Next, William had a census, survey, and valuation made of all the estates in the kingdom outside London which were worth examination.  The result of this great work was recorded in Domesday Book (S120).  By means of that book—­still preserved—­the King knew what no English ruler had known before him; that was, the property-holding population and resources of the kingdom.  Thus a solid foundation was laid on which to establish the feudal revenue and the military power of the Crown.

Finally, just before his death, the Conqueror completed the organization of his government.  Hitherto the vassals of the great barons had been bound to them alone.  They were sworn to fight for their masters, even if those masters rose in open rebellion against the sovereign.  William changed all that.  At a meeting held at Salisbury, 1086, he compelled every landholder in England, from the greatest to the smallest,—­sixty thousand, it is said,—­to swear to be “faithful to him against all others” (S121).  By that oath he “broke the neck of the Feudal System” as a form of government, though he retained and developed the principle of feudal land tenure.  Thus at one stroke he made the Crown the supreme power in England; had he not done so, the nation would soon have fallen prey to civil war.

7.  William’s Norman Successors.

William Rufus has a bad name in history, and he fully deserves it.  But he had this merit:  he held the Norman barons in check with a stiff hand, and so, in one way, gave the country comparative peace.

His successor, Henry I, granted, 1100, a Charter of Liberties (S135, note 1) to his people, by which he recognized the sacredness of the old English laws for the protection of life and property.  Somewhat more than a century later this document became, as we shall see, the basis of the most celebrated charter known in English history.  Henry attempted important reforms in the administration of the laws, and laid the foundation of that system which his grandson, Henry II, was to develop and establish.  By these measures he gained the title of the “Lion of Justice,” who “made peace for both man and beast.”  Furthermore, in an important controversy with the Pope respecting the appointment of bishops (S136), Henry obtained the right (1107) to require that both bishops and abbots, after taking possession of their Church estates, should be obliged like the baron to furnish troops for the defense of the kingdom.

But in the next reign—­that of Stephen—­the barons got the upper hand, and the King was powerless to control them.  They built castles without royal license, and from these private fortresses they sallied forth to ravage, rob, and murder in all directions.  Had that period of terror continued much longer, England would have been torn to pieces by a multitude of greedy tyrants.

8.  Reforms of Henry II; Scutage; Assize of Clarendon; Juries;
   Constitutions of Clarendon.