William the Conqueror

and most of the laws contained in it are taken from the laws of the preceding kings, and especially of Edward the Confessor (whose laws William swore to observe);

† The Norman princes, from William the Conqueror to John, I think without exception, bound themselves, and, in order to maintain their thrones, were obliged to bind themselves, to observe the ancient laws and customs, in other words, the “lex terræ,” or “common law” of the kingdom.

Crabbe says that William the Conqueror “solemnly swore that he would observe the good and approved laws of Edward the Confessor.

William’s policy was one of balancing.

No record has come down to us of any serious dispute between William and Lanfranc.

Ingenious devices were used for checking the feudal excesses so prevalent on the Continent.

So, in English law, trial by Wager of battle, introduced by William the Conqueror, was first partially superseded by the Grand assize, or trial by jury, an alternative substituted by Henry II, and was finally abolished in the reign of George III.

Those again who have paid any attention to its history, have possibly heard that Copyhold Tenure has descended from the precarious holdings of Bondmen or Slaves, a condition to which the greatest part of the Anglo-Saxon population is supposed to have been reduced after the alleged destruction of the ancient land-law of England and confiscation of its soil by William the Conqueror.

No room is left for patriarchal intervention like the Conqueror’s or even Henry II’s.

and that William the conqueror was a usurper is a fact not to be contradicted.

A French Bastard landing with an armed Banditti and establishing himself King of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original.