The Central Government 123
arbitrarily from the property of Ms tmfree tenants, some-
thing in the nature of a return upon property invested;
the other, continental in origin, that the citizens of a
municipality were tmfree.1 The king tallaged his towns
as a lord of tenants, not as king; hence he tallaged only
those on the royal demesne. Other lords could tallage
their towns; but it finally became the practice that they
should tallage only when the king did. Here again, it
was only a class that was reached, and that in a private
rather than a public way. Tallage practically ceased in
the fourteenth century. Thus for long after the Norman
Conquest there was no system of national taxation and
no conception of taxation, in any proper sense of the
word. The king had various sources of revenue. It goes
without saying that, as in the case of Danegeld, the Nor-
man kings retained any important means of supply that
had attached to Anglo-Saxon kingship. As a matter of
fact, Danegeld was a tax, but it had been the offspring of
accidental necessity and had been retained, as any source
of revenue, however originated, was always retained. A
tax had preceded the idea of taxation. Generally speak-
ing, the Norman king 'lived of his own.9'2
That a vastly greater amount of money came year after
year into the hands of William the Conqueror and his
sons than had come to Anglo-Saxon kings is beyond ques-
xSee above, p. in. The term tallage was not applied to this pay-
ment until the reign of Henry II.
2 Although we reckon England a feudal country after the Norman Con-
quest, it is interesting to notice, by way of summary, the limitations upon
feudal ideas and practice in this the heyday of feudalism; also to identify
the source of these in antecedent institutions, Saxon or Norman, or in the
operation of the king's powerful self-interest:
1. It was not the law that there was no political bond between men
save the bond of tenure.
2. A man was not bound to fight for his lord unless that lord were the
king.
3. It was not the law that those not bound k> fight by tenure need not
fight.
4. Royal revenue and taxation were not wholly feudalised.
5. Jurisdiction, whether or not by royal grant, was not all in private
hands.
6. The king's court was not wholly feudal.
For a discussion of these points, see Maitland, C. H. E.t pp. 161-164.