ature, a great latitude to arbitrary authority, and were a support
of the prerogative; as will appear from an enumeration of them.

The king was never content with the stated rents, but levied heavy
talliages at pleasure on the inhabitants both of town and, country who
lived within his demesne. All bargains of sale, in order to prevent
theft, being prohibited, except in boroughs and public markets,[*] he
pretended to exact tolls on all goods whist were there sold.[**] He
seized two hogsheads, one before and one behind the mast, from every
vessel that imported wine. All goods paid to his customs a proportional
part of their value:[***] passage over bridges and on rivers was loaded
with tolls at pleasure:[****] and though the boroughs by degrees bought
the liberty of farming these impositions, yet the revenue profited
by these bargains, new sums were often exacted for the renewal and
confirmation of their Charters,[*****] and the people were thus held in
perpetual dependence.

Such was the situation of the inhabitants within the royal demesnes. But
the possessors of land, or the military tenants, though they were better
protected, both by law and by the great privilege of carrying arms,
were, from the nature of their tenures, much exposed to the inroads of
power, and possessed not what we should esteem in our age a very durable
security. The Conqueror ordained that the barons should be obliged to
pay nothing beyond their stated services,[******] except a reasonable
aid to ransom his person if he were taken in war, to make his eldest
son a knight, and to marry his eldest daughter. What should on these
occasions be deemed a reasonable aid, was not determined; and the
demands of the crown were so far discretionary.

The king could require in war the personal attendance of his vassals,
that is, of almost all the landed proprietors; and if they declined the
service, they were obliged to pay him a composition in money, which
was called a scutage. The sum was, during some reigns, precarious and
uncertain; it was sometimes levied without allowing the vassal the
liberty of personal service;[*******] and it was a usual artifice of the
king's to pretend an expedition, that he might be entitled to levy the
scutage from his military tenants.

[* LL. Will. i. cap. 61.]

[** Madox, p. 530.]

[*** Madox, p. 529. This author says a fifteenth.
But it is not easy to reconcile this account to other
authorities