As the vassals were not always disposed to exchange hawk and hound for lance and destrier, and as kings found themselves but ill-served by barons who had become almost as powerful as themselves, a plan was devised, by which both were relieved from this embarrassment of feudal relations. The vassal compounded by a money-payment called Scutage for the service due to his lord; and the lord, with the proceeds of this shield-tax, obtained the aid of foreign soldiery. Henry II. in England, and Philip Augustus in France, employed these mercenaries, who were called Coterelli, Rutarii, Bascli, and Brabantiones, names derived from their condition or country[160]. William the Conqueror, Wace tells us, had mercenary troops mixed with his feudal followers:--
"De mainte terre out soldéiers: Cels por terre, cels por déniers."--_Rom. de Rou_, l. 13797.
"Dunc vindrent soldéirs à lui: Et uns è uns, è dui è dui, E quatre è quatre, è cinc è sis, E set è wit, è nof è dis: E li Dus toz les reteneit: Mult lor donout è prameteit.
Alquanz soldées demandoent, Livreisuns è duns covetoent."--_Line_ 11544.
Besides the troops enumerated above, the King's Body-guard became a corps of some celebrity at the close of the twelfth century. Philip Augustus is said to have instituted this corps in the Holy Land, to protect his person from the machinations of the Old Man of the Mountain; and in imitation of his ally, Richard of England embodied a similar force. The _Servientes armorum, Sergens d'armes_, or _Sergens à maces_, were armed _cap-à-pie_, and besides their distinctive weapon, the mace, carried a bow and arrows[161], and of course a sword. In the fourteenth century they had a lance[162]. In the beginning of the fifteenth century, as we learn from the curious incised stones[163] formerly placed in the church of their brotherhood, St. Catherine-du-val, at Paris, and now preserved in the Church of St. Denis, the _sergens d'armes_ were still clad in complete armour, their weapons being a mace and sword. The number of these guards at their first institution is not clear, but in the time of Louis VI. of France they were _reduced_ to a hundred. It must be borne in mind that the name of _serviens_ or _sergent_, as applied to military persons, had a much wider signification than this of a body-guard. It often included all beneath the dignity of a knight.