THE MAGNATES 101 



The persons holding directly of the King kept some of 

 their estates in their own hands, and granted others to under- 

 tenants. Students must remember to distinguish between the 

 two usages of the word " demesne." Sometimes it implies 

 those estates which a magnate kept in his own hands, and 

 of which he received the produce ; sometimes it is opposed 

 to those portions of a single estate which were let to tenants, 

 in which case it implies the part of the estate which was 

 cultivated as a home farm. 



It must also be remembered that a man who held of the 

 King in chief was often the mesne tenant of one or more 

 of the county magnates. Thus Hugh de Forth held in 

 Hampshire fifty-six manors of the King in chief, thirteen 

 of the estates of the Bishop of Bayeux, and others of the 

 Bishop of Winchester, the Old Minster, the New Minster, 

 Chertsey Abbey, and Walter fitz Roger. 1 



On passing from the magnates to their mesne tenants, we 

 are at once met with a large number of knights. On the 

 estates of the Bishop of Lincoln in Oxfordshire, there were 

 five knights at Thame, six at Dorchester, two at Milton, eight 

 at Cropredy, and five at Banbury ; the Abbot of Eynsham 

 had three knights at Eynsham, and the Abbot of Abingdon 

 had one knight at Tadmarton. 



At Westminster there were twenty-five houses of the 

 knights and of other men of the abbot. 2 The description 

 of the lands of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Kent is 

 followed by a list of the lands of his knights ; and in many 

 cases where the bishops and monasteries are returned as 

 landowners, we read of knights who held under them. Who, 

 then, were these knights ? and what were their duties ? 



The pre-Conquest customs relative to military service have 



been already referred to (p. 69), and show that, T. R. E., the 



rule was that one heavy-armed soldier should be furnished 



by every 5 -hide unit, and that each hide gave him 4^. for his 



1 V. C. ff., Hants, i. 422. 2 D. B., I. 128 a 2. 



