People who held their land directly from the monarch.
Tenants-in-chief
Fact of the Day
Bishop Meinward of Paderborn was apparently in the habit of having women dragged on their bottoms across his garden to clear it of weeds.
Quote of the Day
"If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.
"
~ John Ruskin
On This Day
69 Otho, the second Roman emperor in the Year of the Four Emperors, stabbed himself in the heart after losing to Vitellian troops. He had been emperor for just three months.
1705 Queen Anne of England knighted Isaac Newton.
1746 The Jacobite forces under Charles Edward Stuart were decisively crushed at Battle of Culloden, ending the Jacobite Rising with disastrous consequences for the Scottish clans.