vain asserted by arguments and manifestoes.
[FN [k] Neubr. p. 387. Chron. W. Heming. p. 494.]

An army, composed of feudal vassals, was commonly very intractable and
undisciplined, both because of the independent spirit of the persons
who served in it, and because the commands were not given, either by
the choice of the sovereign, or from the military capacity and
experience of the officers. Each baron conducted his own vassals: his
rank was greater or less, proportioned to the extent of his property:
even the supreme command under the prince was often attached to birth;
and as the military vassals were obliged to serve only forty days at
their own charge; though if the expedition were distant, they were put
to great expense; the prince reaped little benefit from their
attendance. Henry, sensible of these inconveniences, levied upon his
vassals in Normandy, and other provinces which were remote from
Toulouse, a sum of money in lieu of their service; and this
commutation, by reason of the great distance, was still more
advantageous to his English vassals. He imposed, therefore, a scutage
of one hundred and eighty thousand pounds on the knight's fees, a
commutation to which, though it was unusual, and the first perhaps to
be met with in history [l], the military tenants willingly submitted;
and with this money he levied an army which was more under his
command, and whose service was more durable and constant. Assisted by
Berenger, Count of Barcelona, and Trincaval, Count of Nismes, whom he
had gained to his party, he invaded the county of Toulouse; and after
taking Verdun, Castlenau, and other places, he besieged the capital of
the province, and was likely to prevail in the enterprise: when Lewis,
advancing before the arrival of his main body, threw himself into the
place with a small reinforcement. [MN 1160.] Henry was urged by some
of his ministers to prosecute the siege, to take Lewis prisoner, and
to impose his own terms in the pacification; but he either thought it
so much his interest to maintain the feudal principles, by which his
foreign dominions were secured, or bore so much respect to his
superior lord, that he declared he would not attack a place defended
by him in person; and he immediately raised the siege [m]. He marched
into Normandy, to protect that province against an incursion which the
Count of Dreux, instigated by King Lewis, his brother, had made upon
it. War was now openly carried on betw