CHAPTER VI 

 THE MAGNATES 



" Quis tenuit earn T. R. E. ? Quis modo tenet ? " 



NEXT to the questions relating to the assessment area 

 and value of the various properties, these were the 

 most important questions propounded to the Cam- 

 bridgeshire jurors. It was necessary for the King to know, not 

 only the sum which any property would pay to the geld, but 

 also the person liable for that payment. The name of the 

 pre-Conquest landowner is given with the strictest regularity 

 in every county except Oxfordshire, where it is given only in 

 a few cases. 



In the first and foremost position in the list of landowners 

 came the King, a position to which King William was entitled, 

 not only because he was King, but because he was the largest 

 individual landowner in the kingdom. Domesday Book shows 

 that over 1 5 per cent, of the cultivated land of England was, in 

 1086, in the possession of the King. More than 15 per cent, 

 of the teams were that year employed on " Terra Regis," and 

 these estates were widely distributed. Terra Regis is recorded 

 in every county except Shropshire and Cheshire, although in 

 Middlesex the Conqueror had only 12^ acres of "no man's 

 land," and the land on which dwelt thirty-two cottagers, from 

 which he derived an income of i Js. 6^/. 1 This large terri- 

 tory came to King William by two main titles to some he 



1 See Table A. 

 85 



