ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some appropriate background. It discusses the evidence for seigneurial monopolies on milling in Anglo-Norman England. The chapter presents a number of different forms of mill tenure were tolerated by English lords: forms of tenure which conferred a variety of rights to the tenants concerned. It discusses the groundbreaking research of Rosamond Faith and Robin Fleming provides the evidential framework. Under the Anglo-Saxons, the pre-Roman obligations to provide ruling elites with food, provisions and fighting men were further extended to include labour and hunting services, along with cash payments in lieu of one or more of these obligations. It was also during this period that the Anglo-Saxon kings began rewarding their male relatives and most faithful warriors with gifts of territory from which they could raise their own wealth. Faith has argued that the dual basis for the Anglo-Saxon territorial unit of the hide was the minimum tract of land deemed sufficient to feed.
