ople is that of the
FREEMEN, anciently called Frilingi, [Footnote: This is a Teutonic, not
an ANGLO-SAXON term; the ANGLO-SAXON word is Thane.] or Free-born, or
such as are born free from all yoke of arbitrary power, and from all law
of compulsion, other than what is made by their voluntary consent, for
all FREEMEN have votes in the making and executing of the general laws
of the kingdom. In the first, they differed from the Gauls, of whom
it is noted that the commons are never called to council, nor are much
better than servants. In the second, they differ from many free
people, and are a degree more excellent, being adjoined to the lords in
judicature, both by advice and power (consilium et authoritates adsunt),
and therefore those that were elected to that work were called Comites
ex plebe, and made one rank of FREEMEN for wisdom superior to the rest.
Another degree of these were beholden for their riches, and were called
Custodes Pagani, an honorable title belonging to military service, and
these were such as had obtained an estate of such value as that their
ordinary arms were a helmet, a coat of mail, and a gilt sword. The rest
of the FREEMEN were contented with the name of Ceorls, and had as sure
a title to their own liberties as the Custodes Pagani or the country
gentlemen had."

Land was liable to be seized upon for treason and forfeited; but even
after the monarchs had assumed the functions of the FOLC-GEMOT, they
were not allowed to give land away without the approval of the great
men; charters were consented to and witnessed in council. "There is
scarcely a charter extant," says Chief Baron Gilbert, "that is not proof
of this right." The grant of Baldred, King of Kent, of the manor of
Malling, in Sussex, was annulled because it was given without the
consent of the council. The subsequent gift thereof, by Egbert and
Athelwolf, was made with the concurrence and assent of the great men.
The kings' charters of escheated lands, to which they had succeeded by a
personal right, usually declared "that it might be known that what they
gave was their own."

Discussions have at various times taken place upon the question, "Was
the land-system of this period FEUDAL?" It engaged the attention of the
Irish Court of King's Bench, in the reign of Charles I., and was raised
in this way: James I. had issued "a commission of defective titles." Any
Irish owner, upon surrendering his land to the king, got a patent
which reconv