ENGLISH GARRISON OP GUERNSEY. 67 



Exchequer for the years 1180, 1195 and 1198 throw no light 

 on the subject. In the following centuries however we find an 

 almost identical system to that ju^^t desci-ibed in force in our 

 islands. First, the payment of 70 livres Umrnois per annum, 

 relieving the people from service in the king's army ; except 

 under certain contingencies, namely, the reconquest of 

 England, or personal peril to the Sovereign ; tantamount in 

 fact to a scutage ; secondly, the force of the people under 

 arms, exactly as constituted by the Assizes of Arms, for the 

 defence of their homes and property ; and thirdly, a garrison 

 of mercenaries to defend the king's castles. 



The first mention of a Koyal garrison in the Channel 

 Islands is in the year 12' 3, during the war between King 

 John and Philip Augustus, previous to the loss of Normandy, 

 when, on the 24th July, we find the king ordering Peter de 

 Preaux, the Lord of the Isles, " that the lords of fiefs in the 

 islands should receive a reasonable contribution from their 

 tenants, so that the islands should be defended against 

 foreigners." 



" We therefore direct you to receive through Reginald 

 de Carteret such reasonable contribution, towards the main- 

 tenance of the officers and soldiers who are defending the 

 islands against foreign enemies."* 



A few weeks later, on the 13th August, the king again 

 ordered de Preaux to levy an aid of one-fifth of the incomes 

 of all tenants in chief in the islands, " towards the maintenance 

 of the soldiers employed in the defence of the islands against 

 foreign enemies. "f 



From this date English garrisons were undoubtedly kept 

 in the castles, for it is most improbable that their defence 

 should have been left entirely to the people of the Isles. The 

 list of the Normans' lands in Guernsey escheated to the 

 Crown given in the " Extente " of 1274, the fiefs of Anne- 

 ville, Fauville, Suard, Sotuard, Legat, Rozel, &c., shows the 

 number of our tenants in chief who abandoned the cause of 

 King John for that of Philip Augustus ; and the many 

 manors held in the island by Norman or other alien abbeys 

 were sufficient reasons for the existence of a permanent Royal 

 garrison in Castle Cornet to guard the most important road- 

 stead in the Isles, and keep in allegiance the tenants or the 

 former tenants of the then alien over-lords. In early times 

 these garrisons were paid in time of peace by the Warden of 

 the Isles out of the Crown revenue which he received over 



* Le Quesne " Constitutional Hist, of Jersey, p, 476 (Rot. Litt. Pat,, vol. II., p. 32. 

 t Do., p. i75, R. L. P., vol. I., p. 33. 



