be useful to instruct us in the manners and customs
of the times. We learn from it, that a great distinction was then made
between the English and Normans, much to the advantage of the latter.*
The deadly feuds and the liberty of private revenge, which had been
avowed by the Saxon laws, were still continued, and were not yet wholly
illegal.[****]

Among the laws granted on the king's accession, it is remarkable that
the reunion of the civil and ecclesiastical courts, as in the Saxon
times, was enacted.[*****] But this law, like the articles of his
charter, remained without effect, probably from the opposition of
Archbishop Anselm.

[Footnonte * Sim. Dunelm. p. 231. Brompton, p. 1000. Flor. Wigorn. p.
653 Hoveden, p. 471.]

[Footnonte ** Sim. Dunelm. p. 231. Brompton, p. 1000. Hoveden, p. 471
Annal. Waverl. p. 149.]

[Footnonte *** LL. Hen. I. sect. 18, 75.]

[Footnonte **** LL. Hen. I. sect. 82.]

[Footnonte ***** Spel. p. 305. Blackstone, vol. iii. p. 63. Coke, 2
Inst. 70.]

Henry, on his accession, granted a charter to London, which seems to
have been the first step towards rendering that city a corporation. By
this charter, the city was empowered to keep the farm of Middlesex at
three hundred pounds a year, to elect its own sheriff and justiciary,
and to bold pleas of the crown; and it was exempted from scot,
danegelt, trials by combat, and lodging the king's retinue These, with
a confirmation of the privileges of their court of hustings, wardmotes,
and common halls, and their liberty of hunting in Middlesex and Surrey,
are the chief articles of this charter.[*]

It is said [**] that this prince, from indulgence to his tenants,
changed the rents of his demesnes, which were formerly paid in kind,
into money, which was more easily remitted to the exchequer. But the
great scarcity of coin would render that commutation difficult to be
executed, while at the same time provisions could not be sent to a
distant quarter of the kingdom. This affords a probable reason why the
ancient kings of England so frequently changed their place of abode:
they carried their court from one place to another, that they might
consume upon the spot the revenue of their several demesnes.

[Footnonte * Lambardi Archaionomia, ex edit. Twisden.
Wilkins, p. 385.]

[Footnonte ** Dail. de Scaocario, lib. i. cap. 7.]

CHAPTER VII.

[Illustration: 095.jpg STEPHEN]

S