Chapter IV: Introduction (3)

The chief interest in the Conquest is the change that it is always said to have exercised in the character of the institutions of England. It used to be asserted that the feudal system was introduced, and completed as a wholly new system to the English, after the Conquest; and Hume speaks of the division of the kingdom into so many knights’ fiefs, into so many baronies, as if there were complete reorganization of the whole constitution. Modern inquiry tends to confirm what would naturally have been supposed, that the whole of the elements of the feudal system existed in England as in other Teutonic countries before the arrival of the Normans. The form which the civilization of the Scandinavian and Teutonic nations took seems to have been that of a collection of village communities, such as may be seen at work at present in India. The district occupied by such community was called the Mark, and was divided into three parts, in each of which every free member of the community had his share, but which were cultivated in strict accordance with the customary system of agriculture which no one might break. There was first the village, then the arable mark (cultivated land), then the common pasture, and beyond that the waste. Every freeman had a share in the arable and in the common pasture, but he was bound to sow the same crops as his neighbours, and to follow the same arrangement, which appears to have been simple and barbarous. The common fields, or mixed lands as they are called, were divided into three strips by broad grassy mounds; one was sown with autumn crops, one with spring crops, and the third left fallow. In the same way, though under somewhat varying rules, the grass mark was partitioned. Frequently all enclosures were removed at the close of the hay harvest, and the cattle grazed in common, as they were allowed to do also in the stubble of the arable mark. Lands were probably redistributed at certain intervals of time, and the power of devising hereditary property by will was strictly restrained. Traces of common fields cultivated on the threefold system, and of customary cultivation, are still to be found in England, and were plentiful in the last century.

[Sidenote: German institutions.]

[Sidenote: Division of ranks.]

[Sidenote: The Comitatus.]

[Sidenote: Growth of feudalism.]

But though this system would appear to have been common in nations of Germanic origin, it can be gathered from the Germania of Tacitus that other political institutions existed in Germany. Thus, the subdivisions of the Tribe were called Pagi, which seem to answer to the English Hundred. The Pagus was under the official chieftainship of an elective head called the Princeps, answering to the Saxon Ealdorman. This Pagus, which may perhaps have been originally a division of a hundred heads of families, supplied a hundred warriors to the host, a hundred assessors at the Judicial Court of the Princeps. Below this we come to the Vicus or township, which was probably organized upon the Mark system above described, or on some modification of it. The commanders in war, or Duces, were elected, probably from among the Principes, for each special occasion. It is, moreover, clear that private property had begun to exist. In pastoral life, where the common right of grazing would be the chief common privilege, there would be no difficulty in one man possessing more cattle than another. Neither would it be a great step to grant to such wealthier men, upon the redivision of the common arable mark, extra shares for the support of slaves or dependent freemen whom his wealth had attracted around him. There also existed a variety of ranks, which may be roughly divided into three classes,--the noble or _eorl_, who must have owed his nobility to birth; the freeman or _ceorl_, possessing his own homestead, his own share in the common land, and dependent on no man; and the _læt_ or dependent workman, cultivating his lord’s land. Besides these, there were actual slaves or _theows_, consisting of men who had lost their liberty either as captives, or for debt, or for some other easily conceivable causes. It does not appear that nobility of birth gave any additional political rights, although personal consideration was awarded to the noble. It was the possession of free land which made a man a full member of the tribe. The læts, however, were probably dependent only as regarded their lord, in every other respect free. Thus, like other members of the community, their death had to be atoned for by the payment of a sum of money or _weregild_, although the sum was smaller than in the case of freemen. They probably formed a considerable part of the armed force of the nation. The class may have consisted originally of a conquered population of kindred blood, or of men who voluntarily put themselves into a state of dependency upon their richer neighbours for security, or because for some reason they had become landless. Side by side with this democratic constitution, there was a peculiar institution known as the _Comitatus_. Each Princeps was allowed to collect around him, under a tie of personal dependence, a body of professed warriors, who were bound to him by the closest ties of honour; and the importance of each chief must have depended in a great degree upon this following. In case of conquest, it would naturally be the duty of the conquering chief to see to the welfare of his followers, and to give them grants, which might either be grants in perpetuity, or only the right of present possession, and which would be drawn from the conquered land remaining over after its distribution among the body of freemen. To cultivate these grants, the comrades of the king would have had to employ their own dependants, and these dependants would settle in villages, which took the form of village communities, except that the rights, which in the free communities would be vested in the whole body of the freemen, were in this case vested in the lord. We here have the germ of the relation between vassal and lord. But this element of feudalism soon acquired greater strength. The conquering chief would take upon himself the title of king, claim descent from the gods, and make his line hereditary. As the position of the king advanced, the position of the comrade or Gesith would advance also. As the king of a tribe became the king of a nation his dignity would greatly increase, and with his that of his followers, who, as the court became more formal, would accept as honours duties about the household, and the word _Gesith_, comrade, changed into _Thegn_ or servant. In times of war such nobles by service became natural leaders of the people, and the position of the chief men of the village proportionately sunk. So that there arose a class of nobles in immediate connection with the crown, possessing property not belonging to a village community, and exercising rights of lordship over its inhabitants. It is not difficult to see in what a superior position they were thus placed; what powers of encroachment they might have; and how willingly, in times of danger, village communities would put themselves in the same position with regard to them, as that occupied by those settlers on the Thegn’s lands, who had always acknowledged them as their lords. We have therefore two sources from which feudalism might have arisen; the village headman, in accordance with what seems to be a general law, as his powers came to be legally defined (especially in the matter of collecting the king’s taxes), would be regarded as the hereditary lord of the village, and would obtain the right of permanently enclosing his share of the common land; while the king’s Thegn, side by side with him, would plant his own subject villages, and accept by what is called _commendation_ the supremacy of such villages as might offer it to him.

[Sidenote: Saxon institutions introduced into England.]

[Sidenote: Land.]

The Saxons then brought with them, in their invasion of England, their threefold division of rank, their association or township, their Pagus or Hundred, the Mark system, the principle of election to public functions, and the Comitatus or personal following of their chiefs. The conquering Principes or Ealdormen became kings. The country in all probability was divided out with some degree of regularity between villages, similar in constitution with those of Continental Germany. There was no necessity for these apportionments being equal. But a certain number of villages, whatever their property was, were divided into Pagi or Hundreds. This explains the inequality of those divisions. The unoccupied land was left in the king’s hands to reward his chief followers. On these demesnes, and on the public lands, the _læts_ found their homes, with such of the conquered race as remained; and from time to time fresh estates were granted as fresh conquests increased the surplus land. From this land also the monasteries were endowed. The portion allotted to each free household was called the _Hide_. Land held by hereditary possession or by original allotment was called the _Ethel_. That held by grant from the public land and by charter was called _Bocland_ (_i.e._ book-land). The land neither partitioned nor granted was the common property of the nation, and was called _Folcland_. As all land, whether bocland or folcland, could be let out, and was so treated on various conditions, there was much variety in the tenures of that class of people who did not possess free land of their own.

[Sidenote: Judicial organization.]

Whether the mark system prevailed to any great extent or not, (and this is a somewhat uncertain point,) practically it was the township which formed the lowest part of the general organization. The hundred was a collection of townships, the shire a collection of hundreds. The chief officer of the township, the town reeve, was elected by the freeholders of the township, and with four of their number represented that township in the Court of the Hundred, of which the township was a subordinate division. Townships established upon the lands of lords also had their reeve, but probably he was appointed by the lord. Their constitution was the same, but the proprietor of the soil took the duties and privileges which in a free township belonged to the freeholders. Such townships formed manors. It was from the township also that the burghs or towns arose. The Saxons had a natural dislike for town life, and we must not look for the arrangements of the borough to the remnants of Roman civilization. But when the village grew very large the same constitution as existed in the township was employed, the freeholders within the limits of the borough forming the municipal body. Such boroughs may also frequently have arisen from an agglomeration of townships. They would then be analogous to the hundred. The existence of two or three parishes in most boroughs leads to the same conclusion; for, ecclesiastically, the limits of the township and the parish were the same. Such towns, growing up naturally round the dwellings of wealthy men or of the king, would generally be either on folcland, and as such, dependent upon the crown, or upon the land of some lord on whom they would then depend. When the national system became organized, there would thus be the Court of the Township, with its counterpart in the dependent Township of the Manor Court. Above that, the Hundred Court, presided over by the Hundred-man, while the township were represented by their Reeve and four members. And above that there was the Shire Court or Gemot. The shires were not, properly speaking, part of the original organization. They seem to be in most cases the old sub-kingdoms. The Court, therefore, of the Shire represented the National Court. Over these sub-kingdoms or shires was appointed a royal officer, shire-reeve or sheriff, representative of the king for judicial and fiscal purposes. There is no proof that he was an elective officer. Beside the sheriff, who represented the central authority, was the Ealdorman, who had the command of the military force of the shire and the third of the fines levied. He was the representative of the old sub-king. He was a national officer, appointed by the king and by the central assembly of the nation, the Witana-Gemot. He sat with the sheriff in the Shire Court, but it would seem that the sheriff was the official whose presence constituted the court. In all the courts it was a principle that the suitors of the court, those, that is, who were liable to its jurisdiction, were also the judges; that is to say, the courts were essentially popular. The whole body present settled the disputes or judged the crimes of the individuals, the chief officer being, in fact, the chairman. Practically, in the Shire Court, twelve chief Thegns or chief freeholders sat with the sheriff as judges, representatives of the whole body. It was also a principle, at all events originally, that no superior court should have jurisdiction till the inferior courts had done their best towards the settlement of the disputed point.

Ecclesiastically, the parishes were co-extensive with the townships, the bishoprics in a great degree co-extensive with the shires or ancient kingdoms.

[Sidenote: Growth of territorial jurisdiction.]

In process of time, the position of the king somewhat changed. He began to be regarded as the one lord of the land. From being the King of the Saxons he gradually became the King of England. His personal relation became territorial. The folcland became royal demesne, and the king came to be regarded as the origin of justice. This change, among other causes, tended much to the growth of a system which was in fact incipient feudalism. The national courts constantly became more the private courts of great lords. The connection between the possession of land and the judicial power grew constantly stronger. It had early been the custom to establish in the favour of lords to whom grants were made Liberties, or _Soken_, as they were called; that is, land was granted exempted from the jurisdiction of the Hundred. The judicial rights of the Hundred, together with the payments accruing from them, were vested in the lord who received the grant. These rights are implied in the words _sac_ and _soc_. As townships on a lord’s land became manors, so these Liberties, on which there were many townships, became private Hundreds. They were probably, before the Conquest, not exempted from the jurisdiction of the Shire. It has been already mentioned that, either by commendation or by the encroachment of local magnates, freemen (allodial proprietors as they were called) took in many cases the position of dependants. Their property then assumed the character of bocland, or land held by charter, instead of hereditary freehold. By commending themselves to a lord they would free themselves from the burden of military duty, which would then fall upon the lord as proprietor of the land. Justice would be more easily obtained from the neighbouring court of the lord than from the distant court of the Hundred or county. Protection from invasion or from the violence of neighbours would be gained. Again, the police regulation, by which all landless men were obliged to seek a lord, would strengthen the idea of the necessity of dependence.

Meanwhile, the Franchises and territorial jurisdictions went on increasing till the ideas of possession of land and jurisdiction began to go constantly together. The Thegn, who only possessed five Hides, had his court. In the time of Cnut a further step was taken. The wealthy landowner, under the name of Landrica, represented the king in his district, and had jurisdiction over the lesser freeholders. While, to crown all, the new position of the king gave him the sole jurisdiction over the holders of bocland, to which, as we have seen, allodial property was gradually assimilating itself. In all these ways private and territorial jurisdictions were strengthened, and enabled very largely to encroach upon the national and popular courts. The position of the Landrica was little else than that of a feudal baron, and the independence of the great hereditary official, so marked a characteristic of Continental feudalism, was almost reproduced in England, when Cnut divided the kingdom into four great Earldoms.

[Sidenote: Central government. The Witan.]

[Sidenote: Increased power of the King.]

[Sidenote: Finance.]

To pass from the local government to the central. It has been seen that justice and municipal law were carried on through a series of free assemblies or Gemots; so too the general meeting, or Gemot of the nation, constituted the chief legislative and judicial assembly. This was called the Witan or wise men, or the Witana-Gemot or assembly of wise men. It was doubtless originally the National Assembly of all free men, but by an easy change which befalls all such assemblies, attendance on it grew awkward to the multitude, and was shortly confined to those who bore office about the court, the king’s Thegns and bishops. The principle of representation was not understood, and the freemen, although they possessed an inherent right to be present, were not in fact represented, except in so far as the presence of friendly and neighbouring Thegns might be held to represent them. The power of the Witan was great and various, being in theory the power of a free nation. They could elect and discrown a king, and practically did elect him, though usually from among the nearest relatives of the late king. A remnant of this elective form of the monarchy still exists in our form of coronation. Peace and war were discussed in the Witan. The co-operation of the Witan was necessary to authorize alienation of public land; and to them ultimate judicial appeals were made. Early in the eleventh century, however, the king had so far improved his position that he was able to grant land without their leave, and also to call to his court cases not yet completed in the lower courts. The same change in the character of the king, which has been already mentioned, shows itself here also. He was originally the leader of a free tribe, perhaps of a clan, but gradually as his dominion extended his power rose also; and his personal influence, though somewhat undefined, was paramount. The great king could always wield the Witan as he pleased. His office was, as has been said, elective, but under certain restrictions. It seems to have been regarded as necessary that he should be an Ætheling (or born in legitimate wedlock), and in England. With this limit, and with a certain preference allowed to the eldest son, and to the one whom the dying king nominated, the choice of the Witan was free; and, practically, the prince of the royal house best fitted for the immediate circumstances of the kingdom was chosen. Thus the king’s brother was sometimes chosen instead of his son, who, in his turn, might succeed his uncle to the exclusion of his uncle’s children. This preference for the best man over the nearest relative continued after the Conquest, and renders erroneous the appellation of usurper when applied to the early Norman kings. The arrangements of finance, as far as they can be understood, were very simple. Upon every citizen, whether agricultural or urban, there was laid a _trinoda necessitas_, that is to say, the duty of serving in war, the repair of bridges and public roads, and the maintenance of fortifications. It is plain, therefore, that the wants of the crown were chiefly personal, that what we consider the chief expenses of government, justice, maintenance of public works, and military expenditure, were supported by the people themselves, without the interposition of government. The expenses of the crown would be discharged very largely from the public property or folcland reserved to the nation, and from such taxes as were rendered necessary from time to time to support the grandeur and hospitality of the king as national representative.

[Sidenote: Police.]

The system of police was based on the idea of mutual responsibility. Frankpledge or _frithbohr_, by which is meant the division of the country into sections of ten men mutually responsible for one another, cannot be proved to have existed before the Conquest. On the other hand, its principle no doubt existed. Every man, by the law of Cnut, was bound to be in a Hundred and a _tithing_. This latter term cannot be accurately defined, but it was a subdivision of the Hundred. By the laws of Æthelstan and Eadgar every landless man was compelled to have a lord to answer for him in the courts, and every man a surety to answer for him if he were absent when legally required.

From this sketch it will be seen that, with regard to classes, there must have been at the time of the Conquest _Thegns_, who were to all intents and purposes feudal barons; _Sokmen_, those freemen who owed suit to the lord’s soke or court; a certain number of _Eorls_ or nobles by birth, who would most likely have become assimilated to the Thegns; _freeholders_, holding land in common where it had not yet come under the suzerainty of a lord (this same class of freemen degenerated under various circumstances and with varying tenures into villeins, or dependent cultivators, under lords); and absolute slaves, consisting originally probably of the conquered race, and added to by criminals and outlaws, or others who had lost their rights as freemen.

There was here every element of the feudal system. Even the tenure of land upon military service existed. The main distinction between the condition of England and that of the Continent, where the feudal system had been fully established, lay in this,--there still existed a certain number of freemen whose land was their own. They were indeed obliged to acknowledge the jurisdiction of a lord, but they were free to choose their own lord. They were suitors to his court, but he did not possess their land. The feudal system in its completed form may be regarded as exhibiting two peculiar features:--jurisdiction was in the hand of large landowners; and the lord was regarded as the possessor of the land over which he exercised jurisdiction. In England, one feature alone had become prominent. The judicial power was in the hand of large landowners; but their jurisdiction extended over men whose land they did not possess, but who were owners of their own property, and able to attach themselves to any lord they liked. With the Conquest, while the judicial power was restrained, the connection between that power and the possession of land over which it was exercised became absolute.

[Sidenote: The Church.]

The Church occupied a position of very great importance. It was the guardian of the morality of the country, and as such had a share in all secular jurisdictions; but it was the remnant of a national Church, not closely united to the Roman See. It was therefore inclined to be somewhat disorderly. Its bishops were appointed properly by the king and the Witan, but latterly the power had practically been with the king alone. These bishops obtained their license from the Pope. But the case of Archbishop Stigand, to whom the Pope had not sent the Pallium, shows how little weight was given to this proceeding. Similarly, the lower clergy had formed the habit of marrying, contrary to Papal laws, and although there was a growing feeling that this was wrong, the practice still continued while the monks were constantly attempting to break free from their rules and establish themselves as canons.

[Sidenote: Effects of the Conquest.]

[Sidenote: Restraints upon feudalism.]

To such a civilization came William, who had seen the evils of Continental feudalism in his own country, and had secured his position only after long struggles. He claimed England, not as a conqueror, but as the legitimate sovereign, nominated by Edward the Confessor, and as such was accepted by the Witan, and crowned in London after the battle of Senlac. His natural policy was, therefore, to continue such institutions as were not yet feudal, and thus his arrival checked that natural growth of feudalism which was running its course in England as in other Teutonic countries. On the other hand, it was impossible from his position that he should do otherwise than introduce many feudal institutions. He had brought with him many of his vassals, who held from him in feudal tenure; and it was necessary, when, from the confiscated lands of Harold and his family and of the other nobles who either opposed his entrance into England or afterwards revolted against him, he made large grants to reward the adventurers of whom his army mainly consisted, he should make those grants in accordance with the system with which he was acquainted in exchange for military service, and saddled with the usual feudal burdens. While he thus, on the one hand, was the national English sovereign, on the other he was the supreme landowner and feudal lord. Under this double influence, the tenure of land, following the universal tendency of Europe, became wholly feudal and military. But the other side of feudalism--with its isolation, the virtual independence of the feudatories (among whom the king was but the first among his peers), and the suppression of national jurisdiction, which were the chief characteristics of French feudalism--was kept in careful restraint. Thus, the whole machinery of justice, the Hundred Court and the Shire Gemot were retained under presidency of the sheriff, side by side with that territorial jurisdiction which he could not refuse to his feudal vassals. The police system of mutual responsibility was kept up and systematized under the name of _frankpledge_, and on the whole nation still lay the _trinoda necessitas_. The Witan remained, although its members were now feudal vassals; the laws as they existed were for the most part perpetuated, though certain emendations were made, such as the law of Englishry,[4] for the protection of his Norman subjects, and the liberty allowed to the different nationalities to be tried according to their own law. At the same time, the further to restrain the independent power of the great feudatories, the great earldoms which Cnut had created were broken up, with the exception of three border counties, Chester, Durham, and Kent; the business of the counties was transacted by the sheriff, who was a royal officer, and the earldoms were either of one county only, or if of more than one, of counties far apart. As a final court of appeal, he established the Curia Regis, formed of the Justiciary (who was the king’s representative and regent when he left the country), with a staff of justices, consisting originally of the officers of the household, but tending gradually to consist of new nobility appointed by the king for the purpose. This was the final court of appeal, and could draw to it any suit from the county court. But the chief restriction upon military feudalism, which rendered its appearance in England impossible, was, that each freeholder swore allegiance, not to his immediate lord, but to the king. Abroad, if a great noble went to war with the king, his vassals were doing right in following him; in England, they were committing treason.

[Sidenote: William’s position.]

This oath was exacted after the great work of the Domesday Book was completed. This book consisted of a registration of all the lands in the kingdom, made by commissioners, after inquiry upon oath of the chief men and lesser freeholders of each district. By it not only were the limits of property settled, but the king knew what resources he could rely upon both in men and money. The king’s power was nominally limited by the “counsel and consent” of the National Council, which was at once the old English Witan and a feudal assembly, but its power was really nominal. The taxes seldom called for interference, as they were derived principally either from the old national dues, the _ferm_ of the shire (a fixed rent of the old public lands and royal domains), the danegelt, and the proceeds of fines or feudal aids. The army was also completely in the king’s hands; as national sovereign, the old national militia was at his command; as feudal sovereign, he could claim the military service of his vassals, which was defined in every case by the Domesday Book, while the whole people were bound to him by oath. We thus see William the Conqueror occupying the position of a practically irresponsible monarch, with a mixed monarchy of national and feudal character, but, with the exception of some parts of the administration of justice, carried on wholly under feudal forms.

[Sidenote: The Church.]

As regards the Church, two important changes were made. As the champion of orthodoxy, William, by means of his Archbishop, Lanfranc, restored the Roman discipline to the Church, and connected it closely with the See of Rome. And, secondly, he separated the ecclesiastical jurisdiction from the secular. The bishops withdrew from the county court (perhaps finding their position there useless now that those courts had sunk in importance), and established courts of their own. During William’s reign no inconvenience arose from this, but the inherent defects of the step became obvious when Henry II. attempted to reorganize the kingdom after the disorder of Stephen’s reign. The Conqueror’s police was unusually strict. It became the common saying that a man laden with gold could pass unharmed through the country. He abolished the penalty of death (which was, however, speedily resumed), and substituted mutilations of various kinds. He also repressed the right which the Saxon laws had allowed of killing the murderer or the thief when taken red-handed. It has been suggested that the great forests he created, and the care with which they were maintained, is to be attributed as much to the king’s desire to maintain an efficient staff of police always ready as to his great love of hunting.

WILLIAM I.

1066-1087.

Born 1027 = Matilda of Flanders.
|
+---------------+-----+------+----------+
| | | |
Robert, Duke William II. Henry I. Adela = Stephen, Earl
of Normandy. | of Blois.
d. 1134. |
+-----------+-----------+
| | |
Theobold Stephen Henry, Bishop of
Winchester.

CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.

_Scotland._ | _France._ | _Germany._ | _Spain._
| | |
Malcolm III., | Philip I., | Henry IV., | Sancho II., 1065.
1057. | 1060. | 1056. | Alphonso VI., 1072.

POPES.--Alexander II., 1061. Gregory VII., 1073. Vacancy one year.
Victor III., 1086.

_Archbishops._ | _Chief-Justices._ | _Chancellors._
| |
Stigand, | Odo of Bayeux, and William | Herfast, afterwards Bishop
1052-1070. | Fitz-Osbern, 1067. | of Elmham, 1068.
Lanfranc, | William de Warenne, and | Osbern, afterwards Bishop
1070-1089. | Richard Fitz-Gilbert, | of Exeter, 1070.
| 1073. | Osmund, afterwards Bishop
| Lanfranc, Geoffrey of | of Salisbury, 1074.
| Coutances, and Robert, | Maurice, afterwards Bishop
| Count of Mortain, 1078. | of London, 1078.
| | William de Beaufeu, Bishop
| | of Thetford, 1083.
| | William Giffard, 1086.

[Sidenote: Intended resistance of the English.]

[Sidenote: Election of Eadgar.]

The death of Harold left England without a king. As yet, although William had expected the immediate submission of the whole country, no such course was thought of. The idea which occupied men’s minds was the election of a new king, who might continue the defence of the country. The two sons of Ælfgar, the great northern Earls Edwin and Morkere, whose jealousy of Harold had been one of the chief causes of his disaster, found themselves, now that the House of Godwine was practically destroyed, the most prominent leaders of the English. They came to London, and there, collecting about them such nobles and important people as they could readily find, they held an assembly which in some sort represented the Witan. They probably expected that the crown would be given to one of themselves, and that the hour for the triumph of the Mercian house had arrived. They were disappointed in their hopes. Of properly qualified candidates there were none, but the Southern Witan preferred to place the crown upon the head of the grandson of Ironside, the heir of the old royal house, and elected the Ætheling Eadgar, young though he was.[5] It does not seem however that he was actually crowned, that ceremony being postponed till the feast of Christmas.

After the slaughters of the late battles, the means of resistance in the Southern counties must have been much diminished, and when Edwin and Morkere completed their treasonable conduct by again withdrawing their troops, and, though they had accepted the election, refused to give practical support to the defence of Wessex, immediate opposition to the Conqueror became hopeless. No further combined action was possible and no other great battle was fought.

[Sidenote: William’s march to London.]

[Sidenote: Receives the crown at Berkhampstead.]

[Sidenote: Coronation of William.]

Meanwhile William, disappointed in his hopes, proceeded with his own foreign forces to make good his conquest. He determined to subdue the South-eastern counties before he advanced against London. He marched eastward, took Romney, and captured the castle and town of Dover, and had reached Canterbury, when he was seized with an illness which kept him inactive during the whole month of November. Thence he sent an embassy which secured the great town of Winchester, and thence in December he moved to attack the capital, but contented himself with burning the suburb of Southwark, and passed on westward on the southern side of the Thames, which he did not cross till he reached Wallingford, intending to pass northward and thus cut the city off from the unconquered country. With this view he marched to Berkhampstead in Hertfordshire. But his progress had broken the spirit of the Londoners, and he was there met by Eadgar, Ealdred the Archbishop of York, and others, who submitted to him, and offered him the crown. After a feigned rejection of it, till he had further secured the kingdom, he accepted it at the earnest request of his followers, and marching into London, was crowned at Christmas. The ceremony was performed by Ealdred of York in the place of Stigand of Canterbury, whose appointment to the See had not been strictly canonical; it was impossible that William, one of whose professed objects was the reform of the uncanonical Church of England, should receive his crown from the hands of a schismatic. Stigand’s importance as the chief official of the English prevented William from taking immediate steps against him. He was therefore present at the ceremony, but though William thus, and for some time afterwards, temporized with him, his ruin was already determined. The coronation was performed with the usual English ceremonies; the name of the King was proposed for election to those who were present, and the shout of acquiescence excited the alarm of the Norman troops outside the church. They proceeded to set fire to buildings in the neighbourhood; the assembled multitude rushed from the church to extinguish the flames, and William was left almost alone with the officiating ecclesiastics. But the ceremony was completed in the midst of fears and misgivings of those within the Cathedral, and of uproar and confusion without.

[Sidenote: William’s position as king.]

William was thus crowned King of England, having received the crown from the hands of the Witan, and having been nominally elected by the popular voice. His position was in strict accordance with the claims he had raised, and he proceeded to pursue a policy in harmony with it. He had come to claim his rights against a usurper, he had obtained those rights, and would henceforth make them good while strictly following the forms of law. As crowned King of England, opposition to him was treasonable, and the property of traitors legally confiscated. It is clear that this position gave him great advantages, and would induce many a weak-hearted or peaceful Englishman to accept without opposition the _de facto_ king, while it enabled William to hide the harsh character of the conqueror under the milder form of a monarch at war with rebellious subjects.

In pursuance of this policy, no sudden change was made in the constitution or social arrangements of the country. In the first period of his rule, William merely stepped into the place and exercised the rights of his predecessor; but those rights he found sufficient to secure his own position and to reward his followers. For these purposes it was necessary for him to give to Normans much of the conquered land, by which means he would spread as it were a garrison throughout the country, and at the same time gratify his adherents.

[Sidenote: Transfer of property. The form of law retained.]

[Sidenote: Castles built.]

He started from the legal fiction that the whole of the land, as the land of traitors, was confiscated. The folcland he made crown property, thus completing a change which had been long in progress. The large domains of the House of Godwine were by the destruction of that house naturally at his disposal, as was also the property of those who had fallen in arms against him at Hastings or been prominent in opposition. The land thus gained he granted to his followers, not making a new partition of it, but putting a Norman in the place of the dead or outlawed Englishman who was legally regarded as his ancestor. To complete this process, and appropriate all the conquered land, would obviously have been impolitic; and very shortly after his coronation he appears to have allowed a general redemption of property. Proprietors submitted, paid a sum of money, and received their lands back as fresh grants from the Conqueror. In addition to this, many of the smaller Thegns and free Ceorls were too insignificant to be disturbed, and in many instances some little fragment of their dead husband’s property was given in contemptuous pity to the widows, saddled frequently with some ignoble tenure. Still further to complete the subjection of the country, in every conquered town of importance a castle was erected.

[Sidenote: Appointment of Earls.]

In addition to his grants of land, William had the government of the country to attend to, and the vacant earldoms to fill. In doing this he was guided by his past experience, and in the fully conquered parts of England was careful not to put any earl into the position occupied by the great earls of the last days of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy. In this respect, as in some others, the spirit of feudalism had been making rapid strides in England, and the great earls, as well as the great cities, were bidding fair to assume the position of the feudatories and free cities of the Continent. William was careful to return to older precedent, and to confine his earldoms to one shire. The importance of this in English history is great, as it obliged the nobility to work in alliance with the commonalty, and secured national rather than aristocratic progress. Thus his two most trusted servants, to whom in his absence he left the vice-regency of the kingdom, William Fitz-Osbern and his brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, were respectively but Earls of Hereford and of Kent. William thus arranged that part of England which he had really conquered. In the North he as yet continued the existing state of things. Edwin and Morkere did homage and received their Earldoms back again. Waltheof remained Earl of Nottingham, and Copsige (Copsi or Coxo) was given the earldom of the Northern province of Northumberland. To secure the allegiance of these great unconquered Earls, William took them with him when in March he went to revisit his native duchy. The kingdom he left in charge, the South to Odo of Bayeux, the North to William Fitz-Osbern.

[Sidenote: William revisits Normandy.]

[Sidenote: Misgovernment by his viceroys and consequent rebellion.]

His retirement from England has sometimes been traced to an evil intention of enticing his new subjects into a more serious rebellion, that he might conquer them more completely. His natural desire to display his triumph in his own country would seem to supply a sufficient reason, without attributing to him such double dealing. The effect of his absence, however, was in fact to produce such an insurrection. In the midst of his conquests and confiscations he had always kept a strong hand upon his followers, and his police was good. The case was different under the government of his viceroys. The rapacity and licentiousness of the conquerors made itself heavily felt. Discontent began to show itself in the North, in the West, and in the South; and the native English, despairing of their unaided efforts, began to seek assistance from abroad. The news of this danger brought William back to England in the December of 1067. But already a revolt in Bernicia, as the Northern division of Northumberland was called, had produced the death of the newly-made Earl Copsige. Eadric the Forester in the West of England, in union with the Welsh, had ravaged Herefordshire, and the men of Kent had obtained assistance from Eustace of Boulogne in a fruitless attack upon Dover. It was the dread of more important foreign allies which brought William back. The English efforts to get aid from Henry IV. of Germany, or from the Prince of Norway, had been frustrated either by William’s intrigues or by the character of the Princes to whom they applied, but Swend of Denmark seemed likely to embrace their cause.

[Sidenote: William returns.]

[Sidenote: Insurrection in the West. Taking of Exeter.]

On his return, William found that although his lieutenants had repressed actual insurrections, the unconquered districts both of the North and West of England were gloomy and threatening. Want of union was still the bane of the English; the insurrection of Exeter and the West had been suppressed before York and the North moved. The party of Harold and his family was strong in Exeter and the Western shires. At Exeter, indeed, it is probable that what remained of the family of Godwine was at this time collected. William marched against the city, harrying Dorset as he passed. The position of Exeter was characteristic. As in the case of the great earldoms, so in that of the great cities, the feeling of local independence had been rising, and the chief men of Exeter seem to have had some thought of making their city a free town. They offered to own the King’s supremacy and to pay his taxes, but refused to admit him within their walls. The one point of William’s policy which is most prominent is his determination to establish the strength of the monarchy, as against local interests. He therefore rejected the proposition, and marched upon the city. The civic chiefs offered to submit, but the people repudiated their arrangements, and stood the siege. The city was captured by means of a mine. Harold’s family fled--Gytha, his mother, to the islands in the Bristol Channel, his sons to Ireland. As usual, a castle was built in the city; the tribute of the town considerably increased; both Devonshire and Cornwall completely subdued, and the same process of partial confiscation which had marked the first steps of the Conqueror carried out there. The earldom of Cornwall, and a large quantity of property, was given to Robert of Mortain, William’s half-brother. The conquest of the West was completed by the subjugation of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.

[Sidenote: Insurrection in the North.]

[Sidenote: William’s position in the North and West.]

This insurrection was hardly over when a general confederation against the Conqueror was set on foot in the North. Edwin and Morkere, and Eadgar, the nominal king, combined with Eadric the Forester, and had good hopes of assistance from the Welsh, from Malcolm Canmore of Scotland, and from Swend of Denmark. This help was not forthcoming; civil war hindered the Welsh, and Malcolm and Swend were not ready. The feeling against the Normans was, however, very strong, many of the inhabitants of Yorkshire taking to the woods rather than submit. The insurrection was a failure. Again Edwin and Morkere showed complete want of energy, submitted, and were received into favour. Such a desertion destroyed all unity of action; their armies dispersed to their own homes. A certain number of the insurgents retired and held Durham, others took refuge in Scotland, but William found no opposition; York submitted, and the usual castle, the constant badge of conquest, was built there. On his homeward march through Lincolnshire, the town of Lincoln and that part of England was also subjugated, while, at the same time, Malcolm of Scotland sent an embassy, and commended himself to William. At the close of 1068 William was actual possessor of England as far northward as the Tees; but Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and part of Herefordshire were still unconquered; Durham, Northumberland, and Scotland were his only by the tie of homage.

At this time it is said that a considerable number of his Norman followers, disliking to leave their homes so long, returned to Normandy, throwing up their estates in England. This movement has been exaggerated, as Hugh de Grantmesnil, who is mentioned as the leader of the returning Normans, undoubtedly held property in England afterwards. It is, however, probable that some returned, for William at this time discharged many of his mercenaries, acting henceforward more completely as English king.

[Sidenote: Revolt in the North.]

At the midwinter meeting of the Witan he proceeded to act as though the North was completely conquered, and granted the earldom of Northumberland, vacant by the flight of Gospatric, to his follower Robert de Comines. But the reception of this new earl showed how unsubdued as yet the northern earldom was. He reached Durham, and was received by the Bishop Æthelwine; but when his troops treated the city as though they had conquered it, the inhabitants rose and put him and his men to death. The spirit of insurrection spread, and the citizens of York at once also rose and slew one of the commanders there, Robert Fitz-Richard. This blow, which seems to have been concerted, was immediately followed by the return of Eadgar and the other exiles from Scotland. William hurried thither in person, re-established his authority, and built a second castle, which he put into the hands of William Fitz-Osbern. He then withdrew into the West of England, conscious probably that the Northern insurrection was only one of his dangers, for Swend of Denmark had at length sent a fleet to the assistance of the English, the sons of Harold were landing in Devonshire, and Eadric the Wild was threatening the north-west of his dominions. In fact, we have in this year the great final struggle of the English, and the Norman dominions were assaulted upon all sides.

[Sidenote: Futile insurrections against the Normans.]

[Sidenote: William’s devastation in Yorkshire.]

[Sidenote: Complete subjugation of the North. 1070]

As usual, however, the want of proper concert and of any acknowledged and heroic leader rendered the English efforts futile. The sons of Harold were disastrously defeated by Count Brian of Brittany, their wandering and ill-disciplined troops conquered in two battles in one day, and they themselves, escaping to Ireland, are heard of no more. This was in July. In September the Danish fleet approached. It touched, but was beaten off, both in Kent and in East Anglia, and finally entered the Humber, where it was joined by the great English exiles. Thence the combined English and Danish army moved upon York, while Eadric, in Staffordshire and the Welsh border, moved forward and besieged Shrewsbury, and the men of the West, though unaided by the sons of Harold, rose and besieged the castle of Montacute in Somersetshire. These two lesser insurrections William could afford to leave to his lieutenants; Bishop Geoffrey of Coutances relieved Montacute, and William Fitz-Osbern and Earl Brian apparently completed the subjugation of the West, compelling Eadric the Forester to retire after he had destroyed Shrewsbury, and re-establishing the Norman influence in Devonshire. William himself hastened to the scene of greatest danger. Already the castles of York were taken, as the story tells us chiefly by the prowess of Waltheof; but having completed this object the army had foolishly dispersed, and the Danes, lying in the Humber, were occupying Lindesey and the north of Lincolnshire. There William’s sudden march surprised them, and they were compelled to withdraw to the other side of the Humber. William then set quietly to work, with his army, which had now joined him, at the reconquest of Yorkshire. Staffordshire and Nottingham were secured, and after a lengthened delay at the passage of the Aire, during which he was probably engaged in negotiations with the Danes, he moved on practically unopposed to York. He there re-established his two castles, and proceeded to give the inhabitants of the country a lesson they were not likely to forget. He set to work systematically to lay waste the whole of the territory from the Humber to the Tees. Every house, every store of food, the very cattle themselves were included in the great burning. The completeness of the destruction is marked by the entries of “Waste,” following each other in unbroken succession in the Domesday Book. For nine years the country was left untilled, the towns wholly uninhabited, and the few survivors lived like beasts of the field, feeding upon unclean animals, and reduced even, in their utter want, to eat human flesh. Having completed this terrible work, William kept his Christmas in state at York. He pursued his advantage further, and, as the winter went on, advanced and secured the hitherto unconquered town of Durham. The North of England was at length completely conquered.

But the North-west, the counties of Cheshire and Shropshire, was still unsubdued, and in the dead of the winter William made his way, in the midst of unspeakable difficulties, through the wild moorland and hill country which joins the Peak district with the higher mountains of the Pennine range. The conquest of Chester, and the ravaging of the neighbouring counties, completed his work. And when, early in the year Osbern, the commander of Swend’s fleet, yielding to the diplomacy and bribes of William, sailed away to his own land, the conquest of England may be said to have been finished.

[Sidenote: William’s legislation.]

For the moment free from military difficulties, William proceeded to the regulation of his Conquest. He is said now to have re-enacted the laws of Edward, and although it is probably a legend that he issued a complete code of laws, it is likely that he took the opportunity of declaring the re-enactment of existing laws, with such changes as he chose to introduce. Two ordinances which seem to belong to this period exist. One, ordaining that peace and security should be kept between English and Normans, and the laws of Edward, with regard to land and other matters, upheld, with the addition of such as the King had added for the advantage of the English people. The second, enacting a heavy fine for the death of any one of his soldiers, which fine is to be made good by the Hundred in which the murder was committed; this was for the defence of his troops against lawless patriotism, and grew into the law of Englishry, by which an unknown corpse was always presumed to be that of a Frenchman, and the fine inflicted, unless the English nationality of the murdered man was proved.

[Sidenote: His reform of the Church. Appointment of foreign Bishops.]

[Sidenote: Stigand deposed.]

But William had always kept before him, as an object, the change and reform of the English Church, which till this time had been strictly national, its laws having been enacted by the mixed secular and ecclesiastical Witan, and the bishop having presided side by side with the secular judges in the shire gemot. The intention of William, whose enterprise had been undertaken with the full concurrence of the Roman See, whose interests he, as well as the Normans of Sicily, had much at heart, was to Romanize this national Church. For carrying out that scheme he looked to the gradual displacement of bishops of English birth, whose places could be filled with foreigners. This connection with Rome is marked by the re-coronation of the King in 1070 by the Papal Legates, immediately after which the attack upon the English Church began. The Primate Stigand was the first victim. With him the King had hitherto temporized; when he was charged with holding the See of Winchester with his own archbishopric, with having obtained the Pallium from the false Pope Benedict X., and with having accepted his bishopric during the lifetime of his predecessor Robert. He was deprived of both his bishoprics, and kept a prisoner at Winchester. His brother Æthelmær was removed from the bishopric of the East Angles. Æthelwine of Durham was also deprived and outlawed, and Ethelric, Bishop of Selsey, deposed. The Archbishopric of York, too, was vacant by the death of Ealdred, so that William had here a good opportunity for carrying out his plans.

[Sidenote: Lanfranc made Archbishop.]

[Sidenote: Lanfranc’s legislation connects the Church with Rome.]