6 Feudal aids

The aid was a voluntary contribution by a vassal made to assist his lord in great need. The existence of such an obligation was one of the main contributors to the development of the lay subsidy, but from the twelfth century onwards it also became customary in two particular recurrent sets of circumstances. The legal treatise written late in the reign of Henry II and traditionally attributed to Ranulf de Glanville mentioned two such aids that a lord could exact from his men, to knight his eldest son and to marry his first-born daughter. They were supposed to be reasonable and moderate, according to the size of the vassal's fee, so that he should not lose the property necessary to maintain his position. Its basis of assessment varied. Two major aids levied by twelfth century kings to marry daughters illustrate the point. In 1110 Henry I levied an aid to marry his daughter Matilda to the emporer Henry V at 3s on the hide, in effect a Danegeld at a rate higher than the normal 2s on the hide. In 1168 his grandson Henry II raised another aid to marry his daughter Matilda to the duke of Saxony by a levy of a mark on each knight's fee, in effect a scutage, but with the royal demesne paying a tallage. It has been estimated that this aid had the highest rate of assessment on knights' fees, 84 percent, of any levy between 1154 and 1216, and suggested that the need to levy the aid was the reason for the attempt to reassess feudal service by the carte baronun in 1166.

The feudal aid in this narrow sense continued to be levied occasionally until early seventeenth century. The precedents of the twelfth century were continued and developed in the thirteenth, and the aids levied then are included in the list of taxes. In 1235 Henry III raised an aid in the form of a scutage of two marks per fee to marry his sister Joan to the Emporer Frederick II. She was not King John's eldest daughter, but the aid was justified by the fact that John had not levied one to marry his eldest daughter, Joan. Ten years later Henry levied an aid of 20s per fee to marry his eldest daughter Margaret, although the wedding, to the king of Scotland, did not take place until 1251. In 1253 an aid to knight Prince Edward was also raised.

Some of the monies raised by the aids were used for purposes other than those intended.and the precedent was followed by Edward I in 1302 when he used the proceeds of an aid to marry his eldest daughter Eleanor, granted in 1290 but not raised because of the death of the intended bridegroom, Alphonso III of Aragon, for military expenditure in Scotland. In 1306 a thirtieth and twentieth on moveables was levied as an aid to knight the future Edward II, for which parliamentary approval was given, and in 1333 Edward III levied an aid on the clergy to marry his sister to the count of Guelders. Parliamentary sanction, by the lords at least, was also granted for the levy of an aid to knight Edward III's son the Black Prince in 1346. This tax, levied at an unprecedented 40s on each knight's fee, was assessed using lists compiled from copies of the records of the aid levied in 1302. At least one roll of evidences from this process has survived, and in Kent the commissioners to levy the aid of 1346 drew information about feudal tenures from respites of homage recorded on the Exchequer memoranda rolls as far back as the reign of Henry III. The aid was deeply unpopular and still remained partly uncollected in 1355. Edward III was forced into limiting the rates leviable in future aids to 20s per knight's fee and 20s per l20 worth of land held in socage, which was given the force of law by a statute promulgated in 1352. No further aid of this sort was levied until 1401, when Henry IV's daughter Blanche married the duke of Bavaria. It was not very successful, and was still being collected in Cumberland in 1407.

Thereafter feudal aids again fell into disuse. However, in 1504 Henry VII tried to secure a grant of two aids for knighting his eldest son, Prince Arthur, who had died in 1502, and the marriage of his eldest daughter, Princess Margaret, who married James IV of Scotland in 1503. The commons acknowledged his right to the aids, but were unwilling to submit to an investigation into their feudal tenures, and he was instead persuaded to accept a subsidy of l30,000, which was roughly equivalent to the amount raised by a fifteenth and tenth. There was no further opportunity to levy a feudal aid until the reign of James I, when there was a brief revival of the subject.

The plan to levy an aid to knight the king's eldest son Henry in 1609 precipitated extensive research into Exchequer records, statute law, law reports and Magna Carta to find out what the king was entitled to levy and upon whom. It was determined by the king's attorney-general and other advisers that it made more practical and political sense to take sums as compositions instead levying the aid, based upon the estimated values of the estates of those of the king's subjects liable to pay, and the commissioners for the aid were instructed to attempt to persuade them to contribute no less than one-third of the value of their estates. Only those who would not comply were subject to a formal inquisition into their tenures and a levy of 20s per knight's fee or per l20 worth of land held in socage, as allowed by the statute of 1352. It is to be doubted that anyone was moved to compound for anything like the sums sought, for the yield was extremely disappointing. The same approach was adopted to a second feudal aid levied by James I in 1612 for the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to Frederick, the Elector Palatine, but the results of this levy also fell far short of expectations.

After 1612 no further attempts to raise feudal aids are known to have been made, although in 1678, after feudal tenures had been abolished, Charles II was granted a fixed-yield assessment, part of which was to provide a marriage portion for his niece, already married to William of Orange. This levy seem to have been an echo of the earlier aids. pp. xxiv-xxvi.

Feudal Aids

1193 April 20 or later [aid to ransome the king]

1217 Oct 20 [aid or 'scutage' to raise an indemnity for Louis of France]

c. 1235 July 17 [aid to marry the king's sister]

1245 April 27 x May 13 [aid to knight the king's eldest son]

1253 April 217 x May 13 [aid to knight the king's eldest son]

1302 Nov 7 or earlier [aid to marry the king's eldest daughter]

1346 Sept 14 x Nov 1 [aid to knight the king's eldest son]

1401 Dec 1 [aid to marry the king's eldest daughter]

1609 Feb 25 or earlier [aid to knight the king's eldest daughter]

1612 Aug 30 [aid to marry the king's eldest daughter]

1302

Aid to marry the king's daughter, 1302 Nov 7 or earlier

Although originally granted on 1 June 1290, this tax was not levied at that time because of the death of princess Eleanor's prospective bridegroom, Alphonso of Aragon. In 1302, when funds were required for the Scottish war, parliament agreed that Edward I could now levy the tax, and on 7 November collectors were appointed. The rate charged was l2 per knight's fee, and payment was due at the feasts of Purification and Ascension next following (2 February and 16 May 1303).

Payment was intended to come from the sub-tenants, not the tenants-in-chief. Because so many were remitted payment temporarily when the host assembled to fight in May, much of the money was late coming in. Most of what was collected was spent on stores and equipment for the army in Scotland. Sheerffs were ordered in October 1304 to account at the Exchequer, but collection dragged on into the next reign and at least one payment was still outstanding in 1340, for which a pardon was issued.

In assition to the assessments returned to the Exchequer and now among the E179 documents, the assessment of knights' fees for the greater part of Norfolk is now BL Add MS 38,513 (ff 5 onwards). p. 26

Aid to knight the king's son Edward, 1346 Sept 14 x Nov 1

Edward knighted his eldest son Edward (later the Black Prince) in Normandy at the start of the Crecy campaign. The magnates present were 'persuaded to consent to the levy' of an aid and wrote to parliament on 8 September 1346, asking for confirmation of the grant.

Paliament assembled on 11 September 1346 and agreed to grant the aid, at the rate of 40s per knight's fee throughout the realm. The letter from the council of Calais was read to the lords at the end of the parliament, but not until after the commons had granted two fifteenths and tenths on 14 September, and perhaps not until after the latter had dispersed on 20 September. This tactic was undoubtedly partly responsible for the unpopularity of the aid, since this underhanded way of procuring the grant had deprived the commons of the opportunity as a bargaining counter for petitions of grievance.

Commissions, consisting of two knights and the sheriff of each county, were issued for assessment and collection of the aid on 1 November 1346, and the tax was payable by the quinzaine of Hilary (27 January 1347). The commissioners were to collect 'from all knights' fees held as well as of the king as of others'. They were to compile their lists of fees from copies of the records of the aid levied in 1302 to marry Edward I's daughter, supplemented by inquests taken by local jury.

There was no question but that the levy was much resented. Responses ranged from refusals to serve as jurors on inquisitions of assessment, to open violence when attempts to levy the aid by distraint were made, and some commissioners were reluctant to execute out their commissions. By May 1347 pressure was being exerted on the collectors to bring in their receipts, and in the north, where money was needed 'at a critical juncture in the northern war', little or nothing had been collected by July 1347.

The parliament which assembled on 31 March 1348 complained that the king was levying an aid which was contrary to statute law on two grounds. The first was that the levy of all aids had been pardoned in 1340 and the second, that the rate of 40s per knight's fee breached the Statute of Wesminster of 1281, which established that only 20s per knight's fee could be levied as a reasonable aid. On neither ground was their objection to the aid entirely tenable, but collection was suspended after the commons agreed to grant the king three fiftenths and tenths, although, by that time, much of the aid had already been collected.

The matter was not formally settled, however, until 1352, when the king agreed that any future aids would be levied at no more than 20s per knight's fee, and 20s per l20 worth of land held in socage, and these rates were fixed by statute (25 Edw. III, Stat 5, c 11). Arears of the tax were still being collected in the north, however, in May 1355. The total net receipts of the tax were l9,003 8s 10d.

Many of the returns are printed in Feudal Aids. A copy of the assessments made for the levy of this tax, together with the assessments for the next levy of a feudal aid (that of 1401-1402 to marry Henry IV's daughter), was compiled, copied, lavishly decorated with gold leaf, and bound into a book, probably for Henry V, and is now among the miscellaneous books of the King's Remembrancer, at E 164/3. pp. 47-48.

An aid to marry the king's eldest daughter, 1401 Dec 1

On 1 December 1401 writs were issued for the levying of an aid to marry Blanche, the king's daughter, to Rupert, duke of Bavaria and count Palatine. For each knight's fee 20s was to be levied, and for every l20 worth of land held in socage, a tax of 20s was payable; the aid was to be levied on a pro-rata basis for those with holdings of more or less value. It was to be paid by 16 February 1402. Two persons were named for each county, who, together with the sheriff and escheator, were responsible for assessment and collection, any two of which could form a quorum. There are various indications, however, that the aid was not levied very successfully. Henry IV was forced to raise loans to pay for Blanche's dowry, clothes and escort ot Cologne, where she was married on 6 July 1402. The levy itself may have been delayed; the order to commissioners in Cumberland to collect the aid was not issued until 1 December 1406, when the collection date of 17 February 1407 was given. p. 73.