All land was held directly or indirectly from the King on condition of military or other service.  The number of chief tenants who derived their title from the Crown, including ecclesiastical dignitaries, was probably about fifteen hundred.  These constituted the Norman barons.  The undertenants were about eight thousand, and consisted chiefly of the English who had been driven out from their estates.

Every holder of land was obliged to furnish the King a fully armed and mounted soldier, to serve for forty days during the year for each piece of land bringing 20 pounds annually, or about $2000 in modern money[1] (the pound of that day probably representing twenty times that sum now).  All the chief tenants were also bound to attend the King’s Great or National Council three times a year,—­at Christman, Easter, and Whitsuntide.

[1] This amount does not appear to have been fully settled until the period following the Norman kings, but the principle was recognized by William.

Feudal Dues or Taxes.  Every free tenant was obliged to pay a sum of money to the King or baron from whom he held his land, on three special occasions:  (1) to ransom his lord from captivity in case he was made a prisoner of war; (2) to defray the expense of making his lord’s eldest son a knight; (3) to provide a suitable marriage portion on the marriage of his lord’s eldest daughter.

In addition to these taxes, or “aids,” as they were called, there were other demands which the lord might make, such as:  (1) a year’s profits of the land from the heir, on his coming into possession of his father’s estate; this was called a relief; (2) the income from the lands of orphan heirs not of age; (3) payment for privilege of disposing of land.[1]

[1] The clergy, being a corporate and hence an ever-living body, were exempt from these last demands.  Not satisfied with this, they were constantly endeavoring, with more or less success, to escape ALL feudal obligations, on the ground that they rendered the state divine service.  In 1106, in the reign of Henry I, it was settled, for the time, that the bishops were to do homage to the King, i.e. furnish military service for the lands they received from him as their feudal lord (S136).

In case of an orphan heiress not of age, the feudal lord became her guardian and might select a suitable husband for her.  Should the heiress reject the person selected, she forfeited a sum of money equal to the amount the lord expected to receive by the proposed marriage.  Thus we find one woman in Ipswich giving a large fee for the privilege of “not being married except to her own good liking.”  In the collection of these “aids” and “reliefs,” great extortion was often practiced both by the King and the barons.

Besides the feudal troops there was a national militia, consisting of peasants and others not provided with armor, who fought on foot with bows and spears.  These could also be called on as during the Saxon period (S96).  In some cases where the barons were in revolt against the King, for instance, under William Rufus (S130), this national militia proved of immense service to the Crown.