So far as it is possible to understand it, this hypothesis would connect these Inquests with the scutage of Ireland (p. ccx.), which was duly accounted for (annotatum) in 1172, the expedition falling within the financial year Mich., 1171–Mich., 1172.[324] In that case these inquests, on Mr. Hall’s own showing, could not have been held earlier than 1172, at “the conclusion of the campaign” (p. clxxxvi.). But they must have been held in 1170, for, as he observes (pp. ccxi.), one of the fragments speaks of “istos iiij annos” (p. cclxviii.) reckoned from March, 1166.
But we have much stronger evidence than this. We read, at the outset, of these documents, that “it will be evident that they are connected with some Inquest of military service during the reign of Henry II.” This is an extraordinary assertion from one who is himself their editor. For we have only to turn to the second on the list to find in it nothing but a detailed record of the sums given individually by some forty burgesses of (Castle) Rising towards paying off the mortgages of their lord the earl of Arundel, who was clearly in the hands of the Jews. And the long and most curious return from the barony of Robert de Valoines deals with a humble reeve who neglected his master’s hay; a shepherd who had charge of his lord’s fold; Brian, who looked after the wood; Gilbert, who kept the bees; and other dependents fined for negligence. We may even say, most confidently, that the idea of an Inquest of military service could never occur to any one who perused the whole of these documents with an unbiassed mind. They are simply the result of an enquiry into the payment of moneys, and the reasons for such payment. But Mr. Hall has a theory to advance, and can only see these records in its light. Briefly stated, that theory is that these documents “answer very nearly to the description of such an Inquest” on knight service as is referred to in the return for the Honour of Arundel assigned to 1166. That these documents are later in date; that they do not suggest an Inquest on knight service; that, even if they did, they have no concern with an Inquest restricted to a Sussex Honour—all these objections are as nothing to Mr. Hall. He is as ready to “hazard the supposition” that conflicts with all the evidence as he was loth to accept a solution that fits in every way the facts of the case. May one not raise a strong protest against the sacrifice of a dozen pages, within a strictly limited space, to the enunciation of wildly conjectural and absolutely erroneous theories, not in the book of a private author, but in a Government publication, intended to form for all time the standard edition of a famous work?
Let us now turn to the Pipe Roll of 1172 (18 Hen. II.), which plays an important part in Mr. Hall’s arguments. He tells us that
an entry occurs in several different counties which has proved a source of difficulty to several generations of historical students. The entry in question is headed “De hiis qui cartas non miserunt,” certain assessments being appended in each case for the Scutage of Ireland (p. ccii.).
We refer, as invited, to the roll itself, only to find that, on the contrary, it first records the “assessments for the scutage of Ireland,” and then heads the lists which follow: “De his qui cartas non miserunt.”[325] It is this very sequence that is responsible for the error of Madox, who held, as Mr. Hall observes, “that the charters in question must have been returned for the purpose of the Scutage of Ireland in 1171.”[326] Swereford, on the other hand, wrote of the 1172 roll:
Quo quidem rotulo supplentur nomina illorum qui cartas non miserunt anno xiijo, prout superius tactum est (p. 8).
He is wrong, of course, in stating that the charters were returned in the “13th year” (an error which his editor carefully ignores), but perfectly right in his explanation, if we substitute “12th” for his “13th” year. Yet, having thus rightly shown that Swereford’s explanation is the true one, his editor closes the paragraph thus:
The simple solution of the difficulty is that the tenants who were in debt for the aid of 1168 were so entered on the occasion of the next assessment (1171) in a conspicuous form (p. cciii.).
Really, this wanton confusion is enough to make Swereford turn in his grave. The entry which has caused the difficulty refers, not to “the tenants who were in debt for the aid” of 1168, but to those who had made no returns (“cartas non miserunt”) in 1166.
Mr. Hall assigns Madox’s error to his finding no “corresponding entries,” under Sussex, in 1168 (14 Hen. II.) for those in 1172 (18 Hen. II.). And yet all three entries, in the latter year, of the earl of Arundel’s tenants[327] have their corresponding entries in 1168.[328] The real cause of Madox’s error has been explained above.