ee to fight for the king on behalf of
the whole nation. It seems at first sight as if the English people had
fallen into a worse condition. An organisation, partly military and
partly servile, was substituted for an organisation of free men. Yet
only in this way could the whole of England be amalgamated. The nation
gained in unity what it lost in freedom.

6. =The Hundred-moot and the Lord's Court.=--In another way the
condition of the peasants was altered for the worse by the growth of
the king's power. In former days land was held as 'folkland,' granted
by the people at the original conquest, passing to the kinsmen of the
holder if he died without children. Afterwards the clergy introduced a
system by which the owner could grant the 'bookland,' held by book or
charter, setting at nought the claim of his kinsmen, and in order to
give validity to the arrangement, obtained the consent of the king and
his Witenagemot (see p. 45). In time, the king and the Witenagemot
granted charters in other cases, and the new 'bookland' to a great
extent superseded the old 'folkland,' accompanied by a grant of the
right of holding special courts. In this manner the old hundred-moots
became neglected, people seeking for justice in the courts of the
lords. Yet those who lived on the lord's land attended his court,
appeared as compurgators, and directed the ordeal just as they had
once done in the hundred-moot.

7. =The Towns.=--The towns had grown up in various ways. Some were of
old Roman foundation, such as Lincoln and Gloucester. Others, like
Nottingham and Bristol, had come into existence since the English
settlement. Others again gathered round monasteries, like Bury St.
Edmunds and Peterborough. The inhabitants met to consult about their
own affairs, sometimes in dependence on a lord. Where there was no
lord they held a court which was composed in the same way as the
hundred-moots outside. The townsmen had the right of holding a market.
Every sale had to take place in the presence of witnesses who could
prove, if called upon to do so, that the sale had really taken place,
and markets were therefore usually to be found in towns, because it
was there that witnesses could most easily be found.

8. =The Origin of the Shires.=--Shires, which were divisions larger
than the hundreds, and smaller than the larger kingdoms, originated in
various ways. In the south, and on the east coast as far north as the
Wash, they were either old kingdo