Now this definition applies to a similar technical expression frequently inserted, by way of exception, in contemporaneous charters, namely, "extrinsecum" or "forinsecum servitium," or "regale servitium;" and I believe the utiban, or out-ban of the above charters, to be a mere Saxon synonym of the Latin "extrinsecum servitium."
Bracton (lib. ii. c. 16) very fully explains the sort of obligations called "servitia forinseca." They belong "ad dominum regem, et non ad dominum capitalem," and he particularly mentions caruage, hidage, and cornage. But these taxes were not the only extrinsic services or burdens which came under the same description. He specifies others which are due to the king "pro justitiâ vel pace; sicut sectæ ad comitatum vel hundredum, sectæ ad curias, auxilia vicecomitis, fines communes et misericordias." Against these, he says, the lord of the fee is not bound to warrant his feoffee, unless he has specially agreed to do so by his charter. Some of these are specified in nearly similar terms in a charter of Ralph, son of Geoffry, to the monks of Kirkstall, in which scutage, fines of the county, wapentakes, and common fines are enumerated among the subjects of foreign service; 5 Dugd. Monast., p. 550, note. No. X: and in a charter of the twelfth century printed in 3 Dugd. Monast., p. 21, No. XLIX., land is granted free from all service except danegeld and murdrum. So, a charter of the same century, 4 Dugd. Monast., p. 185, No. III., imports freedom from all service "except the king's army and danegeld." Other examples occur in the rolls of the Curia Regis temp. Joh., as abridged in the Placitorum Abbreviatio, pp. 25, 93, 194[1].
Comparing these and other charters of the same period with the Cornish and Devonshire charters which contain provisions respecting utiban, I think it may be safely assumed that the term includes every species of public tax, and all those legal burdens or liabilities, personal or pecuniary, which were due to the king, quâ talis, or his grantee, and were exacted from the tenant of land. Whether it did not also extend to the legal claims of any lord paramount is a point open to question[2]. An anonymous case in Moor's Reports, p. 42, would seem to shew that it did, and consequently, that
- ↑ Land subject to this servitude is said "exteriùs servire," or "forinsecùs servire." See Cart. Simonis filii Roberti, 4 Dugd. Monast., p. 179, 180.
- ↑ In a grant by the constable of Chester to the abbey of Stanlawe, he warrants the land free from all foreign service as against both the king and the earl of Chester. 5 Dugd. Monast., p. 641, No. 1.
