for the freemen, was little more than a theory under the Norman kings.
There were various modes of making legal exaction the source of the
grossest injustice. When the heir of an estate entered into possession
he had to pay a "relief," or _heriot_, to the lord. This soon became a
source of oppression in the crown; and enormous sums were exacted from
the great vassals. The lord was not more sparing of his men. He had
another mode of extortion. He demanded "aid" on many occasions, such as
the marriage of his eldest daughter, or when he made his eldest son a
knight. The estate of inheritance, which looks so generous and equitable
an arrangement, was a perpetual grievance; for the possessor could
neither transmit his property by will nor transfer it by sale. The heir,
however remote in blood, was the only legitimate successor.

The feudal obligation to the lord was, in many other ways, a fruitful
source of tyranny, which lasted up to the time of the Stuarts. If the
heir were a minor, the lord entered into possession of the estate
without any accountability. If it descended to a female, the lord could
compel her to marry according to his will, or could prevent her
marrying. During a long period all these harassing obligations connected
with property were upheld. The crown and the nobles were equally
interested in their enforcement; and there can be little doubt that,
though the great vassals sometimes suffered under these feudal
obligations to the king, the inferior tenants had a much greater amount
of oppression to endure at the hands of their immediate lords. But if
the freemen were oppressed in the tenure of their property, we can
scarcely expect that the landless man had not much more to suffer. If he
committed an offence in the Saxon time, he paid a "mulct"; if in the
Norman, he was subjected to an _amerciament_. His whole personal estate
was at the mercy of the lord.

Having thus obtained a general notion of the system of society
established in less than twenty years after the Conquest, we see that
there was nothing wanting to complete the most entire subjection of the
great body of the nation. What had been wanting was accomplished in the
practical working out of the theory that the entire land of the country
belonged to the King. It was now established that every tenant-in-chief
should do homage to the king; that every superior tenant should do
homage to his lord; that every villein should be the bondman of the
fre