Preface. ix 



the actual number of those classes ; again it seems 

 to amount to a matter of demonstration that the 

 Carucates of Norfolk (supposedly also Suffolk), 

 were usually neither Fiscal Units nor Teamlands. 



A theory is current that the total "Service" of 

 the Military Fees of England was equivalent to 

 the number of Milites due from the feudal tenants 

 in exercitu ; such a doctrine has nothing a priori 

 in its favor, save facility of computation, nor has 

 it (so far as I am aware), any general support from 

 records, but very much the reverse. 



There is, of course, no attempt here to develope 

 the History of the Feudal System in England ; 

 the publication of some recent volumes of the 

 Rolls Series allowed their editor the opportunity of 

 suggesting (and little more], at considerable length, 

 certain views, scarcely probable in themselves, and 

 which could not have been put forward at all, had 

 a few elementary data, concerning the military 

 tenures of this country, been available for general 

 reference. 



The view that one plough could, and did, //'// 

 annually 120 acres of arable land, has been long 

 established, and is, of course, completely at vari- 

 ance with any known practice of Agriculture in 

 this country ; as theories of this Art are usually 



