[106]. See Pollock and Maitland, I. 292. It appears from statute of Marlborough, c. 16, that primer seisin extended over lands held by serjeanty as well as by knight’s service.
[107]. Rotuli de oblatis, p. 114.
[108]. Sir Edward Coke (Coke upon Littleton, 77 A) is the original source of much confusion as to the nature of primer seisin, which he seems to have considered as a second and additional relief exacted by the Crown amounting to the whole rent of the first year. The Popes, he further held (equally erroneously), were only imitating this practice when they exacted one year’s rent from every newly granted benefice under the name of “first fruits.” These errors have been widely followed (e.g. Thomson, Magna Charta, p. 416, Taswell Langmead, Const. Hist., p. 50).
[109]. See Taswell Langmead, Const. Hist., pp. 51-2; also Pollock and Maitland, II. 326. Cf., however, c. 39 of the re-issue of Magna Carta in 1217.
[110]. IX. c. 8.
[111]. See infra, under chapter 12.
[112]. Thus, the Abingdon version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (II. 113) speaks of “auxilium quod barones michi dederunt”; while Bracton says (Book II. c. 16, s. 8): “Auxilia fiunt de gratia et non de jure; cum dependeant ex gratia tenentium, et non ad voluntatem dominorum.”
[113]. 3 Edward I. c. 36.
[114]. Fixed at 100s. by c. 2 of Magna Carta.
[115]. One entry in the Memoranda Roll of 42 Henry III. (cited Madox I. 615) seems at first sight to contradict this. It seems in that year to be admitted that the Crown could not exact more than 20s. of aid per knight’s fee; but in 1258 the baronial opposition would be strong in the Exchequer as elsewhere.