After that great Revolution called The Conquest, it is to be supposed that a competent part, and that no inconsiderable one, was allotted for the support of the Dignity of the King's House. How large the establishment of the Household was, it would be very difficult to ascertain at this distance of time; but we know that the Conqueror's Revenues were very great, and that, besides the public branch of it for the defence of the Kingdom against invasions from abroad, there must have been an ample residue to maintain the Court in dignity and magnificence at home. William, as soon as he was seated on his new Throne, was careful to make a general and accurate Survey of the whole kingdom, notwithstanding there had been a Survey taken within less than 200 years by King Alfred, then remaining at Winchester.[71] But William's jealous caution did not permit him to trust to this. He saw the necessity there was to make the most of things; and, looking on money as a necessary means of maintaining and increasing power, he accumulated as much as he could, though rather, perhaps, from an ambitious than a covetous motive; at least his avarice was subservient to his ambition; and he laid up wealth in his coffers, as he did arms in his magazines, to be drawn out on proper occasions, for the defence and enlargement of his dominions[72].

In William's Survey, which we call Domesday Book, particular attention was first paid to the King's right; and the Terra Regis (as it was called), which consisted of such lands as either had belonged to the Crown, or to the King individually, was placed first; and, upon the whole, 1422[73] manors, or lordships, were appropriated to the Crown; besides lands and farms, and besides quit-rents paid out of other subordinate manors. Whether William assumed to himself and the Crown more than he ought, is hard to say; but it is to be supposed he was not very sparing or delicate. The Terra Regis is said to have consisted of such lands as Edward the Confessor was found to have been possessed of, the alienation of which was held impious; to which some think William added the forfeited estates of those who opposed him at the decisive battle of Hastings[74]; and likewise the lands of such Barons, and others, who afterwards forsook him. These advantages he might, perhaps, be glad to take, as they enabled him better to reward his Norman friends and followers, who were numerous; and furnished him likewise with a plea to enrich himself, by annexing part of such lands to the Crown, and distributing the rest, with a reservation of quit-rents and services. We may add to these, many apparently unjustifiable means which the Conqueror used to enrich himself, though by the greatness of the antient Crown-estate, and the feudal profits to which he was legally entitled, he was already one of the richest Monarchs in Europe. The Saxon Chronicle says, he omitted no opportunity of extorting money from his subjects upon the slightest pretext, and speaks of it as a thing of course[75]. It must be owned, however, (says Lord Lyttelton) that, if his avarice was insatiably and unjustly rapacious, it was not meanly parsimonious, nor of that sordid kind which brings on a Prince dishonour and contempt. He supported the dignity of the Crown with a decent magnificence; and, though he never was lavish, he was sometimes liberal[76].

Thus did the Conqueror leave an ample and splendid revenue to his Successor, sufficient to maintain his Court in dignity and magnificence, and adequate to every expence both foreign and domestic. It is, at this day, almost impossible to discover the nature and magnitude of William's Household; but most probably, as it was numerous, it was likewise magnificent; though, perhaps, composed of Officers and Offices very different from what have been adopted in succeeding Reigns.

We read of Treasurers, for such a King must have: and in the next Reign mention is made of Robert Fitz-Hamon, Gentleman of the Bed-chamber[77], who conquered Wales, while William Rufus was engaged in a war with Scotland, anno 1091; and we afterwards read of other Officers similar to what we have at present, though the rudeness of the times rendered most of the offices now in being unnecessary, which seem to have been added from time to time, as luxury and refined necessity required, and in conformity to the pride and ostentatious spirit of the Prince who erected them.

It is probable, however, that what was wanting in parade, was equalled by an expence in hospitality, which must, of course, employ a great many Domestics of different kinds in their several departments, to which we may suppose were added many of a Military nature, which the situation of the Conqueror rendered necessary in his new dominion.

There being but few Placemen in those times, the Court was chiefly composed of Ecclesiastics, Barons, Knights, and other Military Gentlemen, led by the hopes of preferment or promotion; and Lord Lyttelton says, William was always liberal to his Soldiers and to the Church[78]. The Barons were, at this time of day, the chief Council of the Realm; they held their Baronies of the King, for which they were perpetually doing homage; and on these accounts the Court must have been crowded,—at least much frequented.

As to the internal part of the Court, I mean the Attendants on the Royal person, we know but very little. King Alfred, however, who lived 200 years before the Conquest, during his attention to the Police of his Kingdom in general, did not forget the internal good government of his Household; for we learn from Ingulphus[79] that he divided his Attendants into three classes, who were appointed to wait by turns, monthly.

Whether this mode was continued by his Successors, I do not learn. William might perhaps reject it as being Saxon, and adopt a plan similar to the French Court, in compliment to his Norman adherents. This routine of waiting, not much unlike the present mode, rendered the service of Alfred's attendants both oeconomical, and agreeable to themselves. Sir John Spelman, in his Life of King Alfred, supposes that the Officers who are now called Quarter-waiters are, from their title, a relique of this mode of waiting established by Alfred. But this (with deference to the Gentlemen of that Corps) seems to be going too far, and does not agree with Ingulphus, from whom Sir John takes his account; who says, that the Officers of King Alfred's Household were divided into three classes, and that each class waited alternately monthly, not quarterly; so that no one class waited two consecutive months, and each would, of course, wait four months in the year, with an interval of two months between each wait. It is true, they would renew their waiting once in a quarter of course, from the number of classes, but no part of them attended for a quarter together; and I apprehend the Quarter-waiters received their name because they waited a quarter of a year at a time by turns, as their superiors, the Daily-waiters, waited daily by turns. Alfred's Household most resembled the Gentlemen Pensioners in the mode of attendance, who, to this day, wait in classes quarterly.

I shall now give Sir John Spelman's account at large (as I have Ingulphus's), where he gives a supposed, and not improbable, reason for this mode of attendance.

"He [Alfred] having, it seems, observed the course that Solomon took in preparing timber at Lebanon for the Temple, where thirty thousand, assigned to the work, went by ten thousand at a time, wrought there a month, and then returning, stayed two months at home, until their turn in the fourth month came about again[80]—he, applying this to his own occasions, ordained the like course in his attendance, making a triplicate thereof, insomuch that he had a three-fold shift of all Domestic Officers; each of which were, by themselves, under the command of a several Major-domo[81], or Master of the Household, who, coming with his servants under his charge, to wait at Court, stayed there a month, and then returning home, were supplied by the second ternary, and they again by the third, until the course coming about, the first of them (after two months recess at home) did, with the quarter[82], renew their monthly service at the Court. I should conjecture (continues he) that the King, for his more honourable attendance, took this course in point of Royalty and State, there being (as it then stood with the State) very few men of quality fit to stand before a King, who, by their fortunes or dependency, were not otherwhere besides engaged; neither was there, in those times, any great assurance to be had of any man, unless he were one of such condition, whose service, when the King was fain to use one month in the quarter, it was necessary for the common-wealth that he should remit them the other two months unto their own occasions. Neither used he this course with some of his Officers only (as there are those who understand it to have been a course taken only with those of his Guard), but with all his whole attendance; neither used he it for a time only, but for his whole life; and I little doubt but that the use at Court, at this day, of Officers, Quarter-waiters, had the first beginning even from this invention of the King[83]."

The Translator of this Life of Alfred into Latin, Dr. Obadiah Walker, has taken a little latitude in the last sentence of this passage, and has wandered totally from the mark. His words are, "Neque multum dubito quin Dapiferi hodierni (quos Quarter-waiters appellamus) qui per singulos anni quadrantes, Regi ad mensam ministrant, ab hoc Regis instituto, manarint." Now it is pretty certain that the Quarter-waiters are not Officers at all connected, by their post, with the King's table, they being a secondary degree of Gentlemen Ushers, called in a grant of Fees temp. Car. I. (in Rymer's Foedera) Ante-Ambulones. The Doctor seems, by the word Dapiferi, to have confounded them with the Sewers; which is strengthened by the following words, "qui ad mensam ministrant."

It is allowed that King Alfred enlarged his Household very much; but, what was the nature and office of the individuals of it, we shall probably never be able to gather. We may, however, fairly suppose his Retinue in number, and his Court in splendour, was far superior to those of any of his Predecessors.

Of the Conqueror's Court we know still less, neither do I learn that King Alfred's establishment was followed by his immediate successors; but it is reasonable to suppose that the Court, as well as the Kingdom, would be new-modelled, and assume a different face, upon so great a revolution as that of the Conquest.