caused the disaffection among the more influential of his barons, to whom he had allotted lands, and for this refusal he was later called upon to fight and again defend his usurped crown.1

Among other depressing and saddening events there occurred in 1069 a most dreadful famine. Roger de Hovenden speaks of this year in no uncertain terms. It must indeed have been terrifying and awful. "The "famine prevailed to such a degree that,

compelled by hunger, men ate human "flesh and that of horses, dogs and cats, and "whatever was repulsive to notions of civilization; some persons went so far as to sell "themselves into perpetual slavery, pro"vided only they could in some way or other support a miserable existence; some departing from their native country into exile, "breathed forth their exhausted spirits in "the midst of the journey.

"It was dreadful to behold human corpses, rotting in the houses, streets and high

1 Wendover, I-344; Hovenden, 1-142.

roads, and as they reeked with putrefac"tion, swarming with worms and sending "forth a horrid stench; for all the people "having been cut off, either with the sword "of famine, or else having through hunger 'left their native country, there were not "sufficient left to inter them. Thus during

a period of nine years did the land, deprived of its cultivators, extend far and "wide a mere dreary waste. Between York "and Durham there was not one inhabited town; the dens of wild beasts and robbers, "to the great terror of the traveler, were "alone to be seen."

It was about 1070 that matters were getting to a crisis and William's extreme oppression of the clergy, in addition to that of the barons, caused them to take sides with the barons in asserting their strength for those rights which they in turn considered theirs. The declaration of the Abbot of St. Alban's that they, the barons, clergy and people, would recognize Edgar Atheling,

1 Hovenden, 1-143.

who came of the Saxon line, as their king, had a very material effect upon William. He was astute enough to see that he could no longer rule with a haughty and iron hand, and that he could not defy a whole united people, his own countrymen of among them; so at a conference which took place at Berkenstead, in Hertfordshire, he swore upon the holy Evangelists and the relics of St. Alban's Abbey, that "he would observe the good, approved and ancient laws of the kingdom, which the holy and pious kings, his predecessors and chiefly King Edward, had ordained." Having done this, and the more to appease the malcontents and quiet them, William's next move was to issue writs directing that twelve "wise and noble Saxons in every county should enquire and certify what the ancient laws really were." But this act, however, was only a blind, for he again modified this promise and desired to make some new laws regarding forfeitures. In this matter he was again beseeched not to change the laws, but to order those of Ed

ward the Confessor "who had bequeathed him the kingdom and whose laws these were" to remain and be in force. He reluctantly consented to this after a time, and then ordered that all the laws of Edward the Confessor should be the laws of the land, except where in special cases he had ordered otherwise specifically. Even this promise he did not keep, for later he dispossessed and continued to dispossess the English of their lands, and gave or sold them to the Normans. Consequently during his reign there seems to have been no settled law or rule regarding the tenure of land. William held whenever he could, coercing the weak and catering to the strong, yet notwithstanding this, there was one fact uppermost in the people's mind, that such land as they held, they held through the generosity of William. Whether or not this generosity was a forced one matters little. It gratified William to know that the land was held "terra regis," and it gratified the English people to know that they held it in any manner, no matter what the

term.

But to hold it during his reign was not such a great privilege as one would suppose, for the taxes upon it were so enormous as to amount to a heavy rental. Indeed in 1084 he levied a tax of six shillings upon every hide throughout England.1

This levying of taxes was another of William's acts which was very oppressive to all, Normans and English alike. He was always in want of money, always hording it up, and so always taxing. He wanted besides to get all that was due him in taxes when he levied them, and so he wanted to know for this purpose the amount of land in all England and its value. For this purpose he appointed commissioners to survey all England and take account of all the property and the value therein and report to him. This report is what constitutes the wonderful Domesday Book, and the following extract relating to it is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. "He sent his men all over Eng"land, into every shire and caused them to

1 Hovenden, 1–167.