The evils of a course which, by preventing the possibility of marriage, tends to the general neglect of morality, are as obvious in this state of society, as in those where the indefinite partition of estates reduces all the members of the higher classes to a state of poverty,—a fact perfectly familiar in countries where the resources of trade are not permitted to mitigate the mischief of subdivision.
The folcland then in England was the national stock. It is probable that the same thing occurred in other Teutonic states, and that the folcland there also formed a reserve from which endowments of individuals, homeborn or foreign, and of religious houses, were made. Thus, “Princeps de eius recuperatione simul et postulatione multum gavisus, et suum ad hoc consensum et parentum adeptus est favorem; deditque illi in eisdem partibus, multas possessiones de publico, quatinus viciniori potentia soceris acceptior factus, non minori apud illos, quam in genitali solo praecelleret dignitate[[528]].”
We cannot now tell the exact terms upon which the usufruct of the folcland was permitted to individual holders. Much of it was probably distributed in severalty, to be enjoyed by the grantee during his life, and then to revert to the donor the State. As the holders of such lands were most probably not included in the Marks, like the owners of allodial property, they may have formed the proper basis of the original gyldscipas, and have been more immediately subject to the jurisdiction of the scírgemót; for it is impossible to believe that their condition was one of such perfect freedom as that of the original allodial owners.
A portion also of the folcland may long have subsisted as common land, subject to the general rights of all[[529]]. In this respect it must have resembled the public land of the Romans. Only that, the true Roman burghers or Patricians, being comparatively few, while the other claimants were many, and self-defence therefore commanded the utmost caution in admitting them to isotely,—the struggles between the Patrician and Plebeian orders necessarily assumed in Rome a character of exasperation and hostility which was wanting in England. But it does not appear that in this country, the tribes of the Gewissas could have made any claim to the folcland of the Mercians, or that those of the Welsh would have found favour with any Saxon community.
In whatever form the usufruct may have been granted, it was accompanied by various settled burthens. In the first place were the inevitable charges from which no land was ever relieved; namely military service, alluded to by Beda, and no doubt in early times performed in person: the repair of roads, bridges and fortifications. But besides these, there were dues payable to the king, and the geréfa; watch and ward on various occasions; aid in the royal hunting; convoy of messengers going and coming on the public service, from one royal vill to another; harbouring of the king, his messengers and huntsmen; lastly provision for his hawks, hounds and horses. In addition to these, there were heavy payments in kind, which were to be delivered at the royal vills, to each of which, various districts were apparently made appurtenant, for this purpose; and on which stores, so duly delivered, the king and his household in some degree depended for subsistence. These were comprised under the name Cyninges-feorm, or Firma regis.
It is from the occasional exemptions granted by the authority of the king and his witan, that we learn what burthens the folcland was subject to: it may therefore be advantageous to cite a few examples, which will make the details clear.
Between 791 and 796, eighty hides of land at Westbury and Hanbury were relieved by Offa from the dues to kings, dukes and their subordinates; except these payments, that is to say, the gafol at Westbury (sixty hides), two tuns full of bright ale, and a comb full of smooth ale, and a comb full of Welsh ale, and seven oxen, and six wethers, and forty cheeses, and six langðero (?), and thirty ambers of rough corn, and four ambers of meal, to the royal vill[[530]].
In 863, an estate at Marsham was to pay by the year, twenty staters of cheese, forty lambs, forty fleeces, and two days’ pastus[[531]] or feorm, which last might be commuted for thirty silver shillings (argentea)[[532]].
In 877, Bishop Tunberht, with the consent of his chapter, appropriated lands at Nursling to the use of the refectory. His charter says he grants it, “liberam ab omnibus terrenis difficultatibus omnium gravitudinum, sive a pastu regis, principis, exactoris; et ab omni aedificiorum opere, tributo, a paraveredis, a taxationibus quod dicimus wíterǽdene; omnium rerum saecularium perpetualiter libera sit, excepta expeditione et pontis aedificatione[[533]].” As he could not do this by his own authority, he probably only means to record that they had been so freed by the Witena-gemót.
In 883, twenty years later, a monastery is freed from all which the monks were still bound to pay to the king’s hand, as cyningfeorm, both in bright ale, beer, honey, oxen, swine and sheep, in short from all the gafol, much or little, known or unknown, that belongs to the lord of the nation[[534]].