There is no ambiguity or uncertainty about these pronouncements. The Old English "fyrd," or militia, was the nation in arms. The obligation to serve was a personal one. It had no relation to the possession of land; in fact it dated back to an age in which the folk was still migratory and without a fixed territory at all. It was incumbent upon all able-bodied males between the ages of sixteen and sixty. Failure to obey the summons was punished by a heavy fine known as "fyrdwite."[7]
There is another point of prime significance. Universal service was, it is true, an obligation. But it was more: it was the mark of freedom. Not to be summoned stamped a man as a slave, a serf, or an alien. The famous "Assize of Arms" ends with the words: "Et praecepit rex quod nullus reciperetur ad sacramentum armorum nisi liber homo."[8] A summons was a right quite as much as a duty. The English were a brave and martial race, proud of their ancestral liberty. Not to be called to defend it when it was endangered, not to be allowed to carry arms to maintain the integrity of the fatherland, was a degradation which branded a man as unfree.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This chapter has been issued as a pamphlet by the National Service League, 72, Victoria Street, S.W.
[2] Gneist, R. Englische Verfassungsgeschichte, p. 4.
[3] Cf. the Frankish Edict of A.D. 864: "Ad defensionem patriæ omnes sine ulla excusatione veniant." (Let all without any excuse come for the defence of the fatherland.)
[4] Grose, F. Military Antiquities, vol. i, p. 1.
[5] Freeman, E. Norman Conquest, vol. iv, p. 681.
[6] Stubbs, W. Const. Hist., vol. i, pp. 208, 212.
[7] Oman, C. W. C. Art of War in the Middle Ages, p. 67.