Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/78

 21. Another feudal custom was this; a duty was laid on every thing sold at the fairs and markets; that is, if a man went to the market to buy a sheep, he must pay so much for the sheep, and so much for duty, the duty being for the baron, or lord of the manor.

22. There were a great many other customs which I have not room to mention, but I think I have said enough to show you what the feudal system was in the first ages after the Norman conquest; so now I will tell you something about the first Norman sovereigns.

23. William the Conqueror died in 1087, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert, in Normandy, and by his second son, William Rufus, in England; but after a time Duke Robert wanted money to go to the Holy Wars, which I will tell you about presently, so he mortgaged his duchy of Normandy to his brother William, who thus became sovereign of both countries, as his father had been. He was a sad tyrant, and so rude in his manners that nobody liked him.

24. I told you what strict game laws were made by the Conqueror, but William Rufus made them more severe still, and so displeased the noblemen, by forbidding them to hunt without his leave, that some of them formed a conspiracy to