ing retained the whole profit of the
estate till his majority; and might grant what sum he thought proper for
the education and maintenance of the young baron. This practice was also
founded on the notion that a fief was a benefice, and that, while the
heir could not perform his military services, the revenue devolved to
the superior, who employed another in his stead. It is obvious that a
great proportion of the landed property must, by means of this device,
be continually in the hands of the prince, and that all the noble
familius were thereby held in perpetual dependence. When the king
granted the wardship of a rich heir to any one, he had the opportunity
of enriching a favorite or minister: if he sold it, he thereby levied
a considerable sum of money. Simon de Mountfort paid Henry III. ten
thousand marks, an immense sum in those days, for the wardship of
Gilbert de Umfreville.[*] Geoffrey de Mandeville paid to the same prince
the sum of twenty thousand marks, that he might marry Isabel, countess
of Glocester, and possess all her lands and knights' fees. This sum
would be equivalent to three hundred thousand, perhaps four hundred
thousand pounds in our time.[**]

If the heir were a female, the king was entitled to offer her any
husband of her rank he thought proper; and if she refused him, she
forfeited her land. Even a male heir could not marry without the royal
consent; and it was usual for men to pay large sums for the liberty of
making their own choice in marriage.[**] No man could dispose of his
land, either by sale or will, without the consent of his superior. The
possessor was never considered as full proprietor; he was still a kind
of beneficiary; and could not oblige his superior to accept of any
vassal that was not agreeable to him.

Fines, amerciaments, and oblatas, as they were called, were another
considerable branch of the royal power and revenue. The ancient records
of the exchequer, which are still preserved, give surprising accounts of
the numerous fines anc amerciaments levied in those days,[****] and of
the strange inventions fallen upon to exact money from the subject.

[* Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 223.]

[** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 322.]

[*** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 320.]

[**** Madox, Hist. of the Exch. p. 272.]

It appears that the ancient kings of England put themselves entirely on
the footing of the barbarous Eastern princes, whom no man must approach