1 64 History of the English Landed Interest. 



But eacli of these is further subdivided into numerous minor 

 distinctions whose meanings have often baffled the deepest 

 antiquarian research. Of the tenants in capite, all of whom 

 held lands direct from the king, perhaps the " Barones regis " 

 were the greatest. They were his immediate freeholders, hold- 

 ing areas of land neither determinate in size nor number of 

 fees. There were, too, the " Earls Palatine," whose state was 

 little less than regal ; and there were " earls " simply, who lived 

 little less magnificently. They had their own castles, techni- 

 cally termed heads of the barony, which were well fortified 

 and endowed with many privileges, and their demesnes were 

 exempt from the tax of Danegeld. Tenure in capite of the 

 king was twofold; viz. "in capite ut de corona," and "in 

 capite ut de honore ; " the first of which signified a tenure 

 originally "feft" by the king himself, out of his own demesne, 

 to hold to the feoffee and his heirs, of the king and his heirs ; 

 and the latter came into use when escheats and wardships 

 fell into the king's hands. Many of the " liberi homines " 

 mentioned in the Survey were tenants in capite of the king. 

 A " Miles " ^ might be a baron, in which case he took his 

 name from the military fee and not from the ceremony of 

 investiture with the accolade, girdle, and spurs, by which 

 knights were created. Many of the Saxon thanes became 

 Milites at the Conquest, and are called in the Survey Minis- 

 tri or Servientes, though it is possible that the term Taini 

 may include men of higher grade than either of the other 

 two. 



Next in importance come the subfeudarii, of whom the 

 vavassours take precedence. These held manors or honours of 

 a mesne lord, not immediately of the king. Subinfeudation 



^ The truth is, that the creation called a knight's fee was a gradual pro- 

 cess arising out of definite grants by lords to their subfeudarii, whom they 

 designated knights. Speaking generallj', the knight's fee is of later date 

 than the Conqueror's survey, but the practice was introduced in Saxon 

 times. These tenures were probably but carelessly looked after until the 

 auxilium railitum of the first Henry's time and the later scutage pay- 

 ment drew upon them the tax-collector's eye. Comp. Stubbs, Constit. 

 Hist., chap, ix., p. 284. 



