After the Norman Conquest of England when the country gradually fell under the control of their newly crowned king, William the Conqueror, the English landed elite was in turmoil. Many of its men had died on the battlefield at Hastings and survivors were faced with dispossession. The Norman king handed out vast estates to his continental followers with the result that the indigenous elite lost their lands. Much has been written about the loss of land by Englishmen and the allocation of vast tracts of land to William’s continental followers.