168 FORMS OF LAND TENURE. 



a different view, and considered that Baronies, from the 

 beginning, differed from mere Knight service, and that it was 

 only in a very restricted sense that persons holding of the King 

 simply by that tenure could be regarded as Barons. We accept 

 the opinion of the latter authority, and conceive that from 

 the beginning there must have existed among the tenants of 

 the Crown, a great diversity both as regards rank and property. 

 The question, however, is not without its difficulties, and the 

 unfortunate absence of records relating to the period in question, 

 is a bar to the uncertainty being satisfactorily cleared up. 

 It has been computed that at the time of the Domesday Survey 

 there were about 400 persons who held land immediately of the 

 King. In some instances the tenures were very small, and in 

 others exceedingly large, nevertheless it was, probably, not so 

 much with reference to the extent of the lands as in the nature 

 of the tenure, that the difference in the position of the tenant 

 consisted. It was, probably, only those to whom lands had 

 been granted to hold fer Baroniam, who were designated the 

 " Greater Barons," or " Bar ones Major es,^^ while the remainder 

 were merely Knightly tenants of the Crown. All were sum- 

 moned to the Great Council of the King — the former by 

 particular writs, whilst the latter, or '■'■Barones Minor es,^^ were 

 summoned generally through the Sheriffs of their counties. 



In the absence of any original record of the Knights' Fees 

 created by the Conqueror, Alexander Swereford, Archdeacon of 

 Shrewsbury, about 1225, one of the Barons of the Exchequer, made 

 from the Great Rolls of the Pipe, a large collection of scutages 

 paid between 2nd of Henry II, and 13th of John. It was intended 

 as the basis for making subsequent levies of the same nature, and 

 is the highest authority which we possess upon the subject. This 

 valuable collection is preserved in a volume known as the 

 '^ Liber Ruheus,^^ or " Eed Book of the Exchequer." Of the 

 entries in the original hand, there is not one of a later date than 

 1230, and we find the book quoted at a very early period. 



