William’s policy was one of balancing. His whole career in England was characteristically inaugurated by his care to support his claim to the throne on a double basis. Not content to depend merely on the right of conquest, he insisted on having his title confirmed by a body claiming to represent the old Witenagemot of England, and he further alleged that he had been formally named as successor by his kinsman, Edward Confessor, a nomination strengthened by the renunciation of Harold in his favour. Thus, to his Norman followers claiming to have set him by force of arms on his throne, William might point to the form of election by the Witan, while for his English subjects, claiming to have elected him, the presence of the foreign troops was an even more effective argument. Throughout his reign, his plan was to balance the old English laws and institutions against the new Norman ones, with himself as umpire over all. Thus he retained whatever suited him in Anglo-Saxon customs. Roger of Hoveden tells us how, in the fourth year of his reign, twelve of the subject English from each county—noble, wise, and learned in the laws—were summoned to recite on oath the old customs of the land.[1] He retained, too, the old popular moots or meetings of the shire and hundred as a counterpoise to the feudal jurisdictions; the fyrd or militia of all free men as a set-off to the feudal levy; and such of the incidents of the old Anglo-Saxon tenures of land as met his requirements. ----- Footnote 1: R. Hoveden, _Chronica_, II. 218. ----- Thus the subject English, with their customs and ancient institutions, were used as expedients for modifying the excesses of feudalism. William, however, did not shrink from innovations where these suited his purpose. The great earldoms into which England had been divided, even down to the Norman Conquest, were abolished. New earldoms were indeed created, but on an entirely different basis. Even the great officers, subsequently known as Earls Palatine, always few in number, never attained either to the extent of territory or to the independence of the Anglo-Saxon ealdormen. William was chary of creating even ordinary earls, and such as he did create soon became mere holders of empty titles of honour, while they found themselves ousted from all real power by the Norman _vicecomites_ or sheriffs. No English earl was a “count” in the continental sense (that is, a real ruler of a “county”). Further, no earl was allowed to hold too large an estate within his titular shire; and William, while compelled to reward his followers’ services with great possessions, was careful that these should be split up in widely scattered districts of his Kingdom. Thus the great feudatories were prevented from consolidating their resources against the Crown.