Summary: In the Seventh century we started to see the growth of monasteries and nunneries in Britain. Sometimes the land they operated on was rented, other times they were gifted big tracts of land in wills and such. And sometimes ancient public lands were handed over to the monasteries, such as what Eadwulf did in 746. This shouldn’t be too surprising, though. Ruling is tough business, and often times it involves a fair amount of sin. So what is a god fearing ruler to do? Well, more often than not, he would rule as he felt he needed to, and then try to curry favor with the all mighty through gifts. Obviously, if you could hand over lands after you died, or hand over lands that weren’t really yours in the first place, that was the best way to go about it. That way it wouldn’t cause you too much inconvenience and allow you to continue to focus on dealing with those troublesome neighbors of yours. ...
