THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



1 farmed ' together. The evidence of Domesday that in this county, as in 

 the adjoining one of Worcestershire, royal manors were ' farmed ' as a 

 group is of very great importance as bearing on that system of the ' firma 

 comitatus ' which plays so large a part in early administration and 

 finance. 1 But the special and indeed unique value of the Warwickshire 

 evidence is that it carries back the system to days before the Conquest 

 and thereby flatly contradicts the Dialogus de Scaccario.* 



In view of the extreme importance of these Warwickshire entries 

 one cannot too closely scan their exact wording. The royal revenue 

 from a county, apart from taxes, was derived normally from three sources, 

 (i) the king's lands ; (2) his rights in the county town ; (3) his profits 

 from jurisdiction (known as the pleas of the shire). There is no question 

 that under the Conqueror this last item was among the sources of the 

 farm * ; but I am of opinion that it was so also under Edward the Con- 

 fessor. For if the passage (in the footnote) be carefully read it will be 

 found to enumerate distinctly three sources of revenue : (i) the vice- 

 comitatus; (2) the burgus ; (3) the regalia maneria. Now in the adjoining 

 county of Worcestershire (fo. 172)* we find similarly enumerated three 

 sources : (i) the comitatus ; (2) the civitas ; (3) the dominica maneria regis 5 ; 

 and here, luckily, Domesday explains that comitatus stands for the profits 

 of the pleas in the courts of the county and the hundreds.' This then I 

 believe to be also the meaning of vicecomitatus among the sources of 

 revenue in Warwickshire under Edward the Confessor. 



But the Worcestershire evidence helps us further in our study of the 

 Warwickshire payments. In both counties we find precisely the same 

 sums, 10 f r a hawk, jTi for a sumpter horse, and 5 to the queen, and 

 the Worcestershire evidence shows that they were paid in respect of the 

 profits of jurisdiction. 7 In Warwickshire, however, there is a further 

 payment of 23 'pro consuetudine canum,' for a parallel to which we 

 must turn to the adjoining county of Oxfordshire, which paid precisely 

 the same sum ' pro canibus,' in addition to the other payments, while 

 Northamptonshire, also adjoining, paid 4.2 ' ad canes.' In Bedfordshire 

 again 13 icxr. in all was paid by three royal manors ' de consuetudine 

 canum,' but this, as in the case of some Gloucestershire manors, is distinct 

 from the payment of such a due in respect of the whole county. 



Recapitulating the evidence, we find that in 1086 the farm of the 

 royal manors and the pleas of the county brought in jointly (i) 145 

 pounds of weighed silver, (2) the above 23 f r the hounds, (3) the 



i See Tie Ctmmtme tfLmdon and ttier Studies, pp. 71-3. 



' Tempore regis E. ricecomitatus de Warwic cum burgo et cum regalibns maneriis reddebat IXY 

 libras, etc.' Compare Diabgts Je Scaccaria, ed. 1902, p. 36. 



* ' The latter &rm included " pleas of the county," and thus is strictly parallel with the farm* on the 

 Pipe Rolls' (tad-) 



See r.C.H. ITtrt. L 



* ' Reddit ricecomes rriii lib. et r. sol ad pensum de cmtate, et de dominicis manerro regis 

 reddit cniii lib. et iiii sol ad pensum. De comitatu rero reddit xrii lib. ad pensum, et adhnc reddit 

 z lib. denariomm de xx in ora aut accipitrem norresc, et adhnc c solidos regime ad nnmernm, et xx" 

 >oL de xr in ora pro snmmario.' 



* ' Hz xrii librae ad pensum et xri lib. ad nnmerum snnt de placitis comitatus et Hundreds.' 



* See preceding note. 



