right of original conquest, as well to all the soldiers as to the
leader; and these estates, as it is said, were not even forfeitable, no,
not for felony, as if that were in some sort the necessary consequence
of an inheritable estate. So far were they from resembling a fief. But
there were other possessions which bore a nearer resemblance to fiefs,
at least in their first feeble and infantile state of the tenure, than,
those inheritances which were held by an absolute right in the
proprietor. The great officers who attended the court, commanded armies,
or distributed justice must necessarily be paid and supported; but in
what manner could they be paid? In money they could not, because there
was very little money then in Europe, and scarce any part of that little
came into the prince's coffers. The only method of paying them was by
allotting lands for their subsistence whilst they remained in his
service. For this reason, in the original distribution, vast tracts of
land were left in the hands of the king. If any served the king in a
military command, his land may be said to have been in some sort held by
knight-service. If the tenant was in an office about the king's person,
this gave rise to sergeantry; the persons who cultivated his lands may
be considered as holding by socage. But the long train of services that
made afterwards the learning of the tenures were then not thought of,
because these feuds, if we may so call them, had not then come to be
inheritances,--which circumstance of inheritance gave rise to the whole
feudal system. With the Anglo-Saxons the feuds continued to the last but
a sort of pay or salary of office. The _trinoda necessitas_, so much
spoken of, which was to attend the king in his expeditions, and to
contribute to the building of bridges and repair of highways, never
bound the lands by way of tenure, but as a political regulation, which
equally affected every class and condition of men and every species of
possession.