Note 39 — PART I TERRITORIAL STUDIES (continued 2)

The fourth and last criticism which I propose to offer on the subject is this. If we find that under Henry II—when we meet with definite information—a fief contained, as we might expect, more 'units of possession' than it was bound to furnish knights (thus leaving a balance over for the baro after sub-infeudation), we must draw one of two conclusions: either this excess had existed from the first; or, if the fief (as we are asked to believe) was originally assessed up to the hilt for military service, that assessment must, in the interval, have been reduced. In other words, Henry I—if, as Dr Stubbs in one place suggests,39 he was the first to take a 'regular account of the knights' fees'—must have found the land with a settled liability of providing one knight for every five hides, and must, yet, have reduced that liability of his own accord, on the most sweeping scale, thus, contrary to all his principles, ultroneously deprived himself of the 'service' he was entitled to claim.