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include military support, together with a small annual payment, and where the lord
promises protection and support to the man. A lord who had the commendation of a
freeman did not necessarily hold the soc over him. This could and did generate
dispute after the Conquest. The possibility that the holder of the soc could be
different from the holder of the commendation seems to have confused the
Normans, who in deciding on the extent of lordships, seem to have followed
commendation patterns more than soc. Giving commendation to a lord was a free act
and a man’s commendation could change. The peculiarity of East Anglia in this case
seems to have been that only there could a man commend himself to more than one
lord. 199
This complex relationship between hundreds, soc and commendation can be
observed by looking in detail at Parham Half Hundred in eastern Suffolk (see Table
9). Before 1066 there could be at least three possibilities concerning freemen in this
half hundred that belonged to the abbot of Ely. One possibility was that Ely held the
manor, soc and commendation. A second possibility was that the manor was held by
someone else, but that the abbot still had soc and commendation over freemen. A
third possibility was that Ely held only the soc. Things could get even more
complicated when the commendation or the soc was shared. One can see also signs
of disputes and the settlement of disputes.
199 Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 490-2, 518; Clarke, English Nobility, p. 161.
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