Legal Definitions - auxilium vice comiti

auxilium vice comiti

This Latin term refers to a historical tax levied in medieval England, paid to the local sheriff. This payment was intended to support the sheriff in carrying out their official duties, which included maintaining law and order, administering justice, and managing royal lands within their county.

Here are some examples illustrating how auxilium vice comiti would have applied:

• Imagine a wealthy landowner in 12th-century Yorkshire. Each year, they would be required to pay a sum of auxilium vice comiti to the Sheriff of Yorkshire. This payment would contribute to the sheriff's overall budget, enabling them to pay their deputies, maintain a small force, and cover the costs associated with investigating crimes and enforcing royal decrees across the vast county. This illustrates the term as a regular, mandatory contribution to the sheriff's operational expenses.

• Consider a small market town in Kent during the 13th century. After a series of bandit raids disrupted trade routes, the town's burgesses might have been assessed for an auxilium vice comiti. This specific levy would help the Sheriff of Kent fund increased patrols along the affected roads or raise a temporary posse to apprehend the bandits, thereby restoring security and allowing commerce to resume. Here, the tax is shown as a means to fund the sheriff's protective services for a community.

• During a period when the Crown needed to assert its authority more strongly in a particular region, perhaps to collect overdue feudal dues or to survey royal forests, the local Sheriff might have been granted the authority to collect auxilium vice comiti from the tenants and freeholders. These funds would then directly support the sheriff's efforts in executing these royal mandates, such as hiring clerks for record-keeping or providing provisions for royal officials traveling through the shire. This demonstrates the tax's role in supporting the sheriff's broader administrative functions on behalf of the Crown.