of the late royal house were consistently despoiled, amongst them
Editha, the beautiful queen of King Edward, and daughter of Earl Godwin,
of whom it was written: "_Sicut spina rosam genuit Godwynus Editham_";
and Gida, the mother of Harold; Godric, his son; and Gwith, his brother.
Harold himself--the earl, as he is called, and not the king, who fought
and died at Senlac, if he did not, as the romance states, end his life
as a holy hermit at Chester--had vast estates all over England, which
went to enrich William's hungry followers. Hereward the Wake, the
English hero, also held in pre-Norman days many fat manors. Few of the
Saxon landowners were spared, and it is unnecessary here to record the
names of the Uchtreds, Turgots, Turchils, Siwards, Leurics, who held
lands "in the time of King Edward," but whose place after Domesday knows
them no more.

_Domesday_ tells us also the names of the officers and artisans who
played important parts in the old village communities. The _villani_, or
villeins, corresponding to the Saxon _ceorls_, were the most important
class of tenants in villeinage, and each held about thirty acres in
scattered acre or half-acre strips, each a furlong in length and a perch
or two in breadth, separated by turf balks. The villein thus supported
himself and his family, and in return was bound to render certain
services to the lord of the manor, to work on the home farm, and provide
two or more oxen for the manorial plough-team. He was not a free tenant,
could acquire no property, and his lord's consent was needed for the
marriage of his daughters. But the law protected him from unjust usage;
his holdings were usually regranted to his son. He could obtain freedom
in several ways, and by degrees acquired the rights and privileges of a
free tenant.

Next to the villeins were the _bordarii_, who lived in _bords_ or