10.

Writ for the Collection of a Carucage.

The king to the sheriff of Northampton, greeting. Know that, because of our great necessity and at the most urgent instance of our creditors, as also for the preservation of our land of Poitou, all the magnates and faithful of our whole kingdom have of their good will given their common consent that a grant be made us, viz., from each plough as it was joined on the morrow of the Blessed John the Baptist last past, in the fourth year of our reign, two shillings, to be collected by your hand and the hands of two of the more lawful knights of your county, who are to be elected to do this by the will and counsel of all of the county in full county court. And so we command you, firmly and strictly enjoining that, having summoned your full county court, by the will and counsel of those of the county court you cause to be elected two of the more lawful knights of the whole county, who shall better know, wish, and be able to prosecute this business to our advantage; and having associated them with you, you are immediately to cause that grant to be assessed and collected from the several ploughs through your whole bailiwick, as aforesaid, excepting the demesne of archbishops, bishops, and their villeins, and excepting the demesne of the Cistercian and Premonstratensian orders. . . .