1.
Whoever possesses one knight's fee shall have a shirt of mail, a helmet,
a shield, and a lance; and every knight shall have as many shirts of mail,
helmets, shields, and lances as he possesses knight's fees in demesne.[1]
2. Moreover, every free layman who possesses chattels or rents to the
value of 16m. shall have a shirt of mail, a helmet, a shield, and a lance;
and every free layman possessing chattels or rents to the value of 10m.
shall have a hauberk, an iron cap, and a lance.[2]
3. Item, all burgesses and the whole community of freemen shall have [each]
a gambeson, [3] an iron cap, and a lance.
4. Besides, each of them shall swear to have these arms before the feast
of St. Hilary, to be faithful to the lord king Henry — namely, the son
of the Empress Matilda — and to bear these arms in his service according
to his command and in fealty to the lord king and his kingdom. And henceforth
no one having these arms shall sell them or pledge them or lend them or
alienate them in any other way; nor shall a lord in any way alienate them
from his men, either through forfeiture or through gift or through pledge
or in any other way.
5. If any one having these arms dies, his arms shall remain to his heir.
If, however, the heir is not of age to use arms in time of need, that
person who has wardship over him shall also have custody of the arms and
shall find a man who can use the arms in the service of the lord king
until the heir is of age to bear arms, and then he shall have them.
6. Any burgess who has more arms than he ought to have by this assize
shall sell them, or give them away, or in some way alienate them to such
a man as will keep them for the service of the lord king of England. And
none of them shall keep more arms than he ought to have by this assize.
7. Item, no Jew shall keep in his possession a shirt of mail or a hauberk,
but he shall sell it or give it away or alienate it in some other way,
so that it shall remain in the king's service.
8. Item, no one shall carry arms out of England except by the command
of the lord king: no one is to sell arms to another to carry out of England;
nor shall a merchant or any other man carry them out of England.
9. Item, the justices shall have [a report] sworn by lawful knights, or
by other free and lawful men of the hundreds and neighbourhoods and boroughs
— as many as they see fit to employ — as to what persons possess chattels
to the amount that they should have a shirt of mail, a helmet, a lance,
and a shield according to what has been provided; so that they shall separately
name for those [justices] all men of their hundreds and neighbourhoods
and boroughs who are worth 16m. in either chattels or rents, and likewise
those who are worth 10m. And then the justices shall have written down
[the names of] all those jurors and other men, [recording] how much in
chattels or rents they [each] have and what arms, according to the value
of the chattels or rents, they should [each] have. Then, in their presence
and in a common assembly of those men, they shall have read this assize
regarding the possession of arms, and they shall have those men swear
to have arms according to the value of the aforesaid chattels or rents,
and to keep them for the service of the lord king according to this aforesaid
assize, under the command of and in fealty to the lord king Henry and
his kingdom. If, moreover, it should happen that any one of them, who
ought to have these arms, is not in the county during the period when
the justices are in that county, the justices shall set a time for him
[to appear] before them in another county. And if he does not come to
them in any county through which they are to go, and is not in that land
[at all], they shall set him a time at Westminster toward the octave of
St. Michael; so that, as he loves his life and all that he has, he shall
be there for swearing his oath. And they shall command him, before the
aforesaid feast of St. Hilary, to have arms according to the obligation
resting on him.
10. Item, the justices shall have proclamation made in the counties through
which they are to go that, with respect to those who do not have such
arms as have been specified above, the lord king will take vengeance,
not merely on their lands or chattels, but on their limbs.
11. Item, no one who does not possess 16m. [as specified above] or 10m.
in chattels is to swear concerning free and lawful men.
12. Item, the justices shall command through all the counties that no
one, as he loves his life and all that he has, shall buy or sell any ship
to be taken away from England, and that no one shall carry any timber
or cause it to be carried out of England. And the lord king commands that
no one shall be received for the oath concerning arms unless he is a freeman.
[1]
That is to say, as many knights as remain charged against his demesne;
cf. no. 36.
[2] Presumably less elaborate armour than
that required of the other group.
[3] A padded surcoat.
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