105 Domesday and Feudal Statistics 



is left indefinite ; but certain it seems the feudal 

 tenure of Normandy, as portrayed by that author, 

 was the antecessor of that introduced into England. 

 Just as some of the milites of D. B. and 1166 



t.Hen. i. ' are demonstrably and presumably not " Knights," 

 so also in the return of the milites of the Abbot of 

 Peterboro' (Chron. Pet. t. Hen. I.) occur soche- 

 manni et serviunt cum militibus, but it would be 

 hard to credit their appearance as " Knights " 

 habentes equos, et loricas, et cassides, et clypeos, et 

 lanceaS) in exercitu, tho' they might very well 

 serve in nummis. 



Without falling back on the writ described as 



service of startling in Feudal England (p. 303) ; the writ, 

 P- 34> ibid.) and also in Ellis' Introd. to D. B., 

 vol. ii. (p. 447, ed. 1833) in which the Abbot of 

 Evesham is ordered to lead 5 milites [in his charter 

 4-^, and \ fee new ; returns 4^ fees for scutage 

 (aid) 14 Hen. II., and 38 Hen. III., and recog- 

 nizes the service of as many in exercitu^ 5 Ed. I., 

 and 4 Ed. II.], there is no refusing""" the conclusion 



txercitu. 



The pre- 

 decessor of 

 Ranulf 

 Flambard 

 disseised 

 for defect 

 of service, 

 ttc. 



* The statement that Ranulf Flambard (Bp. Durham), 

 devised feudal service, can obtain but little beyond our halls 

 of learning, for his predecessor temporarily lost that Bprick 

 (1088), in that, after oral summons he withdrew himself, and 

 his milites, in the King's necessity, etc,: this was Bp. Wm. sancti 

 Carilef. [the American Plac. Ang. Norm., ed. 1879, cites the 

 case, giving reference, but not identifying the prelate, but vide 

 Simeon of Durham], whom Lanfranc proposed to treat after 

 the manner of Bp. Odo t. Wm. I. Indeed strictly contem- 

 porary evidence (Hist. Eccl. T)UK., written there) renders it 

 clear that Bp. Walcher's neglect in restraining his milites led 

 to his death in 1080 : it may be suggested that A.S. history 

 would yield a more suitable range for the Tm agin es Historiarum 

 of the romantic school, as furnishing for speculative genius a 

 scope both ample and comparatively secure. 



