Legal Definitions - carucage

Carucage was a historical land tax used in medieval England.

It was a levy imposed either based on the amount of land a person owned, specifically measured in units called 'carucates' (which represented the area of land that could be plowed by a team of oxen in a year), or directly on the number of plows actively used on the land.

Here are some examples to illustrate how carucage might have been applied:

• Royal Military Campaign: Imagine a medieval king needing to raise significant funds to finance a military campaign against a neighboring kingdom. He might declare a carucage across his realm, requiring every baron, knight, and major landowner to pay a specific sum for each 'carucate' of land they held. This would directly tax their wealth and resources tied to land ownership, providing the king with the necessary war chest.

  This example demonstrates carucage as a tax based on the historical unit of land (the carucate), levied for a national purpose.

• Local Lord's Infrastructure Project: Consider a powerful local lord who wished to improve the roads and bridges within his manor to facilitate trade and travel for his tenants. To fund these improvements, he could impose a carucage on the farmers and peasants living on his estate. Instead of taxing the land unit, he might assess the tax based on the number of working plows each household owned and operated, as this directly reflected their agricultural capacity and potential to benefit from the improved infrastructure.

  Here, carucage is illustrated as a tax based on the plows used on the land, applied at a more local level for specific community benefits.

• General Royal Revenue: In times when the royal treasury was low, and the king needed general funds for the administration of the kingdom, maintaining his court, or other state expenses, he might order a kingdom-wide carucage. Royal officials would then travel through shires and villages, assessing the tax. In some areas, they might meticulously count the 'carucates' of arable land belonging to each estate, while in others, they might simply tally the number of active plows in use to determine the tax burden for each community or individual.

  This example shows carucage as a flexible revenue-generating tax for the crown, demonstrating how it could be assessed using either the land unit or the plows, depending on the local context and assessment methods.