MR. SOMERS.
The account you have given, and, I dare say, very truly, of the origin of feuds in France and Germany, is such as shews them to have been an extension of the people’s liberty. There is no question that hereditary alienable estates have vastly the preference to beneficiary. But the case, I suspect, was different with us in England. The great offices of state, indeed, in this country, as well as in France, were beneficiary. But, if I do not mistake, the lands of the English, except only the church-lands, were all allodial. And I cannot think it could be for the benefit of the English to change their old Saxon possessions, subject only to the famous triple obligation, for these new and burdensome tenures.
SIR J. MAYNARD.
Strange as it may appear, we have yet seen that the French did not scruple to make that exchange even of their allodial estates. But to be fair, there was a great difference, as you well observe, in the circumstances of the two people. All the lands in England were, I believe, allodial, in the Saxon times: while a very considerable proportion of those in France were beneficiary.
Another difference, also, in the state of the two countries, is worth observing. In France, the allodial lands (though considerable in quantity) were divided into small portions. In England, they seem to have been in few hands; the greater part possessed by the King and his Thanes; some smaller parcels by the lesser Thanes; and a very little by the Ceorles. The consequence was, that, though the allodial proprietors in France were glad to renounce their property for tenure, in order to secure the protection they much wanted; yet with us, as you say, there could not be any such inducement for the innovation. For, the lands being possessed in large portions by the nobility and gentry, the allodial lords in England were too great to stand in need of protection. Yet from this very circumstance, fairly attended to, we shall see that the introduction of the feudal tenures was neither difficult nor unpopular. The great proprietors of land were, indeed, too free and powerful, to be bettered by this change. But their tenants, that is, the bulk of the people, would be gainers by it. For these tenants were, I believe, to a man beneficiaries. The large estates of the Thanes were granted out in small portions to others, either for certain quantities of corn or rent, reserved to the lord, or on condition of stipulated services. And these grants, of whichever sort they were, were either at pleasure, or at most for a limited term. So that, though the proprietors of land in England were so much superior to those in France; yet the tenants of each were much in the same state; that is, they possessed beneficiary lands on stipulated conditions.
When, therefore, by right of forfeiture, the greater part of the lands in England fell, as they of course would do, into the power of the king (for they were in few hands, and those few had either fought at Hastings, or afterwards rebelled against him), it is easy to see that the people would not be displeased to find themselves, instead of beneficiary tenants[122], feudatary proprietors.
I say this on supposition that these great forfeited estates and signiories, so bountifully bestowed by the Conqueror on his favourite Normans, were afterwards, many of them at least, granted out in smaller parcels to English sub-tenants. But if these sub-tenants were also Normans (though the case of the English or old Saxon freeholders was then very hard), the change of allodial into feudatary estates is the more easily accounted for.
The main difficulty would be with the churchmen; who (though the greatest, and most of them were, perhaps, Normans too) were well acquainted with the Saxon laws, and for special reasons were much devoted to them. They were sensible that their possessions had been held, in the Saxon times, in Franc-almoign: a sort of tenure, they were not forward to give up for this of feuds. ’Tis true, the burdens of these tenures would, many of them, not affect them. But then neither could they reap the principal fruit of them, the fruit of inheritance. They, besides, considered every restraint on their privileges as impious; and took the subjection of the ecclesiastic to the secular power, which the feudal establishment was to introduce, for the vilest of all servitudes. Hence the churchmen were, of all others, the most averse from this law[123]. And their opposition might have given the Conqueror still more trouble, if the suppression of the great Northern rebellion had not furnished him with the power, and (as many of them had been deeply engaged in it) with the pretence, to force it upon them. And thus, in the end, it prevailed universally, and without exception.
I would not go further into the history of these tenures. It may appear from the little I have said of them, that the feudal system was rather improved and corrected by the duke of Normandy, than originally planted by him in this kingdom: that the alteration made in it was favourable to the public interest; and that our Saxon liberties were not so properly restrained, as extended by it. It is of little moment to inquire whether the nation was won, or forced, to a compliance with this system. It is enough to say, that, as it was accepted by the nation, so it was in itself no servile establishment, but essentially founded in the principles of liberty. The duties of lord and feudatary were reciprocal and acknowledged: services on the one part, and protection on the other. The institution was plainly calculated for the joint-interest[124] of both parties, and the benefit of the community; the proper notion of the feudal system being that “of a confederacy between a number of military persons, agreeing on a certain limited subordination and dependence on their chief, for the more effectual defence of his and their lives, territories, and possessions.”