Series 5 > Miscellany [of the Scottish History Society] XIII

198
FISCAL FEUDALISM
as a tax on land purchase. Royal policy tended to sympathise with ancient
proprietors and to frown on the emerging land market of the period.
The traditional distinction between ‘Royaltie’ (the lands of lay lords,
held of the king), ‘Propertie’ (the royal demesne) and ‘Kirklandis’ (the
lands of the church, held of the king) had largely broken down. The lands
of secular lords had often been converted into newer tenures than the
traditional ward and relief, usually reducing the king’s rights as feudal
superior. The royal demesne had largely been feued out, so the king was
now a superior of these lands too rather than a proprietor.1 And the
superiorities of the church had been annexed to the crown in 1587,
although as we have seen the act of annexation had been partially
repealed in 1606. Still, for the feudal casualties the traditional threefold
distinction remained vital, so Colville had to provide guidance as to how
to reconstruct it, saying, for instance, that ‘quhairsoevir thar is anie
steward or stewardrie it is to be understode the landis thairwithin ar to be
of the propertie’.2
The ‘Breiff Information’ provides valuable comment on regional
variations in levels of feu duty, which was ‘exceding great ... in sum
pairtis of Menteithe or the landis of the kingis propirtie in the heylandis,
iles or princes landis quhair the dewateis ar as raked ffermes’. Colville,
himself a Fifer, also had a metropolitan contempt for ‘those of the northe
pairtis’.3
Colville presumably had personal experience of the work that he
described. When he said that ‘The thesaurer aucht narowlie to reid and
remark the auld charteris of ward landis’, this might imply personal
attention to duty on Mar’s part. But the remark that ‘subtill wretaris ...
will preace to deceave the officiaris’ gives a more credible picture of a
government department at work.4 How often the junior ‘officiaris’ like
Colville had to consult with their superiors is unknown. Perhaps they had
authority to compone for signatures of lands up to a certain value, with
the receivers of rents or even the treasurer depute or treasurer becoming
involved for larger grants. The department evidently found its principal
1 The feuing of the crown lands awaits its historian, and whether any significant royal
demesne remained unfeued is unknown. The ‘BreifF Information’ does not seem to
discuss the issue of conversion of traditional tenancies into feus; the discussion on p. 213
below assumes that a feu charter already exists.
2 Below, p. 214.
3 Below, pp. 219.
4 Below, p. 217.