villein or slave--and this was very small
in extent, limited to a very few acres around a man's home. Most of
the land was held in common; the folgland, so-called, which belonged
to the tribe; the land on which the cows of the village were pastured.
And finally there was the public, or unappropriated, or waste land.
Most of this last was seized, after the Conquest, by the big feudal
lords. For they came in with their feudal system; and the feudal
system recognized no absolute ownership in individuals. Under it there
were also three kinds of land, and much the same as the Saxon, only
the names were different: there was the crown land--now I am speaking
English and not Norman-French--which belonged to the king and which he
probably let out most profitably; there was the manor, or the feudal
land, which was owned by the great lords, and was not let by the king
directly; and then there was the vacant land, the waste land, which
was in a sense unappropriated. Now all the Norman kings had to do was
to bring the feudal system over the Saxon law of land, so that the
tribal land remained the only private land--that which is called "boke
land." This is land such as all our land is to-day, except land like
our Cambridge Common. With a very few exceptions, all our land is
"boke" land--freehold land. Then there was the public land; but that
very soon was taken by the lords and let out to their inferiors; this
was the great bulk of land in England after the Norman Conquest.
Lastly again there was the crown land, out of which the king got his
revenue. As something like this threefold system of land existed
before the Conquest, a subtle change to the feudal system was
comparatively easy by a mere change of name.

In the same year--1100--is the Charter of "Liberties" of Henry I. It
restores the laws of Edward the Confessor "with the amendments made by
my father with the counsel of his barons." It promises in the first
section relief to the kingdom of England from all the evil customs
whereby it had lately been oppressed, and finally returns to the
people the laws of Edward the Confessor, "with such emendations as my
father made with the consent of his barons."[1] In his charter to the
citizens of London[2] he promises general freedom from feudal taxes
and impositions, from dane-geld and from the fine for the murder of
a Norman; and the Charter of Liberties issued by Henry II in 1154
confirms their "liberties and free customs to all men