When the thanage came to be considered as crown land it assumed an appearance, with its thane holding it under the Crown and paying a share of the produce as _Cain_, which was so analogous to that of the feu-farm holding, that when feudal forms became more generally adopted it almost unavoidably passed over into the latter; and it is at this stage of the history of the thanage, when it was universally recognised as a feu-farm holding, that the very important description of the tenure of crown lands given us by Fordun in his Chronicle, to which we have already adverted, more directly applies. We must now examine this description more in detail. Fordun divides the possessors and occupiers of the crown lands into three classes, beginning his description with the lowest class, and proceeding through the different ranks till he reaches the Thane; but it will be more convenient for our purpose to invert the order in which he describes them. He introduces his description by stating that the kings were accustomed of old to give to their soldiers more or less of their lands in feu-farm a thanage or portion of some province, of which, however, he gave to each as it pleased him. Then follow the three classes. The highest he terms _principes_, _thani_, and _milites_. To these, who were few in number, he gave the land in perpetuity, but under the burden of a certain annual payment to the king. The word _principes_ here, probably, means the earls of those ancient earldoms who represented the old _Mormaers_, and whose demesne was held to have been originally part of the crown land.[301] The _thani_ represented the older _Toschachs_, and here we find the _Toschachs_ or thanes holding the demesne of the thanage of the king in feu-farm, and paying an annual feu-duty, first in kind, and retaining its original name of _Cain_, but afterwards commuted to a money payment. Accordingly, in the laws of William the Lion and of Alexander the Second we find them in the position of crown vassals holding of the king _in capite_. Thus in an assize held at Perth by King William the Lion there were present the bishops, abbots, earls, barons, thanes, and whole community or estates of the kingdom. Again, a law passed in A.D. 1220, regarding persons absenting themselves from the king’s army, mentions those belonging to the lands of bishops, abbots, barons, knights, and thanes who hold of the king.[302] By _milites_, Fordun here means those who held a portion of the thanage termed a tenement or tenandry, either direct from the king, or, as was more usual, under the thane or lord as a sub-vassal, as distinguished from the demesne.[303] These formed the class termed freeholders or _libere tenentes_, and were bound to yield certain services as suit and service in the court of the overlord and Scottish service to the king. This class is frequently alluded to in the laws both of William the Lion and of Alexander the Second. Thus in a statute