battells

Bursar or Steward as a security for the payment of his 'battells' or account.

Life of Johnson, Volume 6 Addenda, index, dicta philosophi, etc. James Boswell 1767

They say they will be like all the Nations; that their King shall be their Judge, and goe before them, and fight their battells; that is, he shall have the whole authority, both in Peace and War.

Leviathan Thomas Hobbes 1633

And that Prince that wants this skill, failes of the principall part a Commander should be furnisht with; for this shows the way how to discover the enemy, to pitch the camp, to lead their armies, to order their battells, and also to besiege

Machiavelli, Volume I Niccol�� Machiavelli 1498

He saw the host defiling "in three battells," with six thousand men in each, their spears shining, their banners waving, Homes and Hepburns in the front, with Merse and Teviotdale and all the forces of the Border, and the men of Lothian in the rear: while in the main body rose the ensigns of all the great lords who had already beaten and humbled him -- Bell-the-Cat and the other barons who had hanged his friends before his eyes -- but now bearing his own royal standard, with his son among them, the bitterest thought of all.

Royal Edinburgh Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets George Reid 1862