Hascoit Musard. But that suspicion becomes a certainty when we find him in Oxfordshire, where he held more land, treated as merely one of a group of king's officers. To that group is relegated also Richard ' Ingania,' a great forest officer, although his small Buckinghamshire manor is entered just before the great estates of a local baron.
Domesday, in accordance with its practice, deals with the lands of women, however high their station, after those that were held by barons. In Buckinghamshire even the two manors of the Conqueror's dead queen are relegated to this position, although it is more usual to find them, in consequence of her death, forming part of the king's land. As widow of Earl Waltheof, and herself of kin to the Conqueror, Countess Judith had great estates, but in this county her lands, though scattered, were not extensive. She had several Englishmen as under-tenants, two of whom, Thurkill and Morcar, held of her here.
After these great ladies and Ralf Talgebosc's widow, we descend to Ælfric the cook and to an interesting Englishman, ' Alsi,' of whom something must be said.
It was doubtless owing to the large interests of Edward's queen in this county that Wulfward White and Eadgifu (' Eddeva ') his wife, who seem to have enjoyed her favour, had held a very considerable estate within it. The thick veil that usually prevents our distinguishing more than the names of the great English landowners is in their case somewhat lifted, and we are able to trace them in Domesday and to learn a little about them. But, to do this, we have to keep distant counties in view. In Somerset, for instance, Wulfward's lands formed, at the time of the Survey, no inconsiderable addition to the king's de- mesne. Wulfward, we learn from Somerset evidence, had lived almost to the time of Domesday, and as he has been found present at the courts, both of King William and of Queen Edith, he probably contrived to retain lands and royal favour. But all that his widow held in Somerset in 1086 was a pitifully small estate at Burnett. In nine other counties Wulfward had held lands, but of these Bucks is the only one in which the Survey adds to the knowledge we obtain in Somerset.
It is evident that in this county the lands of Wulfward and his wife were divided into three portions, of which one was obtained by the Bishop of Coutances, and one by Walter Giffard, while the third was allowed to pass to ' Alsi,' Wulfward's English son-in-law. Of ' Werm- elle,' the first manor on the fief of the Bishop of Coutances, we read : ' Hoc manerium tenuit Eddeva uxor Wlwardi sub regina Eddid et vendere potuit.' Under Ludgershall, the next manor, this formula is cut down to 'Hoc manerium tenuit Eddeva de [1] regina Eddid et vendere potuit,' while under two other manors it is still further cut down by omission of the queen's name. Of these four manors, assessed at 28 hides, the widow was allowed to retain, as a tenant of the bishop, the 4 hides at Linford. On Walter Giffard's fief we find him succeeding
- ↑ This strongly supports the view that the wrods 'de' and 'sub' were in such cases used in-differently
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