The Feudal System in Scotland
The first thing of which every nation has to think is to make itself safe against its enemies, for, if the people of any country do not feel themselves safe,…
From: 1084 C.E. To: 1153 C.E.
Location: Scotland
Images from book, by P. Hume Brown.
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
The Feudal System
From A Short History of Scotland by Peter Hume Brown, 1908.
We have seen in the last chapter how David overcame all his enemies and made Scotland one kingdom again, as it had been under Malcolm Canmore, and we have now to see what changes he made in the country. These changes had begun to be made in the time of Malcolm, but it was David who carried them out completely.
What he really did was just to make Scotland like other countries, such as England, France, and Germany. And it is to be remembered that until the time of the Reformation, and even longer, Scotland remained very much the same as he left it.
The first thing of which every nation has to think is to make itself safe against its enemies, for, if the people of any country do not feel themselves safe, they cannot live in comfort or make any progress. At the present day we have what is called a standing army, which is kept up by the taxes paid by the people. But in the times of which we are speaking there were no standing armies. How, then, did a country make itself safe against any enemy who might wish to conquer it? It was in this way.
When a king was strong enough, he was the master of all the land in his kingdom, and what he did was to give larger or smaller parts of it to those whom he could trust, or who had done him any service. Now, those to whom he gave the land did not pay rent for it, but they took an oath that they would serve him and be faithful to him. And their great service was to assist him when he went to war with any of his enemies.
When the king went to war, therefore, he sent word to all his vassals, as they were called, who were bound to come with all their men, fully armed and with all the food they needed, and attend their lord the king for thirty or forty days, though after that time he could not compel them to stay with him. In this way, then, the king could at any time collect an army; that is, if the vassals were willing to obey him, which was not always the case either in Scotland or other countries.
The chief people in the country, then, were the king and the vassals who held great portions of land from him, and who were called the greater barons or lords, with the title of earl. But these great vassals had also vassals under them, to whom they gave land, and who had to do for them what they themselves did for the king that is, to assist them when they went to war.
Then under these sub-vassals there were two other classes. There was the class called free tenants, who rented land from some greater or smaller baron and paid him a rent either in money, or, what was the usual way, with what was produced on the land grain, or cattle, or sheep, or poultry, or other things. Lowest of all was the class called serfs, who were just slaves, who could be bought and sold like cattle, and who were not allowed to leave the land on which they were born nor to marry without their lord's permission.
Now, we see that the important thing for David and kings like him was that the great nobles or barons should be faithful to him, for, if two or three were to join together and rise against him, they might be stronger than the king himself. The men to whom David chiefly gave lands were Normans from England, because he could depend upon them, and because they were the best soldiers of the time.
For example, he gave the land of Annandale to an ancestor of Robert Bruce,and he gave Renfrewshire to an ancestor of the Stewarts, who afterwards came to be the kings of Scotland. And how did David get the lands to give them? We saw how he did in the case of the land of Moray. The men dwelling there had rebelled against him, so he took their lands from many of them and gave them to Normans who had done him some service.
And in other parts of the country he did the same thing, so that most of the land came to belong to Normans who had come from England.
And he not only gave the Normans most of the land, but he also gave them the chief offices about the court. It was only the very greatest nobles who got these offices, which it was considered a great honour to hold. The chief of these great officials were: the Constable, who commanded the army when the king was not present; the Chamberlain, who looked after the king's accounts; the Seneschal, who managed the royal household; the Marshal, who commanded the horse soldiers in the army; and the Chancellor, who was the king's chief adviser, and who kept the great seal with which the king sealed all his important letters.
Now, we have seen how the king could raise an army when he needed it, and the next question is, Where did he find the money to pay all the expenses of keeping up his court?
At the present day the royal family is kept up by money which the country has to pay in taxes, but this was not the way in which courts were kept up in the time of King David, and long afterwards. When the people were taxed then at least in Scotland it was not to pay the king's own expenses, but for some other purpose, such as to pay a ransom for him if he were taken prisoner.
First of all, the king had lands of his own, from which he got grain and cattle and sheep and poultry to feed his household. Then from the towns which were called Royal Burghs he received an annual sum of money, because they were built on his land, and because he gave them certain privileges of trade which the other towns did not possess. On all the goods sent to foreign countries, also, the merchants had to pay a tax, and this came to a considerable sum every year.
The great barons, too, besides serving him in war, had to pay money to him on certain occasions. If he was taken prisoner, they had to help to pay his ransom, and when his son was made a knight or when his daughter got married, they had also to pay certain sums according to the extent of their lands. Also, at any time, the king, if he chose, could go with all his servants, and live in their castles; though, of course, he could not do this for long, as otherwise he would have eaten them up. Lastly, when fines were taken from criminals who were tried in the king's courts, these fines went into the king's pockets. In all these ways, then, the kings could get the means of keeping themselves and their households, though most of them spent more money than they could afford.
What has been just described is called the Feudal System, and it was this state of things that now existed in Scotland and other countries, and which .continued to exist for many hundred years.
Brown, Peter Hume. A Short History of Scotland. Oliver and Boyd, 1908.
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