Escuage

Escuage [fr. escu, Fr., a shield], a money payment, assessed on the tenants by knight's service from time to time, first at the discretion of the Crown, and afterwards by authority of Parliament; and this commutation appears to have generally prevailed from so early a period as the time of Henry II, Williams on Real Property. Escuage is called in Latin scutagium,that is, service of the shield; and that tenant which holdeth his land by escuage, holdeth by knight's service, Co. Litt. 68 b. See SERJEANTY.