Nor is it in the sphere of taxation alone that Williams organization of the realm stands on the old English customs. In the military sphere, though his normal army is the feudal force composed of the tenants-in-chief and the knights whom they have enfeoffed, he retains the power to call out the fyrd, the old national levee en masse, without regard to whether its members are freemen or villeins of some lord.
The reappearance of these old English names bears witness to the fact that the vernacular was reasserting itself.
It may be noted that he showed a special reverence for the old English royal saint, and christened his eldest son after him; wbile his second bore the name of Edmund, the East An.glian martyr.
He could never co-operate with the Roman Catholic confederacy at Kilkenny, which was under old English influence, and by throwing in his lot with the Celts only widened the gulf between the two sections.
Many of the dark-coloured horses of Europe have Barb or Arab blood in their veins, this being markedly the case with the Old English black or Shire horse, the skull of which shows a distinct depression in front of the eye-socket.