d in peace. All able-bodied freemen were liable to
military service in the fyrd [national militia], but not in a
lord's private wars. In return, the lord would protect him against
encroaching neighbors, back him in the courts of law, and feed him
in times of famine. But often, lords raided each other's farmers,
who fled into the hills or woods for safety. Often a lord's
fighting men stayed with him at his large house, but later were
given land with inhabitants on it, who became his tenants. The
lords were the ruling class and the greatest of them sat in the
King's council along with bishops, abbots, and officers of the
King's household. The lesser lords were local magnates, who
officiated at the shire and hundred courts.

Staghunting, foxhunting, and hawking were reserved for lords who
did not work with their hands. Every free born person had the
right to hunt other game.

There was a great expansion of arable land. Some land had been
specifically allocated to certain individuals. Some was common
land, held by communities. If a family came to pay the dues and
fines on certain common land, it could become personal to that
family and was then known as heirland. Most land came to be
privately held from community-witnessed allotments or inheritance.
Bookland was those holdings written down in books. This land was
usually land that had been given to the church or monasteries
because church clerics could write. So many thegns gave land to
the church, usually a hide, that the church held 1/3 of the land
of the realm. Folkland was that land that was left over after
allotments had been made to the freemen and which was not common
land. It was public land and a national asset and could be
converted to heirland or bookland only by action of the king and
witan. It could also be rented by services to the state via
charter. A holder of folkland might express a wish, e.g. by
testamentary action, for a certain disposition of it, such as an
estate for life or lives for a certain individual. But a distinct
act by the king and witan was necessary for this wish to take
effect. Small private transactions of land could be done by
"livery of seisin" in the presence of neighbors. All estates in
land could be let, lent, or leased by its holders, and was then
known as "loenland".

Ploughs and wagons could be drawn by four or more oxen or horses in sets
of two behind each other. Oxenshoes and horseshoes prevented lameness
due to cracked hoo