Part 7 (2/2)

_Domesday_ tells us also the names of the officers and artisans who played important parts in the old village communities. The _villani_, or villeins, corresponding to the Saxon _ceorls_, were the most important cla.s.s of tenants in villeinage, and each held about thirty acres in scattered acre or half-acre strips, each a furlong in length and a perch or two in breadth, separated by turf balks. The villein thus supported himself and his family, and in return was bound to render certain services to the lord of the manor, to work on the home farm, and provide two or more oxen for the manorial plough-team. He was not a free tenant, could acquire no property, and his lord's consent was needed for the marriage of his daughters. But the law protected him from unjust usage; his holdings were usually regranted to his son. He could obtain freedom in several ways, and by degrees acquired the rights and privileges of a free tenant.

Next to the villeins were the _bordarii_, who lived in _bords_ or cottages, _i.e._ boarded or wooden huts, and ranked as a lower grade of villeins. They held about five acres, but provided no oxen for the manorial plough-team. Below them were the _cottarii_, or cottiers, who were bound to do domestic work and supply the lord's table. They corresponded to the modern labourer, but lacked his freedom. The lowest cla.s.s of all were the _servi_, or serfs, who corresponded to the Saxon _theows_. In Norman times their condition was greatly improved; they mingled with the cottiers and household servants, and gradually were merged with them.

The _sochemanni_, or socmen, our yeomen, who abounded chiefly in the Danish district of England, were inferior landowners who had special privileges, and could not be turned out of their holdings, though they rendered certain services to the lord of the manor, and in this respect differed little from the villeins. _Domesday Book_ also mentions a cla.s.s of men called _burs_ or _geburs_, who were the same as _coliberti_; also the _commendati_, who received privileges in return for services rendered to the lord of the manor.

Each village community was self-contained, and had its own officers.

Although _Domesday Book_ was not compiled in order to ascertain the condition of the Church and its ministers, and frequently the mention of a parish church is omitted where we know one existed, the _presbyter_, or priest, is often recorded. Archbishop Egbert's _Excerptiones_ ordained that ”to every church shall be allotted one complete holding (mansa), and that this shall be free from all but ecclesiastical services.” According to the Saxon laws every tenth strip of land was set aside for the Church, and _Domesday_ shows that in many villages there was a priest with his portion of land set apart for his support.

Then there was a _prepositus_, bailiff or reeve, who collected the lord's rents, a.s.sisted by a _bedellus_, beadle or under-bailiff. _Bovarii_, or oxherds, looked after the plough-teams. The _carpentarius_, or carpenter; the _cementarius_, or bricklayer; the _custos apium_, or beekeeper; the _faber_, or smith; the _molinarius_, or miller--were all important officers in the Norman village; and we have mention also of the _piscatores_ (fishermen), _pistores_ (bakers), _porcarii_ (swineherds), _viccarii_ (cowmen), who were all employed in the work of the village community.

_Domesday Book_ enables us to form a fairly complete picture of our villages in Norman and late Saxon times. It tells us of the various cla.s.ses who peopled the village and farmed its fields. It gives us a complete list of the old Saxon gentry and of the Norman n.o.bles and adventurers who seized the fair acres of the despoiled Englishmen. Many of them gave their names to their new possessions. The Mandevilles settled at Stoke, and called it Stoke-Mandeville; the Vernons at Minshall, and called it Minshall-Vernon. Hurst-Pierpont, Neville-Holt, Kingston-Lysle, Hampstead-Norris, and many other names of places compounded of Saxon and Norman words, record the names of William's followers, who received the reward of their services at the expense of the former Saxon owners. _Domesday Book_ tells us how land was measured in those days, the various tenures and services rendered by the tenants, the condition of the towns, the numerous foreign monasteries which thrived on our English lands, and throws much light on the manners and customs of the people of this country at the time of its compilation.

_Domesday Book_ is a perfect storehouse of knowledge for the historian, and requires a lifetime to be spent for its full investigation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DIAGRAM OF A MANOR]

CHAPTER XI

NORMAN CASTLES

Castle-building--Description of Norman castle--A Norman household-- Edwardian castles--Border castles--Chepstow--Grosmont--Raglan--Central feature of feudalism--Fourteenth-century castle--Homes of chivalry-- Schools of arms--The making of a knight--Tournaments--Jousts--Tilting at a ring--Pageants--”Apollo and Daphne”--Pageants at Sudeley Castle and Kenilworth--Destruction of castles--Castles during Civil War period.

Many an English village can boast of the possession of the ruins of an ancient castle, a gaunt rectangular or circular keep or donjon, looking very stern and threatening even in decay, and mightily convincing of the power of its first occupants. The new masters did not feel very safe in the midst of a discontented and enraged people; so they built these huge fortresses with strong walls and gates and moats. Indeed before the Conquest the Norman knights, to whom the weak King Edward the Confessor granted many an English estate, brought with them the fas.h.i.+on of building castles, and many a strong square tower began to crown the fortified mounds. Thence they could oppress the people in many ways, and the writers of the time always speak of the building of castles with a kind of shudder. After the Conquest, especially during the regency of William's two lieutenants, Bishop Odo and Earl William Fitz-osbern, the Norman adventurers who were rewarded for their services by the gift of many an English manor, built castles everywhere. The wretched men of the land were cruelly oppressed by forced labour in erecting these strongholds, which were filled ”with devils and evil men.” Over a thousand castles were built in nineteen years, and in his own castle each earl or lord reigned as a small king, coining his own money, making his own laws, having power of life and death over his dependants, and often using his power most violently and oppressively.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD SARUM]

The original Norman castle consisted of a keep, ”four-square to every wind that blew,” standing in a bailey court. It was a mighty place with walls of great thickness about one hundred and fifty feet high. It contained several rooms, one above the other. A deep well supplied the inhabitants with water. Spiral stone steps laid in the thickness of the wall led to the first floor where the soldiers of the garrison resided.

Above this was the hall, with a chimney and fireplace, where the lord of the castle and his guests had their meals, and in the thickness of the wall there were numerous chambers used as sleeping-apartments and garderobes, and the existence of a piscina in one of these shows that it was a small chapel or oratory. The upper story was divided by wooden part.i.tions into small sleeping-rooms; and unlike our modern houses, the kitchen was at the top of the keep, and opened on the roof.

Descending some stone steps which led from the ground floor in ancient time we should visit the dungeons, dark, gloomy, and dreadful places, where deep silence reigns, only broken by the groans of despairing captives in the miserable cells. In one of these toads and adders were the companions of the captive. Another poor wretch reposed on a bed of sharp flints, while the torture-chamber echoed with the cries of the victims of mediaeval cruelty, who were hanged by their feet and smoked with foul smoke, or hung up by their thumbs, while burning rings were placed on their feet. In Peak Castle, Derbys.h.i.+re, a poor, simple squire, one G.o.dfrey Rowland, was confined for six days without either food or drink, and then released from the dungeon with his right hand cut off.

In order to extract a heavy ransom, to obtain lands and estates, to learn the secrets of hidden treasure, the most ingenious and devilish tortures were inflicted in these terrible abodes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A NORMAN CASTLE (1) The dungeon.

(2) Chapel.

(3) Stable.

(4) Inner bailey.

(5) Outer bailey.

(6) Barbican.

(7) Mount.

(8) Soldiers' lodgings.]

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