No constable shall compel any knight to give money in lieu of castle-guard, when he is willing to perform it in his own person, or (if he himself cannot do it from any reasonable cause) then by another responsible man. Further, if we have led or sent him upon military service, he shall be relieved from guard in proportion to the time during which he has been on service because of us.
Castle-guard, or the liability to serve in the garrison of a royal fortress, formed part of the feudal obligations of the owners of certain freehold estates. This service was sometimes due in lieu of attendance in the army; more usually the tenant who owed garrison duty owed knight’s service as well.[[690]] It was probably this duplication of duties that prevented castle-guard from hardening into a separate tenure.[[691]] The right to enforce these obligations was naturally entrusted to the constables of the various castles whose duty it was to keep their garrisons at their full strength. John, however, preferred to commute personal service of castle-guard for money payments (analogous to the scutage paid in lieu of knight’s service), and to man his feudal towers with soldiers of fortune rather than with rebellious Englishmen. Castellans were, therefore, in the habit of demanding money even from those who offered personal service. What was worse, when the freeholder had followed John on distant service, he was mulcted in a money payment because he had not stayed at home to perform garrison duty during the same period. Both forms of this abuse were absolutely forbidden in 1215. In certain circumstances, however, this prohibition would have deprived the king of what was equitably due to him. Suppose he had granted two fiefs to the same tenant—one by simple knight’s service, the other by castle-ward. A double holding implied double service; the tenant could not in fairness plead that the service of one knight rendered abroad operated as the full discharge of the services of two knights due from his two separate fiefs. Castle-guard must in such a case be performed by an efficient deputy, or else the usual compensation be paid. The reissue of 1217 amended John’s Charter to this effect. Service with the army abroad operated as a discharge of castle-guard at home, but not where the tenant owed two services for two distinct fiefs.[[692]]
[690]. See the examples collected in Pollock and Maitland, I. 257. See also in Rotuli de oblatis et finibus, 107, how in 1200 Ralph de Bradel offered John 40 marks and a palfrey to be relieved of “the custody of the work of the castle of Grimsby.”
[692]. De feodo pro quo fecit servicium in exercitu. This variation in the charter of 1217 seems to have escaped Dr. Stubbs’ attention. See Select Charters, 346.
CHAPTER THIRTY.
Nullus vicecomes, vel ballivus noster, vel aliquis alius, capiat equos vel carectas alicujus liberi hominis pro cariagio faciendo, nisi de voluntate ipsius liberi hominis.
No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other person, shall take the horses or carts of any freeman for transport duty, against the will of the said freeman.
The Charter here returned to the subject of purveyance, one branch of which it practically abolished, except as affecting villeins. No carts or horses belonging to a freeman were to be requisitioned by any sheriff or bailiff for the use of the Crown without the owner’s consent; that is to say, they could not be requisitioned at all. The clause, however, was carefully limited to freemen; the inference is plain, that the horses and implements of villeins were left at the disposal of the Crown without leave asked or price paid for their use. The relative chapter of the reissue of 1216 practically restored this branch of purveyance; consent of the owner, even when a freeman, need not be obtained, provided hire was paid at the rates sanctioned by ancient custom. Those rates, however, were definitely stated, namely, 10d. per diem for a cart with two horses, and 1s. 2d. for one with three.[[693]] Thus the prerogative, though restored, was not to be abused.