Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Six Centuries of Work and Wages: The History of English Labour
With few exceptions, the anglo-saxon lords were de graded, and assumed a lower social position, or were wholly dispossessed, and sought their fortunes in other countries. But the higher social element of the residual English was still strong enough to be useful to the sovereign in an emergency, and the lower retained and clung to their local institutions. It was therefore easy for the king to appeal to his English subjects, and to use their services against rebellious barons and their retainers and, if he were strong enough, to secure them, after he won his victory, against notable outrages. He soon saw that it was wise to keep entire a force which might be employed against the dangers which his own aristocracy might cause him. Experience confirmed his anticipation. The second and third Norman kings found their most useful allies in their English subjects; and the sat/ants of the Norman and Plantagenet sovereigns soon began to protect the tenants of the Norman lords, by the machinery of the law courts, against the arbitrary authority of their superiors.
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