[348] Christchurch. This cathedral monastery had been organized before the Conqueror's day, but it was much increased in size and in importance by Lanfranc, William's archbishop of Canterbury; and the great building which it occupied in the later Middle Ages was constructed at this time. [349] In Hampshire, in the southern part of the kingdom. [350] In Middlesex, near London. [351] On the Severn, in the modern county of Gloucester. [352] A thane (or thegn) was originally a young warrior; then one who became a noble by serving the king in arms; then the possessor of five hides of land. A hide was a measure of arable ground varying in extent at the time of William the Conqueror, but by Henry II.'s reign (1154-1189) fixed at about 100 acres. The thane before the Conquest occupied nearly the same position socially as the knight after it. [353] This assembly of dignitaries, summoned by the king three times a year, was the so-called Great Council, which in Norman times superseded the old Saxon witan. Its duties were mainly judicial. It acted also as an advisory body, but the king was not obliged to consult it or to carry out its recommendations [see p. 307, note 2]. [354] The _see_ of a bishop is his ecclesiastical office; the area over which his authority extends is more properly known as his diocese. [355] On the Orne River, near the English Channel. [356] Odo, though a churchman, was a man of brutal instincts and evil character. Through his high-handed course, both as a leading ecclesiastical dignitary in Normandy and as earl of Kent and vicegerent in England, he gave William no small amount of trouble. The king finally grew tired of his brother's conduct and had him imprisoned in the town of Rouen where he was left for four years, or until the end of the reign (1087). [357] This was the famous Domesday Survey, begun in 1085. [358] In the Irish Sea. [359] Maine lay directly to the south of Normandy. [360] This statement is doubtful, though it is true that Lanfranc made a beginning by consecrating a number of bishops in Ireland. [361] All of the early Norman kings were greedy for money and apt to bear heavily upon the people in their efforts to get it. Englishmen were not accustomed to general taxation and felt the new regime to be a serious burden. There was consequently much complaint, but, as our historian says, William was strong enough to be able to ignore it.