Alphonso had married the daughter of Henry, to
choose this prince for a referee; and they agreed each of them to
consign three castles into neutral hands as a pledge of their not
departing from his award. Henry made the cause be examined before
his great council, and gave a sentence, which was submitted to by both
parties. These two Spanish kings sent each a stout champion to the
court of England, in order to defend his cause by arms, in case the
way of duel had been chosen by Henry [i].
[FN [i] Rymer, vol. iv. p. 43. Bened. Abb. p. 172. Diceto, p. 597.
Brompton, p. 1120.]

Henry so far abolished the barbarous and absurd practice of
confiscating ships which had been wrecked on the coast, that he
ordained, if one man or animal were alive in the ship, that the vessel
and goods should be restored to the owners [k].
[FN [k] Rymer, vol. i. p. 36.]

The reign of Henry was remarkable also for an innovation which was
afterwards carried farther by his successors, and was attended with
the most important consequences. This prince was disgusted with the
species of military force which was established by the feudal
institutions, and which, though it was extremely burdensome to the
subject, yet rendered very little service to the sovereign. The
barons, or military tenants, came late into the field; they were
obliged to serve only forty days; they were unskilful and disorderly
in all their operations; and they were apt to carry into the camp the
same refractory and independent spirit, to which they were accustomed
in their civil government. Henry, therefore, introduced the practice
of making a commutation of their military service for money; and he
levied scutages from his baronies and knights' fees, instead of
requiring the personal attendance of his vassals. There is mention
made, in the History of the Exchequer, of these scutages in his
second, fifth, and eighteenth year [l]; and other writers give us an
account of three more of them [m]. When the prince had thus obtained
money, he made a contract with some of those adventurers in which
Europe at that time abounded: they found him soldiers of the same
character with themselves, who were bound to serve for a stipulated
time: the armies were less numerous, but more useful, than when
composed of all the military vassals of the crown: the feudal
institutions began to relax: the kings became rapacious for money, on
which all their power depended: the barons, seeing no end