The Local Government
that the king had far the largest number.1 "Under the
influence of continental ideas, all boroughs became lords1
boroughs soon after the Conquest. When the citizens
of the struggling continental municipalities of this period
were regarded individually, they were, as a rule, classed
as servile, and most of them were of servile origin. It
was natural that the new Norman lords of the English
boroughs should regard the burgesses in the same way.
This could not but tend to lower their status, but the
idea was so contrary to fact in England that its logical
results in the treatment of burgesses were not completely
realised. However, the somewhat arbitrary levying by
the lord of a payment called tallage from his boroughs
certainly originated in it. Tallage is to be carefully dis-
tinguished from the oldfirma burgi, made up of the rents,
tolls, and court fines.2
The boroughs also suffered severely from the devasta-
tions which William I. found necessary to the complete
conquest of England.3 But the stable peace which the
Norman and Angevin kings gave the country and the
commercial advantages of the closer connection with the
continent soon began to help the boroughs. This was
noticeable as early as the reign of Henry L, and from
that time the boroughs entered more regularly upon the
struggle for liberties and immunities which began slightly
before the Conquest. The things they were seeking
varied somewhat according as they were king's towns or
those of ecclesiastical or lay lords, but may be grouped,
in a general way, as follows: they wished theirfirma fixed
at a lump sum, and, in the case of the king's towns, paid
directly to the king without the sheriff's intervention;
they wished to be free from tallage and Danegeld; also
as little interference as possible from outside in choosing
their officers and in jurisdiction, every burgess being
amenable only to the borough court; they strove to les-
1 See above, pp. 32, 33. 2 Ibid., p. 33.
3 "The civic population recorded in Domesday fell from 17,000 to
7,000." Medley, English Constitutional History, p. 455.