with the king's recommendation of this policy to the Engliſh, as the beſt way to put themſelves on a military footing, and thereby to prevent any future attempts from the continent, were probably the reaſons that prevailed to effect it's eſtabliſhment here. And perhaps we may be able to aſcertain the time of this great revolution in our landed property with a tolerable degree of exactneſs. For we learn from the Saxon chronicle[1], that in the nineteenth year of king William's reign an invaſion was apprehended from Denmark; and the military conſtitution of the Saxons being then laid aſide, and no other introduced in it's ſtead, the kingdom was wholly defenceleſs: which occaſioned the king to bring over a large army of Normans and Bretons, who were quartered upon every landholder, and greatly oppreſſed the people. This apparent weakneſs, together with the grievances occaſioned by a foreign force, might co-operate with the king's remonſtrances, and the better encline the nobility to liſten to his propoſals for putting them in a poſture of defence. For, as ſoon as the danger was over, the king held a great council to inquire into the ſtate of the nation[2]; the immediate conſequence of which was the compiling of the great ſurvey called domeſday-book, which was finiſhed in the next year: and in the latter end of that very year the king was attended by all his nobility at Sarum; where all the principal landholders ſubmitted their lands to the yoke of military tenure, became the king's vaſals, and did homage and fealty to his perſon[3]. This ſeems to have been the aera of formally introducing the feodal tenures by law; and probably the very law, thus made at the council of Sarum, is that which is ſtill extant[4], and couched in theſe remarkable words: "ſtatuimus, ut omnes liberi homines foedere et ſacramento affirment, quod intra et extra univerſum regnum Angliae Wilhelmo regi domino ſuo fideles eſſe volunt; terras et honores illius omni fidelitate ubique ſervare cum eo, et
- ↑ A. D. 1085.
- ↑ Rex tenuit magnum concilium, et graves ſermones habuit cum ſuis proceribus de hac terra, quo modo incoleretur, et a quibus hominibus, Chron. Sax. ibid.
- ↑ Omnes praedia tenentes, quotquot eſſent notae melioris per lotam Angliam, ejus homines facti ſunt, it omnes ſe illi ſubdidere, ejuſque facti ſunt vaſalli, ac ei fidelitatis juramenta praeſtiterunt, ſe centra alios quoſcunque illi fidos futuros. Chron. Sax. A. D. 1086.
- ↑ cap. 52. Wilk. 228.
