242 EVERYDAY LIFE
come to his aid, and it is generally stated that the amount of the
fine was not to exceed five shillings.1 In order to protect them-
selves serfs bought the right of marriage when they took over
their father's land on succeeding,2 or bargained with their lord
for the privilege of marrying "wheresoever they would", or
"whenever they chose", without hindrance from any manorial
authority.3 And they went further: they paid to have such
special exemptions written down in the manor rolls to which they
might appeal if the memory of steward or bailiff ever proved
defective on this matter.4
A further difficulty sometimes arose over the children of
such a marriage. To which lord did they belong? In France
there were endless disputes and claims upon this matter, and
liighly complicated systems were invented to deal with the
problems of a single child or of an unequal number of children.
In England we have little evidence to guide us; but we may first
note that Glanvill laid it down that the children were proportion-
aUter divided between the two lords.5 That this was no mere
theory is borne out by a quit claim to the monks of Chester
(c. 1216-40) by John Fitzalan, whereby if any of his villeins
takes a wife from those of Ince, or vice versa, a division of the
children should be made between him and the abbot, according
to the custom of the country.6 This seems to argue that there was
a perfectly well-known custom, at any rate in this part of Eng-
land, in the first half of the thirteenth century; while three
instances of about 1285 from the east of England7 encourage the
belief that the custom was found on a number of manors, and
over a considerable area, until at least the end of this century.
Despite a multiplicity of local differences, so far it has not been
difficult to trace the guiding principle underlying the marriage
of serfs—they must "buy their blood" as the phrase goes. When
we come to the vexed question of mixed marriages—of marriages,
1 Ramsey Cart. I, 384, 395, 472, 490. At Chatteris, however, they were
entirely at the will of their lord (i, 432, and cf. 416).
2 Abbots Langley, f. i; U.L.C. Wynslowe, f£. 17 a, 20 a, 220.
8 V.C.H. Warwick, II, 143; Hales Rolls, 420.
* Wynslowe, 340, 45a, 56a; Abbots Langley, 20bf 21 b.
* Glanvill, op. cit. lib. 5, cap. 6.
6 Chester Chart. 210, No. 313.
* Norf. Arch, xvn, 319.