Introduction

Abstract The study of the late-Anglo-Saxon aristocracy as a group is possible only because of the survival of a single source: Domesday Book. Other sources for the period which might be expected to shed some light on the landholders in England at this time-in particular narrative sources and charters-give almost no information about laymen other than those who became earls. There is, for example, no large body of private charters from this period. The wills which have survived are interesting in themselves, but are too few in number to establish what general conditions existed. On the other hand the royal charters, although largely concerned with gifts to the Church, are generally witnessed by a number of laymen, who are usually described as ‘ministri’. But in the absence of other information, these charters provide little more than a list of names.