A History of England, Period I. Mediæval Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

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.

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.

Effects of the Conquest.

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.

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.

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.