THEIR CONDITION IN 1066 131 



and yet they commended themselves to Walter Gifard with- 

 out the abbot's precept. 1 The practical outcome of this trans- 

 action seems to have been that Walter Gifard became the 

 abbot's tenant, and the former tenants became his sub- 

 tenants. With this should be compared the record of the 

 purchase of Stoke (Kent) by Earl Godwin from two tenants 

 of the Bishop of Rochester, in ignorance that they were his 

 tenants ; but after the Conquest, Archbishop Lanfranc re- 

 covered the land from the Bishop of Bayeux, who had 

 succeeded Godwin. 2 



The services rendered by the sokemen were various, and 

 were sometimes heavier than those rendered to the King by 

 his freeholders. In addition to the service rendered to the 

 King in respect of I hide at Bisley, which service had been 

 granted to the Bishop of Worcester, Brictric also supplied 

 provisions to the bishop every year. 3 For certain land which 

 Godric leased of the Abbey of Pershore for three lives, 

 he gave to the monks one farm, or a certain quantity of 

 provisions every year. 4 The statistics relating to the triple 

 hundred of Oswaldslaw are preceded by a statement that 

 the lands were the demesne of the Church of Worcester, and 

 were let to tenants who were bound to surrender them at 

 the end of their terms, and could not turn themselves where 

 they would with their land ; 5 and with a monotonous regu- 

 larity we read that the pre-Conquest tenants served the 

 bishop " according to his will or request (sicut voluerit, or sicut 

 deprecari poterat) ; " some of them were stated to serve as 

 radmans. The Gloucestershire radecltenistre, or riding knight, 

 is explained as being a freeman who " nevertheless, according 

 to the need of his lord, ploughed and harrowed and reaped 

 and mowed ; " 6 and the careful reader will at once notice 

 that these were services that would be rendered only at 

 specially busy times. Domesday Book records two radmans 



1 D. B., I. 59 a i. 2 Id., I. 5 b 2. 3 Id., I. 173 a 2. 



4 Id., I. 175 a 2. 5 Id., I. 172 b i. 6 Id., I. 166 a 2. 



