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The west Saxon kings of the 10th century ruled in close association with the greater nobles, the most important of whom were often from junior branches of the ruling house itself. They provided the reservoir from which kings drew their local administrators: sheriffs, estate managers, tax-assessors and the like. This service, since it was royal service, gave the holders additional status; it also gave them plenty of opportunity to amass wealth, in cash and treasure as well as land, as demonstrated by the numerous complaints which surface about the rapacity and corruption of royal officials. One of the rewards of royal service was land, and in particular land granted by a royal charter or landbook. Such a grant not only gave the beneficiary a perpetual right of free bequest (the closest thing to 'freehold' which existed at the time), but also freed the land granted from all royal service except for military service, and the more important judicial rights. On such land, known as bookland, all the exempted dues and services could be diverted by the beneficiary for his own benefit; henceforward he (or she) and his heirs could take the lesser judicial fines in respect of men who dwelt on their bookland. Moreover the services which those men had once performed for the king were now due to the hall of the bookholder, and their lands were appurtenant (belonging to a possession or right) to the place where that hall lay.

The importance of such tenures in the formation of nucleated villages lies in the ability of the landlord to reorganise the resources of the estate around his own hall; from the late 10th century, such lords might divert some of their ecclesiastical dues (tithe) to the churches which they built next to their halls. It is likely too that the most dependent peasants of the estate, the slaves, cottagers and those who had no land of their own but had to accept land from their lord in return for their labour services, would be persuaded or compelled to dwell around the hall and church; and that the arable fields would be re-organised and centred on the same nucleus. The villages of midland England and similar settlements elsewhere in Britain are, it seems, intimately linked with manorialisation.

It was not the lay nobles alone who gained from the generosity of the West Saxon kings, but also the Church. The Scandinavian raids and settlements of the late 9th century had led to considerable disruption of the English Church. Many religious houses did not recover from the killing or dispersal of their communities. Even some episcopal sees, especially in the north and cast of England, were temporarily abandoned and since it was the bishop's household which trained and educated new generations of priests, this adversely affected general standards of ecclesiastical competence. It seems, however, that standards had been falling before the main impact of the Vikings was felt. In the 890s, Pope Formosus complained that English bishops had failed to preach against 'the abominable rites of the pagans', though he admitted that this was being rectified, and King Alfred regarded the pagan incursions as God's punishment for a general decline in ecclesiastical discipline and learning.

It was Alfred who began the process of regeneration, instituting a plan of reform continued by his children and grandchildren. It had two main aims: to educate the general population in the practice of the Christian faith; and to restore the ideals of Benedictine monasticism. The success of the first is shown in the rapid conversion of the Scandinavian settlers to Christianity; the second came to fruition with the Benedictine movement of the later 10th century. Most of the great abbeys which remained influential until the Reformation were founded or re-founded in the decades on either side of the year 1000. The same period saw the establishment of monastic chapters, a peculiarity of the English Church and its adherents. On the continent, episcopal churches were staffed by secular canons, as indeed were most English sees; monks appear only in those houses directly associated with the tenth-century reformers (Canterbury, Sherborne, Winchester and Worcester). It is largely to the documentation produced by the scriptoria of the reformed monasteries and the monastic scribes who staffed them that we owe our comparatively full knowledge not only of the late Old English Church but of English society in general.

The Church in Scotland was greatly influenced by that of the Irish, which is understandable in view of the role of St Columba and his community at lona in the conversion of the Scottish people', a role emphasised by the fact that it was from this area that the line of Scots kings came. This Irish orientation did not affect doctrine, but it did produce local variations in day-to-day practice, which often appeared odd to continental observers. The diocesan structure was not as well-organised as in England, and a characteristically Irish form of monasticism appears in some areas. South-west Scotland, however, was closer to Wales. By the 10th century, most communities in Wales were probably houses of secular clergy rather than monks, and those which were monastic followed customs laid down by the earliest Welsh churchmen (like St David) rather than those of St Benedict. As in Scotland, some communities were episcopal sees, and though there seems to have been no hierarchical structure of authority, St David's enjoyed (or at least claimed) preeminence. Though the contrasts can be exaggerated, the Churches of England, Scotland and Wales each had its own characteristic customs. It was only in the 12th century that a newly-resurgent papacy imposed a degree of ecclesiastical uniformity throughout all Britain. END