The king of England was received by the king of France with great honor, and he and his company remained there at Amiens fifteen days, during which many conferences were held and many ordinances drawn up. It seems to me that on that occasion king Edward did homage in words, but did not place his hands in the hands of the king of France, nor did any of his princes, prelates or representatives do so for him. By the advice of his council king Edward refused to proceed further until he had returned to England and had examined the ancient charters in order to determine the manner in which the kings of England had done homage to the kings of France.... At last the king of England wrote letters patent, sealed with his great seal, in which he acknowledged the sort of homage that he ought to pay to the king of France. This is the form of that letter:
Edward, by the grace of God king of England, lord of Ireland, and duke of Aquitaine, etc. Know that when we did homage to our beloved lord and cousin, Philip, king of France, at Amiens, he insisted that we should acknowledge that our homage was liege homage, and that in it we should expressly promise to be faithful and true to him. We would not agree to this at the time, because we did not know whether we owed him liege homage or not. Accordingly we did homage in general terms, saying that we entered into his homage in the same manner as our predecessors, the dukes of Guienne, had formerly entered into the homage of the kings of France. But now having found what that manner was, we acknowledge by the present letter that the homage which we paid to the king of France at Amiens was, is, and ought to be held to be liege homage; and that we owe him loyalty and fidelity as duke of Aquitaine, peer of France, count of Ponthieu, and count of Montreuil; and we hereby promise him such loyalty and fidelity. In order that similar disputes may not occur in the future, we promise for ourselves and for future dukes of Aquitaine that homage shall be performed in the following manner: The king of England as duke of Aquitaine shall put his hands within the hands of the king of France, and the person who speaks for the king of France shall say to the king of England as duke of Aquitaine: "You become the liege man of my lord the king of France as duke of Aquitaine, and peer of France, and you promise to keep faith and loyalty to him? Say yea." And the king of England, or the duke of Guienne, or their successor, shall say "Yea." Then the king of France shall receive the king of England, as duke of Guienne, by mouth and hands [see [no. 209]], saving their other rights. Moreover, when the said king of England does homage to the king of France for the counties of Ponthieu and Montreuil, he shall put his hands in the hands of the king of France for those counties, and the person who speaks for the king of France shall say, etc....
215. Feudal Aids.
Ancienne coutume de Normandie, I, 3, ch. 25.
The chief aids of Normandy are so called because they are rendered to chief lords [i.e., to lords who receive liege homage]. It is the custom in Normandy to pay three aids ... first, for the knighting of the lord’s oldest son; second, for the marriage of the lord’s oldest daughter; third, for the ransom of the lord.
216. Feudal Aids.
MS. of the Chamber of Accounts, Paris; cited from Du Cange, Glossarium, Hominium.
In the chatelainerie [territory dependent on a castle] of Poitou and that region, according to the custom of the land, those who hold fiefs pay five aids to the lord: for the knighting of the lord’s son, for the marriage of the lord’s oldest daughter, for the rachat[{88}] of the lord’s fief, for the crusade, and for the ransom of the lord from the hands of the Saracens.
{88} Rachat, see [no. 228], Troyes, note 2.