22 Growth of the Manor 



survived and remained. These were appropriated by the King 

 himself, or handed over to his Norman barons. William was 

 determined to make war in earnest, and he was supremely capable 

 of doing it. He resolved to increase the military strength of 

 the country to the utmost. No resentment, reluctance, or 

 indifference of any part of the country was to delay and weaken 

 his military operations as they had done those of King Harold 

 and his predecessors. 



The country was already divided into townships, and it was 

 through them that he took a firmer grip of its allegiance and 

 strength. The township often came to be called the manor, and 

 the manor was in the first place a piece of military organization, 

 although it was through it that agriculture was organized. Life 

 was still simple. From the king downwards every one did 

 many different things. The king was the acting commander-in- 

 chief of the army, the chief lawgiver, the chief judge, and the 

 head of the whole agricultural organization of the country ; the 

 nobles under him were commanders in the army, lawgivers, judges, 

 and heads of the agricultural organization in a number of manors. 



In 1086, twenty years after his invasion, William had a survey 

 of the country made. He wished to know who held the land, 

 how much they paid for it, and how much more they might be 

 able to pay. He wished to make sure that every man contributed 

 his proper share to the fighting strength of Britain. The survey 

 was made by king's commissioners, and the information about the 

 land was given on oath by the sheriff of the shire, by officers of 

 the hundred (a division of the shire), by the priest, the reeve and 

 six villains or smallholders, of each township. The book in which 

 all this information was entered is called Domesday Book, because 

 the people said that the inquiry into what every one possessed, 

 and what every one did, was as searching and exact as would be 

 the investigation on the Day of Judgement. 



Manors varied greatly in size, but the land was shared by the 



