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.Inany case, however, the divided character of the Normanbaronies in England must not be pressed too far.Thegrants to his two half brothers, and the earldoms of Chesterand Shrewsbury on the borders of Wales, are enough to showthat William was not afraid of principalities within the state,and on a somewhat smaller scale could becited.Nor ought comparison to be made between Englishbaronies, or earldoms even, and those feudal dominions onthe continent which had been based on the counties of theearlier period.In these, sovereign rights over a large con-tiguous territory, originally delegated to an administrativeofficer, had been transformed into a practically independentpower.The proper comparison is rather between the Eng-lish baronies of whatever rank and those continental feudaldominions which were formed by natural process half eco-nomic and half political, without definite delegation of LATER YEARSwithin or alongside the provincial countships,IIIcomparison would show less difference.the Saxon earl did not survive the Conquest in the samebefore, the Saxon sheriff did.The as thefound it in England was in so many ways similar tothat of the viscount, which still survived in Nor-mandy administrative office, that it was very easy toidentify the two and to bring the Norman name into commonuse as an equivalent of the Saxon.The result of the newconditions was largely to increase the sheriff s importanceAs the special representative of the king inand power.the county, he shared in the increased power of his master.practically the whole administrative system of the state, as itaffected its local divisions, was worked through him.istrator of the royal domains, responsible for the most impor-tant revenues, vehicle of royal commands of all kinds, andretaining the judicial functions which had been associatedwith the office in Saxon times, he held a position, not merelyof power but of opportunity.Evidence is abundant ofgreat abuse of power by the sheriff at the expense of theconquered.Nor did the king always escape these abuses,for the office, like that of the Carolingian count, to which itwas in many ways similar, contained a possibility of use forprivate and personal advantage which could be corrected,even by so strong a sovereign as the Anglo-Norman, only byviolent intervention at intervals.time after the Conquest, but at a date unknown, Will.set aside a considerable portion of Hampshire toa hunting ground, the New Forest, near his residence at Win-chester.The chroniclers of the next generation describe theformation of the Forest as the devastation of a large tract ofcountry in which churches were destroyed, the inhabitantsdriven out, and the cultivated land thrown back into wilder-ness, and they record a contemporary belief that the violentdeaths of so many members of William s house within thebounds of the Forest, including two of his sons, were acts ofdivine vengeance and proofs of the wickedness of the deed.While this tradition of the method of making the Forest isstill generally accepted, it has been called in question forreasons that make it necessary, in my opinion, to pronounce THE NEW FOREST59doubtful.It is hardly consistent with the general character CHAP.of William.Such statements of chroniclers are too easilyto warrant us in accepting them without qualification.The evidence of geology and of the history of agricultureindicates that probably the larger part of this tract was onlythinly populated, and Book shows some portions ofthe Forest still occupied by The forest laws ofthe Norman kings were severe in the extreme, and weighedcruelly on beasts and men alike, and on men of rank as wellas simple freemen.They excited a general and bitter hostilitywhich lasted for generations, and prepared a natural soil forthe rapid growth of a partially mythical explanation to ac-count in a satisfactory way for the dramatic accidents whichfollowed the family of the Conqueror in the Forest, by thedirect and tangible wickedness which had attended themaking of the hunting ground.It is probable also thatindividual acts of violence did accompany the making, andthat some villages and churches were destroyed.But thelikelihood is so strong against a general devastation thathistory should probably acquit William of the greater crimelaid to his charge, and refuse to place any longer the devas-tation of Hampshire in the same class with that ofberland.After the surrender of Ely, William s attention was nextgiven to Scotland.In King Malcolm had invadednorthern England, but without results beyond laying wasteother portions of that afflicted country.It was easier toshow the than the Danes that William was capable ofstriking back, and in 1072, after a brief visit to Normandy,an army under the king s command advanced along the eastcoast with an accompanying fleet.No attempt was madeto check this invasion in the field, and only when Williamhad reached Abernethy did Malcolm come to meet him.What arrangement was made between them it is impossibleto say, but it was one that was satisfactory to William atthe time.Probably Malcolm became his vassal and gavehim hostages for his good conduct, but if so, his allegiancedid not bind him very securely, Norman feudalism was noRound, of i.But see F.inxvi. LATER YEARSmore successful than the ordinary type, in dealing with aIIIsovereign who was in vassal relations.The critical years of William s conquest of England hadbeen undisturbed by any dangers threatening his continentalMatilda, who spent most of the time in Nor-mandy, with her had maintained peace andorder with little difficulty; but in the year after his Scottishexpedition he was called to Normandy by a revolt in hisearly conquest, the county Maine, which it required a for-midable campaign to subdue.William s plan to attach thisimportant province to Normandy by a marriage between hisson Robert and the youngest sister of the last count had failedthrough the death of the proposed heiress, and the countyhad risen in favour of her elder sister, the wife of the ItalianMarquis or of her son.Then a successful communalrevolution had occurred in the city of Le Mans, anticipatingan age of rebellion against the feudal powers, and the effortof the commune to bring the whole county into alliance withitself, though nearly successful for the moment at least, hadreally prepared the way for the restoration of the Normanpower by dividing the party opposed to it.William crossedto Normandy in leading a considerable army composedin part of English.The campaign was a short one.Revoltwas punished, as William sometimes punished it, by barbar-ously devastating the country.Le Mans did not venture tostand a siege, but surrendered on William s sworn promiseto respect its ancient liberty.By a later treaty with Fulk ofAnjou, Robert was recognized as Count of Maine, but as aof Anjou and not of Normandy
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