Feudal Statistics 108 



Beauchamp (17); Hen. Lupel (18) ; Wm. Fos- 

 sard (3iY)> presumbably the successor of Nigel 

 Fossard,* Earl Moreton's Yorkshire undertenant ; 

 and many others, including the Honor of Berk- 

 hamstead retained in the hands of the Crown 

 (22-2- fees), it seems clear enough that all these 

 servitia deHta are of /. Hen. I., and have no very 

 direct connection with the number of milites Earl 

 Robert led to the Conqueror's musters, tho' per- 

 haps in some relation to the " Knights " that had 

 been enfeoffed, and the pecuniary assistance they 

 could render. 



The charters of Earl Hugh and Wm. de Albenia Early 

 (Pincerna) are good evidence to demonstrate early 

 lay systematic enfeofFments on an ample scale, by tenants. 

 the unit of Knight Service ; for Roger Bigot de- 

 parted this life in 1 107 \Vitalis}, or i iQ%(Hoveden};\ 



* The Fossard fief in the Baronial Charters (1166) is 

 entered under Suffolk, but is essentially a Yorkshire one, and 

 so answered in the Pipe Rolls : a few of the tenants named 

 were capital tenants (apart from the fees of Moreton), thus 

 Nich. f. Harding, whose fief of Meriet had been held since Fees held 

 the acquest of England [T. de N. ; also in D. B.], but very s> nce the 

 few of any minor capital tenants of 1 1 66 can be traced to England 

 D. B. : of these Rog. de Berkeley is one, but part of his 

 holding had been at fee farm, part under his reeveship, and 

 but a minority by possible Knight Service. The fief of Belet 

 [1210-1212 ; vol. ii. L. R. p. 545] is clearly that of D. B. 

 [i. 84/2], and is rated as I fee in 1 166 \debet servitiumj militif\ t 

 but the Wm. Belot of 1086 \ut sup.], is returned amongst the 

 servientes regis I do not suppose that one in 100 of the 

 numerous thanes and servientes of the King (1086) could be 

 traced as capital Crown tenants 1166, by knt. service. 



t Vide also Florence of Worcester, from whose Chronicle 

 it descends to Rog. de Hoveden. 



