Note 116 — PART I TERRITORIAL STUDIES (continued 3)

The incredible ignorance and credulity even of officials at the time are illustrated by the fact that the Conqueror was generally believed to have created 32,000 knights' fees in England, and that Swereford plumed himself on his independence in doubting so general a belief.116 His less sceptical contemporary, Segrave, continued to believe it, and even Madox hesitates to reject it.