defend them against all enemies and strangers."

Eadmerus, who wrote in the reign of Henry I., gives the LII.
William I. as a confirmatory law. The charter given by Stubbs is a
contraction of the law given by Eadmerus. The former uses the words
OMNES LIBERI HOMINES; the latter, the words OMNIS LIBERI HOMO.
Those interested can compare them, as I shall give the text of each
side by side.

Since the paper was read, I have met with the following passage in
Stubbs's "Constitutional History of England," vol. i., p. 265:

"It has been maintained that a formal and definitive act, forming
the initial point of the feudalization of England, is to be found
in a clause of the laws, as they are called, of the Conqueror,
which directs that every FREEMAN shall affirm, by covenant and
oath, that 'he will be faithful to King William within England and
without, will join him in preserving his land with all fidelity,
and defend him against his enemies.' But this injunction is little
more than the demand of the oath of allegiance taken to the Anglo-
Saxon kings, and is here required not of every feudal dependant of
the king, but of every FREEMAN or freeholder whatsoever. In that
famous Council of Salisbury, A. D, 1086, which was summoned
immediately after the making of the Doomsday survey, we learn, from
the 'Chronicle,' that there came to the king 'all his witan and all
the landholders of substance in England, whose vassals soever they
were, and they all submitted to him and became his men, and swore
oaths of allegiance that they would be faithful to him against all
others.' In the act has been seen the formal acceptance and date of
the introduction of feudalism, but it has a very different meaning.