Land Tenure and Agriculture. 93 



Even, however, in England the arbitrary power of the aris- 

 tocracy had induced the common people, whether inhabiting 

 country or borough, to purchase the protection and patronage 

 of some particular nobleman by annual payments ; and some of 

 these very nobility, if not powerful enough to stand alone, 

 formed confederacies with the object of united action against a 

 common aggressor.^ 



So far we have alluded to one class only of land taxation, viz. 

 the Trinoda Necessitas ; but besides this there was the Dane- 

 gelt, instituted by Ethelred the Unready, abolished by Edward 

 the Confessor, reinstated by the Conqueror, once more released 

 by Henry I., and finally so by Stephen,^ 



It was levied for purposes of national defence against, or as 

 bribes to the Danes, and was, if not the origin of, at any rate 

 the precedent for, the later land tax. It amounted to one 

 shilling per hide, and was imposed by the State.^ 



There was, too, the tithe charge on the produce of the land, 

 a subject, however, which requires further discussion in a fresh 

 chapter. 



^ Hume mentions a bond of this kind called sodalitium. 



^ Jacob, Law Dictionary^ sub voc. "Danegelt," 



^ Hume, History of England, Anglo-Saxon Period, Appendix I. 



