The land was divided into portions, varying from about 600 to 800 acres, termed knights' fees, which were obliged to furnish 40 days' service of a fully equipped horseman each year; these fees were more than 60,000 in number. The land was first granted in large districts to the tenants in chief, and by them subdivided; homage, service, and various money payments were the considerations due for each grant, and were as fully owing from the under to the chief tenants, as from the last to the king. No land could be alienated without a fine; on the death of a tenant, some valuable chattel was given to the lord, as a heriot; and the successor paid a sum to be put in possession, called a relief. If the heir was under age, the profits of the estates belonged to the lord, as also did the control of the marriage of the ward. Under the name of aids, the lord claimed stipulated sums from his tenants on the occasion of the knighting of his eldest son, the marriage of his eldest daughter, or his own capture in war. These were all legal and established burdens, and perhaps did not amount to more than the rent of land and the ordinary taxation of modern times: but the superiors did not confine themselves to them: on the contrary, new exactions were perpetually attempted, and the revenues of both lords and kings were increased by the most various and often discreditable means.

The forests had been in the hands of the kings in Anglo-Saxon times, and the laws of Canute shew that the game was preserved" in his time; but the Norman kings carried their passion for the chase to a pitch which perhaps no other monarchs have equalled, and

guarded their wild beasts by denouncing death against those who interfered with them. On some occasions, when the turbulence of their barons compelled them to attempt to conciliate their English subjects, they promised an amelioration of their forest code, but uniformly retracted their concessions when the danger was over.

Between people thus treated, and their rulers, no cordiality could exist, and it appeared necessary to the safety of the latter that no Englishman should hold any place of importance. The powers of government were entrusted to such rapacious adventurers as Ralph Flambard and William of Ypres, Saxon bishops were replaced by Norman abbots, and an absurd attempt was made to supersede the language of the country by the Norman dialect, which, though long employed for official and court purposes, never gained ground with the mass of the people; indeed, the change ran in the contrary direction, and the second or third generation of the victors at Hastings spoke in common a language which was

e William I. usually bears the whole odium of the afforestation which proved so grievous to the English people; but it appears from the charter of Stephen, that William II. and Henry I. had also added to the royal forests: these latter Stephen promises to restore to the owners, in terms which seem to imply that they had been forcibly seized.

Ralph, a Norman chaplain, of vile character, was by William Rufus made bishop of Durham, but by Henry I. deprived of his see, and imprisoned; he escaped, and went into exile, but returned some years after, and held his bishopric till his death. William of Ypres, a Fleming, was Stephen's general, and received from him the carldom of Kent, but was so unpopular, that on the king's death he fled from England, and entered a monastery, where he died in 1162.

One Norman monk, however, Guitmond, had the virtue to refuse such preferment, and the courage to reproach the spoilers with their barbarous usage of the vanquished; he afterwards became bishop of Aversa. His eloquent letter to William has been preserved by Orderic.

much more intelligible to their Saxon countrymen than to their Norman kindred.

In fact, the Saxon and Danish races, though borne down for a while, were not crushed; and when the death of the last of the Norman kings left the throne vacant, the young Henry of Anjou was received as the lineal representative of "the right royal race," the descendants of Cerdic.

Armour of the Norman era. From the Seal of Alexander I. of Scotland (c. 1110.)

William I.

from his Great seal.

WILLIAM I.

Arms ascribed to William I.

WILLIAM, the illegitimate son of Robert, sixth duke of Normandy, was born at Falaise about the end of the year 1027. In 1035 his father died, but William only obtained full possession of the duchy after several contests with his neighbour and the king of France, in 1056. His father's aunt, Emma, being mother to Edward the Confessor, William alleged that that prince had named him heir to the crown of England, and he successfully asserted his claim at the battle of Hastings, after gaining which, on the 14th October, 1066, he advanced on London and was crowned king at Westminster on the following Christmas-day; the troubled character of his reign being aptly foreshadowed by a tumult on the occasion, in which some houses were burnt, and many people slain.

William's reign was passed, after a brief attempt at conciliation at his first coming, in a systematic endeavour to crush his new subjects. Churches and towns were destroyed, and whole districts laid waste, sometimes to

He granted charters to several towns, among them to London, in which he promised that each man should be "law worthy" as in King Edward's days, and that no one should do them wrong, but forcibly resumed most of them a few years after. See p. 192.

punish unsuccessful revolt, sometimes to provide against hostile invasion, and sometimes to furnish scope for the chase, though it appears from Domesday Book that this latter matter has been much exaggerated'. His wars with France were not altogether successful, and his latter years were embittered by the rebellions of his sons. died Sept. 8 or 95, 1087, at Rouen, from an accidental injury, and was buried at Caen. The splendid monument raised to his memory by his son William was destroyed in the religious wars in France in the 16th centuryk.

He

In 1054 William married his cousin, Matilda, daughter of Baldwin V., count of Flanders, by whom he had a family of four sons and five (perhaps six) daughters. Matilda died Nov. 2, 1083, and was buried at Caen. Their children were :

1. Robert, known as Courthose, born probably about 1056, who became duke of Normandy, went to the Crusade, was twice defeated in his claim on the crown of England, and at length, being made prisoner by his brother Henry, died at Cardiff Castle, Feb. 10, 1135, after a captivity of 28 years. The tale of his having been blinded by his brother Henry's order, does not rest ⚫ on satisfactory authority. He outlived his two sons, who both met violent deaths; William, count of Flanders, being killed at Alost in 1128, and Henry, in May, 1100, whilst hunting in the New Forest.

2. Richard, known as duke of Bernay', was killed by

i See page 195.

"On the day after the Nativity of St. Mary," says the Saxon Chronicle, i.e., on the 9th of September.

The spot is now marked by a grey marble slab in the pavement before the high altar.

A place in the bailliage of Alençon, in Normandy.