Spencer Heath Archive

Item 295

Penciling in a pocket notebook

1935?

Original is in notebook in white envelope in item 287.

Before the Conquest and on the Continent, the king was a special one of the great barons who took on the service of general or national defense. He depended on the other barons for support—was in fact their hired leader. The only lands held of the king were the lands over which he was lord in his capacity as one of the barons (in England Earls).

     After the Conquest, William (who in Normandy held lands like any other lord or duke), made himself lord paramount by conquest. In this way his barons came to hold under him, or rather, his successors succeeded in establishing the idea that all lands were held ultimately of the king. William himself, sought election as the successor of Edmund and Harold, and the

Saxon Witan did elect him king.

     Primogeniture was a Norman development under the military tenures. By the time of Henry III, all estates were presumed to be entailed unless there was more evidence to the contrary (see Bracton, also Encyclopedia Britannica under Real Estate).