332

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

chat. the nobles themselves were every where treatediv. with ignominy and contempt; they had theioro. mortification of seeing their castles and manorspossessed by Normans of the meanest birth andlowest stations 48 ; and they found themselvescarefully excluded from every road, which ledeither to riches or preferment 4 ’.

Introduction As power naturally follows property , thisilw '* feuiU1 revolution alone gave great security to theforeigners ; but William , by the new institutionswhich he established , took also care to retain forever the military authority in those hands, whichhad enabled him to subdue the kingdom Heintroduced into England the feudal law, whichhe sound established in France and Normandy,and which , during that age , was the foundationboth of the stability and of the disorders , inmost of the monarchial governments of Europe.He divided all the lands of England, with veryfew exceptions, beside the royal demesnes , intobaronies ; and he conferred these , with the re-servation of stated services and payments , onthe most considerable of his adventurers. Thesegreat barons , who held immediately of thecrown , shared out a great part of their lands toother foreigners , who were denominated knightsor vassals , and who paid their lord the fameduty and submission in peace and war , whichhe himself owed to his sovereign. The whole

48 Order. Vital is , p. 521. M. 'Weft. p. 229.

" See note [ I ] at the end of the volume.