as to great estates, and the third was completely changed in character so as to subserve only the feudal rule of succession.
In Saxon times, there was: first, "folk-land," or land of the people—that is, the common land of the township, which belonged to the community as a community. Secondly, there was "book-land," by which was meant land granted to individuals by charter.[1] These folk-lands and charter-lands have been compared to the publica terra and the privatus ager of the Romans : the "public land" was the subject of the famous agrarian agitations. It was only by consent of the Witen that a Saxon king could grant any public domains—the folk-land. In Saxon times the King was not the lord paramount of all land. That was a much later theory; Edward III. was the first English king to claim universal ownership.
Under the Saxon system, any part of the folk-land could be held by individuals as tenants of the Commonwealth, and might, as we have just seen, be granted with consent of the Witen to private persons. But all land was subject to three conditions: 1. Military service in defensive war; 2. the repair of bridges; 3. the repair of royal fortresses.
The large owners were the Eorls, or Earls. They held under the Crown. The small were the Ceorls, or Churls. They were independent landowners in their humble way. Hallam says of them: "They are the root of a noble plant ; the free soccage tenants, or English yeomanry, whose independence stamped with peculiar features both our Constitution and our national character" ("Middle Ages," ii. 386). The churl was a yeoman, and when he held 5 hides (600 acres) he became "of thaneright worthy." A register was kept of lands, deeds, decisions, and mortgages. Transfer was very simple — the Saxons trusted to publicity. A grant of land was enrolled in the Shirebook, after proclamation made in public Shiremote, for any that could claim the lands to be conveyed. Such transfers were "as irreversible as the modern fine with proclamations of recovery" (Gurdon on "Courts Baron"). Hoskyns
- ↑ This is often called copyhold in later times. The original idea of copyhold went back to the Saxon conquest.
