subsequent gift thereof, by Egbert and Athelwolf, was made with the
concurrence and assent of the great men. The kings' charters of
escheated lands, to which they had succeeded by a personal right,
usually declared "that it might be known that what they gave was
their own."

Discussions have at various times taken place upon the question,
"Was the land-system of this period FEUDAL?" It engaged the
attention of the Irish Court of King's Bench, in the reign of
Charles I., and was raised in this way: James I. had issued "a
commission of defective titles." Any Irish owner, upon surrendering
his land to the king, got a patent which reconvened it on him.
Wentworth (Lord Stafford) wished to SETTLE Connaught, as Ulster had
been SETTLED in the preceding reign, and, to accomplish it, tried
to break the titles granted under "the commission of defective
titles." Lord Dillon's case, which is still quoted as an authority,
was tried. The plea for the Crown alleged that the honor of the
monarch stood before his profit, and as the commissioners were only
authorized to issue patents to hold in capite, whereas they had
given title "to hold in capite, by knights' service out of Dublin
Castle," the grant was bad. In the course of the argument, the
existence of feudal tenures, before the landing of William of
Normandy, was discussed, and Sir Henry Spelman's views, as
expressed in the Glossary, were considered. The Court unanimously
decided that feudalism existed in England under the ANGLO-SAXONs,
and it affirmed that Sir Henry Spelman was wrong. This decision led
Sir Henry Spelman to write his "Treatise on Feuds," which was
published after his death, in which he reasserted the opinion that
feudalism was introduced into England at the Norman invasion. This
decision must, however, be accepted with a limitation; I think