4IO Outlines of European History William's policy in England exhibited profound statesman- ship. He introduced the Norman feudalism to which he was accustomed, but took good care that it should not weaken his power. The English, who had refused to join him before the battle of Hastings, were declared to have forfeited their lands, but were permitted to keep them upon condition of receiving them back from the king as his vassals. The lands of those who actually fought against him at Hastings, or in later rebel- lions, including the great estates of Harold's family, were seized and distributed among his faithful followers, both Norman and English, though naturally the Normans among them far outnumbered the English. William declared that he did not propose to change the Eng- lish customs, but to govern as Edward the Confessor, the last Saxon king, had done. He maintained the Witenagemot, a council made up of bishops and nobles, whose advice the Saxon kings had sought in all important matters. But he was a man of too much force to submit to the control of his people. He avoided giving to any one person a great many estates in a single region, so that no one should become inconveniently powerful. Finally, in order to secure the support of the smaller landholders and to prevent combinations against him among the greater ones, he required every landowner in England to take an oath of fidelity directly to him, instead of having only a few great landowners as vassals who had their own subvassals under their own control, as in France. We read in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (1086): "He came, on the first day of August, to Salisbury, and there came to him his wise men (that is, counselors), and all the land-owning men of property there were over all England, whosoever men they were ; and all bowed down to him and became his men, and swore oaths of fealty to him that they would be faithful to him against all other men." It is clear that the Norman Conquest was not a simple change of kings, but that a new element was added to the English
