Frederic William Maitland investigates the institutional and economic structure of early England by meticulously dissecting the Domesday Survey and pre-Conquest charters. The inquiry begins with the administrative framework of Domesday Book, treating it primarily as a grand fiscal geld book rather than a register of title. Maitland examines the geography of the English vill, distinguishing between nucleated villages and scattered settlements, and analyzes the stratification of the rural population from serfs and villeins to sokemen and free men.
The text traces the legal status of the lowest classes, contrasting the rightless serf with the conditionally free villein who held a tenement and owed agricultural services. A major historical problem addressed is the massive depression of the peasantry following the Norman Conquest, where many formerly free sokemen and alodiaries were thrust down into manorial dependence and burdened with unfree duties. The investigation reveals that the typical manorial structure of later centuries was largely consolidated and intensified by the new foreign lords.
Shifting focus to pre-Conquest institutions, the second essay explores book-land and folk-land, illuminating how royal grants conveyed superiorities rather than modern absolute ownership. Maitland demonstrates the evolution of seignorial justice through the concepts of sake and soke, explaining how private jurisdictions gradually emerged alongside the hundredal courts. The discussion of book-land and loan-land illustrates the early forms of dependent tenure, similar to later feudal relationships, long before the arrival of the Normans.
The final section investigates the hide as both an areal and a fiscal measure of arable land. Maitland compares Domesday statistics with earlier documents like the Tribal Hidage and the Burghal Hidage, arguing for the continuity and permanence of the large hide of one hundred and twenty acres. Through rigorous statistical and diplomatic critique, the work establishes a foundational methodology for English agrarian history, demonstrating that the seemingly rigid manorialism of the twelfth century grew out of fluid, complex, and varied pre-conquest roots.
