feudal law
or as an amendment upon the existing feudalism. The LII. law, quoted by
Wright, is as follows:

"We have decreed that all FREE MEN should affirm on oath, that both
within and without the whole kingdom of England (which is called
Britain) they desire to be faithful to William their lord, and
everywhere preserve unto him his land and honors with fidelity, and
defend them against all enemies and strangers."

Eadmerus, who wrote in the reign of Henry I., gives the LII. William I.
as a confirmatory law. The charter given by Stubbs is a contraction
of the law given by Eadmerus. The former uses the words OMNES LIBERI
HOMINES; the latter, the words OMNIS LIBERI HOMO. Those interested can
compare them, as I shall give the text of each side by side.

Since the paper was read, I have met with the following passage in
Stubbs's "Constitutional History of England," vol. i., p. 265:

"It has been maintained that a formal and definitive act, forming the
initial point of the feudalization of England, is to be found in a
clause of the laws, as they are called, of the Conqueror, which directs
that every FREEMAN shall affirm, by covenant and oath, that 'he will be
faithful to King William within England and without, will join him
in preserving his land with all fidelity, and defend him against his
enemies.' But this injunction is little more than the demand of the oath
of allegiance taken to the Anglo-Saxon kings, and is here required
not of every feudal dependant of the king, but of every FREEMAN or
freeholder whatsoever. In that famous Council of Salisbury, A. D, 1086,
which was summoned immediately after the making of the Doomsday survey,
we learn, from the 'Chronicle,' that there came to the king 'all his
witan and all the landholders of substance in England, whose vassals
soever they were, and they all submitted to him and became his men, and
swore oaths of allegiance that they would be faithful to him against all
others.' In the act has been seen the formal acceptance and date of the
introduction of feudalism, but it has a very different meaning. The oath
described is the oath of allegiance, combined with the act of homage,
and obtained from all landowners whoever their feudal lord might be.
It is a measure of precaution taken against the disintegrating power
of feudalism, providing a direct tie between the sovereign and all
freeholders which no inferior relations existing between them and the
mesne lords would justify