Note 177 — PART I TERRITORIAL STUDIES (continued 3)
Reading edition
How easily such errors arose may be seen in the elaborate entries on Simon de Beauchamp's fief. Here the formula 'decem denarios quando Rex accipit marcam de milite', correctly reproduced in the Black Book, becomes 'x. denarius', etc., in the Red Book. The former expression means 'tenpence in the marc' (i.e. one-sixteenth of a fee); whereas the latter is equivalent to 'the tenth penny in the marc' (i.e. one-tenth of a fee), and upsets the whole reckoning. The correct formula is a not uncommon one and should be compared with the 'de xx. solidis viii. denarios' (eightpence in the pound) which is given as the holding of two knights of the honour of Clare, and represents the thirtieth of a fee.177