A HISTORY OF DORSET 



William. It has been pointed out that there is a priori likelihood that 

 William would not leave this important post, which was also a royal fortified 

 borough, without a castle. It seems more likely that the confusion between 

 Corfe and Wareham is a slip in Domesday Book rather than that the castle of 

 Corfe was known as Wareham for a long period. The solitary Pipe Roll of 

 Henry I mentions the castle of Wareham, and in i io6 Henry had imprisoned 

 Robert of Belesme there.^ 



Domesday itself, however, tells us that the destruction of houses in 

 Dorchester, Shaftesbury, and Wareham dates 'a tempore Hugonis vicecomitis,' 

 the Wareham entry ' further describing it as continuing usque nunc. This 

 clearly points to the exactions of the Norman sheriffs, for Aiulf would appear 

 to have followed Hugh's example. Of Lincoln, Domesday expressly states 

 that seventy-four houses ' which are waste within the limits of the castle are 

 not so as the result of the oppression of the sheriff or his servants, but by 

 misfortune, poverty, or fire,' ' thus plainly showing the frequency of shrieval 

 exactions. None of the Dorset towns had been able to contract with 

 William to hold their liberties by a fee-farm rent. It has been seen that 

 Hugh was an unscrupulous and avaricious man. His exactions would not 

 improbably do much towards bringing these towns to destitution, since, 

 unlike many country manors, they were without the protection of powerful 

 owners, able to look after their interests.* 



In the process of substitution of a Norman for an Anglo-Danish land- 

 holding class, Dorset, though eventually thoroughly Normanized, suffered 

 a less violent convulsion than some of the eastern or midland counties. 

 Normanizing tendencies had been actively at work during the reign of the 

 Confessor. Certain geographical and personal causes tended to counter- 

 balance the Godwin national party. The harbour of Wareham was more 

 frequented than any port in southern England. This ensured the constant 

 passage through the shire of Normans going to and from Winchester and 

 Westminster. King Edward himself had held in demesne more than a fifth 

 of the county, and his preferences are undoubted. Emma his mother had 

 held Wyke, Elwell, and Weymouth.' His sister. Countess Goda, married 

 successively to Drogo count of the Vexin, Walter count of Mantes, and 

 Eustace count of Boulogne, had held lands in Melcombe and Tarrant 

 Hinton. After the death by poison of her son Walter, King Edward was 

 her rightful heir. Brictric, Matilda's English lover, had lands in Ashmore, 

 Boveridge, Mappowder, Loders, Affrington, Tyneham, and Tarrant Gunville. 

 Further, even had the Godwin territorial influence been greater than was 

 actually the case, the ravages of Godwin at Portland in 1052, during his 

 outlawry,* must have earned him local ill-will. Even before the Conquest 

 large tracts of land were in the hands of the Church, and her sons would be 

 scandalized at the behaviour of Tostig, but still more indignant at the 

 exactions of Harold. In the absence of danger from Welsh or other 

 foes Harold did not become a hero in common eyes. He took from 

 St. Mary of Shaftesbury the fat manor of Sture (East and West Stour) 



' Ann. Marg. Wlnt. and Waverl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 10 ; ii, 42, 44, 2 1 5. 

 ^ Dom.Bk.\,-]%. 'Ibid. 33iJ. 



' See also Eyton, Dor:et Dom. 72 ; EngL Hist. Rev. xx, 703-11, and ibid. 1902, pp. 296, 297 ; ibid. 

 25, sqq. 



' Hutchins, Dorset, ii, 814. ' Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 319. 



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