THEIR CONDITION IN 1066 121 



military service. 1 In some places "X, a freeman, held it," 

 and " X held freely," appear to be interchangeable, and " free- 

 holder " would therefore be the better translation of " liber 

 homo," as by this translation we avoid any implied antithesis 

 between freedom and slavery. The liberty on which our 

 record lays stress was not personal liberty, but liberty of 

 commendation. 



The Ramsey Charter, previously quoted, shows that the 

 King could grant to a third party the services arising from 

 his freeholders. He was thus alleged to have granted to the 

 Abbey of St. Edmund the soke of the freeman at Mulcefel, 

 who had previously been "in soca regis." 2 He must have 

 made many such grants in Cambridgeshire, for of many of the 

 sokemen with liberty of commendation (i.e. freeholders) it is 

 said that their soke remained to the Abbot of Ely, or to Edith 

 the Fair, or to other persons. And where there were no 

 grants, the magnates did not hesitate to " invade " the 

 smaller freeholders : most of the " invasiones super Regem " 

 in Essex were cases in which the magnates had wrongfully 

 deprived the King of his rights over freemen over those who 

 were at liberty to sell their land. 



The differences, therefore, between the freeholder and the 

 sokeman in those counties where the two classes were dis- 

 tinguished were (i) that the former was at liberty to sell his 

 land, or to commend himself to a lord of his choice, while 

 the latter had no such liberty ; (2) that the former normally 

 rendered his services to the King, and the latter rendered 

 his services to a private individual. Hence we understand 

 the existence of five sokemen at Belchamp (Essex), of whom 

 two were formerly freemen : 3 the services which these free- 

 holders used to render to the King were now rendered to 

 Ingelric, and they therefore became his sokemen. 



When we remember the similarity of the services rendered 

 by both freeholders and sokemen, we need not be surprised 



1 D. B., I. 172 a i. 2 id., II, 360 b 2. /</., II. 28 b. 



