A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE among those resident in the county were ^Ethelmaer ' of Bennington ' and Anschil ' of Ware.' Even at the time of Domesday both places had parks, and they must have been respectively the seats of the two thegns I have named. Peter de Valognes obtained Bennington, and with it /Ethelmasr's scattered estates in Sacombe, Layston, Ashwell, Hinxworth and Radwell. In addition to these he secured, as will be seen under his fief (p. 336), lands held in sundry places by various ' men ' of /Ethelmaer. But it is important to observe that other lands which had been held by
- men ' of the same ^thelmar passed to different Norman lords. 1 With
Anschil the case was different. Beyond his great manor of Ware he seems to have held no lands himself in Hertfordshire, although, I shall argue, a large landowner in the adjoining county of Bedfordshire ; but scattered about Hertfordshire we find his ' men.' 2 From these two resident thegns we may turn to two magnates whose chief seats were in Essex. Ansgar, Asgar or Esgar the ' staller,' 8 whose estates, ranging over many counties, were bestowed on Geoffrey de Mandeville, was indeed succeeded by him in his great manor of Sawbridgeworth and in his estate at Shenley together with land in Hertford itself, but what strikes one most on Geoffrey's Hertfordshire fief (fos. 139140) is the long list of lands which had been held not by Ansgar, but by his ' men.' Nor do these exhaust the list, for his ' men ' are found as the former holders of lands on other fiefs 4 all over the county. This no doubt is a testimony to Ansgar's great position on the eve of the Norman Conquest, as well as to the fact that his father and grandfather had been men of note before him. 6 The other of these two magnates was Robert Fitz Wimarc, a foreign favourite of Edward the Confessor, whose chief seat was at Rayleigh in south-east Essex. He held, it would seem, no estate in Hertfordshire himself, but lands were held by ' men ' of his in sundry parts of the county. 6 Now what we learn from this analysis is that, however ' feudal ' in appearance is the Anglo-Saxon tenure of land as entered in the Hertford- shire Survey, the rights of a lord in his 'man's' land were far less than after the Conquest, when the feudal system was established. Domesday speaks, it is true, of Ansgar's fief (feuduni) as passing to Geoffrey de Mandeville, 7 but the Hertfordshire evidence shows that in this so-called fief there were not of necessity comprised the lands held by his ' men ' as would have been the case with a fief under the Norman system. Two instances in point are afforded in this county. ' Godid,' a ' man ' of 1 Domesday, fos. 133^, 134^, 137^, 138, 140, 141^, 142. A 'man* of ' ^Elfric (Alvricus) of Bennington' occurs on fo. 137^. This ^Elfric may have been ^Ethelmasr's predecessor, as there are parallel cases in Domesday.
- Ibid. fos. 133^ (2), 138, 141, 1413 (2).
8 Dr. Stubbs observes that the ' constable ' of the Norman kings ' exercised the office of quarter- master-general of the court and army and succeeded to the duties of the Anglo-Saxon staller ' (Const. Hist. [1874],;. 354).
- Domesday, fos. 133* (4), 134, 134*, 137, 137^ (3), 138^, 140, 142 (2).
6 See Freeman's Norman Conquest. 6 Ibid. fos. 133^, 134, 137*, 141^. Robert Fitz Wimarc (on whom see Freeman's Norman Cm- quest) was sheriff of Essex, as was Ansgar of Middlesex. 7 ' Sed non pertinuit ad feudum Ansgari antecessoris Gosfridi ' (ii. 411). 2 7 6
