2 66 History of the English Landed Interest. 



livery was a system extending beyond even the regimental 

 caterer's ideas of foresiglit, for it provided for the possible 

 addition of every sort of unexpected guest. No person, what- 

 ever his rank, whether king or subject, lord or commoner, 

 Englishman or foreigner, could take the baronial purveyor un- 

 awares. The proportion of food and other bodily necessities 

 due to each rank was known to a nicety, whether it was fixed 

 by treat}'- as in the case of the retainer, or by national custom 

 as in the case of the guest. 



Closely associated with the system of livery were those of 

 heraldry and maintenance ; for the former afforded devices 

 wherewith the retainers of the different nobles distinguished 

 each other, and the other furnished causes for resolving them 

 into hostile factions. "When two lords had taken opposite sides 

 in maintaining the quarrel of some insignificant dependant, it 

 needed but a sight of the distinguishing heraldic badges to set 

 their respective retainers by the ears. The heads of great 

 families took to fortifying their houses after the manner of 

 their castles ; and then all the elements of constant though 

 petty disturbance were at hand, which would probably have 

 again deluged the country with blood, had not the hostile 

 attention of royalty become attracted to these abuses. 



It must not, however, be supposed that the Tudor sovereigns 

 were the first monarchs who attempted to cope with the evil. 

 Even so early as the fourteenth century, livery had not only 

 been the means of extending a lord's protection to any stranger 

 who would espouse his quarrel, but sometimes even shielded 

 the malefactor from the just arm of the law. By 16 Richard 

 II. c. 4, 20 Richard II. c. 2, and 1 Henry IV. c. 7, the practice 

 was limited by law to the lord's own domestics, officers, and 

 " counsel learned in the law." By 2 Hen. IV. c. 21, 7 Hen. IV. 

 c. 14, 8 Hen. VI. c. 4, and 8 Ed. IV. c. 2, further pains 

 and penalties were added to those of the earlier statutes, 

 which had only inflicted imprisonment on the offenders. The 

 effect of such legislation was not altogether to abolish livery, 

 for both its repressive laws and its usage lingered on till 

 Stuart times ; the former to be repealed in Charles I's reign, the 

 latter to be abolished in that of his son. But from what has 



