World History

3.

Assize of Arms.

1181. (Latin text in Stubbs, Select Charters, ninth edition, pp. 183, 184. Translation by the editor.)

1. Whoever has the fee of one knight let him have a coat of mail and a helmet, a sword and a lance; and let every knight have as many coats of mail and helmets, swords and lances, as he has knights’ fees in his demesne.

2. Any free layman who has in chattels or in income to the value of sixteen marks, let him have a coat of mail and helmet, sword and lance; but any free layman who has ten marks in chattels or income is to have a hauberk, an iron headpiece, and a lance.

3. Also all burgesses and the whole body of free men are to have a doublet of mail, an iron headpiece, and a lance.

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9. And the justices shall cause an oath to be taken by lawful knights or by as many other free and lawful men of the hundreds and of the boroughs as they shall deem proper who have the worth of chattels on the basis of which one ought to have a coat of mail and helmet, lance and sword, as stated above, that they will name to them one after another all of their hundreds and of their neighborhoods and of their boroughs who have sixteen marks in chattels or in income, and likewise those who have ten marks. And afterward the justices shall cause a record to be made of all those jurors and of the others who have that amount of chattels or income and of the arms which they ought to have according to the value of their chattels or income. . . .