money[1] (the pound of that day probably representing twenty times
that sum now). All the chief tenants were also bound to attend the
King's Great or National Council three times a year,--at Christman,
Easter, and Whitsuntide.

[1] This amount does not appear to have been fully settled until the
period following the Norman kings, but the principle was recognized by
William.

Feudal Dues or Taxes. Every free tenant was obliged to pay a sum of
money to the King or baron from whom he held his land, on three
special occasions: (1) to ransom his lord from captivity in case he
was made a prisoner of war; (2) to defray the expense of making his
lord's eldest son a knight; (3) to provide a suitable marriage portion
on the marriage of his lord's eldest daughter.

In addition to these taxes, or "aids," as they were called, there were
other demands which the lord might make, such as: (1) a year's profits
of the land from the heir, on his coming into possession of his
father's estate; this was called a relief; (2) the income from the
lands of orphan heirs not of age; (3) payment for privilege of
disposing of land.[1]

[1] The clergy, being a corporate and hence an ever-living body, were
exempt from these last demands. Not satisfied with this, they were
constantly endeavoring, with more or less success, to escape ALL
feudal obligations, on the ground that they rendered the state divine
service. In 1106, in the reign of Henry I, it was settled, for the
time, that the bishops were to do homage to the King, i.e. furnish
military service for the lands they received from him as their feudal