hidage

hidage

English

Alternative forms

• hydage

Etymology

From hide (“unit of land used for tax assessment”) +‎ -age.

Noun

hidage (plural hidages)

1. (Britain, law, obsolete or historical) A tax formerly paid to the kings of England for every hide of land.
   • 1898, Hannis Taylor, The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution, Part 2: The After-growth of the Constitution,

     In the case of the towns, to which the reckoning by hides could not be applied, the Danegeld or hidage was probably compounded for, and such composition represents no doubt the later talliage.⁴ In the ninth year of Henry II. the Danegeld as such finally disappeared from the Rolls, but only to reappear as aid or hidage, and in the reign of Richard I. as carucage.

   • 1992, Cyril Hart, The Danelaw‎, page 298:

     What seems to have been a still later addition gives the hidages of Worcestershire and Warwickshire.

   • 2013, F. W. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England‎, page 455:

     The moment has now come when we may tender in evidence an ancient document which professes to state the hidage of certain districts.

Derived terms

• Burghal Hidage
• Tribal Hidage

Related terms

• hide (unit of land used for tax assessment)

See also

• carucage
• Danegeld
• tallage / talliage

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for hidage in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)