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England under Foreign Kings
England under Foreign Kings; Part 5

England under Foreign Kings; Part 5

First, he gave his barons much land, but he gave it them in scattered estates, not all together. There were indeed three exceptions: he made great earldoms in Durham, Kent, and Chester. But the earldom of Durham was given to the Bishop of Durham, who, being a Churchman, could leave no heir to inherit it; and the earldom of Kent he placed in the hands of his half-brother, Odo of Bayeux, who was also a Churchman. The earldom of Chester alone went to a layman, but no doubt William expected that his hands would be kept full enough by the need of guarding the border against the Welsh. These "palatine" earldoms were, however, the exception. The usual rule was to divide the estates widely. For example, Robert of Mortain, one of the greatest of the barons, held seven hundred and ninety-three manors, but they were in twenty different counties. Wherever we find a man with vast estates, we find they are much scattered. Thus, if a baron intended to rebel against the king, he could not collect his forces in one place; and he had always jealous neighbours round him who kept a watch on what he did. This precaution, wise in itself, did not, however, save William from rebellions among his barons. In 1074 Ralf, Earl of Norfolk, and Roger, Earl of Hereford, plotted a rising while the king was away in Normandy, and invited Waltheof, Earl of Huntingdon, the only one of the old English nobles who had retained any great amount of power, to join them. Waltheof hesitated; at first he agreed, then he drew back, and let Archbishop Lanfranc know what was going on. William was too strong and too quick for the rebels. Ralf was driven oversea, and Roger imprisoned for life, but the harshest measure fell on the unlucky Waltheof, who was beheaded. His earldom passed, with the hand of his daughter, to David, King of Scotland, and became the source of much dispute in after-days. In 1079 William had again to struggle with a rebellious feudal lord; this time his own son, Robert. The two met in battle at Gerberoi, not recognizing each other, and Robert's lance bore his father from his horse and wounded him. Shocked at his narrow escape from the crime of killing his father, Robert sought and received pardon, but William never trusted him again. Three years later Odo of Bayeux angered William by raising a private army to make war in Italy on his own account, and, though Odo was his half-brother and a bishop, William shut him in prison for the rest of his life.

These troubles made William see that if he was to keep his barons in order he had need to do more than merely sever their estates. Accordingly, in 1085, after "very deep speech with his Witan", he took his second great step to make his power secure; he caused to be made a great Survey in which was set down all the land of England, who held it, what it was worth in money dues, so that he might know exactly what was due to him, and so that no one might dispute over it. The results of this survey were set down in the Domesday Book. Two things are especially remarkable in it. It is extraordinarily thorough and minute. It tells not only the name of the holder, and from whom it was held; not only the number of villeins and servile tenants on each estate, but it even records the ploughs, oxen, horses, sheep, pigs, mills, and fishponds. One English writer thought it unworthy of a king to enquire into things like these. He says "it is shame to be telling of, but he did not think it shame to be doing it". William, however, did not feel any shame in finding out all about his kingdom, especially in order to secure for himself a steady supply of money. And, secondly, though Domesday is more than eight hundred years old, it illustrates the amazing permanence and continuity of our rural history. Almost every obscure hamlet of to-day has its name set down in Domesday. The names are often somewhat changed, but that is all. The divisions of the countryside stand now as they stood in the Conqueror's reign.

England under Foreign Kings; Part 5

Chronology