[82] “Tallage was a tax levied at a feudal lord’s arbitrary will upon more or less servile dependants, who had neither power nor right to refuse.” McKechnie, Magna Carta, 228.
[83] Chapter 14, “And for holding a common council of the kingdom concerning the assessment of an aid otherwise than in the three cases mentioned above, or concerning the assessment of a scutage, we shall cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons by our letters individually; and besides we shall cause to be summoned generally, by our sheriffs and bailiffs all those who hold from us in chief, for a certain day, that is at the end of forty days at least, and for a certain place; and in all the letters of that summons, we will express the cause of the summons, and when the summons has thus been given the business shall proceed on the appointed day, on the advice of those who shall be present, even if not all of those who were summoned have come.” Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, 44. The Latin text is in Stubbs, Select Charters, 299.
[84] Cap. 42 of this reissue of the Charter states the promise of the king to return to the matter of the levying of scutages and aids, when the occasion should be more propitious. McKechnie, Magna Carta, 168-169.
[85] Cap. 44. Scutagium decetero capiatur sicut capi consuevit tempore, regis Henrici avi nostri. McKechnie, Magna Carta, 585, where also is the text of the entire reissue.
[86] McKechnie, Magna Carta, 173-174.
[87] 1 Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum, 349.
[88] 2 Stubbs, Const. Hist. Eng. 30, note 1. He bases his belief on the fact that “the orders for the collecting this scutage were issued Feb. 22, the same day on which the writs for proclaiming the charters are dated,” and cites 1 Rot. Claus. 377. In the same note he records the following instances of taxation:
“June 7, 1217, the king mentions a carucage, hidage and aid, ‘quod de præcepto nostro assisum est.’ 1 Rot. Claus. 310.”
“Jan. 9, 1218, Henry mentions a carucage and hidage, ‘quod assisum fuit per consilium regni nostri.’ 1 Rot. Claus. 348.
“Jan. 17, Henry mentions a scutage of two marks on the fee, ‘quod exegimus,’ and