But how many manors were there in the beginning (around 1066)? Did William the Conqueror sit down directly after the battle of Hastings and divided his new country into 10000 manors just like that, or did they pop up one by one as the years went by? I think that the Domesday book list something like 9000 manors, or at least I think that there are around 10000 shires in England today, that roughly corresponds to the old manors. England has got quite a lot of civil wars through history though, perhaps that's the reason? Or was it that those first 100 manors I divided the country in wasn't in fact all land in the country, and up until now there have been "unused" land that no one was managing, but now that I have tree sons I can give them parts of that land? This all works out fine for me, because I still get to collect taxes as well as I now have 99 * 3 = 297 knights in my army rather then just 99 - great! But now I get three sons, and I want to give them some land as well, what do I do? I guess I could divide my own manor into four parts and give them one manor each, but then I would loose wealth myself, wouldn't I since my manor is now smaller, or doesn't that matter, they are still paying taxes to me I guess? Or should I give my sons someone else's manor, but that would leave me with some rather disappointed barons, and that doesn't sound good. But they don't want to fight themselves so they decides to divide their manors into smaller manors and give them to their knights, let's say they get three knights each, so now there are 99 * 4 + 1 = 397 manors (99 manors, divided into 4 smaller ones, plus my own big manor). I have 99 loyal barons, so I give them one manor each, dividing the land into 100 parts, keeping the largest piece for my self (of course!), in exchange for their continued loyalty and 40 days of military service every year. I have just conquered a new land and declared myself the king. This is my trail of thoughts, trying to wrap my head around it. I'm curious on how feudalism (in medieval England primarily) worked in practice.
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