marks, as
King Richard's ransom, twenty shillings were imposed on each
knight's fee. Had the fees remained on the original footing,
as settled by the Conqueror, this scutage would have
amounted to ninety thousand marks, which was nearly the sum
required; but we find that other grievous taxes were imposed
to complete it; a certain proof that many frauds and abuses
had prevailed in the roll of knights fees.

The exorbitant estates conferred by the Norman on his barons and
chieftains, remained not long entire and unimpaired. The landed property
was gradually shared out into more hands; and those immense baronies
were divided, either by provisions to younger children, by partitions
among co-heirs, by sale, or by escheating to the king, who gratified a
great number of his courtiers by dealing them out among them in smaller
portions. Such moderate estates, as they required economy, and confined
the proprietors to live at home, were better calculated for duration;
and the order of knights and small barons grew daily more numerous, and
began to form a very respectable rank or order in the state. As they
were all immediate vassals of the crown by military tenure, they were,
by the principles of the feudal law, equally entitled with the greatest
barons to a seat in the national or general councils; and this right,
though regarded as a privilege which the owners would not entirely
relinquish, was also considered as a burden which they desired to be
subjected to on extraordinary occasions only. Hence it was provided in
the charter of King John, that, while the great barons were summoned to
the national council by a particular writ, the small barons, under which
appellation the knights were also comprehended, should only be called
by a general summons of the sheriff. The distinction between great and
small barons, like that between rich and poor, was not exactly defined;
but, agreeably to the inaccurate genius of that age, and to the
simplicity of ancient government, was left very much to be determined
by the discretion of the king and his ministers. It was usual for the
prince to require, by a particular summons, the attendance of a baron
in one parliament, and to neglect him in future parliaments;[*] nor
was this uncertainty ever complained of as an injury. He attended when
required: he was better pleased on other occasions to be exempted from
the burden: and as he was acknowledged to be of the s