The Central Government 119
Conquest, and when these meetings were over (and
they were usually short), some more inclined or more
fitted for public work remained behind and were becom-
ing a more permanent group surrounding the king, some-
thing more in the nature of his official household, but
still a group which may with equal correctness be called
the king's court. There seems to have been no distinc-
tion of function between these two, except perhaps that
matters of great moment might be reserved for the larger
body. It is more correct to say that there were not two
bodies, but larger and smaller sessions of the same body;
when the larger was in session the smaller was merged in
it. The king's court aided in all kinds of king's business,
apparently quite as it came up, with little or nothing at
first in the way of classification. But it did an amount of
business that had never been done by the witan, and the
beginning of a more permanent group of royal counsel-
lors was extremely important.
2. Revenue and Taxation.—The Normans brought
into England no ideas on taxation that were in advance
of those already there. In fact, the Danegeld under
Cnute probably approached more nearly a tax than any-
thing known to the Normans. Hence what has been said
of the king's various forms of income as being the proper
and sufficient support of king and government, the idea
that the king should "live of his own," applies long after
the Conquest.1 But a change in the Danegeld and
some changes in the ordinary sources of revenue and the
ideas connected with them, changes that formed starting
points for later development, need to be noted here.
The Conqueror renewed the Danegeld, which had been
dropped by Edward the Confessor, and trebled it. This
made it a tax of six shillings on every hide of land.2
It was levied regularly, and Cnute's idea of it as a regular
payment for the support of government was renewed.
From the Conquest, there has always been a land tax in
1 See above, pp. 51, 52.
2 The hide averaged about 120 acres. See above, p. 49, note i.