e times. The barons of the exchequer, for instance,
the first nobility of the kingdom, were not ashamed to insert, as an
article in their records, that the county of Norfolk paid a sum that
they might be fairly dealt with [x]; the borough of Yarmouth, that the
king's charters, which they have for their liberties, might not be
violated [y]; Richard, son of Gilbert, for the king's helping him to
recover his debt from the Jews [z]; Serlo, son of Terlavaston, that he
might be permitted to make his defence in case he were accused of a
certain homicide [a]; Walter de Burton, for free law, if accused of
wounding another [b]; Robert de Essart, for having an inquest to find
whether Roger the Butcher, and Wace and Humphrey, accused him of
robbery and theft out of envy and ill-will or not [c]; William
Buhurst, for having an inquest to find whether he were accused of the
death of one Godwin out of ill-will, or for just cause [d]. I have
selected these few instances from a great number of a like kind, which
Madox had selected from a still greater number, preserved in the
ancient rolls of the exchequer [e].
[FN [u] Id. p. 272. [w] Id. p. 274, 309. [x] Id. p. 295. [y] Id.
ibid. [z] Madox's Hist. of the Exch. p. 296. He paid two hundred
marks, great sum in those days. [a] Id. p. 296. [b] Id. ibid. [c]
Id. p. 298. [d] Id. p. 302. [e] Id. chap. 12.]

Sometimes the party litigant offered the king a certain portion, a
half, a third, a fourth, payable out of the debts, which he, as the
executor of justice, should assist him in recovering [f]. Theophania
de Westland agreed to pay the half of two hundred and twelve marks,
that she might recover that sum against James de Fughleston [g];
Solomon, the Jew, engaged to pay one mark out of every seven that he
should recover against Hugh de la Hose [h]; Nicholas Morrel promised
to pay sixty pounds, that the Earl of Flanders might be distrained to
pay him three hundred and forty-three pounds, which the earl had taken
from him; and these sixty pounds were to be paid out of the first
money that Nicholas should recover from the earl [i].
[FN [f] Id. p. 311. [g] Id. ibid. [h] Id. p. 79, 312. [i] Id. p.
312.]

As the king assumed the entire power over trade, he was to be paid for
a permission to exercise commerce or industry of any kind [k]. Hugh
Oisel paid four hundred marks for liberty to trade in England [l];
Nigel de Havene gave fifty marks for the partnership in merchandize
which