# Carucate > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Carucate > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Carucate.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carucate > Source revision: 1345830488 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) The **carucate** or **carrucate** (la-x-medieval: *carrūcāta* or *carūcāta*)[1] was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight [oxen](/source/Oxen) could [till](/source/Tillage) in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms of tax assessment. ## England The carucate was named for the [carruca](/source/Carruca) [heavy plough](/source/Heavy_plough) that began to appear in England in the late 9th century, which may have been introduced during the [Viking invasions of England](/source/Viking_invasions_of_england).[2] It was also known as a **ploughland** or **plough** (Old English: *plōgesland*, "plough's land") in the [Danelaw](/source/Danelaw) and usually, but not always, excluded the land's suitability for winter vegetables and desirability to remain [fallow in crop rotation](/source/Crop_rotation). The tax levied on each carucate came to be known as "[carucage](/source/Carucage)". Though a carucate might nominally be regarded as an area of 120 [acres](/source/Acre) (49 hectares), and can usefully be equated to certain definitions of the hide, its variation over time and depending on soil and fertility makes its actual figure wildly variable.[3] The Danelaw carucates were subdivided into eighths: [oxgangs](/source/Oxgang) or bovates based on the area a yoked pair of oxen could till in a year. In the rest of England, the land was reckoned in **[hides](/source/Hide_(unit))** which were divided into four [yardlands](/source/Yardland), later known as [virgates](/source/Virgate). ## Scotland A **ploughgate** was the [Scottish equivalent](/source/Scottish_units_of_measurement) in the south and east of the country. Even more so than in England, the variable land quality in Scotland led to ploughgates of varying sizes, although the area was notionally understood as 100 [Scots acres](/source/Scots_acres). Many sources say that four ploughgates made up a [daugh](/source/Daugh); in other places, it appears to have been one daugh exactly. As in the Danelaw, ploughgates were subdivided into [oxgangs](/source/Oxgang), again usually by eighths. ## Wales Cattle and oxen were a central part of the [Laws of the ancient Celts](/source/Celtic_Law), by the [Welsh Middle Ages](/source/Wales_in_the_Middle_Ages), oxen were an integral part of [Welsh Law](/source/Welsh_Law), and an important part of the legal valuations used in assessing land value, the wealth of personal holdings and determining compensations (such as the *[Galanas](/source/Galanas)*). Carucates are found throughout the [Cyfraith Hywel](/source/Cyfraith_Hywel) (Law's of [Hywel Dda](/source/Hywel_Dda)). In 1086, the [Domesday Book](/source/Domesday_Book) records a number of entries for [commotes](/source/Commotes) in Wales. These commotes, (that had come under [Anglo-Norman](/source/Anglo-Normans) possession, but were still part of Welsh law and customs) were assessed for military service and taxation. Whereas the English possessions obligations were given in hides, the Welsh obligations were rated in carucates. This was also true for [Archenfield](/source/Archenfield) in [Herefordshire](/source/Herefordshire) which may indicate the area maintained the Welsh systems.[4][5] ## See also - [Aratrum terrae](/source/Aratrum_terrae) - [English units](/source/English_units_of_measurement): - [hide](/source/Hide_(unit)) - [virgate](/source/Virgate), [nook](/source/Nook_(unit)), [farundel](/source/Farundel) - [acre](/source/Acre) - [Scottish units](/source/Scottish_units_of_measurement) in the East Highlands: - [daugh](/source/Daugh) - [oxgang](/source/Oxgang) - [Scots acre](/source/Scots_acre) - [Scots rood](/source/Scots_rood) - [Scottish units](/source/Scottish_units_of_measurement) in the West Highlands: - [Scots markland](/source/Scots_markland) - [Ounceland](/source/Ounceland) - [Quarterland](/source/Quarterland) - [Pennyland](/source/Pennyland) - [Groatland](/source/Groatland) ## References 1. *Oxford English Dictionary*, 1st ed. "carucate, *n.*" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1888. 1. White Jr., Lynn, The Life of the Silent Majority, pg. 88 of Life and Thought in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Robert S. Hoyt, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 1967 1. See e.g. Stenton, F.M., 'Introduction', in Foster, C.W. & Longley, T. (eds.), *The Lincolnshire Domesday and the Lindsey Survey*, Lincoln Record Society, XIX, 1924, especially pp. ix-xix. 1. Watkin, Morgan (1965). ["ABO blood groups, human history and language in Herefordshire with special reference to the low B frequency in Europe"](https://www.nature.com/articles/hdy196510.pdf?origin=ppub). *Nature*. **20**: 84. [doi:10.1038/hdy.1965.10](https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1965.10). [PMID 14300930](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14300930). [S2CID 27834923](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:27834923) 1. ["Dorstone History Society - 6000 years of history"](https://dorstonehistorysociety.wordpress.com/). *Dorstone History Society*. Retrieved 10 December 2021. --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Carucate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carucate) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carucate?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.