26 Growth of the Manor 



In 1069 the Anglo-Saxon leaders in Yorkshire revolted against 

 the Norman rule. He set out to quell the rebellion. He 

 slaughtered the inhabitants of the county between the Humber 

 and the Tees and laid it waste so thoroughly that when the 

 Domesday inquiry was made several years later the only inhabi- 

 tants on 411 manors were 35 villains and 8 bordars. He waged 

 war with a skill, determination, and thoroughness far beyond any 

 of his predecessors or rivals, and the practice of war to this point 

 of perfection deprived Englishmen of almost every form of freedom 

 except freedom from foreign attack or serious internal quarrels. 

 The Anglo-Saxons had travelled far from the time when as freemen 

 they spent the whole of their lives in hunting and war. William, 

 according to the Saxon Chronicle, ( made large forests for the deer, 

 and enacted laws concerning them, so that whoever killed a hart or 

 a hind should be blinded. As he forbade killing the deer, so also 

 the boars, and he loved the tall stags as if he were their father.' 



The forests and the laws which governed them were a cause of 

 strife between the barons and the kings, and of grievance to other 

 people. The kings were constantly trying to extend the forests, 

 while the barons and freeholders were trying to encroach on 

 them. When any part of the country was made into a forest, 

 the king had a monopoly of hunting, and the barons lost their 

 rights. The freeholders could not clear away trees, or take any 

 steps to bring land in the forests under cultivation. Poorer 

 people could not get fuel or material for building without paying 

 what the foresters demanded. Inside the forests the common law 

 of the country was not in force. The inhabitants had to attend 

 the forest courts. They were compelled to give information in 

 any case of poaching, and if they failed to satisfy the king's 

 officials, they were fined in an arbitrary manner. 



As late as 1250, in the reign of Henry III, Matthew Paris says : 

 ' At this time a certain knight, named Geoffrey of Langley, a 

 royal bailiff and inquisitor of trespasses in the royal forests, made 



