Legal Definitions - hadgonel

A hadgonel was a historical term referring to a payment, either a tax or a fine, typically levied in medieval or early modern periods. It could be a compulsory contribution to a governing authority or a penalty imposed for an offense.

Here are some examples to illustrate the concept of a hadgonel:

• Imagine a medieval village where the local lord required every household to contribute a certain amount of grain or coin each year to maintain the communal mill. This annual contribution, essential for the village's infrastructure, would have been considered a hadgonel.

  This example illustrates a hadgonel as a form of tax, a regular and compulsory payment made to a governing authority for a common service or benefit.

• Consider a manorial court in the 14th century where a peasant was found guilty of poaching deer from the lord's forest. As punishment, the court ordered the peasant to pay a specific sum of money to the lord. This monetary penalty for a transgression would have been a hadgonel.

  Here, the hadgonel functions as a mulct or fine, a financial penalty imposed as a consequence of breaking a law or rule.

• During a period of war, a king might have decreed that all towns along a vital trade route must pay an additional, temporary levy on their market transactions to fund the military campaign. This special, time-limited payment imposed by royal authority would also be classified as a hadgonel.

  This example demonstrates a hadgonel as a specific, often extraordinary, tax or levy imposed by a higher power for a particular purpose, such as funding a war effort.