CHAPTER TWELVE.

Nullum scutagium vel auxilium ponatur in regno nostro, nisi per commune consilium regni nostri, nisi ad corpus nostrum redimendum, et primogenitum filium nostrum militem faciendum, et ad filiam nostram primogenitam semel maritandam, et ad hec non fiat nisi racionabile auxilium: simili modo fiat de auxiliis de civitate Londonie.

No scutage nor aid shall be imposed in our kingdom, unless by common counsel of our kingdom, except for ransoming our person, for making our eldest son a knight, and for once marrying our eldest daughter; and for these there shall not be levied more than a reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be done concerning aids from the citizens of London.

This is a famous clause, greatly valued at the time it was framed because of its precise terms and narrow scope (which made evasion difficult), and even more highly valued in after days for exactly opposite reasons. It came indeed to be interpreted in a broad general sense by enthusiasts who, with the fully-developed British constitution before them, read the clause as enunciating the modern doctrine that the Crown can impose no financial burden whatsoever on the people without consent of Parliament. Before discussing how far such an estimate is justified, it will be necessary to examine the historical context, with special reference to two classes of John’s subjects; his feudal tenants, and the citizens of London respectively.

I. _Protection of Crown Tenants from arbitrary Exactions._ The pecuniary obligations of the barons may be arranged in two groups according as they depended on the king’s own actions, or were determined by circumstances which lay beyond the royal control. Payments of the former type (such as reliefs and amercements), exigible only at fixed dates or on the occurrence of specific events, were treated of elsewhere in Magna Carta. The present chapter sought to prevent John from extorting additional payments either absolutely at his own discretion, or because of situations which he had purposely created as excuses for demanding money. The entire field of such arbitrary feudal dues was covered by the words “scutages” and “extraordinary aids,”[461] the use of which protected the barons from every sort of compulsory payment which might be demanded by the king at his own discretion.

Footnote 461:

“Extraordinary” is here applied to all aids other than the three normal ones which, falling due each on a definite occasion, come under the opposite group of fixed payments.

(1) _Scutage._ The development of the system described by this name has been traced in the Historical Introduction.[462] Used at first as an expedient for substituting, in the Crown’s option, money payments for military service, it became, under John, a regular source of revenue, imposed almost every year on one pretext or another, while it was levied at an increased rate, and under conditions of a vexatious and burdensome nature. If any one cause contributed, more than the others, to the rebellion which culminated at Runnymede, it was John’s method of imposing scutages. This chapter, then, attempted to strike at the common root from which many grievances grew. The Crown was no longer to be left sole judge of the occasions on which a scutage might be demanded. “The common consent (or counsel) of the realm” must first be obtained. If this provision had been carried into practice, it would have removed the supreme control of the system of scutages from the Crown which received the money, to the Crown tenants who paid it. This truly radical remedy included the remedy of all minor abuses as well, since the collective body of barons who could refuse payment unconditionally, might _a fortiori_ make grants under such conditions as they chose. Henceforward it would lie with them to say, on each occasion, whether the old normal 20s. per knight’s fee should be superseded by some other rate, either higher or lower. This provision was never enforced, being omitted altogether from the reissue of 1216, while the clause substituted for it in the Charter of 1217 took an entirely different form.[463]

Footnote 462:

See _supra_, 86–93.

Footnote 463:

See _supra_, 172–3.

(2) _Feudal aids._ It was recognized from an early date that in emergencies feudal vassals ought to contribute to their lord’s support in proportion to the extent of their holdings. Such payments were known as aids, and were originally supposed to be free-will offerings.[464] By John’s reign they had fallen into two groups—ordinary and extraordinary. The former, three in number, were only dealt with incidentally by the Charter.[465] It is with the “extraordinary” aids that this chapter specially occupies itself. These are placed in the same position as scutages: the Crown cannot exact either, “unless by common counsel of the realm.”

Footnote 464:

Cf. _supra_, 80–2.

Footnote 465:

These three aids were carefully specified, and a reasonable rate was stipulated for, but not defined. In this respect the treatment here accorded to _aids_ is less satisfactory than that of _reliefs_ in