| according to the custom of Gavelkind, a custom absolutely contrary to the genius of the feudal tenure; and whenever estates were granted in the later Saxon times by the bounty of the Crown, with an intent that they should be inheritable, so far were they from being granted with the complicated load of all the feudal services annexed, that in all the charters of that kind which subsist, they are bestowed with a full power of alienation, et liberi ab omni seculari gravamine. This was the general condition of those inheritances, which were derived from the right of original conquest, as well to all the soldiers as to the leader; and these estates, as it is said, were not even forfeitable, no not for felony, as if that were in some sort the necessary consequence of an inheritable estate. So far were they from resembling a fief. But there were other possessions, which Saxon filefs. bore a nearer resemblance to fiefs, at least in their first feeble and infantile state of the tenure, than those inheritances which were held by an absolute right in the proprietor. The great officers, who attended the court, commanded armies, or distributed justice, must necessarily be paid and supported; but in what manner could they be paid? In money they could not; because there was very little money then in Europe, and scarce any part of that little came into the prince's coffers. The only method of paying them was by allotting lands for their subsistence whilst they remained in his service. For this reason, in the original distribution, vast tracts of land were left in the hands of the king. If any served the king in a military command, his land may be said to have been in some sort held by knight-service. If the tenant was in an office about the king's person, this gave rise to sergeantry; the persons who cultivated his lands, may be considered as holding by soccage. But the long train of ser vices, that made afterwards the learning of the tenures, were then not thought of, because these feuds, if we may so call them, had not then come to be inheritances; which circumstance of inheritance gave rise to the whole feudal system. With the Anglo-Saxons the feuds continued to the last but a sort of pay or salary of office. The Trinoda necessitas, so much spoken of, which was to attend the king in his expeditions, and to contribute to the building of bridges, and repair of highways, never bound the lands by way of tenure, but as a political regulation, which equally affected every class and condition of men, and every species of possession. Gavelkind The manner of succeeding to lands in England at this period was, as we have observed, by Gavelkind, an equal distribution amongst the children, males and females. The ancient northern nations had but an imperfect notion of political power. That the possessor of the land should be the governour of it was a simple idea; and their schemes extended but little further. It was not so in the Greek and Italian commonwealths. In those the property of the land was in all respects similar to that of goods, and had nothing of jurisdiction annexed to it; the government there was a merely political institution Amongst such a people the custom of distribution could be of no ill consequence, because it only affected property. But Gavelkind amongst the Saxons was very prejudicial; for as government was annexed to a certain possession in land, this possession, which was continually changing, kept the government in a very fluctuating state; so that their civil polity had in it an essential evil, which contributed to the sickly condition in which the Anglo-Saxon state always remained, as wel as to its final dissolution. BOOK III. CHAP. I. VIEW OF THE STATE OF EUROPE AT THE TIME OF THE NORMAN INVASION. BEFORE the period of which we are going to treat, England was little known or considered in Europe. Their situation, their domestick calamities, and their ignorance, circumscribed the views and politicks of the English within the bounds of their own island. But the Norman conqueror threw down all these barriers. The English laws, manners, and maxims, were sud denly changed; the scene was enlarged; and the communication with the rest of Europe being thas opened, has been preserved ever since in a catinued series of wars and negociations. That we may therefore enter more fully into the matters which lie before us, it is necessary that we understand the state of the neighbouring continent at the time when this island first came to be interested in its affairs. The northern nations, who had overran the Roman empire, were at first rather actuated avarice than ambition, and were more intent upc plunder than conquest; they were carried beyo their original purposes, when they began to fom regular governments, for which they had been prepared by no just ideas of legislation. For a long time, therefore, there was little of order in their affairs, or foresight in their designs. The Goths, the Burgundians, the Franks, the Vandals, the Suevi, after they had prevailed over the Roman empire, by turns prevailed over each other in continual wars, which were carried on upon no principles of a determinate policy, entered into upon motives of brutality and caprice, and ended as fortune and rude violence chanced to prevail. Tumult, anarchy, confusion, overspread the face of Europe; and an obscurity rests upon the transactions of that time, which suffers us to discover nothing but its extreme barbarity. Before this cloud could be dispersed, the Saracens, another body of barbarians from the south, animated by a fury not unlike that, which gave strength to the northern irruptions, but heightened by enthusiasm, and regulated by subordination and uniform policy, began to carry their arms, their manners, and religion, into every part of the universe. Spain was entirely overwhelmed by the torrent of their armies; Italy, and the islands, were harassed by their fleets, and all Europe alarmed by their vigorous and frequent enterprises. Italy, who had so long sat the mistress of the world, was by turns the slave of all nations. The possession of that fine country was hotly disputed between the Greek emperour and the Lombards, and it suffered infinitely by that contention. Germany, the parent of so many nations, was exhausted by the swarms she had sent abroad. | nature, to extend their influence, and push their power from ecclesiastical to civil; from subjection to independency; from independency to empire. France had many advantages over the other parts of Europe. The Saracens had no permanent success in that country. The same hand, which expelled those invaders, deposed the last of a race of heavy and degenerate princes, more like eastern monarchs than German leaders, and who had neither the force to repel the enemies of their kingdom, nor to assert their own sovereignty. This usurpation placed on the throne princes of another character; princes, who were obliged to supply their want of title by the vigour of their administration. The French monarch had need of some great and respected authority to throw a veil over his usurpation, and to sanctify his newlyacquired power by those names and appearances, which are necessary to make it respectable to the people. On the other hand, the pope, who hated the Grecian empire, and equally feared the success of the Lombards, saw with joy this new star arise in the north, and gave it the sanction of his authority. Presently after he called it to his assistance. Pepin passed the Alps, relieved the pope, and invested him with the dominion of a large country in the best part of Italy. Charlemagne pursued the course, which was marked out for him, and put an end to the Lombard kingdom, weakened by the policy of his father, and the enmity of the popes, who never willingly saw a strong power in Italy. Then he received from the hand of the pope the imperial However, in the midst of this chaos there were crown, sanctified by the authority of the holy see, principles at work, which reduced things to a cer- and with it the title of emperour of the Romans; tain form, and gradually unfolded a system, in a name venerable from the fame of the old empire, which the chief movers and main springs were the and which was supposed to carry great and unpapal and the imperial powers; the aggrandize-known prerogatives; and thus the empire rose ment or diminution of which have been the drift of almost all the politicks, intrigues, and wars, which have employed and distracted Europe to this day. From Rome the whole western world had received its Christianity. She was the asylum of what learning had escaped the general desolation; and even in her ruins she preserved something of the majesty of her ancient greatness. On these accounts she had a respect and a weight, which encreased every day amongst a simple religious people, who looked but a little way into the consequences of their actions. The rudeness of the world was very favourable for the establishment of an empire of opinion. The moderation, with which the popes at first exerted this empire, made its growth unfelt until it could no longer be opposed. And the policy of later popes, building on the piety of the first, continually encreased it; and they made use of every instrument but that of force. They employed equally the virtues and the crimes of the great; they favoured the lust of kings for absolute authority, and the desire of subjects for liberty; they provoked war, and mediated peace; and took advantage of every turn in the minds of men, whether of a publick or private again out of its ruins in the West; and what is remarkable, by means of one of those nations, which had helped to destroy it. If we take in the conquests of Charlemagne, it was also very near as extensive as formerly; though its constitution was altogether different, as being entirely on the northern model of government. From Charlemagne the pope received in return an enlargement and a confirmation of his new territory. Thus the papal and imperial powers mutually gave birth to each other. They continued for some ages, and, in some measure, still continue, closely connected, with a variety of pretensions upon each other, and on the rest of Europe. Though the imperial power had its origin in France, it was soon divided into two branches, the Gallick and the German. The latter alone supported the title of empire; but the power being weakened by this division, the papal pretensions had the greater weight. The pope, because he first revived the imperial dignity, claimed a right of disposing of it, or at least of giving validity to the election of the emperour. The emperour, on the other hand, remembering the rights of those sovereigns, whose title he bore, and how lately the power, which insulted him with such demands, had arisen from the bounty of his predecessours, claimed the same privileges in the election of a pope. The claims of both were somewhat plausible; and they were supported, the one by force of arms, and the other by ecclesiastical influence, powers which in those days were very nearly balanced. Italy was the theatre upon which this prize was disputed. In every city the parties in favour of each of the opponents were not far from an equality in their numbers and strength. Whilst these parties disagreed in the choice of a master, by contending for a choice in their subjection they grew imperceptibly into freedom, and passed through the medium of faction and anarchy into regular commonwealths. Thus arose the republicks of Venice, of Genoa, of Florence, Sienna, and Pisa, and several others. These cities, established in this freedom, turned the frugal and ingenious spirit contracted in such communities to navigation and traffick; and pursuing them with skill and vigour, whilst commerce was neglected and despised by the rustick gentry of the martial governments, they grew to a considerable degree of wealth, power, and civility. The Danes, who in this latter time preserved the spirit and the numbers of the ancient Gothick people, had seated themselves in England, in the Low Countries, and in Normandy. They passed from thence to the southern part of Europe, and in this romantick age gave rise in Sicily and Naples to a new kingdom, and a new line of princes. All the kingdoms on the continent of Europe were governed nearly in the same form; from whence arose a great similitude in the manners of their inhabitants. The feodal discipline extended itself every where, and influenced the conduct of the courts, and the manners of the people, with its own irregular martial spirit. Subjects, under the complicated laws of a various and rigorous servitude, exercised all the prerogatives of sovereign power. They distributed justice, they made war and peace at pleasure. The sovereign, with great pretensions, had but little power; he was only a greater lord among great lords, who profited of the differences of his peers; therefore no steady plan could be well pursued, either in war or peace. This day a prince seemed irresistible at the head of his numerous vassals, because their duty obliged them to war, and they performed this duty with pleasure. The next day saw this formidable power vanish like a dream, because this fierce undisciplined people had no patience, and the time of the feudal service was contained within very narrow limits. It was therefore easy to find a number of persons at all times ready to follow any standard, but it was hard to complete a considerable design, which required a regular and continued movement. This enterprising disposition in the gentry was very general, because they had little occupation or pleasure but in war; and the greatest rewards did then attend personal valour and prowess. All that professed arms, became in same sort on an equality. A knight was the peer of a king; and men had been used to see the bravery of private persons opening a road to that dignity. The temerity of adventurers was much justified by the ill order of every state, which left it a prey to almost any who should attack it with sufficient vigour. Thus, little checked by any superiour power, full of fire, impetuosity, and ignorance, they longed to signalize themselves wherever an honourable danger called them; and wherever that invited, they did not weigh very deliberately the probability of success. The knowledge of this general disposition in the minds of men will naturally remove a great deal of our wonder at seeing an attempt, founded on such slender appearances of right, and supported by a power so little proportioned to the undertaking as that of William, so warmly embraced and so generally followed, not only by his own subjects, but by all the neighbouring potentates. The counts of Anjou, Bretagne, Ponthieu, Boulogne, and Poictou, sovereign princes; adventurers from every quarter of France, the Netherlands, and the remotest parts of Germany, laying aside their jealousies and enmities to one another, as well as to William, ran with an inconceivable ardour into this enterprise; captivated with the splendour of the object, which obliterated all thoughts of the uncertainty of the event. William kept up this fervour by promises of large territories to all his allies and associates in the country to be reduced by their united efforts. But after all it became equally necessary to reconcile to his enterprise the three great powers, of whom we have just spoken, whose disposition must have had the most influence on his affairs. His feudal lord the king of France was bound by his most obvious interests to oppose the further aggrandizement of one already too potent for a vassal; but the king of France was then a minor: and Baldwin, earl of Flanders, whose daughter William had married, was regent of the kingdom. This circumstance rendered the remonstrance of the French council against his design of no effect; indeed the opposition of the council itself was faint; the idea of having a king under vassalage to their Crown might have dazzled the more superficial courtiers; whilst those, who thought more deeply. were unwilling to discourage an enterprise, which they believed would probably end in the ruin of the undertaker. The emperour was in his mirarity, as well as the king of France; but by what arts the duke prevailed upon the imperial counc to declare in his favour, whether or no by an or of creating a balance to the power of France, if we can imagine that any such idea then subsisted, s altogether uncertain; but it is certain, that he ob tained leave for the vassals of the empire to gage in his service, and that he made use of the permission. The pope's consent was obtained with still less difficulty. William had shewn himself a many instances a friend to the church, and a fivourer of the clergy. On this occasion he pr mised to improve those happy beginnings in prportion to the means he should acquire by t favour of the holy see. It is said, that he even proposed to hold his new kingdom as a fief from Rome. The pope, therefore, entered heartily into his interests; he excommunicated all those, that - should oppose his enterprise, and sent him, as a =means of insuring success, a consecrated banner. CHAP. II. REIGN OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. A. D. 1066. finally reduced England under Canute the Great, were still very numerous in that kingdom, and in general not well liked by, nor well affected to, the old Anglo-Saxon inhabitants. William wisely took advantage of this enmity between the two sorts of inhabitants, and the alliance of blood, which was between them and his subjects. In the body of laws, which he published, he insists strongly on this kindred, and declares, that the Normans and Danes ought to be as sworn brothers against all men; a policy, which probably united these people to him; or at least so confirmed the ancient jealousy, which subsisted between them and the original English, as to hinder any cordial union against his interests. secure his conquest, as well as to display its importance abroad, under a pretence of honour, he carried with him all the chiefs of the English nobility, the popular earls Edwin and Morcar, and what was of most importance, Edgar Atheling, the last branch of the royal stock of the Anglo-Saxon kings, and infinitely dear to all the people. When the king had thus settled his acquisitions AFTER the battle of Hastings, the by all the methods of force and policy, he thought taking of Dover, the surrender of Lon- it expedient to visit his patrimonial territory, don, and the submission of the principal nobili- which, with regard to its internal state, and the ty, William had nothing left but to order in the jealousies, which his additional greatness revived best manner the kingdom he had so happily ac- in many of the bordering princes, was critically quired. Soon after his coronation, fearing the situated. He appointed to the regency in his sudden and ungoverned motions of so great a city, absence, his brother Odo, an ecclesiastick, whom new to subjection, he left London until a strong he had made bishop of Bayeux in France, and citadel could be raised to over-awe the people. earl of Kent, with great power and pre-eminence This was built where the Tower of London now in England; a man bold, fierce, ambitious, full stands. Not content with this, he built three of craft, imperious, and without faith, but well other strong castles in situations as advantageously versed in all affairs, vigilant and courageous. To chosen, at Norwich, at Winchester, and at Here- him he joined William Fitz-Auber, his justiciary, ford, securing not only the heart of affairs, but a person of consummate prudence and great intebinding down the extreme parts of the kingdom.grity. But not depending on this disposition, to And as he observed from his own experience the want of fortresses in England, he resolved fully to supply that defect, and guard the kingdom both against internal and foreign enemies. But he fortified his throne yet more strongly by the policy of good government. To London he confirmed by charter the liberties it had enjoyed under the Saxon kings; and endeavoured to fix the affections of the English in general by governing them with equity according to their ancient laws, and by treating them on all occasions with the most engaging deportment. He set up no pretences, which arose from absolute conquest. He confirmed their estates to all those, who had not appeared in arms against him, and seemed not to aim at subjecting the English to the Normans, but to unite the two nations under the wings of a common parental care. If the Normans received estates, and held lucrative offices, and were raised by wealthy matches in England, some of the English were enriched with lands and dignities, and taken into considerable families in Normandy. But the king's principal regards were shewed to those, by whose bravery he had attained his greatness. To some he bestowed the forfeited estates, which were many and great, of Harold's adherents; others he satisfied from the treasures his rival had amassed; and the rest, quartered upon wealthy monasteries, relied patient-encreased by the tyranny and rapaciousness of the y on the promises of one, whose performances had itherto gone hand in hand with his power. There was another circumstance, which conduced much to the maintaining, as well as to the making, his Conquest. The posterity of the Danes, who had The king managed his affairs abroad with great address, and covered all his negociations for the security of his Norman dominions under the magnificence of continual feasting, and unremitted diversion, which, without an appearance of design, displayed his wealth and power, and by that means facilitated his measures. But whilst he was thus employed, his absence from England gave an opportunity to several humours to break out, which the late change had bred, but which the amazement likewise produced by that violent change, and the presence of their conqueror, wise, vigilant, and severe, had hitherto repressed. The ancient line of their kings displaced; the only thread, on which it hung, carried out of the kingdom, and ready to be cut off by the jealousy of a merciless usurper; their liberties none by being precarious, and the daily insolences and rapine of the Normans intolerable: these discontents were regent; and they were fomented from abroad by Eustace, count of Boulogne. But the people, though ready to rise in all parts, were destitute of leaders; and the insurrections actually made were not carried on in concert, nor directed to any determinate object. So that the king, A. D. 1067. returning speedily, and exerting himself every where with great vigour, in a short time dissipated these ill-formed projects. However, so general a dislike to William's government had appeared on this occasion, that he became in his turn disgusted with his subjects, and began to change his maxims of rule to a rigour, which was more conformable to his advanced age, and the sternness of his natural temper. He resolved, since he could not gain the affections of his subjects, to find such matter for their hatred as might weaken them, and fortify his own authority against the enterprises, which that hatred might occasion. He revived the tribute of Danegelt, so odious from its original cause, and that of its revival, which he caused to be strictly levied throughout the kingdom. He erected castles at Nottingham, at Warwick, and at York, and filled them with Norman garrisons; he entered into a stricter inquisition for the discovery of the estates forfeited on his coming in; paying no regard to the privileges of the ecclesiasticks, he seized upon the treasures, which, as in an inviolable asylum, the unfortunate adherents to Harold had deposited in monasteries. At the same time he entered into a resolution of deposing all the English bishops, on none of whom he could rely, and filling their places with Normans. But he mitigated the rigour of these proceedings by the wise choice he made in filling the places of those whom he had deposed; and gave by that means those violent changes the air rather of reformation than oppression. He began with Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury. A synod was called, in which, for the first time in England, the pope's legate à latere is said to have presided. In this council, Stigand, for simony and for other crimes, of which it is easy to convict those, who are out of favour, was solemnly degraded from his dignity. The king filled his place with Lanfranc, an Italian. By his whole conduct he appeared resolved to reduce his subjects of all orders to the most perfect obedience. The people loaded with new taxes, the nobility degraded and threatened, the clergy deprived of their immunities and influence, joined in one voice of discontent; and stimulated each other to the most desperate resolutions. The king was not unapprized of these motions, nor negligent of them. It is thought he meditated to free himself from much of his easiness by seizing those men, on whom the nation in its distresses used to cast its eyes for relief. But whilst he digested these measures, Edgar Atheling, Edwin and Morcar, Waltheof, the son of Seward, and several others, eluded his vigilance, and escaped into Scotland, where they were received with open arms by King Malcolm. The Scottish monarch on A. D. 1068. this occasion married the sister of Edgar; and this match engaged him more closely to the accomplishment of what his gratitude to the Saxon kings, and the rules of good policy, had before inclined him. He entered at last into the cause of his brother-in-law, and the distressed | English; he persuaded the king of Denmark to enter into the same measures, who agreed to invade England with a fleet of a thousand ships. Drone, an Irish king, declared in their favour, and supplied the sons of Earl Goodwin with vessels and men, with which they held the English coast in continual alarms. A. D. 100% Whilst the forces of this powerful confederacy were collecting on all sides, and prepared to enter England, equal dangers threatened from within the kingdom. Edric, the Forester, a very brave and popular Saxon, took up arms in the counties of Hereford and Salop, the country of the ancient Silures, and inhabited by the same warlike and untamable race of men. The Welsh, strengthened him with their forces, and Cheshire joined in the revolt. Hereward le Wake, one of the most brave and indefatigable soldiers of his time, rushed with a numerous band of fugitives and outlaws from the fens of Lincoln and the Isle of Ely; from whence, protected by the situation of the place, he had for some time carried on an irregular war against the Normans. The sons of Goodwin landed with a strong body in the west; the fire of rebellion ran through the king dom; Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, at once threw of the yoke. Daily skirmishes were fought in every part of the kingdom with various success, and wit great bloodshed. The Normans retreated to the castles, which the English had rarely skill or tience to master; out of these they sallied fro time to time, and asserted their dominion. T conquered English for a moment resumed ther spirit; the forests and morasses, with which the island then abounded, served them for fortifica tions, and their hatred to the Normans stood = the place of discipline; each man, exasperated by his own wrongs, avenged them in his own manner every thing was full of blood and violence. Mu ders, burnings, rapine, and confusion, oversprea the whole kingdom. During these distractio several of the Normans quitted the country, gave up their possessions, which they thought worth holding in continual horrour and danger In the midst of this scene of disorder the kit alone was present to himself and to his aff He first collected all the forces, on whom he cca depend within the kingdom, and called pove succours from Normandy. Then he sent a str body to repress the commotions in the west; he reserved the greatest force and his own pr sence against the greatest danger, which mene from the north. The Scots had penetrated as as Durham; they had taken the castle, and the garrison to the sword. A like fate attest York from the Danes, who had entered the H.ber with a formidable fleet. They put this c into the hands of the English male-contents, a thereby influenced all the northern counties 4 their favour. William, when he first perceived the gathering of the storm, endeavoured, and with some success, to break force of the principal blow by a correspondence the court of Denmark; and now he entry A. D |