Records of Knight Service in Bedfordshire

Summary

The general questions of tenure by knight service obviously cannot be discussed in a Note, of which the object is merely to call attention to some interestingrecords of its incidence in the county; but a few words about it will perhaps not be amiss.

The original bargain between the King and his Barons was, that in return for the privilege of holding so much land (so many ‘knights fees,’ to use a more exact though later phrase), the Baron, when called upon for military service, must provide an equivalent number of knights (fully armed horse-men), to serve at his or their cost for forty days in the year, free to the King. This service, burdensome to the one side and unmanageable by the other, became commuted in time for a money payment termed a ‘ scutage ‘ or tax per shield due, which was paid into the King’s Exchequer. The impression which one may easily gather from ordinary history books is, that after the arrangements for this scutage had been reduced to a system by Henry II, personal service ceased to be due. This view does not seem to be borne out by some of the records here printed. The lists are not only of general interest as showing the incidence of the liability to service (personally or by deputy) or to scutage; but, incidentally, they furnish a good survey of the chief land-holders in the country for about a century. It would not be difficult to add a certain amount of desultory information about many of these men, but such a course seems to be undesirable until the history of the county has been more carefully studied; for the moment the lists of names should only be regarded as material for future workers.

I. SERVICE IN WALES, 1244-5.

The first of these records sets out the list of Bedfordshire knights actually serving in the army at the moment, states whether they were deputies or serving for themselves, and records the service which they ‘recognised ‘ as due from them (except in the case of one great Baron). The extent to which the original bargain between King and Baron was modified, the principle on which the modification was based, and the evidence of this afforded by the ‘ recognitions,’ are dealt with by Dr. Morris elsewhere in this volume.