the king’s representative and regent when he left the country), with a staff of justices, consisting originally of the officers of the household, but tending gradually to consist of new nobility appointed by the king for the purpose. This was the final court of appeal, and could draw to it any suit from the county court. But the chief restriction upon military feudalism, which rendered its appearance in England impossible, was, that each freeholder swore allegiance, not to his immediate lord, but to the king. Abroad, if a great noble went to war with the king, his vassals were doing right in following him; in England, they were committing treason. [Sidenote: William’s position.] This oath was exacted after the great work of the Domesday Book was completed. This book consisted of a registration of all the lands in the kingdom, made by commissioners, after inquiry upon oath of the chief men and lesser freeholders of each district. By it not only were the limits of property settled, but the king knew what resources he could rely upon both in men and money. The king’s power was nominally limited by the “counsel and consent” of the National Council, which was at once the old English Witan and a feudal assembly, but its power was really nominal. The taxes seldom called for interference, as they were derived principally either from the old national dues, the _ferm_ of the shire (a fixed rent of the old public lands and royal domains), the danegelt, and the proceeds of fines or feudal aids. The army was also completely in the king’s hands; as national sovereign, the old national militia was at his command; as feudal sovereign, he could claim the military service of his vassals, which was defined in every case by the Domesday Book, while the whole people were bound to him by oath. We thus see William the Conqueror occupying the position of a practically irresponsible monarch, with a mixed monarchy of national and feudal character, but, with the exception of some parts of the administration of justice, carried on wholly under feudal forms. [Sidenote: The Church.]