36 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE [ix. 



from the greater vassals alone. At least the great 

 vassals do not appear to have considered, that the 

 burdens to which they were subjected, received suffi- 

 cient compensation, through their corresponding rights 

 against those who held of themselves by military 

 service. The establishment of the Court of Wards 

 and Liveries, at the Reformation, must have rendered 

 the collection of the feudal dues of the Crown, 

 from the tenants in capite, more certain and rigorous 

 than before. 



We may therefore, I think, conclude that the 

 feudal system, as it existed in England, did not 

 favour the growth of the great estates, although the 

 eifect of the heavy burdens to which they were 

 regularly subject, may have been, in some cases, 

 compensated through the escheats and forfeitures by 

 which they were occasionally augmented. 



In some of the larger manors, there were probably 

 tenants who held of the lord by military service 

 but this second sub-infeudation was, I think, rare. 

 The socmen, though it may be, reduced in numbers, 

 remained as tenants of the manor: they were, of 

 course, still free, and still held by some certain 

 service or payments in money or kind, and by the 

 obligation or service of attending the manor court, 

 at stated intervals. These courts do not seem to 

 have been materially interfered with at the Conquest 

 The possession of such a court continued to be held 

 in estimation, as affording an accession of dignity, as 



