Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Robert de Brus I: Founder of the Family
- 2 Divided Inheritance
- 3 Lords of Skelton
- 4 Lords of Annandale
- 5 The Brus Estates in England and Scotland
- 6 Land Management and Income
- 7 Tenants, Companions and Household
- 8 Status, Kin and Patronage
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 The Brus Barony in Yorkshire
- Appendix 2 The Brus Inheritance in the Honors of Chester and Huntingdon
- Appendix 3 The Brus Charters
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Land Management and Income
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Robert de Brus I: Founder of the Family
- 2 Divided Inheritance
- 3 Lords of Skelton
- 4 Lords of Annandale
- 5 The Brus Estates in England and Scotland
- 6 Land Management and Income
- 7 Tenants, Companions and Household
- 8 Status, Kin and Patronage
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 The Brus Barony in Yorkshire
- Appendix 2 The Brus Inheritance in the Honors of Chester and Huntingdon
- Appendix 3 The Brus Charters
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Although the overall view of the Brus lordships and estates as outlined in the preceding chapter, together with their assessment for servitium debitum, reflects the relative power and prestige of the two branches of the family, it does not take into account the income which each lord could command in order to maintain his family, household, lifestyle, and to fulfil the commitments commensurate with his status. When such income, so far as it can be ascertained, is used as the measure of their comparative wealth, a different picture emerges. By the latter part of the thirteenth century, when both branches of the family had reached the peak of their land-holdings, it is the Yorkshire Bruses, despite their humbler status and the regional nature of their lordship, whose lands apparently generated a larger share of wealth in monetary terms. The picture is inevitably distorted, not only because of the paucity of surviving documentation, especially for the Scottish lands, but because of the differing methods of estate management which prevailed in various parts of the country. In Scotland and the barony of Kendale, for example, there was a continuing tradition of land being granted out for rent, some of which was payable at least initially in kind, rather than being subinfeudated in return for military service, as was more common in most parts of England. It is, however, safe to say that by the second half of the thirteenth century, following the shift towards a monetary economy and decline in the emphasis on personal military service, the essential income of both the Yorkshire and the Annandale Bruses was derived principally from those lands which their predecessors had not subinfeudated.
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- Information
- The Brus Family in England and Scotland, 1100–1295 , pp. 109 - 129Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2005