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Legal Definitions - carucate
Definition of carucate
A carucate was a historical unit used in medieval England to measure land, primarily for the purpose of assessing taxes or feudal obligations. It was generally understood to represent the amount of land that could be cultivated by a single plow team (typically with eight oxen) in one year, often estimated to be around 120 acres. This measurement was crucial for determining a landowner's responsibilities to the Crown or a lord.
Example 1: Tax Assessment
During the reign of King Edward I, a royal decree mandated that all landowners contribute a specific tax amount based on the number of carucates they possessed. If a local lord, Baron Fitzwilliam, was recorded in the Domesday Book as holding twenty carucates across his various estates, his annual tax obligation to the Crown would be calculated directly from this figure, rather than a precise modern acreage survey. The carucate served as the standardized unit for determining his financial contribution.
Example 2: Feudal Service Obligations
Sir Alaric, a knight, held his lands directly from a powerful earl. Their feudal agreement stipulated that for every five carucates of land Sir Alaric controlled, he was required to provide one fully equipped soldier for the earl's military campaigns for forty days each year. If Sir Alaric's estate comprised fifteen carucates, he would be responsible for supplying three soldiers, demonstrating how the carucate quantified land holdings to determine non-monetary feudal duties.
Example 3: Land Grants and Inheritance
When a monarch wished to reward a loyal subject, they might grant them a specific amount of land measured in carucates. For instance, after a successful battle, King Henry II might grant his most valiant captain "ten carucates of prime agricultural land in the county of Yorkshire." This grant would then be recorded in royal charters, defining the extent of the captain's new estate and the basis for any future taxes or services owed, using the carucate as the established unit of measure for the transfer of property.
Simple Definition
A carucate was a historical measure of land, typically around 120 acres, used primarily for tax assessment purposes in medieval England. It represented the amount of land that could be plowed by a single team of oxen in a year.