (Const. 

 Hist. i. 589)^ and also in The Scutage and 



* Archsologia, 1863. 



t It would of course be impossible for any author to 

 fathom every detail in so vast and laborious a work as that 

 under note ; at the same time a levy of one-third of the 

 milites by tenure, would be (I think), as large a proportion as 

 ever recorded ; the chronicler himself styles it maximam 

 expeditionem, ita ut duo milites de tola Anglia tertium pararent 

 ad opprimendum Galenses (Ckron. Norm. p. 993, Ducbesne), 

 and it must be remembered that King John, when raising the 

 country to resist invasion, ordered quod novem milites pet totam Quotas of 

 Angliam invenient decimum mi/item, and in 4 northern counties se 

 a portion of this quota (j 1 ^) was to be retained to guard their 



7 



