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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 14

3.—The Terra Regis of Domesday

3.—The Terra Regis of Domesday.

When the kings began to be considered as the representatives of the State, the term terra regis, or crown land, took the place of the word folcland; and the bôcland, or private estate of the king, came to be mixed up with it. This is the terra regis of Domesday Book e.

"The terra regis of Domesday," observes Mr. Allen, "was derived from a variety of sources. It consisted, in part, of land that happened at the time of the survey to be in the king's hands, by escheat or forfeitures from his Norman followers. It was constituted, in part, of the lands of Saxon proprietors, which had been confiscated after the Conquest, and had not been granted away to subjects. But it was chiefly composed of land that had been possessed by the Confessor in demesne, or in farm, or had been held by his thegns and other servants. Of the last description part was probably the private bôcland of the Confessor, which had belonged to him as his private inheritance But it we compare the number of manors assigned to him as his demesne lands in Domesday, with the estates of bôcland possessed by Alfred, it seems incredible that the whole should have been his private property. A great part must have been the folcland, or public property of the State, of which, though the nominal proprietor, he was only the usufructuary possessor, and, with the license and consent of his wit an, the distributer on the part of the public. The land which is called terra regis in the Exchequer Domesday is termed, in the original returns of the Exon. Domesday, demesne land of the king belonging to the kingdom" f.