lorum et pontium, et de inquietatione omnium secularium exactionum.1 Some of these "freedoms" may be expressed in the language of a later age than that of Hungus; but they consisted in exemptions from payments or burdens which no doubt were exigible in his time, and had come to be expressed in the terms just quoted. When Macbeth, as King of the Scots, and Gruoch, his Queen, conferred on the Culdee hermits in Lochleven the lands of Kyrkenes, it was "cum omni libertate," "absque omni munere et onere et exactione Regis, et filii Regis, vicecomitis et alicuius, et sine refectione pontis, et sine exercitu, et venacione;" and other grants, with the like exemption, were made by Malcolm, Edgar, Duncan, Alexander, and later kings.3 Even when the charters by which churches were conveyed to religious houses contained remissions of some of the burdens which had most the appearance of personal payments to the granters, they occasionally reserved in force those which contributed to the national support. Thus David I. confirmed to the monks of Coldingham the churches of Ederham and Nesebit, which had been granted by Gospatric, brother of Dolfin-" liberas ab omni servitio et omni con suetudine, exceptis triginta solidis quos prefati monachi dabunt filio ejus Gospatricio et heredibus suis post eum pro conredio 1 regis, ... et excepto exercitu Regis, unde monachi erunt attendentes ipsi Regi, et ipse Gospatricius de exercitu erit quietus in perpetuum.2 Under this exception, the monks were bound to attend the king's host. They were bound in the same way to afford aid from the twelfth town of Coldinghamshyre-viz. that within which the church of Coldingham was founded; and this burden continued in force till it was remitted to them by King Alexander II. by a charter3 dated in the thirteenth year of his reign, A.D. 1226.* William the Lion, by his charter founding the Abbey of Arbroath, in the year A.D. 1178, conveyed to the monks many churches free "ab exercitu et expedicione et operacione et auxilio et ab omnibus consuetudinibus et omni servicio et exacione.' He then confirmed the grants made by various individuals to the abbey "in liberam elemosinam," adding to his confirmation the words "salvo servicio meo," and concluding "omnia autem dona predicta ita liberaliter et quiete prefate ecclesie concedo sicut ego terras meas proprias possideo, defensione regni mei excepta et regali justicia." 5 The nature of the burdens then falling on land may be gathered from a charter by Gillecrist, Earl of Angus, confirming to the monks of Arbroath the lands of Portincraig, which had been pre viously granted to them by his father for the erection of an hospital, “in liberam elemosinam libere et quiete, ab exercitu, et expedicione, et exaccione multure, et ab omnibus auxiliis et geldis, et omnibus serviciis, et secularibus exaccionibus." All these burdens the Earl took upon himself, and the freedom thus bestowed was confirmed by the king's charter, without which it would have been inept.1 William the Lion confirmed to the Hospital of St. Andrews a ploughgate of land granted by Simon Fitz Michael, free from secular services or customs, all of which were undertaken by the granter and his heirs, with this exception, "quod idem hospitale adquietabit illam carrucatam terre de Gildo regio quod communiter capietur de terris et de elemosinis per regnum Scocie." In various cases of national emergency, aids were demanded even from the holders of enfranchised lands, but they were followed by formal acknowledgments from the Crown that such aids were exceptional, and should not infer any loss of privilege.3 One of these by Robert the Steward, on the part of David II. to the Abbot of Arbroath, is remarkable. After reciting the exemption of the abbot, his men, and lands, from common aids and contributions, by reason of their enfranchisement and privileges, as well by reason of their regality as of pure alms, and that they had 1 Registr. de Aberbroth. p. 35. 2 Registr. Priorat. S. Andree, p. 212. 3 At the request of William the Lion, the men of the Abbot of Dunfermline assisted in fortifying the king's castles in Ross, and his writ was issued that this instance of their good will should not be used to their prejudice in future.-(Re gistr. de Dunferm. p. 32.) The men of the Abbot of Arbroath, at the request of King Alexander II., contributed aid "ad coria adquietanda que in Anglia vendidimus quando usque ad Doueram profecti fuimus,"-and a like writ was issued by the king.—(Registr. Vet. de Aberbroth. p. 224.) of their own will contributed a subsidy of the twentieth mark of their lands at the siege of Perth, because through the wasting of the country, those who were liable in the common aid could not then fully perform what the exigency of the time required, yet this act of grace should not be used to their prejudice thereafter (“quod qui erant sub jure communi non valebant plene perficere quod regni necessitas tunc temporis requirebat").1 The early condition of landed property in England was similar in respect of the burdens laid on it. Of the change of the folcland into bocland, or from a condition of commonalty to that of individual property, Kemble writes, "In whatever form the usufruct may have been granted, it was accompanied by various settled burthens. In the first place were the inevitable charges from which no land was ever released, namely military service, alluded to by Beda, and no doubt in early times performed in person, the repair of roads, bridges, and fortifications." 2 We find that many charters were granted by the authority of the king and his witan, freeing lands and churches belonging to monasteries from the burthens thus incident to them.3 One of these, granted by Ceolwulf, King of Mercia (A.D. 822), to Uulfred the Archbishop, contains a list of the dues and services from which the lands were exempted; some of which seem to be analogous to those grants in the Book of Deer, which free the lands from mormaer and toisech, and to that in favour of St. Serf's monks 1 Registr. Priorat. S. Andree, p. 224. 2 The Saxons in England, vol. i. p. 293. 3 See Epistola ad Ecgbertum Antistitem, where Bede describes the monasteries of laymen as obtaining freedoms which made them independent at Lochleven, in the Register of St. Andrews, already quoted. The lands in King Ceolwulf's charter are freed "ab omni servitute secularium rerum, a pastu regis, episcopi, principum, seu prefectum, exactorum, ducorum canorum vel æquorum seu accipitrum, ab refectione et habitu illorum omnium, qui dicuntur fæstingmen, ab omnibus laboribus, operibus, et oneribus sive difficultatibus, quot plus minusve numerabo vel dico, ab omni gravitatibus magioribus minoriis notis ignotis, undeque liberata permaneat in æfum, nisi in quattuor causis que nunc nominabo; expeditione contra paganos ostes, et pontis constructione seu arcis munitione vel destructione in eodem gente et singulare pretium foras reddat, secundum ritum gentis illius." Among the Celtic people of Brittany similar burdens on land were common, and the charters which give freedom from them have clauses like those just referred to. One conveying complete freedom, dated A.D. 842, is thus expressed:-"Sine fine, sine commutacione, sine jubileo anno, sine exactore, satrapaque, sine censu, et sine tributo sine opere alicui homini sub cælo nisi Sulcomino presbytero (the purchaser) et cui voluerit post se commendare, præter censum regis." " In this case, as in some of the Scotch instances just quoted, the land was freed from all tributes to chiefs and officers, except the tax for national purposes, "preter censum regis." In the year A.D. 866, Solomon, Count of Brittany, granted to the monastery of Redon certain lands, " sine censu, et sine renda, et sine tributo, et pastu caballis, et sine ulla re ulli homini sub cælo, nisi supradicto Salvatori et supradictis monachis."3 1 Thorpe's Diplomatar. Anglic. Evi Saxonici, p. 65: Lond. 1865. 2 Chartular. de Redon, p. 103. 3 Idem, p. 42. |