Note 268 — PART I TERRITORIAL STUDIES (continued 3)
Reading edition
But it is not only on church fiefs that the Domesday under-tenant proves to be a feudal miles. At Swaffham (Cambridgeshire) we read in Domesday (fol. 196) 'tenet Hugo de Walterio [Gifard]'.268 Yet in the earlier record of a placitum on the rights of Ely, we find this tenant occurring as 'Hugo de bolebec miles Walteri Giffard', while in 1166 his descendant and namesake is returned as the chief tenant on the Giffard fief. The same placitum supplies other illustrations of the fact.269 The cases taken from the Percy fief and from the honour of Britanny afford further confirmation, if needed, of the conclusions I draw.270