day, proftrate on the ground and in the mire before Henry II. complaining with many tears and much doleful lamentation, that the bifhop of Winchester, who was alfo their abbot, had cut off three dishes from their table. How many has he left you? faid the King. Ten only, replied the difconfolate monks. I myfelf, exclaimed the king, never had more than three and I enjoin your bishop to reduce you to thre fame number.

:

CHAP. III.

OF THE ANGLO-NORMAN CONSTITUTION, GOVERNMENT, AND LAWS.

HE feudal law is the chief foundation both of the THE government and jurif-prudence established by the Normans in England. According to the principles of this law, the king was the fupreme lord of the landed property; for the term feudal implies, that any poffeffion fo called is held from another. The land was conceived to be a fpecies of benefice, for which the vaffal owed stated services to his baron, as the baron himself did to the crown. The vallal was obliged to defend his baron in war; and the baron, at the head of his vaffals, was bound to fight in defence of the king and kingdom.

As the duke of Normandy, by taking the ufual oath adminiftered to the Anglo-Saxon kings at their coronation, had folemnly engaged to maintain the conftitution, the English nation had reafon to believe, that they had only changed their native fovereign for one of foreign extraction. But though William for fome time affected moderation, and even adopted fome, of the laws of Edward the Confeffor, he foon utterly fubverted the form of government, and in its ftead fubftituted a rigid feudal monarchy, or military ariftocracy, in which a regular chain of fubordination and fervice was eftablifhed. This was attended with a grievous depreffion

preffion of the body of the people, who were daily exposed to the infults and exactions of the nobles, whofe vaffals they were, and from whofe oppreffive jurifdiction it was difficult and dangerous for them to appeal. This depreffion, as might be expected, was more complete and humiliating in England, under the first Anglo-Norman princes, than in any other feudal government. William I. by his artful and tyrannical policy, by attainders and confifcations, had become, in the courfe of his reign, proprietor of almost all the lands in the kingdom. Thefe lands, however, he could not poffibly retain in his own hands. He was under the neceffity of beftowing the greater part of them on his Norman captains, or nobles, the compa nions of his conqueft, and the inftruments of his ty ranny, who had led their own vaffals to battle. But thofe grants he clogged with heavy feudal fervices, and payments, which none dared to refuse. The barons and tenants who held immediately of the crown, and, with the dignified clergy, formed the national affembly, impofed obligations yet more fevere on their valfals, the inferior land-holders, confifting chiefly of unhappy English gentlemen, for whom they had no bowels of compaffion. The ftate of England, at the death of William the conqueror, is thus defcribed by one of our ancient hiftorians, who was almost contem-" porary with that prince, "The Normans," fays he, "had now fully executed the wrath of heaven upon the English. There was hardly one of that nation, who poffeffed any power; they were all involved in fervitude and forrow; infomuch, that. to be called an Englifhman was confidered as a reproach. In those miferable times many oppreffive taxes and tyrannical cuftoms were introduced. The king himfelf, when he had let his lands at their full value, if another tenant came and offered more, gave them to him who offered most and the great men were inflamed with fuch a rage for money that they did not care by what means it was acquired. The more they talked of juftice, the more injuriously they acted. Those who were

called

called jufticiaries, were the fountains of all iniquity. Sheriffs and judges, whofe peculiar duty it was to pronounce righteous judgments, were the moft cruel of all tyrants, and greater plunderers than common thieves and robbers*."

66

66

The prerogative of buying, in preference to others, all things neceffary for their court and caftles, commonly called purveyance, which belonged to the kings of England in this period, was a fource of infinite vexations and injuries to the people. The purveyors, who attended the court," fays a refpectable hiftorian, plundered and deftroyed the whole country through which the king paffed, without any controul. Some of them were fo intoxicated with malice, that when they could not confume all the provisions in the houses which they invaded, they either fold or burnt them. After having washed their horfes' feet with the liquors which they could not drink, they let them run out on the ground, or deftroyed them in fome other way."

The Saxon courts of juftice were now fuffered to decline. The county-court in particular, the dignity of which, for several years, furvived the Norman invafion, fell by a stroke of defpotifm equally unjust and impolitic. For, about the year 1085, the bishops and abbots were prohibited from fitting there. On this, the lay-noblemen thought it beneath their dignity to attend, and that hall of justice, whofe bench ufed to be crowded with prelates and peers, was gradually deferted.

The king's court, after the conqueft, was very fplen did. Here fat the great officers of the crown, the juftices, and the barons. In the monarch's abfence the firft jufticiary always prefided. The ceremonies were magnificent, and the habits brilliant and coftly. Could pomp and parade have compenfated for the want of equity, the Saxon juris-prudence might have been forgotten. Courts were held by the barons at the

* Henry Huntingdon.

halls

halls of their caftles, where caufes of a trivial nature were decided.

Fines were a confiderable branch of the royal revenue. It appears from the ancient records of the exchequer, which are ftill extant, that the kings of England, at this period, like eaftern princes, could not be approached without a prefent. Even juftice itself was bought and fold. The fupreme court of judicature was open to none, who did not bring prefents to the king. The barons of the exchequer were not ashamed to infert, as an article in their records, that the county of Norfolk gave money that they might be fairly dealt with. Enormous fums were paid by females, either for leave to marry, or, more commonly, that they might not be forced to wed against their will. Even ladies of high rank were not exempted from fuch impofitions; for we find Lucia, countess of Chefter, paying five marks of filver, that fhe might not, during next five years only, be compelled to marry*." Ought not we then to think ourselves very happy, that we live in a civilized age, and under a limited monarchy ?

Those who had not money to compound for murders, rapes, and other capital offences, were put to death; and the coinmon place of execution was Smithfield.

But the rigour of the Anglo-Norman government, and the licentious fpirit of the nobles, proved ultimately favourable to general liberty. The oppreffed people looked up to the king for protection; and circumstances enabled them to obtain it. The defect of the title of William II. and of Henry I. induced them to liften to the complaints of their English subjects, and to redress many of their grievances, The people, in fome measure fatisfied with the relief afforded them, became fenfible of their confequence, and of their ob-. ligations to the crown; while the barons, finding themselves in quiet poffeffion of their English estates

* Madox's account of the Exchequer.

and

and apprehending no future disturbance from the natives, bore with impatience the burdens impofed upon them by William I, and to which they had readily fubmitted, in the hour of conqueft and of danger. They faw the neceflity of heing more indulgent to their vaffals, in order to obtain fufficient force, to enable them to retrench the prerogatives of the fovereign, and of connecting their caufe with that of the people.

Thus reftored to a fhare in the legislature, the English commonalty felt more fully their own importance; and by a long and vigorous ftruggle, maintained with unexampled perfeverance, they wrefted from both the king and the nobles, all the other rights of a free people, of which their Anglo-Saxon anceftors had been robbed by the violent invafion, and cruel policy of William the Norman. To those rights they were entitled as men, by the great law of nature and reafon, which declares the welfare of the whole community to be the end of all civil government; and as Englishmen, by inheritance.

MOST

CHAP. IV.

TERATURE. A. D. 1066-1216..

OST of the perfons who attempted to revive li terature, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, had derived their principles of fcience from the Greeks in the Eastern empire, or the Arabs in Spain and Africa. Both those people, acute and inquifitive to excefs, corrupted the fciences which they cultivated. The Greeks rendered theology a fyftem of fpeculative refinement, or endless controverfy; and the Arabs communicated to philofophy a spirit of metaphyfical and frivolous fubtlety. Milled by these guides, the perfons who first applied to fcience were involved in a niaze of intricate inquiries. Inftead of allowing their fancy to take its natural range, and produce fuch works of elegant invention, as might have improved

the