Part 9 (2/2)

1. That no Pope should be acknowledged in England, or letters from the Pope received there, without his sanction.

2. That no national synod or meeting of churchmen (S48) should enact any decrees binding the English Church, without his confirmation.

3. That no baron or officer of his should be expelled from the Church without his permission.[1]

[1] Taswell-Langmead's ”English Const.i.tutional History,” p. 59; Professor W. Stubb's ”Const.i.tutional History of England,” I, 286.

It is noticeable that Pope Gregory never seems to have censured William for the position he took,--perhaps because one brave man always understands and respects another.

Yet a little later than this (1077), when Henry IV, Emperor of Germany, refused to comply with certain demand made by Gregory VII, the German monarch had to submit. More than this, he was compelled to stand barefooted in the snow before the Pope's palace, waiting three days for permission to enter and beg forgiveness.

119. William a Stern but Just Ruler; the Jews; the New Forest.

Considering his love of power and strength of will, the reign of William was conspicuous for its justice. He was harsh, but generally fair. He protected the Jewish traders who came over to England in his reign, for he saw that their commercial enterprise and their financial skill would be of immense value in developing the country. Then too, if the royal treasury should happen to run dry, he thought it might be convenient to coax or compel the Jews to lend him a round sum.

On the other had, the King seized a tract of over sixty thousand acres in Hamps.h.i.+re for a hunting ground, which he named the New Forest.[1]

It was said that William destroyed many churches and estates in order to form this forest, but these accounts appear to have been greatly exaggerated. The real grievance was not so much the appropriation of the land, which was sterile and of little value, but it was the enactment of the savage Forest Laws. These ordinances made he life of a stag of more value than that of a man, and decreed that anyone found hunting the royal deer should have both eyes torn out (S205).

[1] Forest: As here used, this does not mean a region covered with woods, but simply a section of country, partially wooded and suitable for game, set apart as a royal park or hunting ground. As William made his residence at Winchester, in Hamps.h.i.+re, in the south of England (see map facing p. 38), he naturally took land in that vicinity for the chase.

120. The Great Survey; Domesday Book, 1086.

Not quite twenty years after his coronation William ordered a survey and valuation to be made of the whole realm outside of London. The only exceptions were certain border counties on the north were war had left little to record save heaps of ruins and ridges of gra.s.s-grown graves (S109).

The returns of that survey were known as Domesday or Doomsday Book.

The English people said this name was given to it, because, like the Day of Doom, it spared no one. It recorded every piece of property and every particular concerning it. As the ”Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”

(S46) indignantly declared, ”not a rood of land, not a peasant's hut, not an ox, cow, pig, or even a hive of bees escaped.”

While the report showed the wealth of the country, it also showed thje suffering it had pa.s.sed through in the revolts against William. Many towns had fallen into decay. Some were nearly depopulated. IN Edward the Confessor's reign (S65) York had 1607 houses; at the date of the survey it had but 967, while Oxford, which had had 721 houses, had then only 243.

The census and a.s.sessment proved of the highest importance to William and his successors. The people indeed said bitterly that the King kept to book constantly by him, in order ”that he might be able to see at any time of how much more wool the English flock would bear fleecing.” The object of the work, however, was not to extort money, but to present a full and exact report of the financial and military resources of the kingdom which might be directly available for revenue and defense.

121. The Great Meeting; the Oath of Allegiance to William, 1086.

In the midsummer following the completion of Domesday Book, William summoned all the barons and chief landholders of the realm, with their princ.i.p.al va.s.sals or tenants, to meet him on Salisbury Plain, Wilts.h.i.+re.[1] It is said that the entire a.s.semblage numbered sixty thousand. There was a logical connection between that summons and the great survey (S120). Each man's possesions and each man's responsibility were now known. Thus Domesday Book prepared the way for the action that was to be taken there.

[1] See map of England facing p. 436. Wilts.h.i.+re is in the south of England. Alfred had established the seat of government at Winchester in Hamps.h.i.+re, but under Edward the Confessor and Harold it was transferred to Westminster (London); the honor was again restored to Winchester by William, who made it his princ.i.p.al residence. This was perhaps the reason why he chose Salisbury Plain (the nearest open region) for the great meeting. It was held where the modern city of Salisbury stands.

The place chosen was historic ground. On that field William had once reviewed his victorious troops. Toward the north of the widespread plain rose the rugged columns of Stonehenge (S3), surrounded by the burial mounds of prehistoric peoples. On the south rose the fortified hill of Old Sarum, scarred by British and by Roman entrenchments.

William probably made his headquarters in the Norman castle then standing on that hill. On the plain below were the encampments of all the chief landholders of England.

122. The Oath of Allegiance.

There William the Conqueror finished his work. There not only every baron, but every baron's free va.s.sal or tenant, from Cornwall to the Scottish borders, bowed before the King and swore to be ”his man”

(S86). By that act England was made one. By it, it was settled that every landholder in the realm, of whatever condition, was bound first of all to fight in behalf of the Crown, even if in so doing he had to fight against his own lord.[1] The barons broke this oath in the next reign (S130), but the moral obligation to keep it still remained binding.

[1] See SS86, 150; see also the Const.i.tutional Summary in the Appendix, p. v, S6. Even if the men should disregard this oath of allegiance, they could not help feeling that the principle it represented had been acknowledged by them.

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