In addition to his grants of land, William had the government of the country to attend to, and the vacant earldoms to fill. In doing this he was guided by his past experience, and in the fully conquered parts of England was careful not to put any earl into the position occupied by the great earls of the last days of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy. In this respect, as in some others, the spirit of feudalism had been making rapid strides in England, and the great earls, as well as the great cities, were bidding fair to assume the position of the feudatories and free cities of the Continent. William was careful to return to older precedent, and to confine his earldoms to one shire. The importance of this in English history is great, as it obliged the nobility to work in alliance with the commonalty, and secured national rather than aristocratic progress. Thus his two most trusted servants, to whom in his absence he left the vice-regency of the kingdom, William Fitz-Osbern and his brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, were respectively but Earls of Hereford and of Kent. William thus arranged that part of England which he had really conquered. In the North he as yet continued the existing state of things. Edwin and Morkere did homage and received their Earldoms back again. Waltheof remained Earl of Nottingham, and Copsige (Copsi or Coxo) was given the earldom of the Northern province of Northumberland. To secure the allegiance of these great unconquered Earls, William took them with him when in March he went to revisit his native duchy. The kingdom he left in charge, the South to Odo of Bayeux, the North to William Fitz-Osbern. [Sidenote: William revisits Normandy.] [Sidenote: Misgovernment by his viceroys and consequent rebellion.]