on their thegns, who in turn had thegns of
their own whom they could bring with them; and thus was formed an army
ready for military service in any part of the kingdom. A king who
could command such an army was even more powerful than one who could
command the whole of the forces of a smaller territory.

[Illustration: January--Ploughing and sowing.]

[Illustration: February--Pruning.]

[Illustration: March--Sowing and digging.]

[Illustration: April--Feasting.]

[Illustration: May--Sheep-tending.]

[Illustration: June--Cutting wood.]

[Illustration: Rural life in the eleventh century. January to June.
(Cott. MS. _Julius A._ vi.)]

[Illustration: July--Mowing.]

[Illustration: August--Harvesting.]

[Illustration: September--Feeding swine.]

[Illustration: October--Hawking.]

[Illustration: November--Making a bonfire.]

[Illustration: December--Threshing and Winnowing.]

[Illustration: Rural life in the eleventh century. July to December.
(Cott. MS. _Julius A._ vi.)]

5. =Conversion of the Freemen into Serfs.=--It is impossible to give a
certain account of the changes which passed over the English freemen,
but there can be little doubt that a process had been for some time
going on which converted them into bondmen, and that this process was
greatly accelerated by the Danish wars. When a district was being
plundered the peasant holders of the strips of village land suffered
most, and needed the protection of the neighbouring thegn, who was
better skilled in war than themselves, and this protection they
could only obtain on condition of becoming bondmen themselves--that is
to say, of giving certain days in the week to work on the special
estate of the lord. A bondman differed both from a slave and from a
modern farmer. Though he was bound to the soil and could not go away
if he wished to do so, yet he could not be sold as though he were a
slave; nor, on the other hand, could he, like a farmer, be turned out
of his holding so long as he fulfilled his obligation of cultivating
his lord's demesne. The lord was almost invariably a thegn, either of
the king or of some superior thegn, and there thus arose in England,
as there arose about the same time on the Continent, a chain of
personal relationships. The king was no longer merely the head of the
whole people. He was the personal lord of his own thegns, and they
again were the lords of other thegns. The serfs cultivated their
lands, and thereby set them fr