noun
- Plural of escuage; a tax or payment levied in medieval England in lieu of military service, typically paid by feudal tenants to the crown.
Usage: archaic; historical; chiefly British history
Examples
- Medieval English lords often paid escuages to avoid sending knights to the king's wars.
- The collection of escuages became an important source of royal revenue in the 12th and 13th centuries.
- Escuages were eventually replaced by other forms of taxation and military obligation.
- Historians study escuages to understand feudal economics and the transition from feudal service to monetary payments.