1066, Property and Gender Relations
Primogeniture
Pollock and Maitland argue that primogeniture was not properly established at the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. But they do note occurrences significant in its development. They suggest that impartible succession, in which land was inherited by the youngest or eldest son, existed amongst those who became the villani and servi of the Domesday Book. Domesday Book certainly records that several thegns might hold land 'in parage', i.e. as co-heirs holding an undivided inheritance, but in which only one of them - usually the eldest, from whom the younger heirs held 'in parage', was responsible for military duty.55 Patrick Wormald, though, as we have seen suggests that primogeniture was practised by the eighth century. If this is so, Pollock and Maitland's evidence maybe indicative of earlier practise.
Certainly by the thirteenth century, inherited and acquired property was no longer potentially subject to different rules of succession.56 By the end of the 13th century, as far as free tenures were concerned, primogeniture had become the law of England.57 By the early 16th century the principle of primogeniture seems to have
Property and 'Patriarchy' 313
spread downwards to the gentry58 and, by the 18th century, to members of the yeomanry.59
Primogeniture should not be interpreted as a patriarchal inheritance strategy. The establishment of primogeniture needs initially to be understood in terms of the political exigencies of the patron-client relation which became the basic organising principle of feudal England. During the Anglo-Saxon period, amongst thegns, as tenure of land became increasingly tied to military service, it is likely that the king would be unwilling to accept an arrangement which fractionalised military duty. Holding land 'in parage' from an elder brother would also have facilitated the collection of relief, aides and taxes.60 Following the Norman Conquest, primogeniture was the rule where military tenants in chief owed personal service in the king's army for land and rights of jurisdiction.
Women did not enter into the patron-client relationship where it involved military service because of obvious biological differences between women and men. I am not however arguing, as radical feminists often do when discussing the origins of women's oppression,61 that the cause of women's subordination in this context was biological. Rather, I am arguing, on the basis of historical evidence, that biological differences between women and men became socially significant in England with the emergence and entrenchment of class relations, and, specifically in this context, the imposition of military feudalism.
Patron-client relations were integral to state formation. Pollock and Maitland argue that the near absolute and uncompromising form of primogeniture which emerged in England was not characteristic of feudalism in general, but of a highly centralised version of feudalism, in which, theoretically at least, the king had little to fear from even his mightiest vassals.62 Although subinfeudation may have allowed lesser tenants to conceive of themselves as fighting for their mesne lords, all military service was performed for the king.63 The distribution of land was also of central importance for the imposition of taxation.64 Thus primogeniture was also of central importance in determining the taxable capacity of subjects of the English state.
The permanent commutation of personal service into money had, by the 13th century, replaced the original 'military' reason for primogeniture. However the interests of wealthy landowners ensured the preservation of the practise.65 Primogeniture was profoundly political. It facilitated the preservation and accumulation of property and as such sustained and reproduced relations of class power.
John Aubrey argued that entails (a legal device used to restrict the transmission of estates to a specified line of heirs) were a good prop for monarchy.66 In the 16th century Lupset argued that primogeniture preserved the class hierarchy, governors and heads of