4 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



Certainly the student would find mention of a battle at 

 York, 1 of another at Hastings, 2 of a battle of Harold " contra 

 Norrenses," 3 and of an otherwise unknown naval battle 

 against King William, 4 but we are not told between whom 

 the battles at York and Hastings were fought, and except for 

 the statement that Dover was burnt on King William's first 

 coming to England, 5 and a casual reference to the time when 

 there was peace in the land, 6 there is no indication that King 

 William came in hostile manner. The student would, how- 

 ever, notice that in the vast majority of instances, a man bear- 

 ing a foreign name had supplanted an English landowner, and 

 this fact, coupled with the mention of the time when "the 

 English redeemed their lands," might suggest to him that the 

 country had been conquered by foreigners, who had evicted 

 the majority of the conquered landowners, but allowed a few 

 to remain on payment of a fine. 



As a consequence of this assumption that the Conqueror 

 was the rightful heir of the Confessor, and had succeeded to 

 all his rights and privileges, Edward's subjects were his sub- 

 jects, Edward's laws were his laws, Edward's lands were his 

 lands, and Edward's revenues were his revenues. From his 

 point of view, Englishmen owed to him the same duties as 

 they had owed to the deceased Confessor, and first and fore- 

 most of these duties was the duty of loyal obedience. In this 

 they had failed, both when they assisted Harold at the battle 

 of Hastings, and then in the many insurrections which broke 

 out during the Conqueror's reign. Domesday Book always 

 regards forfeiture as the natural consequence of outlawry. It 

 is uncertain whether, under the old English law, a conviction 

 for treason involved outlawry, and therefore a forfeiture of the 

 guilty person's lands. This much is certain, that the Con- 

 queror considered that all who had been in arms against him 



1 D. B., II. 15. 2 Id., I. 50 a I ; II. 275 b. 



* Id., 177 b. 2. * Id., II. 14 b. 



8 Id., I. I a I. Id., I. 12 a 2. 





