VII. A. D. they from resembling a fief. But there were other CHAP. possessions, which bore a nearer resemblance to fiefs, at least in their first feeble and infantile state of the tenure, than those inheritances, which were Saxon Fiefs. held by an absolute right in the proprietor. The great officers, who attended the court, commanded armies, or distributed justice, must necessarily be paid and supported; but in what manner could they be paid? In money they could not; because there was very little money then in Europe, and scarce any part of that little came into the Prince's coffers. The only method of paying them was by allotting lands for their subsistence whilst they remained in his service. For this reason, in the original distribution, vast tracts of land were left in the hands of the King. If any served the King in a military command, his land may be said to have been in some sort held by knight-service. If the tenant was in an office about the King's person, this gave rise to sergeantry; the persons, who cultivated his lands, may be considered as holding by soccage. But the long train of services, that made afterwards the learning of the tenures, were then not thought of, because these feuds, if we may so call them, had not then come to be inheritances; which circumstance of inheritance gave rise to the whole feudal system. With the AngloSaxons the feuds continued to the last but a sort of pay or salary of office. The Trinoda necessitas, so much spoken of, which was to attend the King BOOK in his expeditions, and to contribute to the building II. of bridges, and repair of highways, never bound A. D. the lands by way of tenure, but as a political regulation, which equally affected every class and condition of men, and every species of possession. In The manner of succeeding to lands in England Gavelkind. at this period was, as we have observed, by Gavelkind, an equal distribution amongst the children, males and females. The ancient Northern nations had but an imperfect notion of political power. That the possessor of the land should be the governour of it was a simple idea; and their schemes extended but little further. It was not so in the Greek and Italian commonwealths. those the property of the land was in all respects similar to that of goods, and had nothing of jurisdiction annexed to it; the Government there was a merely political institution. Amongst such a people the custom of distribution could be of no ill consequence, because it only affected property. But Gavelkind amongst the Saxons was very prejudicial; for as government was annexed to a certain possession in land, this possession, which was continually changing, kept the government in a very fluctuating state; so that their civil polity had in it an essential evil, which contributed to the sickly condition, in which the Anglo-Saxon state always remained, as well as to its final dissolution. AN ABRIDGMENT OF ENGLISH HISTORY. BOOK III. СНАР. І. View of the State of Europe at the time of the Norman Invasion. I. A. D. BEFORE the period, of which we are going to CHAP. treat, England was little known or considered in Europe. Their situation, their domestick calamities, and their ignorance, circumscribed the views and politicks of the English within the bounds of their own island. But the Norman conqueror threw down all these barriers. The English laws, manners, and maxims, were suddenly changed; the scene was enlarged; and the communication with the rest of Europe being thus opened has been preserved ever since in a continued series of wars and negotiations. That we may therefore enter more fully into the matters, which lie before us, VOL. X. B B it BOOK A. D. it is necessary, The northern nations, who had over-ran the Roman empire, were at first rather actuated by avarice than ambition, and were more intent upon plunder than conquest; they were carried beyond their original purposes, when they began to form regular governments, for which they had been prepared by no just ideas of legislation. For a long time, therefore, there was little of order in their affairs, or foresight in their designs. The Goths, the Burgundians, the Franks, the Vandals, the Suevi, after they had prevailed over the Roman Empire, by turns prevailed over each other in continual wars, which were carried on upon no principles of a determinate policy, entered into upon motives of brutality and caprice, and ended as fortune and rude violence chanced to prevail. Tumult, anarchy, confusion, overspread the face of Europe; and an obscurity rests upon the transactions of that time, which suffers us to discover nothing but its extreme barbarity. Before this cloud could be dispersed, the Saracens, another body of barbarians from the South, animated by a fury not unlike that, which gave strength to the northern irruptions, but heightened by enthusiasm, and regulated by subordination and uniform policy, began to carry their arms, their manners, I. manners, and religion, into every part of the uni- CHAP. verse. Spain was entirely overwhelmed by the torrent of their armies; Italy, and the Islands, A. D. were harassed by their fleets, and all Europe alarmed by their vigorous and frequent enterprises. Italy, who had so long sat the mistress of the world, was by turns the slave of all nations. The possession of that fine country was hotly disputed between the Greek Emperour and the Lombards, and it suffered infinitely by that contention. Germany, the parent of so many nations, was exhausted by the swarms she had sent abroad. However, in the midst of this chaos there were principles at work, which reduced things to a certain form, and gradually unfolded a system, in which the chief movers and main springs were the Papal and the Imperial powers; the aggrandizement or diminution of which have been the drift of almost all the politicks, intrigues, and wars, which have employed and distracted Europe to this day. From Rome the whole western world had received its Christianity. She was the asylum of what learning had escaped the general desolation; and even in her ruins she preserved something of the majesty of her ancient greatness. On these accounts she had a respect and a weight, which increased every day amongst a simple religious people, who looked but a little way into the |