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vill, where a hundred court for the district was already held, were
authorized to establish a permanent court, for the settlement of their
disputes, distinct from the hundred court of the district. Boroughs of
this type with a uniform tenure were created not only on the king's
estates but also on those of his tenants-in-chief, and in 1086 they were
probably already numerous. A borough was usually, though perhaps not
invariably, the companion of a Norman castle. In some cases a French
"bourg" was created by the side of an English borough, and the two
remained for many generations distinct in their laws and customs: in
other cases a French "bourg" was settled by the side of an English
village. A large number of the followers of the Norman lords had been
almost certainly town-dwellers in their own country, and lost none of
their burghal privileges by the migration. Every castle needed for its
maintenance a group of skilled artisans, and the lords wished to draw to
the castle gates all kinds of commodities for the castle's provision.
The strength of the garrison made the neighbourhood of the castle a
place of danger to men unprotected by legal privilege; and in order to
invite to its neighbourhood desirable settlers, legal privileges similar
to those enjoyed in Norman or English boroughs were guaranteed to those
who would build on the plots which were offered to colonists. A low
fixed rental, release from the renders required of villeins, release
from the jurisdiction of the castle, and the creation of a separate
borough jurisdiction, with or without the right to choose their own
officers, rules fixing the maximum of fees and fines, or promising
assessment of the fines by the burgesses themselves, the cancelling of
all the castellan's rights, especially the right to take a forced levy
of food for the castle from all within the area of his jurisdiction,
freedom from arbitrary tallage, freedom of movement, the right to
alienate property and devise land, these and many other privileges named
in the early seignorial charters were what constituted the Norman _liber
burgus_ of the seignorial type. Not all these privileges were enjoyed by
all boroughs; some very meagre releases of seignorial rights accompanied
the lord's charter which created a borough and made burgesses out of
villeins. However liberal the grant, the lord or his reeve still
remained in close personal relation with the burgesses of such places,
and this character