cond William, and in his hands the office became
permanent. The Justiciar was now the king's chief minister, acting in
his name whether he was present or absent. Flambard used his power to
gather wealth for the king on every side. "He drave the king's
gemots," we are told, "over all England;" that is to say, he forced
the reluctant courts to exact the money which he claimed for the king.

4. =Feudal Dues.=--It was Flambard who systematised, if he did not
invent, the doctrine that the king was to profit by his position as
supreme landlord. In practice this meant that he exacted to the full
the consequences of feudal tenure. If a man died who held land by
knight service from the crown, leaving a son who was a minor, the boy
became the ward of the king, who took the profits of his lands till he
was twenty-one, and forced him to pay a relief or fine for taking them
into his own hands when he attained his majority. If the land fell to
an heiress the king claimed the right of marrying her to whom he
would, or of requiring of her a sum of money for permission to take a
husband at her own choice, or, as was usually the case, at the choice
of her relations. Under special circumstances the king exacted aids
from his tenants-in-chief. If he were taken prisoner they had to pay
to ransom him from captivity. When he knighted his eldest son or
married his eldest daughter they had to contribute to the expense. It
is true that this was in accordance with the principle of feudality.
Neither a boy nor a woman could render service in the field, and it
was therefore only fair that the king should hold the lands at times
when no service was rendered to him for them; and it was also fair
that the dependents should come to their lord's help in times of
special need, especially as all that the king took from them they in
turn took from their own sub-tenants. Flambard, however, did not
content himself with a moderately harsh exaction of these feudal dues.
The grievance against him was that he made the king 'to be every man's
heir, whether he were in orders or a layman,' that is to say, that
Flambard so stripped and exhausted the land belonging to the king's
wards as to make it almost worthless, and then demanded reliefs so
enormous that when the estate had at last been restored, all its value
had passed into the hands of the king. When a bishop or an abbot died,
the king appointed no successor, and appropriated the revenues of the
vacant see or