Definition of "scutage"

scutage

/ˈskjuːtɪd͡ʒ/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural scutages
1. (historical) A tax, paid in lieu of military service, that was a significant source of revenue in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
  Quotations
  The land tax, in its modern shape, has superseded all the former methods of rating either property, or persons in respect of their property, whether by tenths or fifteenths, subsidies on land, hidages, scutages, or tallages
  1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press
  The wars and the maladministration of Richard I and John forced these kings more and more to count on extraordinary revenues, to multiply aids and especially scutages.
  1925, D. Pasquet, An Essay on the Origins of the House of Commons