cavalry. William heard of the defeat, and conceived a respect for
the brave man who had caused it; he sent a herald with a safe
conduct to the chief, Shobington, desiring to speak with him. Not
many days after, came to court eight stalwart men riding upon
bulls, the father and seven sons. "If thou wilt leave me my lands,
O king," said the old man, "I will serve thee faithfully as I did
the dead Harold." Whereupon the Conqueror confirmed him in his
ownership, and named the family Bullstrode, instead of Shobington.

Sir Martin Wright, in his "Treatise on Tenures," published in 1730,
p. 61, remarks:

"Though it is true that the possessions of the Normans were of a
sudden very great, and that they received most of them from the
hands of William I., yet it does not follow that the king took all
the lands of England out of the hands of their several owners,
claiming them as his spoils of war, or as a parcel of a conquered
country; but, on the contrary, it appears pretty plain from the
history of those times that the king either had or pretended title
to the crown, and that his title, real or pretended, was
established by the death of Harold, which amounted to an
unquestionable judgment in his favor. He did not therefore treat
his opposers as enemies, but as traitors, agreeably to the known
laws of the kingdom which subjected traitors not only to the loss
of life but of all their possessions."

He adds (p. 63):

"As William I. did not claim to possess himself of the lands of
England as the spoils of conquest, so neither did he tyrannically