Homage was
not due for dower, from the husband of a woman to whom a tenement
was given as a marriage portion, for a fee given in free alms, or
until the third heir, either for free mariatagium [a marriage
portion which is given with a daughter in marriage, that is not
bound to service] or for the fee of younger sisters holding of the
eldest. All fiefs to be inherited by the eldest son had to be
intact. Every lord could exact fealty from his servants.
In this era, the English national race and character was formed.
Only a few barons still had lands in Normandy. Stories of good
King Arthur were popular and set ideals for behavior and justice
in an otherwise barbaric age where force was supreme. His last
battle in which he lay wounded and told a kinsman to rule in his
place and uphold his laws was written in poem ("Layamon's Brut").
Romantic stories were written and read in English. The custom of
"bundling" was started by ladies with their knights, who would lie
together in bed without undressing and with one in a sack the top
of which was tied around his neck, as part of a romantic
courtship. Wealthy men often gave their daughters dowries in case
they were widowed. This might be matched by a marriage settlement
by a prospective husband.
Intermarriage had destroyed any distinction of Normans by look or
speech alone, except for the Anglo-Saxon manor villeins, who
worked the farm land and composed about two-thirds of the
population.
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