WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 333

kingdom contained about 700 chief tenants, and c60,215 knights-fees ! °; and as none of the nativeEnedifh were admitted into the first rank, thefew, who retained their landed property, wereglad to be received into the second , and underthe protection of some powerful Norman , toload themselves and their posterity with thisgrievous burthen , for estates which they hadreceived free from their ancestors SI . The smallmixture of English , which entered into this civilor military fabric , (for it partook of both species )was so restrained by subordination under theforeigners , that the Norman dominion seemednow to be fixed on the most durable basis, andto defy all the efforts of its enemies.

The better to unite the parts of the govern-ment , and to bind them into one system, whichmight serve both for defence against foreigners,and for the support of domestic tranquillity ,William reduced the ecclesiastical revenuesunder the same feudal law ; and though hehad courted the church on his invasion andaccession , he now subjected it to services, whichthe clergy regarded as a grievous slavery , andas totally unbefitting their profession. 1 hebishops and abbots were obliged, when required,to furnish to the king during war a number of

50 Order. Vital. p. 523. Secretum Abbatis, apud Selden,Titles of Honour , p. 573. Spellm.Gloss, in verbo Feodum.fiir Robert Cotton.

51 M. West. p. 225. M. Paris, p. 4. Bracton, lib. 1.cap. XI. num. 1. Fkta, lib. 1. cap. 8- n. 2.

HAP.

IV.

1070.