THREE ESSAYS
IN THE
EARLY HISTORY OF ENGLAND
BY
FREDERIC WILLIAM MAITLAND, LL.D.
FORMERLY DOWNING PROFESSOR OF THE LAWS OF ENGLAND
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,
OF LINCOLN’S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.
CAMBRIDGE:
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1907
First Edition 1897.
Reprinted 1907.
PREFACE.
The greater part of what is in this book was written in order that it might be included in the History of English Law before the Time of Edward I. which was published by Sir Frederick Pollock and me in the year 1895. Divers reasons dictated a change of plan. Of one only need I speak. I knew that Mr Round was on the eve of giving to the world his Feudal England, and that thereby he would teach me and others many new lessons about the scheme and meaning of Domesday Book. That I was well advised in waiting will be evident to everyone who has studied his work. In its light I have suppressed, corrected, added much. The delay has also enabled me to profit by Dr Meitzen’s Siedelung und Agrarwesen der Germanen[1], a book which will assuredly leave a deep mark upon all our theories of old English history.