When we clearly represent to ourselves the condition of humanity in those days, we can comprehend how men readily accepted the most obnoxious of feudal rights, even that of the droit du seigneur.

The risks to which they were daily exposed were even worse.[1112] The proof of it is that the people flocked to the feudal structure as soon as it was completed.

In Normandy, for instance, when Rollo had divided off the lands with a line, and hung the robbers, the inhabitants of the neighboring provinces rushed in to establish themselves.

The slightest security sufficed to repopulate a country.
People accordingly lived, or rather began to live once more, under the rude, iron-gloved hand which used them roughly, but which afforded them protection.

The seignior, sovereign and proprietor, maintains for himself under this double title, the moors, the river, the forest, all the game.