13. The Manors and Abbey lands were held of the king on the same conditions; and every man, who had a certain quantity of land, was bound either to serve as a soldier himself, or send a substitute. 14. The rest of the country was divided by the king amongst the great barons, who agreed, in return, that whenever he went to war they would go with him, and take with them so many men, properly armed and trained for warfare, perhaps fifty or a hundred, or even more, according to the extent of lands they held. 15. These great Baronies were called Feods, and the king was the feodal or feudal lord of the barons, who were called crowned vassals; and, when any one of them died, the king took the lands again until the heir paid him a large sum of money to redeem them. 16. Some of the kings behaved very ill in this, in making the heirs pay a great deal more than was just; and, if a baron died, and left a daughter only, she was obliged to marry any one the king chose, or he would not let her have her inheritance at all. 17. The feudal laws were therefore very bad, because they gave men the power of being tyrants to each other; for the nobles had the same power of oppressing their vassals that the king had of oppressing them. 18. You must understand that the great Barons, who held very extensive domains, gave small estates out of them to men who were not so high in rank as themselves, on the same conditions as the king had given the large baronies to them, so that the lesser nobles were the vassals of the great ones, and were bound to aid them with men and money when required. 19. Then all the nobles, from the highest to the lowest degree, were the absolute lords of all the common people that dwelt on their lands, and could make them do just whatever they pleased, as I told you they could in the Saxon times; but then the Norman lords treated them, at first, a great deal more harshly than the Saxon lords did, and took a great deal more from them. 20. After the Norman conquest they were called villeins, which meant villagers, and they lived in the same manner, and had the same kind of duties to perform for their lords, as in the Saxon times; but there were many new feudal customs brought here by the Normans; as for example, a mill was set up on every estate, to which all the poor people were obliged to take their corn to be ground, instead of grinding it at home with hand-mills, as they used to do; and, out of each measure, a part was taken for the baron, which was a very hard tax upon them, especially if they had large families. 21. Another feudal custom was this; a duty was laid on every thing sold at the fairs and markets; that is, if a man went to the market to buy a sheep, he must pay so much for the sheep, and so much for duty, the duty being for the baron, or lord of the manor.