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Good order and the Domesday

Survey

Amongst other things the good order that William established is not to be forgotten; it was such that any man, who was himself aught, might travel over the kingdom with a bosomful of gold, unmolested; and no man durst kill another, however great the injury he might have received from him. He reigned over England, and, being sharp-sighted to his own interest, he surveyed the kingdom so thoroughly that there was not a single hide of land throughout the whole, of which he knew not the possessor, and how much it was worth, and this he afterwards entered in his register. The land of the Welsh was under his sway, and he built castles therein; moreover he had full dominion over the Isle of Man ; Scotland also was subject to him, from his great strength; the land of Normandy was his inheritance, and he possessed the earldom of Maine; and had he lived two years longer he would have subdued Ireland by his prowess, and that without a battle.

Truly there was much trouble in these times, and very great distress; he caused castles to be built, and oppressed the poor. The king also was of great sternness, and he took from his subjects many marks of gold and many hundred pounds of silver, and this either with or without right, and with little need. He was given to avarice and greedily loved gain. He made large forests for the deer and enacted laws therewith, so that whoever The forest killed a hart or a hind should be blinded. As he forbade killing the deer, so also the boars; and he loved the tall stags as if he were their father. He also appointed concerning the hares, that they should go free. The rich complained and the poor murmured, but he was so sturdy that he recked naught of them; they must will all that the king willed, if they would live, or would keep their lands, or would hold their possessions, or would be maintained in their rights. . . .

laws

He left three sons: Robert, the eldest, was duke of Normandy after him; the second, named William, wore the crown of England after his father's death; and his third son was Henry, to whom he bequeathed immense treasures.

II. WILLIAM AND THE CHURCH

It is not known exactly at what date or under what circumstances the following royal edict was drawn up, but it was a most important step in the creation of the new group of church courts under the bishops. Previously the church courts had only disciplined churchmen and laid penance on laymen; now they decided many cases affecting both classes.

William, by the grace of God king of the English, to 64. Edict for R. Bainard and G. de Magneville and P. de Valoines and all strengthening the my liege men of Essex, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex, greeting. church Know ye, and all my liege men resident in England, that I have courts by my common council and by the advice of the archbishops, bishops, abbots, and chief men of my realm, determined that the episcopal laws be amended, since they have not been kept properly nor according to the decrees of the sacred canons throughout the realm of England, even to my own times. Accordingly I command and charge you by royal authority Matters that no bishop nor archdeacon do hereafter hold pleas con- concerning the cerning the episcopal laws in the hundred, nor bring to the tried not in judgment of secular men a cause which concerns the rule of the hundred souls. But whoever shall be impleaded for any cause or crime courts, but by the episcopal laws, let him come to the place which the bishops bishop shall choose and name for the purpose, and there answer for his cause or crime, and not according to the hundred, but according to the canons and episcopal laws; and let him. do right to God and his bishop.

But if any one, being lifted up with pride, refuse to come to the bishop's court, let him be summoned a first, second, and third time; if he does not then come to the judgment, let him be excommunicated; and if there is need of carrying this out, let the strength and justice of the king or of the sheriff be brought to bear. He who, summoned to the judgment of the bishop, refuses to come, shall answer to the bishop's law for each summons. This also I forbid and by my authority

church to be

before the

65. William to the pope (A.D. 1076)

66. Eadmer's

statement of

William's

rules for the

church

prohibit, that any sheriff or reeve or minister of the king or any layman should interfere in the laws that pertain to the bishop, . or any layman should bring another to judgment without the justice of the bishop. Judgment, moreover, shall not be given. in any place except in the bishop's see, or in such a place as the bishop shall have appointed for it.

Although William evidently intended to strengthen the power of the bishops and other churchmen over the people who were not churchmen, yet the following bold letter written to Pope Gregory VII clearly expresses his intention to limit the papal authority as far as he could.

To Gregory, the most noble shepherd of the holy church, William, by the grace of God crowned king of the English and duke of the Normans, greeting with amity. Herbert, your legate, Holy Father, coming to me on your behalf, bade me to do fealty to you and your successors, and to think better on the matter of the money which my predecessors were wont to send to the Roman church. The one point I agreed to, the other I did not agree to. I refused to do fealty, nor will I; because neither have I promised it, nor do I find that my predecessors did it to your predecessors. The money, for nearly three years, whilst I was in France, has been carelessly collected; but now that I am come back to my kingdom, by God's mercy, what has been collected is now sent by the aforesaid legate, and what remains shall be dispatched, when opportunity serves, by the messenger of Lanfranc, our faithful archbishop. Pray for us and for the good estate of our realm, for we have loved your predecessors and desire to love you sincerely and to hear you. obediently before all.

The following is the statement of a contemporary chronicler concerning William's church policy.

1. He would not then allow any one settled in all his dominions to acknowledge as apostolic the pontiff of the city of Rome, save at his own bidding; or by any means to receive any letter from him if it had not first been shown to himself.

2. The primate also of his realm, I mean the archbishop of Canterbury, presiding over a general council assembled of bishops, he did not permit to ordain or forbid anything save what had first been ordained by himself as agreeable to his own will.

3. He would not suffer that any, even of his bishops, should be allowed to implead publicly, or excommunicate or constrain by any penalty of ecclesiastical rigor, any of his barons or ministers accused of incest, adultery, or any capital crime, save by his command.

III. DOMESDAY BOOK

Just at the close of William's reign, at the Great Councils of the years 1085 and 1086, he ordered the Domesday survey and the Salisbury oath. The former was the first instance of such a national census since the time of the Roman Empire; the latter was an act of policy opposed to the whole feudal tendency of the period. They both alike show William's great ambition and power. The following account is from the AngloSaxon Chronicle.

and Salis

A.D. 1085. At midwinter the king was at Gloucester with 67. Councils his witan; and he held his court there five days; and after- at Gloucester wards the archbishop and clergy held a synod there during bury three days; and Maurice was there chosen to the bishopric of London, William to that of Norfolk, and Robert to that of Cheshire; they were all clerks of the king. After this the king had a great consultation and spoke very deeply with his witan concerning this land, how it was held, and what were its tenantry. He then sent his men over all England, into every shire, and caused them to ascertain how many hundred hides of land it contained, and what lands the king possessed therein, what cattle there were in the several counties, and how much revenue he ought to receive yearly from each. He also caused them to write down how much land belonged to his archbishops, his bishops, his abbots, and his earls, and, that I may be brief,

68. Report of the posses

sions of the

what property every inhabitant of all England possessed in land or in cattle, and how much money this was worth. So very narrowly did he cause the survey to be made that there was not a single hide nor a rood of land, nor it is shameful to relate that which he thought no shame to do was there an ox or a cow or a pig passed by that was not set down in the accounts; and then all these writings were brought to him.

A.D. 1086. This year the king wore his crown and held his court at Winchester at Easter, and he so journeyed forward that he was at Westminster during Whitsuntide, and there he dubbed his son Henry a knight. And afterward he traveled about, so that he came to Salisbury at Lammas; and his witan, and all the landholders of substance in England, whose vassals soever they were, repaired to him there, and they all submitted to him and became his men and swore oaths of allegiance, that they would be faithful to him against all others. Thence he proceeded to the Isle of Wight because he was to cross over to Normandy; and this he afterwards did; but first, according to his custom, he extorted immense sums from his subjects upon every pretext he could find, whether just or otherwise. Then he went over into Normandy.

One of the reports made to William's men who carried. out the Domesday survey describes, partially at least, how the information for the Domesday Book was obtained and what points it was expected to cover. The object seems to have been the collection of information that could be used for purposes of taxation. Knowledge of feudal payments was not sought for, so but little if anything can be found from it about the feudal tenure or customs of the period.

Here is subscribed the survey of lands as the barons of the king have made inquiry into them; that is to say, by the abbey of Ely Oath of the sheriff of the shire, and of all the barons and their Frenchmen, and the whole hundred, the priest, reeve, and six villains of each manor: to wit, what the manor is called,

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