8. d.

1

NOTE B. THE ACCOUNTS OF THE HONOUR OF EVREUX IN

1198, SHOWING THE PREPARATIONS FOR WAR (Rotuli

Scaccarii Normanniae, ij, 462–464). The following statement of accounts made by Richard of Argences in 1198 as farmer of the honour of Evreux, at this time in ducal hands, is an excellent illustration of the manner in which a castle and town were organised for defence. I have summarised and tabulated the entries. A. The farm, £560 Angevin, was spent as follows:

£ In customary alms and charges

235 15 10 To the forester

3 4 8 In works at the castle and on the hedges

(haiae) of the forest, and in the repair
of tubs and casks

189 2 4 In the carriage of stores for the castle,

i.e., of wine, bacon, cheeses, salt,
from Rouen

10 14 0
To Robert Rossell, out of the prepositura
of Avrilli -

50 0 0 For 30 muids of wine kept in store in the castle, out of the farm 2

60 0 0 In the execution of justice

1 12 2

550 903

1. These charges on revenue show that the farmers were carrying on an established financial system (cf. above p. 62). It should be noticed, however, that the payments to the religious houses and churches of Evreux do not correspond to the charges contained in Cart. Norm., no. 117, p. 21, which purports to be a list of elemosinae paid from Evreux and Paci.

2. The vineyards are expressly mentioned as contained in the farm.

3. The discrepancy between this total and the farm of £560 is not noticed. Possibly some entries were accidentally omitted or wrongly transcribed.

S. d.

B. The loan levied in the bailiwick of Evreux, £10 each

from eight citizens, amounted to £80. It was spent as follows:

£
In the wages of knights, men-at-arms

(servientes) and balistarii, by the
king's writ

48 100
In the same, and in the wages of watch-
men and porters

97 0 0

145 10 0 65 10 0

Surplus owing to Richard of Argences

C. The tallage collected in the bailiwick for the mainten

ance of men-at-arms on the March, amounted to

£183 10s.: In the wages of one hundred men-at £ 8. d. arms staying at Evreux

216 13 4 To surplus aforementioned (B)

65 10 0

282 3 4 Surplus owing to Richard of Argences 98 13 4 D. The tallage collected in the bailiwick (here styled the

Honour) for repairing the ditches of Evreux and palisading the walls of the castle, amounted to £190 2s.6d. This sum was exactly expended for

this purpose.

E. Receipts of Richard of Argences from the Norman

government, which were intended for the equipment (munitio) of the castle.

These were delivered to Thomas the Breton, who was in charge of the castle. The following stores are

mentioned 3: 1. See above p. 300.

2. Cf. ii, 457. “In liberacione Thome Britonis se x milite missi apud Ebroicas xl. li.," from the proceeds of the loan raised in Pont-Audemer.

3. It seems clear, from entries on p. 413, that Richard of Argences bought some of the stores as part payment of his fine.

(a) 90 carcases of hogs (bacones), of which Thomas the

Breton received 52. Richard of Argences owed £9 7s. 6d. for the remaining 371 (i.e., 5 shillings for each carcase).

(6) Grain: 4 measures (modii) of heavy grain, 15 of

wheat, and, from Stephen Longchamp, 8 setiers sextarii) and 1 mina of pease. Richard owed the sum of £17 15s. for the grain which Thomas the Breton did not use. The details are given, and show that a measure of heavy grain, a measure of wheat, and a measure of pease were each

reckoned at £3.1 (c) Wine: 15 tuns and 1 butt were received of

Poitevin wine. Thomas the Breton had 10 tuns; the rest was spoiled. For the latter Richard of

Argences owed £4 8s. (i.e., 16 shillings the tun). (d) Cheeses : 63 cheeses from England. (e) Salt: half a peisa, and 2 summae.? (1) Engines and ammunition : 12 dozen cords; cords

to bind the mangonells; 7 slings for the petreriae; 8 balistae; 6,200 bolts or quarells; 4,000 arrows ad quarellos; 1 grindstone; 8 iron darts (esperduita); 7 spikes; 8 ironbound tubs; 1 handmill.

:

1. These prices were by no means normal. During this year the measure of wheat cost £9. 128. Od. at Evreux (Rot. Sc C., 462, 463, where this sum is paid instead of the customary alms of a measure of wheat). Either Richard of Argences is charged a wholesale price paid by the government, or this money is a kind of fine to cover waste. In no part of Normandy was the price of wheat so low as this in 1198. For prices, see Delisle, Etudes sur la condition de la classe agricole, pp. 591, 592; for the measures of grain, see p. 539 seqq., especially p. 544. The measure (muid) contained 12 setiers, and 24 mines : these latter contained a varying number of bushels.

2. The poise apparently contained 18 mines; and the somme about 4; Delisle, op. cit., pp. 568, 543.

The debts under section E amounted to
Aforementioned surplus owing to

Richard of Argences

98 13 4

Surplus owing to Richard

67 2 101

1. This sum is credited to Richard of Argences in another part of the roll (p. 413) towards the payment of his enormous fine of 1000 silver marks sterling (see Rot. Scacc., i, 245) of which he still owed 439 marks, and 78. 104d. in sterling money in 1198. The silver mark was worth £2. 13. 4d. in Angevin money. Stapleton remarks (II, cviii) that the size of the fine 'is indication of the vast profits which the officers employed in the collection of the revenue were enabled to appropriate to themselves, and which, when labouring under the royal displeasure, they were compelled in this manner partly to disgorge.'

310

CHAPTER VIII.

War and Finance.

In this chapter I shall first discuss the information contained in the records upon the structure, organisation and maintenance of the army in Normandy; and in the second place turn to consider two or three matters of a more general nature arising out of this discussion. The material is meagre and scattered, but it seems desirable to make as much use as possible of the administrative diary which the Chancery rolls of King John's reign containthe first diary of its kind in English or Norman history.

I. The old national system of the feudal host supported by a national levy still existed in Normandy in 1204 as the chief factor in time of war. The system was badly strained, and was ill-fitted to comprehend the increasing mercenary element, but it was by no means discarded.

Henry II had by his assize of arms reorganised the national levy on the basis of wealth, and casual references to a visus armorum suggest that his regulations were enforced in John's reign. Moreover, the Angevin kings had laid additional stress upon the public character of the

1. Rot. Norm., 83. The men of Guy de Diva are to be free "de taillagio et de visu armorum quamdiu ipse fuerit in servicio nostro.” Cf. Rot. Pat., 1, on the host which was to meet at Argentan; John, September 27th, 1201, sends three officials “ad videndum qui vestrum venerint et qualiter quisque venerit.” On the public liability of freemen, see Prou, in Revue historique, 1890, xliv, 313; Haskins, in American Historical Review, xiv, 457. The inquest at Chizé (above p. 297) illustrates this duty of “exercitus et equitatio."