Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/670

 652 APPENDIX H The petty kingdoms and various peoples which constituted England had not long come under a central administration when "William succeeded Edward, and that administration had never been controlled by hands strong enough to bind the conflicting elements into a nation. Internal strife and the pressure of enemies on the coasts were conditions unfavourable to establishing a society with fixed institutions, and the germ of a social system had no time to mature before the coming of a new dynasty arrested its development. At the time of the Conquest, the Saxon aristocracy was composed of a small official class headed by the Earl, who, apart from members of the royal houses, appears to have been the only possessor of a title of dignity. His earldom being an office, the Earl's dignity was not strictly hereditary, though there was a decided tendency to let office, like estates, descend to the representative of the former owner. The gradual changes which the earldom underwent after the invasion are well ex- pressed by the authors of yf History of English Law:{^) Often enough has office become property, or rather (for this we believe to be nearer the truth) rights which older and vaguer law had regarded as half official, halt proprietary, have become definitely proprietary. Earldoms and serjeanties belong to this category; but we cannot distinguish between the lands which the earl has as earl and those which he has as man. Documentary evidence is too fragmentary in the nth and I2th cen- turies for us to see the various steps in the transition from office to personal dignity, but it is probably safe to say that at the time in which the origin of our modern peerage becomes discernible — the reign of Stephen — few earls still retained to any considerable extent the character of their Saxon predecessors. For some time after the Conquest it is difficult to distinguish between the Norman Count and the English Earl, and the fact that many of the Conqueror's followers held large estates in Normandy led ultimately to a division of inheritances and nationality in their descendants, one son retaining the Norman, the other the English lands.C") We are only con- cerned with the latter, and with the question of how far English earl- doms were inheritable by women, and consequently capable of falling into the state which is described in modern language as abeyance. To ascertain the truth regarding earldoms and baronies we must look behind legal definitions into the facts of history. It is only possible (») A History of English Law before the Time of Edward /, by Sir Frederick Pollock and Frederic William Maitland, 1895, vol. i, p. 520. C') The Montfort and Leicester fiefs furnish a good example. Amaury, Count of Montfort, certifies Henry, King of England, that he has ceded all his lands in England to his brother Simon, Aug. 1231. {Tresor des Chartes, J 628 — Angleterre II — no. 14(4)). In June 1232 he declares that he has ceded all his lands in England to his brother Simon, Earl of Leicester. [Idem, no. 14(1)). On 11 Apr. 1239 (not 1232) he concedes all his part of the honour of Leicester to his brother Simon, Earl of Leicester. {Idem, no. 14(2)). The writer is indebted to G. W. Watson for these references.