DOMESDAY SURVEY 



Buckinghamshire we cannot recognize him as holding any manor but 

 that of Woburn, just across the Bedfordshire border, which had passed 

 with the rest of his lands to Walter Giffard. But in this county we 

 find him occurring as Walter's predecessor at Chilton, Easington, Dor- 

 ton, Pollicot, Akeley, Moreton, Beachampton, Bourton, Hillesden, 

 Woolstone, Linford. Of the manors, however, which had here been 

 held by ' men' of /Elfric, Walter only obtained one which had been 

 Wulfric's, one which had been Tofig's, two which had been Oswi's, 

 and one other. But the Count of Mortain, at six places, obtained the 

 lands of JElfric's ' men,' Milo Crispin did so at Bradwell, Countess 

 Judith succeeded to two of his thegns at Clifton, and Suerting was 

 given an estate which his ' man ' Gonni had held. From this it will 

 be seen that the lands of his men did not of necessity pass with 

 his own. 



One of the prominent features in the survey of this county is the 

 use of the term housecarl (' huscarle '). On the housecarls of the English 

 kings some learning has been expended, but the actual meaning of the 

 term at the time of the Norman Conquest remains by no means clear. Mr. 

 Freeman, who devoted an appendix to the subject, held that they were 

 ' a standing army,' and were described, in Harold's days, as ' stippen- 

 diarii et mercenarii.' On the other hand he knew that charters show 

 them to have been at times grantees of land. In Domesday itself there 

 are passages which seem to treat them as mercenary troops, 1 but when 

 we examine the names of the Buckinghamshire ' housecarls,' we are 

 struck by the fact that they are landowners, ' thegns ' with substantial 

 estates, and that those, moreover, who compiled Domesday drew no 

 distinction between the ' housecarl ' and the thegn. Of the seven men 

 in this county whom it styles housecarls of King Edward, Burchard is, 

 in two successive entries, styled ' huscarle regis E ' and ' teignus regis 

 E,' while under Buckingham itself he is Burchard ' of Shenley ' (' de 

 Senelai '). Now, as his lands went to Earl Hugh of Chester, and as his 

 name is a rare one, we cannot hesitate to see in him that Burchard whose 

 lands in Suffolk were obtained by Earl Hugh, and who had in that 

 county several men commended to him. Here then we have a consider- 

 able land owner described in one entry, and in one only, as a housecarl. 



Another considerable landowner whose name meets us several times 

 in the county is Azor ' films Toti,' who is described in one entry as a 

 ' man ' of Queen Edith and in one other as a ' housecarl.' Azor, in 

 addition to his own manors, had several ' men ' in Buckinghamshire, 

 which shows him to have been of consequence. Again Ulf, whose lands 

 here, as in Gloucestershire and Cambridgeshire, had been obtained by 

 Robert de ' Todeni,' is here styled a housecarl, but in Cambridgeshire is 

 a ' thegn of King Edward.' ' Tori ' or ' Thori,' who, in this county, is 

 twice described as a housecarl of King Edward, is almost certainly 

 identical with the man of that name who appears elsewhere within its 

 borders as a ' man ' or ' thegn ' of that king. ' Aldene,' who had pre- 



i They are even equated with ' soldarii ' in the Dorset portion of the survey. 



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