There were few of the English who in the late disturbances had not
either been active against the Normans or shown great disinclination to
them. Upon some right, or some pretence, the greatest part of their
lands were adjudged to be forfeited. William gave these lands to
Normans, to be held by the tenure of knight-service, according to the
law which modified that service in all parts of Europe. These people he
chose because he judged they must be faithful to the interest on which
they depended; and this tenure he chose because it raised an army
without expense, called it forth at the least warning, and seemed to
secure the fidelity of the vassal by the multiplied ties of those
services which were inseparably annexed to it. In the establishment of
these tenures, William only copied the practice which was now become
very general. One fault, however, he seems to have committed in this
distribution: the immediate vassals of the crown were too few; the
tenants _in capite_ at the end of this reign did not exceed seven
hundred; the eyes of the subject met too many great objects in the state
besides the state itself; and the dependence of the inferior people was
weakened by the interposal of another authority between them and the
crown, and this without being at all serviceable to liberty. The ill
consequence of this was not so obvious whilst the dread of the English
made a good correspondence between the sovereign and the great vassals
absolutely necessary; but it afterwards appeared, and in a light very
offensive to the power of our kings.

As there is nothing of more consequence in a state than the
ecclesiastical establishment, there was nothing to which this vigilant
prince gave more of his attention. If he owed his own power to the
influence of the clergy, it convinced him how necessary it was to
prevent that engine from being employed in its turn against himself. He
observed, that, besides the influence they derived from their character,