128 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



partial commendation would point to the same conclusion, if 

 we are right in considering these as cases of the descent of 

 the lord's right to co-heirs. Possibly the benefit of commenda- 

 tion was alienable by the lord. There was one man who was 

 common to the Abbots of Ely and St. Edmund's ; x but here 

 again it may have been that each abbot derived his rights 

 from one of two co-heirs. 



It was necessary to make this inquiry into the nature of 

 commendation in order to elucidate the real nature of the 

 Domesday freeholders ; they were at liberty to sell their 

 lands without the permission of any lord, and to enter into a 

 voluntary bond, known as commendation, by which they 

 became the retainers of a magnate in return for his protection. 

 But this bond did not necessarily confer on their lord any 

 rights over their land. What services they rendered in respect 

 of their lands they rendered to the King or to a grantee of 

 the King. 



The word " commend " is occasionally used in another 

 sense. Hitherto we have referred to its use to express the 

 voluntary subjection of an inferior to a superior. Occasionally 

 it is used to express a grant from a superior to an inferior. 

 Two brothers held land at Cromhall, but Earl William com- 

 mended them to the Reeve of Berkeley, that he might have 

 their service. 2 In the hundred of Wilge (Beds.) King William 

 commended a certain sokeman with half a hide to Osiet, his 

 prefect, " that so long as he lived he might provide him with 

 food and clothing." 3 The Abbot of Evesham commended the 

 two vills of Stoke and Hidcote to two of his knights. 4 In the 

 first two examples the commendation was evidently a grant 

 of services what, in pre-Conquest times, would have been 

 called a grant of " soke " and the third example is somewhat 

 similar in meaning. 



As opposed to the freeholder, the sokeman properly so 



1 D. B., II., 125 b. 2 Id., I. 163 a 2. 



3 Id., I. 218 b 2. * Id., I. 166 a i. 



