1. A writ ordering a tenant-in-chief by knight’s service to serve in a war, send a substitute, or pay a sum of money.
2. A writ authorizing a lord who had served in the war or paid the required fine to recover the scutage from his knight’s fees. See SCUTAGE.
“Such a baron, having proved that he fulfilled his contract or paid his fine, will have a royal writ de scutagio habendo, whereby the sheriff will be ordered to cause him to have the scutage due from his tenants. Still, before he can get his scutage, he has to obtain something that the king is apt to treat as a favour.” 1 Frederick Pollock & Frederic W. Maitland, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I 270 (2d ed. 1898).
