f Henry II. or Edward I.; but his work was the
indispensable preliminary to theirs, for a strong monarchy was the
first requisite of the state. To establish the power of the crown was
William's principal care. The disintegrating tendencies of feudalism
had already been visible under the Anglo-Saxon kings. William, while
he established fully developed feudalism as a social, territorial, and
military system in his new dominions, took measures to prevent it from
undermining his own authority. He scattered the estates of his great
vassals, so as to hinder them from building up provincial
principalities; he maintained the higher popular courts against the
encroachments of manorial jurisdictions; he prevented the claims of
feudal lordship from standing between himself and the mass of his
subjects, by exacting an oath from every landholder at the meeting of
Salisbury plain; finally, by the great survey which resulted in
"Domesday Book" he not only asserted his right to make a general
inquisition into property, but laid the firm basis of knowledge which
was indispensable to centralized government and taxation.

The care which he took to maintain English laws and institutions is
part of the same policy. He balanced the two nationalities over which
he ruled, and obliged each to depend upon him as its leader or
protector against the other. He ruled as an English king; his feudal
council was the witenagemot with a new qualification; but at the same
time he was lord of the land as no king had been before him, and he
enjoyed not only all the income of his predecessors but in addition
all the dues which came to him as feudal sovereign. He was thus
perhaps the strongest and most absolute monarch that has ever sat upon
the English throne.

In character William was stern, self-reliant, and imperious in a high
degree. He was not naturally cruel; but he was ruthless if it served
his purpose, and could take pitiless vengeance for an insult or a
wrong. He was too strong to prefer deceit when force would serve as
well, but his diplomacy was subtle and guileful, and no scruple turned
him aside from his aim. His temper, originally forgiving, was soured
by opposition toward the end of his life, and his tyrannical
tendencies were strengthened by the long exercise of uncontrolled
power. His passionate devotion to the chase is only too clearly shown
in the harshness of his forest laws. In private life he displayed
domestic virtues, and his fideli