A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



among those resident in the county were ^Ethelmaer ' of Bennington ' and 

 Anschil ' of Ware.' Even at the time of Domesday both places had 

 parks, and they must have been respectively the seats of the two thegns 

 I have named. Peter de Valognes obtained Bennington, and with it 

 /Ethelmasr's scattered estates in Sacombe, Layston, Ashwell, Hinxworth 

 and Radwell. In addition to these he secured, as will be seen under his 

 fief (p. 336), lands held in sundry places by various ' men ' of /Ethelmaer. 

 But it is important to observe that other lands which had been held by 

 * men ' of the same ^thelmar passed to different Norman lords. 1 With 

 Anschil the case was different. Beyond his great manor of Ware he 

 seems to have held no lands himself in Hertfordshire, although, I shall 

 argue, a large landowner in the adjoining county of Bedfordshire ; but 

 scattered about Hertfordshire we find his ' men.' 2 From these two 

 resident thegns we may turn to two magnates whose chief seats were in 

 Essex. Ansgar, Asgar or Esgar the ' staller,' 8 whose estates, ranging over 

 many counties, were bestowed on Geoffrey de Mandeville, was indeed 

 succeeded by him in his great manor of Sawbridgeworth and in his 

 estate at Shenley together with land in Hertford itself, but what strikes 

 one most on Geoffrey's Hertfordshire fief (fos. 139140) is the long list 

 of lands which had been held not by Ansgar, but by his ' men.' Nor do 

 these exhaust the list, for his ' men ' are found as the former holders of 

 lands on other fiefs 4 all over the county. This no doubt is a testimony 

 to Ansgar's great position on the eve of the Norman Conquest, as well 

 as to the fact that his father and grandfather had been men of note 

 before him. 6 The other of these two magnates was Robert Fitz Wimarc, 

 a foreign favourite of Edward the Confessor, whose chief seat was at 

 Rayleigh in south-east Essex. He held, it would seem, no estate in 

 Hertfordshire himself, but lands were held by ' men ' of his in sundry 

 parts of the county. 6 



Now what we learn from this analysis is that, however ' feudal ' in 

 appearance is the Anglo-Saxon tenure of land as entered in the Hertford- 

 shire Survey, the rights of a lord in his 'man's' land were far less than 

 after the Conquest, when the feudal system was established. Domesday 

 speaks, it is true, of Ansgar's fief (feuduni) as passing to Geoffrey de 

 Mandeville, 7 but the Hertfordshire evidence shows that in this so-called 

 fief there were not of necessity comprised the lands held by his ' men ' as 

 would have been the case with a fief under the Norman system. Two 

 instances in point are afforded in this county. ' Godid,' a ' man ' of 



1 Domesday, fos. 133^, 134^, 137^, 138, 140, 141^, 142. A 'man* of ' ^Elfric (Alvricus) of 

 Bennington' occurs on fo. 137^. This ^Elfric may have been ^Ethelmasr's predecessor, as there are 

 parallel cases in Domesday. 



* Ibid. fos. 133^ (2), 138, 141, 1413 (2). 



8 Dr. Stubbs observes that the ' constable ' of the Norman kings ' exercised the office of quarter- 

 master-general of the court and army and succeeded to the duties of the Anglo-Saxon staller ' (Const. 

 Hist. [1874],;. 354). 



* Domesday, fos. 133* (4), 134, 134*, 137, 137^ (3), 138^, 140, 142 (2). 

 6 See Freeman's Norman Conquest. 



6 Ibid. fos. 133^, 134, 137*, 141^. Robert Fitz Wimarc (on whom see Freeman's Norman Cm- 

 quest) was sheriff of Essex, as was Ansgar of Middlesex. 



7 ' Sed non pertinuit ad feudum Ansgari antecessoris Gosfridi ' (ii. 411). 



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