actised on his Norman
estates. In course of time it came about that all questions of land-tenure
and of the relations of classes were regulated by a kind of double system.
The Englishman as well as the Norman became the "man" of his lord as in
Norman law, and was bound by the duties which this involved. On the other
hand, the Norman as well as the Englishman held his land subject to the
customary burdens and rights recognized by English law. Both races were
thus made equal before the law, and no legal distinction was recognized
between conqueror and conquered. There was, however, every element of
confusion and perplexity in the theory and administration of the law
itself, in the variety of systems which were contending for the mastery,
and in the inefficiency of the courts in which they were applied. English
law had grown up out of Teutonic custom, into which Roman tradition had
been slowly filtering through the Dark Ages Feudal law still bore traces
of its double origin in the system of the Teutonic "comitatus" and of the
Roman "beneficium." Forest law, which governed the vast extent of the
king's domains, was bound neither by Norman forms nor by English
traditions, but was framed absolutely at the king's will. Canon law had
been developed out of customs and precedents which had served to regulate
the first Christian communities, and which had been largely formed out of
the civil law of Rome. There was a multitude of local customs which
varied in every hundred and in every manor, and which were preserved by
the jealousy that prevailed between one village and another, the strong
sense of local life and jurisdiction, and the strict adherence to
immemorial traditions.

These different codes of law were administered in various courts of
divers origins. The tenant-in-chief of the king who was rich enough had
his cause carried to the King's Court of barons, where he was tried by his
peers. The poorer vassals, with the mass of the people, sought such
justice as was to be had in the old English courts, the Shire Court held
by the sheriff, and, where this survived, the Hundred Court summoned by
the bailiff. The lowest orders of the peasant class, shut out from the
royal courts, could only plead in questions of property in the manor
courts of their lords. The governing bodies of the richer towns were
winning the right to exercise absolute jurisdiction over the burghers
within their own walls. The Forest courts were held by royal