Et in liberatione i. militis et ii. Portariorum, et ii. vigilum de Blancmost' xviii. li. et v. sol. Et in liberatione xl. servientum de Blancmust' de xxix. septimanis xxxiii. li. et xvi. s. et viii. d. Et xx. servientibus qui remanserunt xxiii. septimanas xiii. li. et viii. s. et iiii. d.
Here again the knight's pay works out at 8d a day, while the porters, the watchmen, and the servientes received 1d. Specially valuable, however, are the entries (to which no one, I think, has drawn attention) relating to the small standing guards kept up in the summer months at 'Walton' and Dover.[130] Eventually the payments to these guards were made from the central treasury ('exitus de thesauro'), and are therefore appended, on the rolls, to the list of combustiones where no one would think of looking for them.
On the roll of 10 Henry II we find: 'Liberatio iiii. militum et ii. servientum de Waletone a festo Ap. Phil' et Jac' usque ad festum S. Luce xxiiii. li. et xx. d.' This works out at exactly 8d a day for the miles, and 1d for the serviens. On the roll of the next year the five knights at Dover are paid £25 for 150 days' service, or exactly 8d a day each. So too on the roll of the thirteenth year we read: 'Liberatio iiii. militum de Waletone xxiii. li. et ix. s. et iiii. d. de clxxvi. diebus.... Et ii. servientibus de clxxvi. diebus xxix. sol. et iiii. d.' Here again the miles gets 8d, the serviens 1d a day. It is needless to multiply instances, but it may be added that similar calculations show the sailors of Richard's crusading fleet to have received 2d and their boatswains 4d a day.
It is, perhaps, possible to trace a complete change of policy in this matter by the crown. The Conqueror, we may gather from divers hints, was anxious to push forward the process of sub-infeudation, that as many knights as possible might be actually available for service. As the chief danger lay, at first, in the prospect of English revolt it was clearly his policy to strengthen to the utmost that 'Norman garrison', as we may term it, which the feudal system enabled him to quarter on the conquered land.[131] But as the two races slowly coalesced, the nature of the danger changed: it was no longer a question of Norman versus Englishman, but of danger to the crown from war abroad and feudal revolt at home. Thenceforth its policy would be no longer to encourage personal service, but rather payment in lieu thereof, which would provide the means of hiring mercenaries, a more trustworthy and useful force. Clearly the accession of the Angevin house would, and did, give to this new policy a great impetus.
The first levy to which the rolls bear witness is that of 1156. As this was only raised from the church fiefs, Henry II was, as yet, confining himself strictly to the precedent set him, as we know, in his grandfather's reign. This levy was at the rate of one pound on the fee, and was made on the old assessment (servitium debitum).
I have already shown that the levy in question was not, as alleged, an innovation. Dr Stubbs writes: 'The peculiar measure of the second year was the collection of scutage from the knights' fees holding of ecclesiastical superiors,[132] a measure which met with much opposition from Archbishop Theobald at the time';[133] and speaking of William of Newburgh, he suggests that 'possibly in William's estimation the consent of St Thomas took from the scutage on church fees its sacrilegious character'.[134] But if the institution was fully recognized under Henry I, how was it 'sacrilegious'? Theobald's 'opposition' in 1156 can only be inferred from the king's reply explaining the necessity for the levy,[135] and was clearly directed, not against the principle, but by way of appeal against the necessity in that instance. Miss Norgate holds that 'no resentment seems to have been provoked by the measure', although she sees in it 'the origin of the great institution of scutage'.[136] Then there is the question of the object for which the levy was made. Swereford says 'pro exercitu Walliæ',[137] and this misled, through Madox, Dr Stubbs (who wrote 'the scutage of 1156 was also for the war in Wales',[138]) and Gneist.[139] The former writer, however, has elsewhere[140] pointed out that 'its object was to enable Henry to make war on his brother'; and Miss Norgate gives the same explanation.[141] Swereford's error, I believe, can undoubtedly be traced to an entry on the Pipe-Roll of the third year (1157) recording the payment by the Abbot of Abbotsbury of two marcs 'de exercitu Walie'.[142] But this must refer to the Welsh campaign of that year, not to the foreign trouble of the year before.[143]
The next levy was 'the scutage of Toulouse' in 1159. This, 'the great scutage' of Miss Norgate,[144] is, strange as it may seem, on the Pipe-Roll itself almost uniformly styled not a scutage, but a donum. The explanation given by Swereford is wholly inadequate, and is this: 'Intitulaturque illud scutagium De Dono ea quidem, ut credo, ratione quod non solum prelati qui tenentur ad servitia militaria sed etiam alii abbates, de Bello et de Salopesbiria et alii tunc temporis dederunt auxilium'.[145]
Miss Norgate, adopting this explanation, writes: