POLITICAL HISTORY good deal of forest land in Rutland. There is a list of ten archers chosen in Rutland in this year, so that possibly even the twenty were not forthcoming ; a later document, however, gives the names of thirty,*" and in 1386 forty were summoned to London to resist an expected French invasion." Along with this military service went constant and heavy taxation. The feudal aid on the marriage of the eldest daughter of Edward I in 1305 pro- duced £^i 6s. 8</.,*^ while the newer form of taxation in the form of a ' tenth and fifteenth ' under the assessment of 1334 produced j(^2o6,*^ and the aid for the French war in 1371 brought in ^^255 4J.** Another method of taxation which fell heavily on Rutland was the grant of wool. The contri- bution of Rutland to the enormous grant of 30,000 sacks in 1337 is uncer- tain ; Lincolnshire and Rutland together contributed 4,500 sacks.*^ Rutland's share of the levy of 1341 was 100 sacks, and the same amount was demanded in 1347.*° Purveyance was another burden ; in 1346 forty tons of flour and 200 quarters of oats were demanded from Rutland, but half of the flour was remitted on a plea that the county was too heavily burdened with other charges. Later in the same year Rutland was one of the counties which had to be remonstrated with for slackness in sending in the proceeds of a tenth and fifteenth recently voted by Parliament, the king being as usual in urgent need of money." In 1 344 the Exchequer was called on to investigate a claim made by the inhabitants of Oakham, Langham, and Egleton, that these places were not cities or boroughs, and did not belong to the ancient demesne, and that accordingly they were not liable to the higher rate of taxation, which had several times been exacted by the ' malice ' of the sheriff. Ap- parently the claim was allowed, though no further reference to the case has been found.'* From an early period the castle of Oakham was used as the county prison, and in 1269 the men of the county claimed that it should be the place of detention for all Rutland prisoners, whether on forest or other pleas. '^ Rutland seems to have suffered a good deal from breaches of the public peace in the 14th century. Thus in 1321 the keeper of Rutland Forest complained of being assaulted and robbed by a crowd of men near Liddington.'" In 1336 John de Wittlebury, who with Simon of Lyndon had in the preceding year been made keeper of the peace for the county, was assailed by night in his manor of Whissendine by some ' notorious offenders ' in consequence of his proceeding against them ; these offenders also threatening and even using force against the keepers of the peace when in session at Oakham and Whis- sendine. Next year William la Zouche, Dean of York, the king's clerk and treasurer, complained that his goods had been carried away and his servants
- " Chan. Misc. bdle. 2, no. 34 (2), (4). *' Ca/. Pat. 1385-9, p. 217.
" FeuJ. Aids, iv, 204-6. The aid was at the rate of £z on 25I knights' fees, distributed as follows : — Alstoe, 6^ ; East Hundred, 6| ; Wrangdike, 3^ ; Martinsley, gf + -^■^. The subsidy of 1428 shows some differences : — Alstoe, 6J ; East Hundred, 5-! ; Wrangdike, 3 ; Oakham with Martinsley, (). ^ Subs. R. 185, no. 5. The tax of a fifteenth on the county produced £17^ 13/., and the tenth on the townships of Oakham, Langham, Egleton, Lyndon and Stretton £'JiJ 5/. ; but the first three had their rate reduced to a tenth by a royal writ, the deduction amounting to £() 18/. ; cf. the petition mentioned above. «* Wright, Hist. Rut. 4. ** Cal. Close, 1337-9, P- H^-
- Ibid. 1346-9, pp. 208, 231. " Ibid. 44, 128.
- Ibid. 1343-6, p. 289. The petition of the three places is preserved (P.R.O. Anct. Pet. 6276).
- ' Turner, Select Pleas of Forest (Selden Soc), 52-3.
^ Cal. Pat. 1317-21, p. 608 ; ibid. 1321-4, p. 54.
