F0BM8 OF LAND TENURE. 165 



entirely of an oath. Littleton writes, " When a freeholder 

 (frank tenant), doth fealty to his lord, he shall hold his right hand 

 upon a Book (the book of the Gospels), and shall say thus : 

 ' Know ye this, my Lord, that I will be faithful and true unto 

 you, and faith to you shall bear, for lands which I claim to hold 

 of you, and that I shall lawfully do to you the customs and 

 services which I ought to do at the terms assigned, so help me 

 God and his Saints,' and he shall kiss the book; but he shall 

 not kneel when he maketh his fealty, nor make such humble 

 reverence as is aforesaid in homage." 



Investiture, or the actual conveyance of Feudal lands, was of 

 two kinds, proper and improper. Proper investiture was an 

 actual putting into possession upon the ground, either by his 

 lord or his deputy, for which in the case of the King a writ was 

 usually directed to the Sheri:ff or escheator of the district which 

 is called Livery of Seizen. The second method was symbolical, 

 and consisted in giving a turf, a branch, a wand, or whatever 

 else might be the local custom. 



The above-mentioned solemn declaration and oath had a 

 great moral effect, bound up as they were with the appearance 

 of mutual interchange of benefits of bounty and protection on 

 the part of the lord, and gratitude and service due on the part of 

 the vassal, and so strong were these feelings during the period 

 in which the spirit of the feudal system obtained, that the ties of 

 natural relationship were regarded as of inferior obligation to 

 the claims of fealty. 



Long before the Norman Conquest, the alodial principle, 

 upon which the lands in this country had to a considerable 

 extent been originally held by the Saxons, had generally given 

 way to the feudal, so that William did not altogether introduce 

 a new principle, and, indeed, it was not until some time after 

 the Conquest that the system of Fees and Military Service was 

 definitely introduced. 



The submission of the country to the Norman yoke was for 

 a considerable period incomplete. At first, William possessed 

 but a small portion of the lands of the kingdom, but forfeitures 

 were constantly arising, and before the end of twenty years we 

 find that nearly the whole area of the country had passed into 



