- A. B. is a cotarius, and holds 1
cottage and 1 acre, for which he
gives—
- 1 day's work on Monday in every week unless a festival prevents him.
- 1 hen at Christmas
- 5 eggs at Easter.
VI. DESCRIPTION IN FLETA OF A MANOR IN THE TIME OF EDWARD I.
Landlords view of a manor.
Contemporary in date with the Hundred Rolls is the anonymous work bearing the title of 'Fleta,' which may be described as the vade mecum of the landlords of the time of Edward I. It was designed to put them in possession of necessary legal knowledge; and mixed up with this are practical directions regarding the management of their estates. The writer advises landlords on taking possession of their manors to have a survey made of their property, so that they may know the extent of their rights and income.
If in the Hundred Rolls we have photographic details of hundreds of individual manors surveyed [p046] for purposes of royal taxation, so here is a picture of an ordinary or typical manor—a generalisation of the ordinary features of a manor—drawn by a contemporary hand, and regarding all things from a landlord's point of view.
The manor as described in Fleta is a territorial unit, with its own courts and local customs known only on the spot. Therefore the extent is to be taken upon the testimony of 'faithful and sworn tenants of the lord.' And inquiry is to be made[43]—
Survey of a manor.
- (1) Of castles and buildings in the demesne (intrinsecis) within and without the moat, with gardens, curtilages, dovecotes, fishponds, &c.
- (2) What fields (campi) and culturæ there are in demesne, and how many acres of arable in each cultura of meadow and of pasture.
- (3) What common pasture there is outside the demesne (forinseca), and what beasts the lord can place thereon [he, like his tenants, being as to this limited in his rights by custom].
- (4) Of parks and demesne woods, which the lord at his will can cultivate and reclaim (assartare).
- (5) Of woods outside the demesne (forinsecis), in which others have common rights, how much the lord may approve.
- (6) Of pannage, herbage, and honey, and all other issues of the forests, woods, moors, heaths, and wastes.
- (7) Of mills [belonging to the lord, and having a monopoly of grinding for the tenants at fixed charges], fishponds, rivers (ripariis), and fisheries several and common.
- (8) Of pleas and perquisites belonging to the county, manor, and forest courts.
- (9) Of churches belonging to the lord's advowson.
- (10) Of heriots, fairs, markets, tolls, day-works (operationes), services, foreign (forinseci) customs, and gifts (exhenniis).
- (11) Of warrens, liberties, parks, coneyburrows, wardships, reliefs, and yearly fees.
Then regarding the tenants,—
Free tenants.