demand the crown, which was of course refused. He then proceeded to
collect troops, not only his own Norman feudatories, but also large
bodies of adventurers from other parts of France. Aware of the
intended invasion, Harold collected his forces, and occupied the
Southern coast. But William was so long in coming, that Harold’s
militia army, anxious to return to their agricultural works, and
straitened for food, could not be kept together. He was left
with his immediate followers, his House-carls and Thegns. Just
then, when his great host had disappeared, news was brought to him
that Tostig had invaded the North of England. Foiled in a weak
attempt upon the South near Sandwich, and refused aid by William of
Normandy, Tostig had fallen in with the fleet of Harold Hardrada,
King of Norway. This king was a great warrior, who had served
in the armies of the Byzantine Empire, and fought in Africa and
Sicily. He was easily persuaded to join Tostig, and reinforced by
the Earls of Orkney, they together sailed up the Ouse, and reached
Fulford on the way to York. Edwin and Morkere, the sons of Ælfgar,
whose sister Harold had lately married, honestly opposed them,
but after a severe battle they were beaten. Arrangements by which
the North was to join Harold Hardrada were being made at Stamford
Bridge upon the Derwent, when Harold, who had hastened with extreme
rapidity from the South, fell upon the invaders. They were taken
by surprise, and some, but slightly armed, were overcome; but the
bridge over the Derwent was held with determination, and a fierce
battle was fought on the other side. The English were entirely
triumphant, both Tostig and Harold Hardrada being slain. The
Norwegian fleet was forced to withdraw. This was on the 25th of
September.
[Sidenote: Landing of William.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Hastings. Oct. 14.]
[Sidenote: Death of Harold.]
On the 28th King William landed at Pevensey. Harold was still at
York when the news reached him. He hastily gathered what troops he
could round the nucleus of his own immediate followers who had been
with him at Stamford Bridge. All the South of England joined him
gladly, both from Wessex and East Anglia. But Edwin and Morkere,
in their jealousy of the rival house, forgot their patriotism and
Harold’s good deeds to themselves, and deserted him. With such
an army as he had, Harold took up his position upon the hill of
Senlac, where Battle Abbey now stands. This hill runs out from the
North Sussex hills southward like a peninsula. There Harold erected
palisades, and arranged his men with a view to defensive action
only. This step was rendered necessary by the difference of the
armies; the English fought all on foot, a large proportion were
irregularly armed militia, and the hand javelin--not the bow and
arrow--was their national missile. The Normans, on the other hand,
fought as chivalry on horseback, and had many archers. Once in the
plain Harold’s army might have been crushed by the charge of the
mailed cavalry. But repeated charges uphill against an entrenched
foe, stubborn and heavily armed, could not but wear out the
mounted knight. Our descriptions are all from Norman sources, and
the contrast between the religious Norman and the jovial Englishman
is fully brought out. On the one side, the night is said to have
been passed in prayer, and on the other in revelry. There were
certainly, however, priests and monks upon the side of the English,
and probably this story is a monkish exaggeration. Harold drew up
his forces with his own picked troops upon the front of the hill,
between the dragon banner of Wessex and his own banner adorned with
a fighting man. The backward curves of the hill were occupied by
his worse armed troops. He himself, with his brothers Gyrth and
Leofwine, took their place beside the standard. The French advanced
in three divisions,--the Bretons, under Alan, on the left; the
Normans, under their Duke and his two brothers, Robert and Odo,
Bishop of Bayeux, in the centre; the adventurers, under Roger
of Montgomery, on the right. They galloped forward, preceded by
Taillefer, a minstrel, tossing his sword aloft and singing songs
of Charlemagne. But their efforts were vain. The heavy axe of the
English hewed down man and horse if any reached the barricade,
and the French had to draw back. The Bretons began the flight,
and the Normans soon followed, but the English militia were not
steady enough to withstand the excitement of victory. The veteran
centre stood firm, but the troops opposed to the Bretons broke from
their position in pursuit. William saw his advantage, rallied his
troops, drove back the pursuers, and made a second vehement assault
upon the barricade. The Earls Gyrth and Leofwine were killed, the
barricade in part removed, but still Harold held his ground, and
William had to have recourse to stratagem before he could secure
a victory. His present comparative success had been caused by the
accidental over-eagerness of the English. He determined to try
whether he could not again induce them to break their line. The
Normans turned in apparent flight, the English, heated by the
long fight, rushed forward in pursuit. The Norman cavalry turned
round and rode down their pursuers, and, driving them before them,
again charged up the hill; while the archers, whose skill had been
somewhat foiled by the shields of the English, were ordered to drop
a flight of arrows upon the heads of Harold and his men. The plan
was fatally successful; the battle was still stubbornly contested,
though no longer in serried ranks, when Harold fell, pierced in the
eye by an arrow. With him disappeared all hope of English success.
His body was found, and buried under a cairn by the sea, till
afterwards removed to his minster of Waltham.
STATE OF SOCIETY
449-1066
[Sidenote: The Mark system.]
The chief interest in the Conquest is the change that it is always
said to have exercised in the character of the institutions
of England. It used to be asserted that the feudal system was
introduced, and completed as a wholly new system to the English,
after the Conquest; and Hume speaks of the division of the kingdom
into so many knights’ fiefs, into so many baronies, as if there
were complete reorganization of the whole constitution. Modern
inquiry tends to confirm what would naturally have been supposed,
that the whole of the elements of the feudal system existed in
England as in other Teutonic countries before the arrival of the
Normans. The form which the civilization of the Scandinavian and
Teutonic nations took seems to have been that of a collection of
village communities, such as may be seen at work at present in
India. The district occupied by such community was called the Mark,
and was divided into three parts, in each of which every free
member of the community had his share, but which were cultivated in
strict accordance with the customary system of agriculture which no
one might break. There was first the village, then the arable mark
(cultivated land), then the common pasture, and beyond that the
waste. Every freeman had a share in the arable and in the common
pasture, but he was bound to sow the same crops as his neighbours,
and to follow the same arrangement, which appears to have been
simple and barbarous. The common fields, or mixed lands as they
are called, were divided into three strips by broad grassy mounds;
one was sown with autumn crops, one with spring crops, and the
third left fallow. In the same way, though under somewhat varying
rules, the grass mark was partitioned. Frequently all enclosures
were removed at the close of the hay harvest, and the cattle grazed
in common, as they were allowed to do also in the stubble of the
arable mark. Lands were probably redistributed at certain intervals
of time, and the power of devising hereditary property by will was
strictly restrained. Traces of common fields cultivated on the
threefold system, and of customary cultivation, are still to be
found in England, and were plentiful in the last century.
[Sidenote: German institutions.]
[Sidenote: Division of ranks.]
[Sidenote: The Comitatus.]
[Sidenote: Growth of feudalism.]
But though this system would appear to have been common in
nations of Germanic origin, it can be gathered from the Germania
of Tacitus that other political institutions existed in Germany.
Thus, the subdivisions of the Tribe were called Pagi, which seem
to answer to the English Hundred. The Pagus was under the official
chieftainship of an elective head called the Princeps, answering
to the Saxon Ealdorman. This Pagus, which may perhaps have been
originally a division of a hundred heads of families, supplied a
hundred warriors to the host, a hundred assessors at the Judicial
Court of the Princeps. Below this we come to the Vicus or township,
which was probably organized upon the Mark system above described,
or on some modification of it. The commanders in war, or Duces,
were elected, probably from among the Principes, for each special
occasion. It is, moreover, clear that private property had begun to
exist. In pastoral life, where the common right of grazing would
be the chief common privilege, there would be no difficulty in
one man possessing more cattle than another. Neither would it be
a great step to grant to such wealthier men, upon the redivision
of the common arable mark, extra shares for the support of slaves
or dependent freemen whom his wealth had attracted around him.
There also existed a variety of ranks, which may be roughly
divided into three classes,--the noble or _eorl_, who must have
owed his nobility to birth; the freeman or _ceorl_, possessing his
own homestead, his own share in the common land, and dependent
on no man; and the _læt_ or dependent workman, cultivating his
lord’s land. Besides these, there were actual slaves or _theows_,
consisting of men who had lost their liberty either as captives,
or for debt, or for some other easily conceivable causes. It does
not appear that nobility of birth gave any additional political
rights, although personal consideration was awarded to the noble.
It was the possession of free land which made a man a full member
of the tribe. The læts, however, were probably dependent only
as regarded their lord, in every other respect free. Thus, like
other members of the community, their death had to be atoned for
by the payment of a sum of money or _weregild_, although the sum
was smaller than in the case of freemen. They probably formed a
considerable part of the armed force of the nation. The class may
have consisted originally of a conquered population of kindred
blood, or of men who voluntarily put themselves into a state of
dependency upon their richer neighbours for security, or because
for some reason they had become landless. Side by side with this
democratic constitution, there was a peculiar institution known as
the _Comitatus_. Each Princeps was allowed to collect around him,
under a tie of personal dependence, a body of professed warriors,
who were bound to him by the closest ties of honour; and the
importance of each chief must have depended in a great degree upon
this following. In case of conquest, it would naturally be the duty
of the conquering chief to see to the welfare of his followers, and
to give them grants, which might either be grants in perpetuity,
or only the right of present possession, and which would be drawn
from the conquered land remaining over after its distribution among
the body of freemen. To cultivate these grants, the comrades of
the king would have had to employ their own dependants, and these
dependants would settle in villages, which took the form of village
communities, except that the rights, which in the free communities
would be vested in the whole body of the freemen, were in this case
vested in the lord. We here have the germ of the relation between
vassal and lord. But this element of feudalism soon acquired
greater strength. The conquering chief would take upon himself
the title of king, claim descent from the gods, and make his line
hereditary. As the position of the king advanced, the position of
the comrade or Gesith would advance also. As the king of a tribe
became the king of a nation his dignity would greatly increase,
and with his that of his followers, who, as the court became more
formal, would accept as honours duties about the household, and the
word _Gesith_, comrade, changed into _Thegn_ or servant. In times
of war such nobles by service became natural leaders of the people,
and the position of the chief men of the village proportionately
sunk. So that there arose a class of nobles in immediate connection
with the crown, possessing property not belonging to a village
community, and exercising rights of lordship over its inhabitants.
It is not difficult to see in what a superior position they were
thus placed; what powers of encroachment they might have; and
how willingly, in times of danger, village communities would put
themselves in the same position with regard to them, as that
occupied by those settlers on the Thegn’s lands, who had always
acknowledged them as their lords. We have therefore two sources
from which feudalism might have arisen; the village headman, in
accordance with what seems to be a general law, as his powers came
to be legally defined (especially in the matter of collecting the
king’s taxes), would be regarded as the hereditary lord of the
village, and would obtain the right of permanently enclosing his
share of the common land; while the king’s Thegn, side by side with
him, would plant his own subject villages, and accept by what is
called _commendation_ the supremacy of such villages as might offer
it to him.
[Sidenote: Saxon institutions introduced into England.]
[Sidenote: Land.]
The Saxons then brought with them, in their invasion of England,
their threefold division of rank, their association or township,
their Pagus or Hundred, the Mark system, the principle of election
to public functions, and the Comitatus or personal following of
their chiefs. The conquering Principes or Ealdormen became kings.
The country in all probability was divided out with some degree
of regularity between villages, similar in constitution with
those of Continental Germany. There was no necessity for these
apportionments being equal. But a certain number of villages,
whatever their property was, were divided into Pagi or Hundreds.
This explains the inequality of those divisions. The unoccupied
land was left in the king’s hands to reward his chief followers.
On these demesnes, and on the public lands, the _læts_ found their
homes, with such of the conquered race as remained; and from time
to time fresh estates were granted as fresh conquests increased the
surplus land. From this land also the monasteries were endowed.
The portion allotted to each free household was called the _Hide_.
Land held by hereditary possession or by original allotment was
called the _Ethel_. That held by grant from the public land and by
charter was called _Bocland_ (_i.e._ book-land). The land neither
partitioned nor granted was the common property of the nation, and
was called _Folcland_. As all land, whether bocland or folcland,
could be let out, and was so treated on various conditions, there
was much variety in the tenures of that class of people who did not
possess free land of their own.
[Sidenote: Judicial organization.]
Whether the mark system prevailed to any great extent or not,
(and this is a somewhat uncertain point,) practically it was the
township which formed the lowest part of the general organization.
The hundred was a collection of townships, the shire a collection
of hundreds. The chief officer of the township, the town reeve,
was elected by the freeholders of the township, and with four of
their number represented that township in the Court of the Hundred,
of which the township was a subordinate division. Townships
established upon the lands of lords also had their reeve, but
probably he was appointed by the lord. Their constitution was
the same, but the proprietor of the soil took the duties and
privileges which in a free township belonged to the freeholders.
Such townships formed manors. It was from the township also that
the burghs or towns arose. The Saxons had a natural dislike for
town life, and we must not look for the arrangements of the borough
to the remnants of Roman civilization. But when the village grew
very large the same constitution as existed in the township was
employed, the freeholders within the limits of the borough forming
the municipal body. Such boroughs may also frequently have arisen
from an agglomeration of townships. They would then be analogous
to the hundred. The existence of two or three parishes in most
boroughs leads to the same conclusion; for, ecclesiastically,
the limits of the township and the parish were the same. Such
towns, growing up naturally round the dwellings of wealthy men
or of the king, would generally be either on folcland, and as
such, dependent upon the crown, or upon the land of some lord
on whom they would then depend. When the national system became
organized, there would thus be the Court of the Township, with its
counterpart in the dependent Township of the Manor Court. Above
that, the Hundred Court, presided over by the Hundred-man, while
the township were represented by their Reeve and four members. And
above that there was the Shire Court or Gemot. The shires were not,
properly speaking, part of the original organization. They seem to
be in most cases the old sub-kingdoms. The Court, therefore, of
the Shire represented the National Court. Over these sub-kingdoms
or shires was appointed a royal officer, shire-reeve or sheriff,
representative of the king for judicial and fiscal purposes. There
is no proof that he was an elective officer. Beside the sheriff,
who represented the central authority, was the Ealdorman, who had
the command of the military force of the shire and the third of the
fines levied. He was the representative of the old sub-king. He
was a national officer, appointed by the king and by the central
assembly of the nation, the Witana-Gemot. He sat with the sheriff
in the Shire Court, but it would seem that the sheriff was the
official whose presence constituted the court. In all the courts it
was a principle that the suitors of the court, those, that is, who
were liable to its jurisdiction, were also the judges; that is to
say, the courts were essentially popular. The whole body present
settled the disputes or judged the crimes of the individuals, the
chief officer being, in fact, the chairman. Practically, in the
Shire Court, twelve chief Thegns or chief freeholders sat with the
sheriff as judges, representatives of the whole body. It was also a
principle, at all events originally, that no superior court should
have jurisdiction till the inferior courts had done their best
towards the settlement of the disputed point.
Ecclesiastically, the parishes were co-extensive with the
townships, the bishoprics in a great degree co-extensive with the
shires or ancient kingdoms.
[Sidenote: Growth of territorial jurisdiction.]
In process of time, the position of the king somewhat changed. He
began to be regarded as the one lord of the land. From being the
King of the Saxons he gradually became the King of England. His
personal relation became territorial. The folcland became royal
demesne, and the king came to be regarded as the origin of justice.
This change, among other causes, tended much to the growth of a
system which was in fact incipient feudalism. The national courts
constantly became more the private courts of great lords. The
connection between the possession of land and the judicial power
grew constantly stronger. It had early been the custom to establish
in the favour of lords to whom grants were made Liberties, or
_Soken_, as they were called; that is, land was granted exempted
from the jurisdiction of the Hundred. The judicial rights of the
Hundred, together with the payments accruing from them, were vested
in the lord who received the grant. These rights are implied in the
words _sac_ and _soc_. As townships on a lord’s land became manors,
so these Liberties, on which there were many townships, became
private Hundreds. They were probably, before the Conquest, not
exempted from the jurisdiction of the Shire. It has been already
mentioned that, either by commendation or by the encroachment of
local magnates, freemen (allodial proprietors as they were called)
took in many cases the position of dependants. Their property then
assumed the character of bocland, or land held by charter, instead
of hereditary freehold. By commending themselves to a lord they
would free themselves from the burden of military duty, which would
then fall upon the lord as proprietor of the land. Justice would
be more easily obtained from the neighbouring court of the lord
than from the distant court of the Hundred or county. Protection
from invasion or from the violence of neighbours would be gained.
Again, the police regulation, by which all landless men were
obliged to seek a lord, would strengthen the idea of the necessity
of dependence.
Meanwhile, the Franchises and territorial jurisdictions went on
increasing till the ideas of possession of land and jurisdiction
began to go constantly together. The Thegn, who only possessed five
Hides, had his court. In the time of Cnut a further step was taken.
The wealthy landowner, under the name of Landrica, represented
the king in his district, and had jurisdiction over the lesser
freeholders. While, to crown all, the new position of the king gave
him the sole jurisdiction over the holders of bocland, to which,
as we have seen, allodial property was gradually assimilating
itself. In all these ways private and territorial jurisdictions
were strengthened, and enabled very largely to encroach upon the
national and popular courts. The position of the Landrica was
little else than that of a feudal baron, and the independence
of the great hereditary official, so marked a characteristic of
Continental feudalism, was almost reproduced in England, when Cnut
divided the kingdom into four great Earldoms.
[Sidenote: Central government. The Witan.]
[Sidenote: Increased power of the King.]
[Sidenote: Finance.]