THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY &> NATURALIST. 



freemen, who could not remove without losing the land 

 according to the testimony of the jury of the hundred. 

 Only a few examples of this tenure existed in Hampshire 

 at the time of the Conquest. 



This great manor of Micheldever, with its dependent 

 manors, appears to have been ancient demesne land of the 

 kings of Wessex, and there can be little doubt that it was 

 the land which King Alfred specially intended as the en- 

 dowment of his projected New Minster, afterwards the 

 Abbey of Hyde. Certain it is that his son King Edward 

 the Elder, who carried out his father's intentions, conveyed 

 Micheldever to the Abbey in the first year of his reign. 



MICHELDEVER IN ITS RELATION TO ENGLISH HISTORY. 



This charter of Edward the Elder is dated 901,30 that 

 Micheldever has nearly a thousand years of history. The 

 charter states that the king gave this land, amounting to 

 100 hides, to the Abbey " for the good of his soul," and the 

 gift was witnessed by many of the chief men of the king- 

 dom. The moot, or meeting place, for the hundred is 

 mentioned in this charter. In 904 the same king made a 

 supplementary grant of land adjoining his former grant, 

 this latter being specially given for the purposes of the 

 monks' refectory. This second grant was what is now 

 Stoke Charity, and the extensive lands of these and other 

 grants were peaceably held by the Abbey until the time of 

 the Norman Conquest. At that time Hyde Abbey was 

 ruled by an abbot named Elfwy, who was a brother of Earl 

 Godwin and uncle of King Harold. Under such circum- 

 stances, when the Norman invasion was imminent, the 

 Abbey resolved to support the cause of Harold, and twelve 

 monks of Hyde took up arms and joined the Saxon army 

 with twenty other men-at-arms, some of whom were no 

 doubt drawn from this manor of Micheldever. The monks 

 were all slain on the field of Hastings or Senlac, and 

 probably many of the men-at-arms also. The Conqueror 

 on learning that the monks had fought against him is said 

 to have remarked that the " abbot was worth a barony and 

 each monk worth a manor." He took from the 

 Abbey the lordship of Andover and several great manors- 

 In addition, he laid his hand heavily on Micheldever. I 

 have already mentioned at Stoke Charity that 200 years 

 afterwards the title of the de Ferity family to that manor 

 was still that derived from the right of Conquest, and is 

 entered in our National Records as " ex conquestu Angl." 

 (in right of the conquest of England). That part of this 

 great domain which had been given to the Abbey of Hyde 

 by King Edward the Elder for the purposes ol the monks' 

 refectory was taken from them, and never returned ; while, 

 in addition, the Conqueror worked his vengeance on the 

 abbey whose military monks died while fighting against 

 him on the field of Senlac, by imposing on Micheldever 

 manor for the future the burden of three knights' fees. 

 There appears to me to have been stern irony in this 

 vengeance, in thus imposing military burdens on the 

 monks of that abbey whose predecessors dared to assume 

 military functions, although in the defence of their 

 country. As we study the antiquities of our country 

 parishes in Hampshire we have brought before us very 

 forcibly many circumstances in the ancient life of England 

 which the history of our towns does not bring out so well. 

 One country place has archaeological associations of one 

 kind and one of another. Micheldever brings before us 

 the consequences of the Norman Conquest, and brings 

 home to ns the nature and burden of knight's service. 

 This military tenure of land prevailed in England from the 

 Norman Conquest until the time of the Commonwealth, 

 when the great political revolution swept it away, and on 

 the restoration of the Stuarts an Act of Parlia- 

 ment was passed, 12 Charles II (so quoted), i.e. 1660, 



which abolished it by statute. Since that time the 

 national delence has been provided for by other means. 

 We may feel quite sure that this military tenure of land at 

 Micheldever was intended by the Conqueror to be no 

 nominal matter, and we may also feel sure that the Abbot 

 of Hyde was often called upon during the reigns of the 

 Norman and Plantagenet kings to send his Micheldever 

 contingent to their frequent wars. We can realise to some 

 extent what this feudal tenure was like, from the number 

 of writs requiring his military service which the Abbot re- 

 ceived during one reign, that of Edward II, a record of 

 which still exists. 



In the second year of Edward II the Abbott was sum- 

 moned to send his service against the Scots, to assemble 

 at Carlisle on August 22. 



The dependent manors of Micheldever, which were held 

 of the Abbot by knight's service wereCranbourn, Drayton, 

 Popham and Stratton, and about this time the Knight of 

 Cranbourn was Sir Hugh de Braiboef, the Knight of Dray- 

 ton was Sir Roger Woodlock, the Knight of Popham Sir 

 John de Popham, and the Knight of Stratton Sir Richard 

 de Stratton, all of whom held their lands under the Abbey 

 and were liable for service. 



In the third year of Edward II the Abbot received 

 another writ, ordering his service to meet for further war 

 against the Scots, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, on September 29. 



In the fourth year of the same king the Micheldever 

 knights were ordered by the Abbot's writ to assemble at 

 Tweedmouth on September 19, and probably owing to their 

 deaths or wounds in previous campaigns the Abbot was 

 unable to supply three knights, and so he begged the king 

 to allow the services required of the three knights from 

 this manor to be performed by one knight and four men at 

 arms, with six barbed horses, and his request appears to 

 have been allowed. 



In the seventh year of Edward II he received another 

 writ ordering his knights to assemble at Berwick-on- 

 Tweed,on June 10. This was in the year 1314. Fourteen 

 days later the battle of Bannockburn was fought. Two years 

 later the Micheldever knights had to meet the army at 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne on July 10, the day being subsequently 

 postponed by another writ to August 10. 



In the eleventh year of the same king the Abbot was 

 ordered to send his knights to Newcastle-on-Tyne by Sep- 

 tember 15. 



In the twelfth year of Edward II another writ ordered 

 them to assemble at York on August 25, all these wars 

 being against the Scots. 



In the fifteenth year of the same king the knights were 

 required to assemble for military service at Coventry, on 

 February 28, to fight against the adherents of the Eaii of 

 Lancaster, who was in rebellion. 



A year later the Abbot was ordered to send his service 

 to Newcastle-on-Tyne by July i, for further war against the 

 Scots, but he was subsequently discharged from sending 

 his service. In the next year, on receipt of another writ, 

 the Abbot appears to have had no knights to send, and 

 so was allowed to pay a fine in lieu of the service of his 

 knights from this manor. 



In the i8th year of Edward II he was ordered to send his 

 knights to Portsmouth for service in Gascony, but was 

 subsequently again discharged from this duty. Happily as 

 regards all this fighting the times are changed, so that to. 

 day we visit Micheldever in peace and bring some of the 

 Scots with us. 



One of the National Records has preserved for us the 

 names of about 24 of the socmen of the Abbot of Hyde, at 

 Micheldever, about the year A.D. 1290. These socmen were 

 small farmers, who paid a rent to the Abbey in lieu of the 



