CARTAE BARONUM

Lit. 'records or returns of the barons'. A set of returns made to the *exchequer of Henry II by tenants-in-chief in 1166 concerning the knights enfeoffed on their lands. The questions asked concerned the number of enfeoffments each tenant-in-chief had made since 1135 (the first year of King Stephen's reign), and how many were retained in the household, i.e. in *de-mesne. Their names were also requested. Henry was trying to ensure that all knights had done *allegiance to him. Those who had not were to do so within a set period. Implicit in the latter instruction was the king's assertion that allegiance to him was of greater weight than the allegiance owed to tenants-in-chief by those holding fiefs of them. It is a useful document for giving a detailed record of the state of military feudalism in England in the last half of the 12c.

Cf. Enfeoff