[117] Henry VII.
[118] Henry VIII.
[119] Elizabeth.
Propria feudi natura est ut sit perpetua. Cujacius, Littleton.
[121] Craig’s Jus feudale, lib. i. p. 21. Lond. 1655.
[122] This account of the Saxon benefices is much confirmed by the famous charter of Bishop Oswald, and the comment of Sir H. Spelman upon it. See his discourse on FEUDS and TENURES.
[123] Matthew Paris gives us the following account of this matter—“Episcopatus et Abbatias omnes, quæ baronias tenebant, et eatenus ab omni servitute sæculari libertatem habuerant, sub servitute statuit militari, inrotulans singulos episcopatus et abbatias pro voluntate suâ, quot milites sibi et successoribus suis, hostilitatis tempore, voluit à singulis exhiberi. Et ROTULOS HUJUS ECCLESIASTICÆ SERVITUTIS ponens in thesauris, multos viros ecclesiasticos HUIC CONSTITUTIONI PESSIMÆ reluctantes, à regno fugavit.” Hist. Ang. Willielmus Conqæstor.
[124] The learned Craig, who has written so largely and accurately on the feudal law, was so far from seeing any thing servile in it, that he says, “The foundations of this discipline are laid in the most generous of all considerations, those of Gratitude. Hujus feudalis disciplinæ fundamenta à gratitudine et ingratitudine descendunt.” Epist. Nuncup. to K. James.
[125] This bounty in so wise a prince as William will be thought strange. I believe it may be, in part, accounted for, from what is observed above of the Saxon allodial lords. These had possessed immense estates. And, as they fell in upon forfeiture, the great Norman adventurers would of course expect to come into the entire succession.—Perhaps too, in that confusion of affairs, the prince might not always, himself, be apprized of the extent and value of these possessions.