But this feodal polity, which was thus by degrees eſtabliſhed over all the continent of Europe, ſeems not to have been received in this part of our iſland, at leaſt not univerſally and as a part of the national conſtitution, till the reign of William the Norman[1]. Not but that it is reaſonable to believe, from abundant traces in our hiſtory and laws, that even in the times of the Saxons, who were a ſwarm from what ſir William Temple calls the ſame northern hive, ſomething ſimilar to this was in uſe: yet not ſo extenſively, nor attended with all the rigour that was afterwards imported by the Normans. For the Saxons were firmly ſettled in this iſland, at leaſt as early as the year 600: and it was not till two centuries after, that feuds arrived to their full vigour and maturity, even on the continent of Europe[2].
This introduction however of the feodal tenures into England, by king William, does not ſeem to have been effected immediately after the conqueſt, nor by the mere arbitrary will and power of the conqueror; but to have been conſented to by the great council of the nation long after his title was eſtabliſhed. Indeed from the prodigious ſlaughter of the Engliſh nobility at the battle of Haſtings, and the fruitleſs inſurrections of thoſe who ſurvived, ſuch numerous forfeitures had accrued, that he was able to reward his Norman followers with very large and extenſive poſſeſſions: which gave a handle to the monkiſh hiſtorians, and ſuch as have implicitly followed them, to repreſent him as having by right of the ſword ſeiſed on all the lands of England, and dealt them out again to his own favourites. A ſuppoſition, grounded upon a miſtaken ſenſe of the word conqueſt; which, in it's feodal acceptation, ſignifies no more than acquiſition: and this has led many haſty writers into a ſtrange hiſtorical miſtake, and one which upon the ſlighteſt examination will be found to be moſt untrue. However, certain it is, that the Normans now began to gain very large poſſeſſions in England: and their regard for the feodal law, under which they had long lived, together
