Abstract
On 1 August 1086, according to theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, all the important landholders in England, no matter whose men they were, submitted to William the Conqueror at Salisbury, became his men, and swore oaths that they would be loyal to him against all others.¹ We have no record of who did so, but threeDomesday Booklandholders who had good reason to comply, given that they were tenants of the king’s imprisoned half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, were Ralph son of Turold of Rochester, Wadard, and Vitalis of Canterbury. Wadard and Vitalis are generally considered to be the men of