aughed and jested in the
midst of his grandeur, he kept himself from every kind of vice. Henry
was fond of horseplay, and once on a bitter winter's day, when he was
riding with Thomas, he snatched at a fine new scarlet mantle from the
Chancellor's neck to throw to a beggar. Thomas struggled hard, and the
two men nearly pulled one another off their horses, but in the end the
beggar got the mantle.

[Footnote 11: His father's name was Becket, but at that time
hereditary surnames had not come into use. He was once called Thomas
Becket in his lifetime by one of his murderers as an insult.]

3. =Henry and Feudality.=--It was principally with Thomas the
Chancellor that Henry consulted as to the best means of establishing
his authority. He resolved not only to renew but to extend the
administrative system of Henry I. The danger which threatened him came
from the great barons, and as the great barons were as dangerous to
the lesser ones and to the bulk of the people as they were to the
king, Henry was able to strengthen himself by winning the affections
of the people. Feudality in itself was only a method of owning land;
but it was always threatening to pass into a method of government. In
France the great feudal lords ruled their own territories with very
little regard for the wishes of the king, and the smaller feudal lords
had their own courts in which they hanged and imprisoned their
villeins. In Stephen's time an attempt had been made to introduce this
system into England, with evil consequences both to king and people.
Before the Conquest great landowners had often received permission
from the king to exercise criminal jurisdiction in the Manor Courts on
their own estates, whilst the vast extent of their landed property
gave them a preponderant voice in the proceedings of the shire-moots,
now known by the Normans as County Courts. Henry resolved to attack
the evil at both ends: in the first place to make the barons support
the king's government instead of setting up their own; in the second
place, to weaken the Manor and County Courts and to strengthen courts
directly proceeding from himself.

4. =The Great Council and the Curia Regis.=--Henry in the early years
of his reign revived the importance of the Great Council, taking care
that it should be attended not only by the great barons, but by
vassals holding smaller estates, and therefore more dependent on
himself. He summoned the Great Council oftener tha