The lower rank of freemen were denominated ceorles among the Anglo-Saxons; and where they were industrious they were chiefly employed in husbandry; whence a ceorle and a husbandman became in a manner synonymous terms. They cultivated the farms of the nobility, or thanes, for which they paid rent; and they seem to have been removable at pleasure; for there is little mention of leases among the Anglo-Saxons: the pride of the nobility, together with the general ignorance of writing, must have rendered those contracts very rare, and must have kept the husbandmen in a dependent condition. The rents of farms were then chiefly paid in kind.[*****]
[* Winchester, being the capital of the West Saxon monarchy, was anciently a considerable city. Gul. Pict. p. 210.]
[** Norwich contained 738 houses; Exeter, 315; Ipswich, 538; Northampton, 60; Hertford, 146; Canterbury, 262; Bath, 61; Southampton 84; Warwick, 225. See Brady, of Boroughs, p. 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. These are the most considerable he mentions. The account of these is extracted from domesday-book.]
[*** Brady’s Treatise of Boroughs, p. 10. There were six wards, besides the archbishop’s palace; and five of these wards contained the number of families here mentioned, which at the rate of five persons to a family, makes about seven thousand souls. The sixth ward was laid waste.]
[**** Page 102. See also de Gest. Angl. p. 333.]
[***** LL. Inae, sect. 70. These laws fixed the rents for a hide; but it is difficult to convert it into modern measures.]
But the most numerous rank by far in the community to have been the slaves or villains, who were the property of their lords, and were consequently incapable themselves of possessing any property. Dr. Brady assures us, from a survey of domesday-book,[*] that, in all the counties of England, the far greater part of the land was occupied by them, and that the husbandmen, and still more the socmen, who were tenants that, could not be removed at pleasure, were very few in comparison. This was not the case with the German nations, as far as we can collect from the account given us by Tacitus. The perpetual wars in the Heptarchy, and the depredations of the Danes, seem to have been the cause of this great alteration with the Anglo-Saxons. Prisoners taken in battle, or carried off in the frequent inroads, were then reduced to slavery, and became, by right of war,[**] entirely at the disposal of their lords. Great property in the nobles, especially if joined to an irregular administration of justice, naturally favors the power of the aristocracy; but still more so, if the practice of slavery be admitted, and has become very common. The nobility not only possess the influence which always attends riches, but also the power which the laws give them over their slaves and villains. It then becomes difficult, and almost impossible, for a private man to remain altogether free and independent.