INTRODUCTION xxxi 



their possessions lay, only their estates were capable of being in- 

 herited by their sons of full age. The remainder of the ceorls had 

 sunk to the condition of bondsmen, whom the Normans designated 

 by the appellation of " villeins." They were a poor, oppressed 

 class, and can scarcely be considered as having been better than 

 the slaves, who are also mentioned in the Domesday Book. 



The feudal system introduced by the Normans, though bene- 

 ficial in some respects as tending to ensure the personal security 

 of individuals, operated powerfully against progress in agricultural 

 improvements. War and the chase, the two ancient and deadliest 

 foes of husbandry, formed the most prominent occupations of the 

 Norman princes and nobles. Thriving villages and smiling fields 

 were converted into deer forests, vexatious imposts were laid on the 

 farmers, and the serfs had no interest in the cultivation of the 

 soil. This may be inferred from the fact that as late as the close 

 *>f the thirteenth century the highest rent was sevenpence an acre, 

 while some land was let at as low as a penny per acre. Obviously 

 the forest laws and the restrictions on the killing of the depreda- 

 tors of crops so militated against agricultural pursuits that it was 

 scarcely worth striving to cultivate the ground, inasmuch as this 

 were more to the benefit of the chase than the farmer. 



But agriculture found encouragement among the ecclesiastics, 

 mainly because their lands were free for cultivation as they con- 

 sidered best calculated to augment their resources, and also that 

 they might derive most benefit from the tithe (Anglo-Saxon, theotha, 

 " a tenth part "), which is first mentioned in any written English 

 law in 786, a synod in that year enjoining the payment of tithes, 

 hence we may conclude not before compulsory. In 794, Offa, king 

 of Mercia, made a law whereby he gave the tithes of all his kingdom 

 to the Church, a law which was made general for all England by 

 Ethelwulf, and about 1200 A.D. the tithes of each parish were allotted 

 to its own particular minister by the written law of the land. 



The chief feature of Magna Charta as regards agriculture was 

 that many parts of the charter were pointed against the abuses of 

 the power of the king as lord paramount, the tyrannical exercise 

 of the provisions of the forest laws was checked, and many griev- 

 ances incidental to feudal tenures were mitigated. MAGNA CHARTA 

 LIBERATUM, the Great Charter of Liberties, was extorted from 

 King John by the confederated barons in 1215. A second con- 

 firmation of Magna Charta was granted by King Henry III, the 

 benefits of the charter being extended to Ireland. The Charter 

 of Forests, the ninth Act of Henry III, was the first statute by 

 which the forest law was explicitly determined. By this instru- 

 ment, which materially contributed to the comfort and prosperity 

 of the nation, all the forests which had been enclosed since the 

 reign of Henry II were thrown open, offences in the forest were 

 declared to be no longer capital, and men convicted of the once 



