1070. Waltheof was made earl of Huntingdon, and received the hand of William’s niece, Judith, in marriage.
1071. The Saxons, who, under Hereward, had been holding out against the king for some time in the Isle of Ely, surrendered. Conquest of England completed.
1072. William invaded Scotland, and compelled Malcolm to acknowledge himself a vassal of the English crown.
1074. The earls of Hereford and Norfolk, and Waltheof, conspired against the king. Waltheof revealed the plot, and sought the king’s pardon, but was executed the next year at Winchester.
1079. The king besieged the castle of Gerberoi, held by his son Robert, who had rebelled against him. Robert, not recognizing his father, wounded and unhorsed him.
About this time the New Forest was formed.
1085. FEUDAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED IN ENGLAND.
It is generally believed that the system of feudal tenures was legally established in England at the Council of Salisbury, held either in 1085 or 1086. The great characteristic of the feudal system was that the obligation of military or knight’s service was annexed to the tenure of land held of the sovereign. The estates, or fiefs of the tenants-in-chief, consisted of one or more knight’s fees; and for every fee the king might claim the military service of an armed knight for forty days a year. The holders of these estates, on taking possession, were required to do homage, and to swear fealty to the king; and on particular and specified occasions other services were exacted. The holders of large estates often granted portions of their land to under-vassals, from whom they received services similar to those which they themselves rendered to their sovereign. The number of knight’s fees in England was 60,215.
About this time the ecclesiastical was separated from the civil jurisdiction; all causes of the Church were to be tried before clerical tribunals.
1086. Domesday Book completed.