Margaretta, Countess of Flanders & Hainault: A Purchase of Tithes and Remission of a Tax, 1246

Tithes could also be bought and sold, as happened in the case of a purchase by the Countess of Flanders from the Abbot of Tronchiennes.

Margaretta, Countess of Flanders and Hainault, to all seeing these presents, greeting.

Be it known to all that since we have bought all the tithes of the mills for a certain price from those men of God, beloved in Christ, the abbot of Tronchiennes and the convent of the Order of Premonstratensians, and all the rents both present and future assigned in the whole of Wasia to the same abbot and convent in free alms by that noble lord of revered memory, Ywan of Ghent, and by his wife Lauretta, one-time daughter of the illustrious Count Theoderic: in the same contract between us and them it is agreed that we shall remit part of the price to them and we annul a tax of ten pounds and three denarii (Flanders money) which they paid annually to us for the lands named below at Wostinis. At Saleghem for twenty-seven bonaria and two measures, four pounds and three solidi were paid. For six bonaria of land at Dirkim eight solidi. For four bonaria and a half at the same place, two solidi and three denarii. Also at Holste, for eighty-one bonaria, three pounds and twelve denarii. At Peteghem, for seventeen and a half bonaria seventeen solidi and seven denarii. At Soneghem for five and a half bonaria, eight solidi and three denarii.

In memory of which thing, and to confirm and strengthen it forever, we give these presents to the abbot and convent, secured by the attachment of our seal.

Done in the year of the Lord 1246, in the month of August.

Source:

J. J. de Smet, ed., Recueil des Chroniques de Flandre, (Brussels: Commission Royale d'Histoire, 1837), Vol. I, p. 717; reprinted in Roy C. Cave & Herbert H. Coulson, A Source Book for Medieval Economic History, (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936; reprint ed., New York: Biblo & Tannen, 1965), pp. 389-390.

Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal. State Fullerton. The text has been modernized by Prof. Arkenberg.

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