William of Normandy might be able, by force of arms, to make himself master of England, but not until London opened her gates to him could he be really King. He preferred negotiation to attack, and in return for the support of the citizens he promised to abide by the laws of Edward the Confessor, and maintain the rights of the City. Shortly after his coronation he gave the citizens his famous Charter, the first of a long series of charters; in it are conveyed in the fewest possible words the largest possible rights and privileges. The Charter, which is really a compact between the King and the citizens rather than a grant from the former to the latter, indicates three all-important points with the greatest clearness and precision. They are, first, the rights of a freeman, as understood at the time, and according to the English customs, were to be secured to every man; second, every man was to have the right of inheritance; and third, no one was to stand between the City and the King. William the King friendly salutes William the Bishop, and Godfrey the portreve, and all the burgesses within London, both French and English. And I declare, that I grant you to be all law-worthy, as you were in the days of King Edward; and I grant that every child shall be his father's heir, after his father's days; and I will not suffer any person to do you wrong. God keep you. LONDON ENVIRONS IN DOMESDAY (1085). In 1085 William the Conqueror, according to the Chronicle, "sent over all England into every shire his men, and let them inquire how many hundred hides were in each shire, and what land and cattle the King himself had in the shire, and what rent he ought to receive yearly in each. He let them also inquire how much land his archbishops had, and his other bishops and his abbots, and how much every man had who held land within the kingdom, as well on land as on cattle, and how much each was worth." This Domesday Survey did not include the City of London, but the suburbs are described as in Middlesex. The most striking fact with regard to these suburbs is that nearly the whole of the land immediately bordering the City was in the hands of the Church; all round London was a broad belt of ecclesiastical manors, and this fact interfered considerably with the extension of the City. The privileges of London citizens were confined rigidly to the town within the walls; we notice that at the time of Domesday Book the adjacent country was very sparsely inhabited, and the expansion of the residential area outside the City boundaries was a slow process, often hindered by the ecclesiastical authorities.