Wilhs: Anglo-American Law 
73 
Substantive Law. The private antecedent rights recog- 
nized were those recognized in Anglo-Saxon times, personal 
safety, family, and property. The individual still remained 
submerged in the family. The serfs were not wholly eman- 
cipated, but their status as villeins was better than as 
serfs. Hence, altho the rights of personal safety and family 
were recognized both by the civil and criminal law, the right 
which bulked large was the right of property, and the rights 
of personal safety and family seemed incidental to the right 
of property. In other words, all of these rights were bound 
up in the feudal system. 
Feudal System. William the Conqueror introduced the 
feudal system into England. By his conquest he made good 
his pretended claim to the English throne, and thereby suc- 
ceeded to all the public land of the kingdom which had already 
come to be regarded as belonging to the king as supreme lord 
of the realm. He was also entitled to all the land of those 
who had opposed him, on the ground that it was forfeited to 
him under the customary law ; and in putting down rebellions 
in the years following his victory at Hastings he increased 
these forfeitures. Those of the English who had not forfeited 
their holdings to him and who were willing to accept him as 
king surrendered their holdings to him and received them back 
from him as supreme lord. In this threefold way all the 
land of the kingdom became the king’s land. The process was 
complete within twenty years after the Conquest. The feudal 
system was based on the doctrine that all the land in the 
kingdom was owned by the king, and as soon as William had 
established this doctrine the foundation for the feudal system 
was laid. He then proceeded to establish the next great char- 
acteristic of the English feudal system, that all land was held 
either directly or indirectly of the king. That is what is 
known as the theory of tenure. The king granted lands to 
lords, called tenants in capite, for military services to be 
rendered by them. These lords in turn regranted in smaller 
subdivisions parts of the land which they had received to their 
tenants or followers for military or agricultural services to be 
rendered to them and military service to be rendered the king 
as lord paramount (a peculiarity introduced by William I 
from Anglo-Saxon law). The second grantees in the same 
way could grant out parcels of their land to others, and so 
