Domesday and feudal Statistics 



Partial mencement of the reign of Hen. I., and from it 

 Moreton f arose very numerous capital tenants, to all appear- 

 Escheat. anc e, ut de corona ; thus, Earl Reginald in Corn- 

 wall (c. 215^- fees), succeeding Wm. /. Richard, 

 whose father may have been the Earl's undertenant 

 in D. B. ; Ric. de Aquila. (35) ; Galf. Martell 

 (7); Bern. Pullein (i) ; Wm. /. John de Harper- 

 tree ; Wm. /. John ; Ric. /. Wm. ; Nich. /. Hard- 

 ing ; Ric. del Estre ; Walt. Brito (15); Ro. 



or 500 or more milites led by the Earl of Moreton to the 

 musters of Wm. I. the nos. almost alike improbable. It may 

 be observed that the services (to scutage), /. Hen. II., were 

 approximately in total on an equality with the infeudations 

 the current theory therefore involves all the " Knights" (say 

 6,000-7,000) being present in exercitu: yet the Roman de Rou 

 (lines 11,253-9, and Feudal England, p. 260), makes Wm./I 

 Osbern (certainly not with the approbation of his compeers), 

 offer to double the chevaliers for the expedition to England 

 (1066), that the barons could easily have so done is not 

 Evidence improbable, as by the Norman Inq., /. Hen. II., the figures 

 ^ the , of which by no means reach Wads [he names 20, 30, and 

 /? OUm ' 100 chevaliers to become 40, 60, and 200]. The Roman de Rou 

 [lines 11,364 5] cites Duke Wm. as setting his baronage an 

 excellent example of evading feudal obligations to his lord, 



Petit serf mais meins servira 

 Quant plus ara meins vos fera 



to be compared with the tarn parvam fortitudinem hominum 

 secum adducet quam minor em poterit it a tamen ne inde feodum suum 

 erga Regem Francice forisfaciat of the Dukes of Flanders in 

 the already cited conventions of 1101, 1103, and 1163, and 

 the ten (1103), and twenty (1163) milites to the assistance of 

 the French Kings as service, whilst to the English ones, 1,000 

 and 500 " Knights " can be furnished (for cash down). What 

 is recorded of the Conqueror's lay Baronage either in England 

 or Normandy very little suggests they would rigidly conform 

 to any fixed and definite military obligations in exercitu, the 

 diminution of the army service of Bp. Bayeux from 40 

 (t. Hen. I.), to 20 (f. Hen. II.), has already been remarked. 



