When Earl Godwin
besieged the Confessor in London, he summoned from all parts his
huscarles, or houseceorles and retainers, and thereby constrained his
sovereign to accept of the conditions which he was pleased to impose
upon him.
The lower rank of freemen were denominated ceorles among the
Anglo-Saxons; and where they were industrious they were chiefly employed
in husbandry; whence a ceorle and a husbandman became in a manner
synonymous terms. They cultivated the farms of the nobility, or thanes,
for which they paid rent; and they seem to have been removable at
pleasure; for there is little mention of leases among the Anglo-Saxons:
the pride of the nobility, together with the general ignorance of
writing, must have rendered those contracts very rare, and must have
kept the husbandmen in a dependent condition. The rents of farms were
then chiefly paid in kind.[*****]
[* Winchester, being the capital of the West Saxon
monarchy, was anciently a considerable city. Gul. Pict. p.
210.]
[** Norwich contained 738 houses; Exeter, 315;
Ipswich, 538; Northampton, 60; Hertford, 146; Canterbury,
262; Bath, 61; Southampton 84; Warwick, 225.
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