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be heaved after the comparative liberty enjoyed under the AngloSaxon monarchs. But these unavoidable aspirations were confined to the classes above noticed; to those who had a share, by deed, in the property of their native soil. No sigh was due from the lower part of the community, which constituted its great bulk. They were abject and despised under the Saxons; and the Normans could treat them no worse.

The penalties inflicted by the complete establishment of the feudal system were severe; but many of its forms and ceremonials probably imparted a real benefit to society, at this dreary juncture in the annals of Britain, by encouraging a competition in polish of manners and appearance, through the medium of periodical public solemnities. The vigour of the government, the growth of commerce, and the increase of social habits, were likewise favourable to the cultivation of art and science. Learning now arose from the cloud by which it had been long oppressed. William the First is celebrated as an encourager of literature; and his wish to advance the interests of letters must have been greatly facilitated by the numerous monastic establishments, which were founded in the years shortly succeeding his accession to the crown. Aided by the affluent leisure of such societies, learning, although confined almost exclusively to the clergy, experienced a revival in this reign, from which it never afterwards sank to entire neglect.

The manners of the superior classes were much altered at this period, and were certainly raised a step in refinement and respectability, by the spirit of Chivalry which the Normans introduced to our island. However fantastical in some points of operation, this animating principle involved lessons of morality, and inculcated a high sense of honour, which must have greatly assisted in humanizing the disposition of a people accustomed, almost beyond the reach of tradition, to view a prostrate foe as the destined victim of the sword, and to connect the idea of bloodshed with that of rapine. The pomp of arms attendant on the pursuits of chivalry, and the romantic devotion for the fair sex

evinced

evinced by those who aspired after its distinctions, may appear trivial to the phlegmatic examiner of history; but they were, assuredly, of great importance in stimulating the youth to warlike habits, and in softening their temper in the hour of spoliation. The recollection of these scenes, so fanciful, and gallant in display, may sometimes occur when we contemplate the rugged fragments of a Norman castle; and may, at least, bestow a harmless prism of animation on the deserted neighbourhood.

In the same page with chivalry may be noticed the trial by - Judicial combat, a mode of determining differences introduced to England at a similar period by the Normans. According to the tenour of this irrational appeal to Heaven for an immediate manifestation of its omniscience, the person worsted in legal duel was pronounced guilty, by supposed divine decision; and, if he survived, was subjected to the penalty affixed by human laws to his crime. As such a prompt, mysterious, and martial mode of trial was well suited to the superstitious, yet bold, character of the age, it soon grew into public esteem, and was not only resorted to in cases of alleged treachery, or military default, but became a frequent practice in civil disputes.

This solemnity was performed in the presence of the king, if the combatants were immediate vassals of the crown; or, otherwise, in that of the baron to whom the contending parties owed homage. If the accuser were vanquished, he was liable to the same punishment which, on a contrary issue, would have fallen upon the defendant; but a discretionary power of mitigating, or remitting, this penalty, formed a part of the sovereign's prerogative. In civil cases, the victor in the duel was the gainer of the

cause.

Many persons, such as priests; the sick and mutilated; the young under twenty, and the old above sixty years of age; were exempted from the necessity of resorting to this mode of decision. But all the exempted parties had the option of employing champions to fight in their behalf, and many adopted so strange a mode of substitution, contented to receive an indication

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of the will of Heaven through the wounds, or safety, of a person interested in the case only by the payment which he received for the hazard of his blood.

One of the most memorable events in the reign of William the Conqueror, as it relates to a gratification of the inquisitive spirit of future ages, and in some instances still affects the tenure of property, was the compilation of the record termed Domesday ;* which was begun in the year 1080, and completed in the year 1086.

In my notice of the customs and the legal code of the AngloSaxons, I have reminded the reader that a book of this nature, since lost, was compiled, about the year 900, under the direction of King Alfred. The loss of the survey effected by order of that great king and wise legislator, is a matter of unavoidable regret with the antiquary. The record made in the reign of William the First, is still extant; and from this invaluable source we obtain the first authentic account of the political divisions of England, and of the real state of the face of the country, in the latter Anglo-Saxon and in the early Anglo-Norman ages. The conditions of society, and various particulars respecting the manners of the people, may likewise be collected from the same authority.

The legal utility of this record, in many ages following the commencement of the Anglo-Norman dynasty, must have been incalculably great: and still "what manor is ancient demesne, and what is not, is determinable by Domesday alone." Its value, as an historical document, with the enquirer into the degrees of society and their customs; the political divisions of England; the aspect of the country; and numerous statistical particulars, in the 11th century; cannot be too highly appreciated at the existing period.

The

The word Domesday is of Saxon original, and signifies the book of judicial verdict.-Domesday Book illustrated by Kelham, p. 9.

+ Ibid, p. 7. after Burrow's Reports, Vol. II. p. 1048.

Some further account of the Record called Domesday is given in the List of Books appended to this " Introduction,"

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The pernicious act of King William the First, in separating the ecclesiastical and the civil courts, is a circumstance of so much influence in topographical history, that it requires a brief notice in this place. It is well known that every baron, during the early feudal ages, possessed the privilege of dispensing judgment to the tenants within his own domain, even to the dreadful extent of inflicting capital punishment. Prelates, abbots and priors, who held baronies of the crown, were, likewise, invested with the same power.

In addition to these local and peculiar seats of justice, each county had its court, over which the earl of that district presided; for the title of earl then involved official duties, both military and civil. In reward of the exercise of his judicial capacity in the court of his county, the earl received the third penny of all the dues, amerciaments and profits there arising.* This was necessarily a court of great importance. The bishop of the diocese sat with the earl, and all the principal ecclesiastics and freeholders of the county were constrained to attend.

But King William, about the year 1085, separated the ecclesiastical from the civil part of these county courts, directing that all causes relating to the church should be tried in courts consisting entirely of the clergy. It has been observed, on the authority of Blackstone,† that, in consequence of this regulation, "the crown and mitre were set at variance. The ecclesiastical courts, by putting themselves under the immediate protection of the pope, formed the clergy into a separate state under a foreign sovereign; which was productive of infinite mischief and dis orders."

The ecclesiastical courts now erected were three in number:the archdeacon's; the bishop's court, or consistory; and the archbishop's court, beyond which an appeal was permitted to the pope.

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• Vide Selden's Titles of Honour, &c.
+ Blackstone's Comment. Book 3. c. 5.

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The evils produced by this separation of the religious and civil authorities were felt through many succeeding ages, in the violations of social justice colamitted with impunity by the dissolute part of the clergy, and in the interdicts, excommunications, and other censures, imposed by the courts formed of ecclesiastics.

The modes of teuure introduced at the era of the Norman conquest, or growing into use as consequences of the system of government, and regulation of property, then adopted, involve seve ral terms which demand observation. Such are the words Honour and Barony, concerning the exact meaning of which a considerable misapprehension often prevails.

It is remarked by Mr. Madox, in Baronia Anglica, that, "In ancient times, the word Honor usually signified the lordship or fee of an earl, and the lordship or fee of a baron. But, in process of time, honor and barony came to be used as words of the same import. An honor, then, was the fee, or seigneury, of an earl, or baron; relieving of the crown of England."*

In

• Baronia Anglica, p. 2.-In the reign of Henry the Eighth a new species of Honour was created, in the instance of certain manors belonging to the crown. These were the manors of Ampthill, Hampton Court, and Grafton. But although they might, by the exercise of the royal power, acquire some of the properties of an honour, in being composed of several manors united together, and possessing a capital seat; yet they were incorrectly styled honours, as they had not previously constituted baronies, or the capital seats of baronies. It is observed by Madox (Baron. Angli. p. 9.) "that the essential and distinguishing property of an honor, vested in the king, was to be a Barony escheated;" which was not the case with the above-named manors, and they were consequently nominal, rather than proper, honours.-The existence of other nominal honours, which partake still less of the original meaning of the term, is noticed and explained in the following passage of Blackstone (Comment. Vol. II. p. 90-91, 8vo. edit.) "In the early times of our legal constitution, the king's greater barons, who had a large extent of ter ritory, held under the crown, granted out frequently smaller manors to inferior persons, to be holden of themselves; which do, therefore, now continue to be held under a superior lord, who is called, in such cases, the lord

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