a
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 SCHOOL OF LAW 
 LIBRARY
 
 FEUDALISM 
 
 J. T. ABDY, LL.D.
 
 FEUDALISM: 
 
 ITS RISE, PROGRESS, AND CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 Eccturcs tolibetrti at Grcsfjam College 
 
 J. T. ABDY, LL.D., 
 // * 
 
 Judge of County Courts, and Law Lecturer at Gresham College ; 
 
 formerly Regius Professor of Laws in the University of Cambridge 
 
 and Fellow of Trinity Hall. 
 
 LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, 
 
 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 1890.
 
 FEUDALISM: 
 
 ITS PISE, PROGRESS, AND CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 cctuns fcclifautj at Grcsfjam College 
 
 J. T. ABDY, LLJD., 
 '/* 
 
 Judge of County Courts, and Law Lecturer at Gresham College ; 
 
 formerly Regius Professor of Laws in the University of Cambridge 
 
 and Fellow of Trinity HaU. 
 
 LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, 
 
 YOKE STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 1890.
 
 TANNER, 
 THB SELWOOD PEINTIICO WOBKS, 
 FEOME, AMD LONDON.
 
 BY PERMISSION TO 
 
 THE WARDENS AND COMMONALTY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MYSTEEY OF MEECERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CITY OF LONDON.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 38, line 2, for " that of Charlemagne " read " those of Charle- 
 magne." 
 
 Page 55, line 12, insert " of " after " speaking." 
 Page 168, line 1, for " Beccanuld " read " Beccancild." 
 Page 213, line 16, insert " cell " after " little." 
 Page 263, line 21, for "covenants" read " counsels." 
 Page 339, line 25, for " rent and service" read " suit and service." 
 Page 359, line 4, prefix letter " h " to " istorian." 
 Page 367, n. 2, for " livri homines " read " liberi homines." 
 Page 400, line 3, for " (fundum blancum collatum) " read " (dicunt 
 
 fundum ilium illi blancum collatum.") 
 Page 408, last line but one, for " excuses " read " excesses."
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE greater part of this work was delivered in the shape 
 of lectures at Gresham College. For that reason I have 
 retained the lecture style of delivery. I should have 
 hesitated to prepare them for publication, but I was 
 pressed to do so by some of my audience. I have there- 
 fore ventured to put them together in the shape in which 
 they now appear. 
 
 It was my intention, when first I thought of explaining 
 the rise and progress of the customs, laws, and constitu- 
 tions of England, to take as my starting-point the Norman 
 Conquest. 
 
 I soon found, when I came to look into the subject, that 
 it would be advisable to carry my hearers back to a much 
 earlier period of time than that event, for the reasons I 
 have given in an early part of this work. The title I 
 have selected is, as the reader sees, " Feudalism : its 
 Rise, Progress, and Consequences " ; but the nature of the 
 inquiry has led me on to the examination and explan- 
 ation of earlier events than that remarkable institution. 
 
 I have dealt with the subject under four aspects of 
 matter and time. In the first part, I have endeavoured 
 to portray the conditions of social and political life be- 
 tween the fall of the Roman Empire and the settlement 
 A. L. b
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 of the Barbarian invaders in Europe. Next to this, I 
 speak of Feudalism and its characteristics, the causes of 
 its advent into the polity of Europe, its position with 
 reference to the institutions which had preceded it, and 
 its influence on the social life of Europe. Then I go on 
 to the consideration of our own country, its early set- 
 tlements, and its Teutonic immigrants; and I set out 
 several of the Anglo-Saxon customs and laws that grew 
 into shape, and were worked into the form which our 
 Norman conquerors saw when they arrived here. In the 
 last place I dwell on the Conquest itself, and what 
 followed upon it. 
 
 As I specially stated to my audience, my great desire 
 was to convey the best and largest information I could 
 lay hold of on all these points, and therefore I looked 
 about me for the soundest and most trustworthy authori- 
 ties upon the topics I should have to deal with. 
 
 For the earlier portion of my narrative, I have made 
 use of a work that to my mind is one well deserving 
 of the notice of every student of the history of those 
 times when the wave of Barbarism that had swept over 
 Europe had almost destroyed every vestige of law and 
 order, and had reduced social and political life to the 
 verge of ruin. 
 
 I remember when first I read " Les Essais sur 1'Histoire 
 de France," how much I was impressed with the value of 
 the work, and how strong a light M. Guizot seemed to 
 me to have thrown on a period of time enveloped in 
 gloom, and whose history was to be gathered from ob- 
 scure annals, from rugged chronicles, and from old char- 
 ters and documents written in language hard to interpret
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 owing to their crabbed style, and the old and almost for- 
 gotten terminology employed. 
 
 It struck me that an English version of these essays, 
 wherein the profound learning displayed is as remarkable 
 as the skill with which the narrative is set oat, might 
 be of service to the student of the early history of our 
 European polity. 
 
 For this reason I have worked into that portion of this 
 book no small amount of M. Guizot's treatise. Nor have 
 I hesitated to add such other chapters of the essays as 
 bear upon the Anglo-Xorman Government and the politi- 
 cal settlement of England following on the Conquest, in 
 order that my readers may contrast the views of a learned 
 and large-minded foreigner with those of our own best 
 and ablest later historians. 
 
 Of those historians I have drawn extensively npon the 
 treatises of three, whose authority in the matter of early 
 English history stands at the highest point of fame, and 
 whose learning and research, charm of style, and critical 
 acumen, have made them pre-eminently our sure guides 
 therein. 
 
 Bishop Stubbs and Professor Freeman are still with us, 
 and we may hope to have from them continuations of 
 those histories of our land which have done so much to 
 give us new and true conceptions of the rise and progress 
 of the English constitution from its first beginning. 
 But Mr. Green is gone from us, and in his death we have 
 to deplore the loss of one who, as a reviewer of his work, 
 " History of the English People," l has said with truth, 
 
 1 See The Spectator for March 9, 1888, p. 307.
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 did two things for English history : " he introduced a 
 governing mind into that which had been a fortuitous 
 concurrence of chaotic atoms ; and further, he introduced 
 a philosophic theory of national evolution into that which 
 had been too often treated as a mere series of disconnected 
 stories or anecdotes, more or less interesting, of kings, 
 nobles, and archbishops." 
 
 For my own part, I know no books that for truthful- 
 ness in the story, for perfect arrangement of events, for 
 tenderness of sentiment, for picturesque felicity of phrase, 
 and for power of masterly combination of facts, as well 
 as for acuteness of criticism, rival Mr. Green's " Making 
 of England " and " Conquest of England." 
 
 To these two works I have made large reference, and 
 from them I have drawn descriptions which I have pre- 
 ferred to put in Mr. Green's own words, knowing how poor 
 would be any attempt of mine to set them out in my own 
 language. 
 
 " Mr. Green," and I again quote his reviewer, " has 
 breathed life into old documents and wove the old tales 
 into a connected and interesting story of the develop- 
 ment of the English race." 
 
 If, as is said in the same article, " the Bishop of Ches- 
 ter and Professor Freeman are masters at whose feet 
 Mr. Green sat, whose teaching and whose inspirations he 
 would have been the first to acknowledge," so I may say 
 of myself, in this work I am sitting at the feet of all 
 three of these distinguished writers. I acknowledge, grata 
 animo, the value to me of their teachings and inspirations; 
 and I most sincerely hope that the references I have so 
 freely made to the writings of Bishop Stubbs, of Pro-
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 fessor Freeman, and of Mr. Green will send my readers 
 to the works of those masters of the art of making the 
 study of history not less agreeable than it is instructive. 
 
 I have now to express my thanks to the " Delegates of 
 the Clarendon Press " for their kindness in allowing me 
 to make use of " the Select Charters and other Illustra- 
 tions of English Constitutional History from the earliest 
 times to the reign of Edward the First," arranged and 
 edited by William Stubbs, M.A., Begins Professor of 
 History, and first published A.D. 1870. The value of this 
 treatise will be readily acknowledged by all whose busi- 
 ness it is to teach or lecture on the early history of our 
 Constitution, and I well remember the emphatic terms of 
 commendation employed by my friend Air. Charles H. 
 Pearson, 1 when in our walks together at Cambridge 
 (where at the time he was acting as lecturer in history 
 at Trinity College), he spoke of Professor Stubbs' book 
 as one that threw more light on the subjects discussed in 
 it than any he knew of, and that rendered the teacher's 
 task a much easier one than was the case in earlier days. 
 
 I have also to record my thanks to the same dis- 
 tinguished body for allowing me to refer to and cite, 
 where necessary, passages from Professor Freeman's 
 " History of the Norman Conquest." I have dwelt upon 
 the importance of this learned treatise in the text of my 
 own book. As will be seen, I have had frequent reason 
 
 1 To Mr. Pearson's "History of England" (published by Messrs. 
 Bell & Daldy, in two volumes, 1867) I have, as the reader will see, 
 made frequent reference. I desire to express my warm acknowledg- 
 ment of the value of a work to which I am largely indebted for 
 information on the early history of our country.
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 to refer to it. Each time that I have done so I have been 
 struck with the profundity of learning displayed in, and 
 admired the charm of style that adds grace to, its pages. 
 
 My thanks are also due to my friends Messrs. Macmil- 
 lan & Co., for the permission they have given me to use 
 those two books of which I have already spoken, viz. 
 Mr. Green's "Making of England" and "Conquest of 
 England." I trust they will not think that I have abused 
 the favour extended to me, and I also hope that they 
 will find that I have carried out their wishes in carefully 
 noting the chapters and pages from which my citations 
 have been taken. 
 
 I am under no small obligation to the Worshipful 
 Company of Mercers, not only for special favours re- 
 ceived from them in connection with the publication of 
 the present volume, but for frequent acts of kindness 
 and good-will during my somewhat long connection with 
 the office of which they are the patrons. I know well 
 the interest they take in all matters connected with the 
 advancement of education, whether general or special an 
 interest shown by deeds of generosity and munificence 
 not incommensurate with the means at their disposal. 
 
 In course of preparation of this book, I found that 
 without the help of a large and well-arranged library I 
 should be at much disadvantage. Happily my own legal 
 Alma Mater was at hand, and on the shelves of the 
 library of the Inner Temple I found all I could possibly 
 desire. 
 
 Were I asked to name a place in which the student of 
 history can find readily, and without trouble, almost any 
 book he may wish for, I should unhesitatingly say that
 
 PREFACE. xi 
 
 in the library of the Inner Temple his most learned 
 researches can be supplied with ample material. For 
 archaeology, for history, for topography, the Inner Temple 
 library is almost unrivalled. But to its noble collection 
 of books on these and other subjects it adds the boon of a 
 staff of attendants whose pleasure, quite as much as their 
 duty, lies in helping the readers who throng its rooms. 
 
 I beg to thank my learned friend Mr. Pickering, and 
 his kind and courteous assistants, for all the goodness 
 they have displayed towards me in the course of my 
 present woi-k. 
 
 Those who like myself are under the necessity of 
 appealing for help from time to time to the custodians 
 of such a splendid collection of works as that I am now 
 speaking of, will bear me out in these expressions of gra- 
 titude to the librarians of the Inner Temple. 
 
 And now, all that remains for me to say is, that if by 
 good chance the present work is thought to offer any help 
 to the student of our English customs, laws, and consti- 
 tution, that will be owing to the authors from whose 
 volumes so large a portion of it is taken. 
 
 Its merits, if it be thought to have any, will be theirs. 
 Its shortcomings and defects will be my own. As I have 
 said above, my sole wish has been to convey information 
 to others. Should I succeed in so doing, I shall esteem 
 myself fortunate.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LSOMAN LIFE. 
 
 Object of the Course Prefatory Note of the General Character of the 
 Norman Invasion and its Effect upon England Importance of 
 the Main Subject of these Lectures, its Extent in respect of 
 Time and of Locality Causes of the Destruction of the Old 
 Boman National Life in Europe Reasons why the Inquiry 
 should date from the Fall of the Eoman Empire Influence of 
 Imperial Eome visible in the following Agencies : Corporate 
 Municipal Life ; Uniform Civil Legislation ; Municipal Ecclesi- 
 astical Civilization ; the Emphyteutic Tenure ; Military Service 
 in the Provinces ; Relations of Patron and Client ; General 
 Civilization and Law The Influence of the Roman Law on the 
 Customary Rules of the Barbarian Invaders Era of Theodosius 
 the Great p. 1 
 
 II. THE PRANKISH INVASION. 
 
 Destruction of National Spirit at the Fall of the Empire This owing 
 (1) to the Despotic Character of the Government ; (2) to the 
 Annihilation of the Middle Class ; (3) to the Misery of the In- 
 habitants of the Towns and of the Agricultural Community 
 Sketch of the Roman Municipalities down to the Reign of Leo 
 the Philosopher Danger to the Municipalities from the Bar- 
 barian Invasions ; from the Populace ; and from the Army The 
 Privileged Classes and their Exemptions from Public Duties 
 Increasing Influence of the Clergy in the Municipalities and in 
 the Rural Districts General Condition of affairs at the time of 
 the Conquest of Europe by the Barbarians Consequences of the 
 Conquest Transition from Wandering Tribes to Proprietors of
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Land among the Barbarians Influence of Land upon Status- 
 Development of Royalty Else of a Territorial Aristocracy- 
 Increasing Influence of the Clergy The Franks, their Early 
 History Influence of Prankish Ideas on the Conquered Lands. 
 
 p. 16 
 
 III.-THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 The Early Social Organization of the German Tribes down to the 
 time of Clovis The Classification of the Members of the Ger- 
 man Community adverted to Reasons for the Substitution of 
 the Carlovingian for the Merovingian Dynasty Chief Cause of 
 the Fall of the Merovingian Kings owing to the Constant 
 Divisions of Lands Neustria and Austrasia Rise of the 
 Mayors of the Palace -the Era of Charlemagne Splendour of 
 his Reign His Social and Legal Reforms His Reign Marks 
 the Birth of Modern Social Life Its Influence on the Norman 
 Invaders of Europe, and through them on England . 2^. 34 
 
 IV. THE WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 The Incidents of the Teutonic Settlement the Weregild and the 
 Influence of Land on Status The Weregild Explained Quaere 
 whether it can be regarded as a Means of Classification Its Im- 
 portance on Two Grounds : First, as Introducing a Punishment 
 for Manslaughter ; Next, as Limiting the Ancient Ftehde or 
 Feud Right of Warfare The Difference between Ancient and 
 Modern Legislation in the Matter of Punishment for Crime 
 noticed The Influence of Land on Social Organization and on 
 Status Sketch of the Three Stages of Lauded Property between 
 the Fifth and Tenth Centuries ; viz. : Allodial, Beneficiary, and 
 Tributary Allodial Property, its Character, Incidents, and 
 Burdens p. 53 
 
 V. TERRITORIAL STATUS (Continued). 
 
 Beneficiary Possession What was a " Beneficium " ? How did the 
 idea of Beneficiary Possession arise ? Its History Traced Four 
 Kinds of Beneficiary Possession Explanation of each Kind 
 Influence of the Custom of Commendation on Allodial Property
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Its Connection with Beneficiary Grants Its Importance in 
 Relation to Feudalism Tributary Holdings : their Character, 
 and the History of them Prepare the Way for Feudal Tenures. 
 
 p. 74 
 
 VI. .KAVC?, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 
 
 A Notice of some Political and Social Institutions that have acted on 
 the Later Constitutional Life of Europe ; e.g., Royalty, the 
 Church and the Clergy, the Nobility Introduction of the Notion 
 of Fidelity or Fealty Formation and Growth of the Class of the 
 " Leudes " Its Influence on the Social and Political Group 
 The Clergy and their Rise to Power Reasons therefor Rise of 
 Free Institutions, Aristocratic Institutions, and Monarchical 
 Institutions Their Conflicts and the Result thereof Review of 
 the History of Social Progress from the Fall of the Roman 
 Empire down to the Introduction of Feudalism . p. 92 
 
 YH.RISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 Feudalism, its Rise and Progress Its Characteristics Its Influence 
 on Later Events Contrast between it and other Forms of 
 Government Causes of the Popular Hatred towards it, and of 
 its Ultimate Decay and Fall Difference between the Feudal 
 Aristocracy of France and the Barons of England noted p. Ill 
 
 VIII.- CIVILIZATION AND SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The History of the Progress of Civilization in England from the 
 Earliest Times to the Norman Conquest From the Immigra- 
 tions of the First Settlers down to the Roman Invasion The 
 Roman Conquest and Settlement Some of the Results of the 
 Roman Settlement noticed The Anglo-Saxon Period War 
 between the Angles and the Saxons The Reigns of Edwin, 
 Penda, and Offa referred to p. 129 
 
 VL.-KING ALFRED. 
 
 Alfred and the Special Benefits conferred by him upon the Political 
 and Social Life of England Anglo-Saxon Nationality: its 
 Characteristic Features The King, the Witenagemot, the Shire-
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Moot, the Hundred-Moot Mode of Life among the Anglo- Saxons 
 The Eorl, the Ceorl, the Laet, the Theowna The Eights aud 
 Privileges of Royalty ....... p. 146 
 
 X.-THE ANGLO-SAXON NOBILITY AND THE CLERGY. 
 
 Nobility among the Saxons Quaere whether Nobility by Birth was 
 known and recognised The Ealdorman and the Heregeata or 
 Heriot The more Modern Dignity of Alderman : his Position, 
 Duties, and Privileges Review of the Subject-matter hitherto 
 Discussed The Influence of the Church and the Clergy on the 
 Political and Social Life of Anglo-Saxon England . p. 165 
 
 -KI.THE DANISH INVASION. 
 
 The Danish Invasion The Danes, their Characteristics Reasons 
 why the Danish Invasion was Successful Benefits conferred on 
 the National and Social Life of England by the Danish Invasion 
 Christianity and its Effects upon Anglo-Saxon England- 
 Anglo-Saxon Codes History of the Development of Law Penal 
 Legislation in Relation to Archaic Society Distinction between 
 Teutonic Ideas and those of Later Times in the matter of Offences 
 and Crimes The Law of Theft in Ancient Legislation. 
 
 p. 184 
 
 XII.- ANGLO-SAXON LAWS. 
 
 The Laws or Dooms of ^Ethelbert The Laws or Dooms of Hlothsere 
 and Eadric Explanation of Anglo-Saxon Terms used in them 
 The Laws of Wihtrted Reasons why they deserve Notice The 
 Laws of Ine Importance of these Laws King Eadberht's Reign 
 Noteworthy Bede and Ecgberht : their Influence on the Social 
 Life of Anglo-Saxon England The Pontifical of Ecgberht The 
 Reign of Offa The Concilium Legatinum Analysis of the Con- 
 cilium, and its Importance ..... p. 201 
 
 l. ALFRED AND HIS LAWS. 
 
 The Reign of Alfred Dangers and Difficulties at its Commencement 
 His Administrative Capacity Settlement of the Country under 
 Liiu Founds a National Monarchy His Legislation and Laws
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Their Characteristic Features The Shire, Tithing, and Hundred 
 divisions of England not due to him, nor the Modern Jury 
 System His Laws Commented on The Peace of Wedmore 
 Its Contents p. 224 
 
 -XFf. THE ANGLO-SAXON LAWS. 
 
 Reign of Eadward (the Elder), King of the Angul-Saxons His Laws 
 The Doctrine of Personal Allegiance : its Consequences on the 
 Political Life of England The Administration of Local Busi- 
 ness The Settlement of the People The Office of Gerefa: its 
 various kinds Eeign of ^Ethelstan Reasons why worthy of 
 comment The Shire System The Frithgilds Saxon Gilds. 
 
 p. 236 
 
 XV. THE ANGLO-SAXON LAWS. 
 
 The Laws of King /Etbelstan The Decrees of the Council of 
 Greatanlea-^-The Dooms of the City of Exeter Forfang The 
 Dooms of the City of London The Reign of Eadmund (the First) 
 His Legislature in Respect of the Right of Feud Eadmund's 
 Laws The Records of Culinton The Oath of Fidelity and the 
 Preservation of the Peace The Reign of Edgar His Character 
 as Described by the Monkish Writers His Favourable Inclina- 
 tions towards the Church Edgar's Laws The Hundredal 
 Divisions and the Ordinances thereto Relating Edgar's General 
 Ordinances p. 253 
 
 XVI. THE ANGLO-SAXON LAWS. 
 
 The Reign of Ethelred The Events of his Reign The Normans in 
 England The Diminution of the Influence of the Ealdorman 
 Class The Improvements in Legislation and Government 
 through Edric's Counsels Ethelred's Laws The Ordinance of 
 Woodstock " Borhs " : " Frith-breach " Man-Selling and 
 Severity of Punishment Denounced The Reign of Knut (or 
 Canute) His Character Influence of his Reign on the Social 
 and Political Life of England The Feudal Tendencies of his 
 Rule and Legislation The Normans and Duke Robert Knut's 
 Laws Godwine Laws of Edward the Confessor The Ordeal 
 The Shire Divisions Frithborgs Sache, Soche, Tol, Theam, 
 and Ingfangtheof Close of Anglo-Saxon History. . p. 271
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XVII. NORMAN ENGLAND. 
 
 The Norman Invasion Causes of its Success Harold and William 
 
 Their Characters King Edward's Promise to William 
 Harold's Promise to William Harold Hardrada's Invasion 
 Difficulties of Harold of England The Immediate Consequences 
 of the Norman Invasion Social gains to England from the 
 Conquest General gains therefrom Chivalry and the Normans 
 
 Chivalry and Feudalism Chivalry : its Characteristics 
 Influence of Chivalry on Social Life Chivalry : its Faults 
 Hallam's Eulogium on Chivalry p. 292 
 
 XV11I.NOKMAN ENGLAND. 
 
 Political Aspect of the Norman Invasion Bishop Stubbs on the 
 Norman Conquest The Early Chroniclers Translations of 
 Excerpts from their Works The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and 
 the Historia Novorum of Eadmer The Laws of King William 
 His Ordinance as to the Spiritual and Temporal Courts Gnizot 
 on the Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest Compared 
 with the Barbarian Invasion of Europe Norman Social Life 
 Compared with that of the Anglo-Saxons Opposite Views of 
 Earlier English Writers on the Anglo-Saxon Institutions. 
 
 p. 310 
 
 X.1X.-NOKMAN ENGLAND. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon England and Feudalism The Witenagemot England 
 and Prankish Gaul Contrasted The Anglo-Norman Kings and 
 the Saxon Population The Great Council Knight Service 
 The General Council of the Barons p. 328 
 
 XX. NORMAN ENGLAND. 
 
 Anglo-Norman Royalty Different Condition of Anglo-Norman and 
 French Royalty Position and Power of William the Conqueror 
 
 Anglo-Norman Feudalism and French Feudalism Contrasted 
 
 The Anglo-Norman Barons William's Oath of Fealty His 
 Domesday Survey The Oath of Fealty Meaning of the Term 
 " Fidelis "Oaths of Homage and Fealty from Littleton The
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Domesday Survey Characterized by Professor Freeman and by 
 the Author of the " Dialogus de Scaccario " Some of its 
 Special Features English Agriculture at the time of the 
 Survey j>. 344 
 
 XXI. -EXTRACTS FROM DOMESDAY. 
 
 The Inquest of Ely The Customs of Chester The Customs of Lin- 
 coln The Customs of Oxford and Oxfordshire The Customs of 
 Berkshire The Changes in the Institutions of England after the 
 Conquest p. 365 
 
 APPENDIX I p. 389 
 
 APPENDIX II . . p. 401
 
 FEUDALISM, 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 Object of the Course Prefatory Note of the General Character of the 
 Norman Invasion and its Effect upon England Importance of 
 the Main Subject of these Lectures, its Extent in respect of 
 Time and of Locality Causes of the Destruction of the Old 
 Roman National Life in Europe Keasons why the Inquiry 
 should date from the Fall of the Roman Empire Influence of 
 Imperial Rome visible in the following Agencies : Corporate 
 Municipal Life ; Uniform Civil Legislation ; Municipal Ecclesi- 
 astical Civilization ; the Emphyteutic Tenure ; Military Service 
 in the Provinces ; Relations of Patron and Client ; General 
 Civilization and Law The Influence of the Roman Law on the 
 Customary Rules of the Barbarian Invaders Era of Theodosius 
 the Great. 
 
 I HAVE promised to devote some of my lectures to the 
 subject of Constitutional History. 
 
 In redemption of that promise, I propose to take the 
 subject on hand now ; and as it seems to me that an 
 intelligent appreciation of our English Constitution is 
 dependent upon a proper understanding of the formation 
 of English social life, an inquiry into the early history of 
 A. L. B
 
 ROMAN LIFE, 
 
 that social life will, as I Lope to show, not be without 
 value. 
 
 As Mr. Freeman has said, in his admirable work on the 
 Norman Conquest, that event is important, not as the 
 beginning of English history, but as its chief turning- 
 point. "It brought with it a most extensive foreign 
 infusion, which affected our blood, our language, our 
 laws, our arts. Still it was only an infusion ; the older 
 and stronger elements still survived, and in the long 
 run made good their supremacy." 
 
 What these older and stronger elements were it will 
 be my business to explain, and what was the nature of 
 the infusion I speak of I shall also explain; for this 
 is clear, that if the earlier English history is important 
 to the right understanding of the Conquest, it is no less 
 important to exhibit what it was these Norman con- 
 querors brought with them ; and to do that properly, I 
 must put before you the social life of the men whose 
 infusion of language, laws, and arts so materially affected 
 the condition of things in the country into which they 
 came and in which they settled. 
 
 William the Conqueror, as we know, claimed to reign 
 as the lawful successor of the kings of the English who 
 reigned before him ; he claimed to inherit their rights, 
 and professed to govern according to their laws. But he 
 brought with him customs and laws that, in time, altered 
 the aspect of the earlier English customs and laws ; and 
 therefore if, on the one hand, I point out some of the 
 
 1 " History of the Norman Conquest of England," vol. i. ch. i. 
 (Introduction) p. 1 (third edition, revised, 1877).
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 leading features of the earlier English life, on the other 
 hand, it will be my business to account for the source 
 from which these Norman customs and laws flowed. 
 
 And here just let me state what the character of the 
 Norman Conquest was, and again I cite Mr. Freeman : 
 
 (1) It was much less than a national migration; it 
 was much more than a mere change of frontier or of 
 dynasty. 
 
 (2) It was not such a change as when the first Eng- 
 lish conquerors slew, expelled, or enslaved the whole 
 nation of the vanquished Britons. Nor was it such a 
 change as when Goths or Burgundians sat down as a 
 ruling people, preserving their own language and their 
 own law, and leaving the language and laws of Rome to 
 the vanquished Romans." 
 
 What it did was this : 
 
 " It brought with it, not only a new dynasty and a new 
 nobility. It did not expel or transplant the English 
 nation, or any part of it, but gradually deprived the 
 leading men and families of England of their lands and 
 offices, and thrust them down into a secondary position 
 under alien intruders. It did not at once sweep away 
 the old laws and liberties of the land ; but it at once 
 changed the manner and spirit of their administration 
 and it opened the way for endless later changes in 
 the laws themselves. It did not abolish the English 
 language, but brought in a new language by its side, 
 which for a while supplanted it as the language of 
 polite intercourse, and which did not yield to the 
 surviving elder tongue till it had affected it by the 
 largest infusion that the vocabulary of one European
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 tongue ever received from another. The most important 
 of the formal changes in legislation, in language, in 
 the system of government, and in the tenure of land, 
 were no immediate consequences of the conquest, no 
 direct innovations of the reign of William. They 
 were, no doubt, the developments of later times, when 
 the Norman as well as the Englishman found himself 
 under the yoke of a foreign master. But the reign of 
 William paved the way for all the later changes that 
 were to come, and the immediate changes which he him- 
 self wrought were after all great and weighty." 1 
 
 Yet the Norman customs and law did work a change 
 of a most remarkable and decided character, and that is 
 why I propose to exhibit this change in its proper detail. 
 What I wish to show, and what I shall endeavour to 
 show, is the character and conditions of life that the 
 Norman invaders of England introduced ; for as Mr. 
 William Morris, in the first of his series of lectures, 
 says : " William brought with him an army of feudal 
 vassals, owing military service to him ; he created a 
 baronage. Then the struggle of monarchical bureaucracy 
 began, and in the contest between the Court and the 
 Church, the Chnrch was in the earlier period usually on 
 the popular side." 
 
 My business, therefore, is to point out the progressive 
 changes by which this feudal vassalage was created ; how 
 the Church acquired the power, which doubtless it did 
 acquire, of influencing the struggles of the people for 
 
 1 " History of the Norman Conquest of England," vol. i. ch. i, 
 (Introduction), pp. 3, 4 and 5 (third edition, revised, 1877),
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 freedom ; and how the feudal institutions for a consider- 
 able time displaced the earlier English institutions. 
 
 To do this properly I must, as I have said, go back to a 
 much earlier period of history than the Norman Conquest. 
 I must show you what the state of Europe was at the 
 fall of the Roman Empire ; what was the result of the 
 establishment of the Franks in certain parts of Europe ; 
 and what was the influence of Frankish laws and customs 
 upon the Norman invaders of France, when, by the peace 
 of Clair on Epte (A.D. 912), Rolf became the vassal of 
 King Charles, receiving from him in pure allodial posses- 
 sion, in alode et in fundo, the lands granted to him, and 
 though not bearing the title of king, yet holding as king 
 the monarchy of the Norman land. 
 
 The subject in hand is an important one in respect of 
 time and in respect of territory : it takes us back thirteen 
 centuries ; it covers a large extent of ground, Italy and 
 Gaul (i.e., France), as well as our own land. 
 
 It is important also in another respect, because the 
 history of the rise and progress of modern European 
 social life is the history of civilization, as well as that of 
 the constitution. 
 
 For what is civilization but the perfecting of civil 
 life, the development of society properly so-called, of 
 the relations of men among themselves ? And on what 
 foundations does proper constitutional life rest save the 
 right determination of the boundaries of the sovereign's 
 prerogative, and the accurate definition by law of the 
 peoples' liberty or power ? 
 
 If, then, I commence this account of our own social 
 and political life with some remarks upon the utter
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 destruction of the old Roman national life and spirit in 
 Europe, I shall, I think, be able to show sufficient reason. 
 
 Rome, as we all know, maintained its hold of power 
 in Gaul down to the fifth century of the Christian era, 
 and for many years from the date of the conquest of 
 Britain by Julius Ctesar established its rule and its laws 
 there. Yet neither in Gaul nor in Britain was that hold 
 permanently retained ; and so far as our own country is 
 concerned, nothing is left to mark the Roman conquest 
 save some few remains of roads, of old buildings, some 
 infusion of Latin terms in our language, and some in- 
 fusion of Roman law in our own system of jurisprudence. 
 
 I shall attempt to describe how this came to pass, what 
 were the Saxon customs that superseded in England the 
 Roman rules, and how the Norman Conquest of England 
 displaced both the Roman and the Anglo-Saxon institu- 
 tions. 
 
 And here let me say that I shall base this part of my 
 subject very much on the writings of an eminent French 
 historian, M. Guizot, whose "History of Civilization" 
 and " Essays on the History of France " have thrown so 
 much light on a subject that was not free from obscurity 
 till he took it in hand ; and if at the same time I take as 
 my authorities Sir Francis Palgrave, Professor Freeman, 
 and Bishop Stubbs, I shall be referring to authors than 
 whom no better or abler can be found that I know of. 
 
 It may of course be asked (and it is not an unnatural 
 query), Why, if the Roman conquest of Britain left so 
 little to show for itself, so far as habit of life and local 
 customs and institutions were concerned, should our 
 attention be directed to the old Roman world ?
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 My answer is, for the following reasons : 
 
 First, in the story of social development at that period 
 of time when Rome was supreme in the greater part of 
 Europe we have the idea of corporate municipal life 
 worked into shape. The government of Borne was the 
 aggregate of institutions suited to a population confined 
 within the walls of a city in other words, of municipal 
 institutions ; and as with Rome in the early times, so with 
 Italy, what you find is a confederation of Latin towns. 
 
 At this period of the early life of Rome, as in the days 
 of the Empire, there was no country life such as we 
 understand the term. The proprietors of the lands were 
 the inhabitants of the towns ; they went out to superin- 
 tend their country properties, taking with them a certain 
 number of slaves; but inhabited country, in the proper 
 sense of the term, did not exist. And so it was that the 
 history of the conquest of the world by Rome is the his- 
 tory of the conquest and foundation of a great number 
 of towns. In the later Imperial period, in Gaul and in 
 Spain you find nothing but towns. Therefore what the . 
 social history of Rome exhibits is the non-existence of 
 the country, the extreme preponderance of towns, and 
 the municipal character strongly impressed upon them. 
 
 But then, secondly, in addition to the municipal system 
 which Roman civilization has stamped upon later Euro- 
 pean civilization, another element is visible, I mean a 
 general and uniform civil legislation, and the idea of abso- 
 lute power, of absolute rule. From the municipal system - 
 is derived the principle of freedom ; from the absolute 
 power of the imperial ruler that of order and subjection. 
 Then, thirdly, from the Roman Imperial legislation we
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 get another element of civilization, one that stands be- 
 tween their own municipal system and that of the Middle 
 Ages, that which M. Guizot terms "the municipal ecclesi- 
 astical system ; " for the preponderance of the clergy in 
 the affairs of the city succeeded that of the old municipal 
 magistrates and preceded the organization of the modern 
 municipal corporation. 1 
 
 The consequence of this upon the formation of modern 
 social life was the introduction of a moral influence, the 
 presence and maintenance of a higher law than that of 
 mere brute force or absolute unrestrained rule, and the 
 separation of the temporal and spiritual power. It was 
 in effect the source of liberty of conscience based upon 
 the principle that physical force should have neither 
 right nor influence over conviction and over truth. 
 
 In the fourth place, some writers, notably Sir H. Maine, 
 in his work on " Ancient Law," ascribe to the Roman rule 
 of emphytensis that double ownership of land which was 
 afterwards visible in the Frankish and Lombardic na- 
 tions, whereby the military service of their followers was 
 secured by granting away portions of their military do- 
 minion, and allowing benefices to become hereditary. Sir 
 Henry thinks, not without a fair show of reason, that 
 these foreign invaders, by Avhom feudalism was founded, 
 took as their model the terms on which the agri limitro- 
 phi were occupied by the veteran soldiers of the Roman 
 army who were disposed along the line of the Rhine and 
 
 1 In proof of this see the passages cited by Guizot from the Codex 
 Justin. Guizot, "History of Civilization in Europe" (Bonn's edition), 
 vol. i. pp. 30, 37.
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 the Danube, and by whom the frontiers of the empire 
 were secured against its barbarian neighbours. 
 
 He also thinks that the duty of respect and gratitude 
 to the feudal superior by the endowment of his daughter, 
 the equipment of his son, by the liability to his guardian- 
 ship of the vassal's son during minority, were literally 
 borrowed from the relations of "patron" and "freedman" 
 under Roman law. 1 
 
 This contention, possible, and even probable, as it may 
 be, is not free from doubt. Craig, in his "Jus Feudale," 
 maintains strenuously that feudal institutions are en- 
 tirely independent of Roman notions, and Mr. Hallam, 
 in his work, " Europe during the Middle Ages," warns us 
 against laying too much stress on seeming analogy, and 
 hesitates to discover in the Roman relations of " patron " 
 and " client," and in the tenure of the frontier lands, a 
 complete analogy with the feudal tenure of lands and 
 with feudal duties. 
 
 It is not my task to examine the question here at 
 length ; I may have an opportunity further on to revert 
 to it again, when I trace the different stages of the feudal 
 system of tenure from the Allodial and the Beneficiary 
 down to that of Feuds. Still, as Mr. Hallam says with 
 truth, " the preparatory steps in the constitutions of the 
 declining empire are of considerable importance, not 
 
 1 ' Ancient Law," ch. viii. pp. 302,303 (ed. 1861). For a very 
 interesting account of the Liniitaueau grants, and their probable 
 influence on the barbarian conquerors of Europe, the reader is re- 
 ferred to Palgrave's "Itise and Fall of the English Commonwealth," 
 vol. i. ch. xvii. pp. 494 et seq.
 
 io ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 merely as analogies, but as predisposing circumstances, 
 even germs to be subsequently developed." ] 
 
 The fifth and last reason for drawing attention to the 
 old Roman world is derived from the undoubted influence 
 of Roman civilization and Roman law upon the customs 
 and life of the barbarian invaders of the Roman Empire. 
 
 If I were to speak of the toleration of Roman institu- 
 tions shown by the barbarian invaders of Italy and Gaul 
 (who by a strange perversion of terms styled themselves 
 the guests of the Roman people), I should be using too 
 mild a word. The dominant influence of Roman social 
 life would, I think, be the correct expression. Look, 
 for instance, at the " Commonitorium Timotheo Y. S. 
 Comiti " 2 (the mandatory letter of King Alaric to his 
 comes), note the Roman term retained in later times in 
 the title count, as the Roman term dux has been pre- 
 served in that of duke. 3 What do we find ? The king's 
 deliberate declaration of the value of the Roman system 
 of jurisprudence to the well-being of the community. 
 
 Examine the contents of this Breviarium Alariciaiium 
 and that of the Lex Romana Burgundionum ; what do we 
 find ? A positive recognition of the social distinctions 
 
 1 " Europe during the Middle Ages," vol. i. ch. ii. part ii. p. 185. 
 
 2 This " Commonitorium " will be found in the preface to the 
 " Codex Tlieodosianus," in the collection by G. Hugo (Berlin, 1815), 
 styled "Jus Civile Antejustinianeum," and in the second vol. of 
 Savigny's "Gescbicte des Romischen Eecbts im Mittelalter," cap. vii. 
 13. (Tbere is a French translation of this work by M. Charles 
 Guerioux, published in 1839.) See also " History of Civilization " 
 (Bonn's edition), vol. ii. lecture xi. p. 7. 
 
 s Cf. Ducange Glossary, under each word, Comes and Dux ; and 
 Appendix, see Note A.
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 of the Romans, e.g. the Roman Civitas and Latinitas, the 
 power of the master over the slave, the Patria potestas, 
 Guardianship, Forms of Marriage, etc. (though, by the 
 way, no reference is made to or notice taken of patronal 
 rights). 
 
 As to the direct influence of the Roman law, let me 
 shortly point out where this is visible. Take, for 
 example, the " Edict of Theodoric," the " Alariciannm 
 Breviarium," and the " Lex Burgundionum," or " Papiani 
 Responsa." 
 
 It is not within the scope of these lectures to dwell 
 upon the incidents of Theodoric's reign, or on his charac- 
 ter ; those who wish to inform themselves on these points 
 will find full information in the 39th chapter of Gibbon's 
 " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." I would 
 only note these words of Gibbon : " His reputation may 
 repose with confidence in the visible peace and prosperity 
 of a reign of thirty-three years, the unanimous esteem 
 of his own times, and the memory of his wisdom and 
 courage, his justice and humanity, which was deeply 
 impressed on the minds of the Goths and Italians." 
 
 It was somewhere between the years A.D. 493 and A.D. 
 526 that his edict was promulgated, during which period 
 he reigned from the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, 
 adding also to his government Rhastia, Noricum, Dal- 
 matia, and Pannonia, and establishing his authority 
 from Sicily to the Danube, from Servia or Belgrade to 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 The object of the edict, which was published at Rome, 
 though Ravenna was the seat of the royal power, was to 
 fuse into one homogeneous whole, as far as possible, the
 
 12 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 political relations of the Romans and the Goths. It was 
 an attempt to regulate on a common basis the social life 
 of the natives and the new comers ; and while, by its 
 enactments, resting exclusively on the principles of 
 Roman procedure, such international combination was 
 protected, provision was properly made for unforeseen 
 cases by allowing each set of people to refer to their own 
 special laws, when such cases arose. Therefore, though 
 as a general rule the edict was the primary system of 
 la\v, particular Roman doctrines or Germanic customs 
 might be appealed to. The sources of this edict were the 
 Theodosian Code, the Theodosian and Post-Theodosian 
 Novella?, and the Codes of Gregory and Hermogenianus. 
 
 From the fragments of the edict that have come down 
 to us, it appears that the work consisted of four parts. 
 The first, in two books, is an epitome of Gaius's Institu- 
 tions, upon certain parts of the law relating to persons 
 and that relating to things ; the second part, termed 
 " Fragmentum Papiniani," is on the subject of pacts (i.e., 
 agreements) between husband and wife ; the third part is 
 a transcript, in thirteen books, of the Codex Gregorianus, 
 of which nine are lost ; and the fourth part is an extract 
 from the Codex Hermogeniaui, of which only the frag- 
 mentary titles have survived. 
 
 The " Breviarium Alaricianum " was the enactment 
 of Alaric, the king of the Wisigoths. His kingdom ex- 
 tended over a great part of southern Gaul and of Spain, 
 and the royal city was Toulouse. The events of his 
 reign, if one were discussing the history of our Teutonic 
 conquerors, would present topics of no little importance, 
 because it was then that the Frankish invasion of Gaul
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 settled the fate of that part of Enrope, and because, by 
 the defeat and death of Alaric (A.D. 507) in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Poitiers, the Gothic dynasty came to an end, 
 and the first of the Merovingian kings, Clovis, firmly 
 established his power in Gaul, founding an empire that 
 has exercised no little influence on our own country. 
 
 The " Breviarium Alaricianum " deserves special 
 notice for more reasons than one ; first, because it shows 
 the earnest desire of the Wisigothic king to avail himself 
 of the civilizing advantages of the Roman law ; next, 
 because no ancient code has so successfully escaped the 
 ravages of time ; and lastly, because by it has been pre- 
 served and handed down to us a large and important part 
 of the learning of the old Roman lawyer Paulus. This 
 code, then, exhibits in a remarkable manner, what I 
 have above stated, the direct and positive influence of 
 Roman law upon barbaric customs. 
 
 As to the Bnrgundian Code, 1 whose object was to pro- 
 vide a proper set of legal rules for all that portion of the 
 western part of Europe which was occupied by the Bur- 
 gundian invaders, its very title attests the Romanizing 
 influence that affected it. It was called the " Lex 
 Romana Burgundionum," and its contents will show that 
 even in the matter of crimes and offences, where one 
 would expect to find a large infusion of Germanic cus- 
 tomary law, the spirit of Roman jurisprudence governs 
 its principles and rules. 
 
 What, then, I have stated above I here repeat, that 
 although the barbarian invaders of the Roman Empire 
 
 1 The date of its publication is somewhere about the year A,P. 517,
 
 14 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 came as destroyers and remained as conquerors, so far 
 from despising the institutions of the conquered people, 
 their pleasure was to copy them, and so far from destroy- 
 ing their laws, they took a pride in publishing them for 
 the use and benefit of all the subject populations. 
 
 Now here it may be asked, Was there any codified 
 
 system of Roman law which could serve them as models ? 
 
 One there certainly was, and one from which they drew 
 
 large stores, viz., the Theodosian Code and the Theodosian 
 
 Novelise. 
 
 If there is any one period of Roman history which, just 
 before the fall of the empire in the West, could throw most 
 light upon the events that preceded and, as it were, led 
 to that fall, and at the same time would throw light upon 
 the social life and institutions of Imperial Rome just prior 
 to its final extinction, I should select the era of the great 
 Theodosius and the later Theodosian Code. 
 
 Half a century before his reign, the new capital of 
 Byzantium in the East had been founded, and not long 
 before his accession to power the final division of the 
 eastern and western kingdoms had been effected. He 
 had witnessed the Gaulic irruption of the Alemanni, the 
 fortification of the Rhine, the Burgundian attacks upon 
 the Rhine frontier, the ravages of the sea coasts of Gaul 
 and Britain by the Saxons, the attacks of the Picts and 
 Saxons upon Britain, the irruption of the Huns into the 
 Gothic settlements, and the invasion of the Goths upon 
 the Roman provinces, and at his death the Roman domi- 
 nation had been preserved. 
 
 The events of his life and reign have this importance, 
 so far as the history of European society is concerned,
 
 ROMAN LIFE. 
 
 that they are the beginning of the end of Roman power ; 
 and that, as the Barbarian codes show, it was through his 
 laws, collected and codified by the yonnger Theodosius, 
 that the first step towards civilization and improvement 
 of habits of life and respect for law and government was 
 made among the earliest Barbarian immigrants. 
 
 If I had time or opportunity to exhibit Roman life 
 and Roman habits of life towards the close of the Im- 
 perial days, I know no better means of doing so than by 
 a close examination of the Theodosian Code and Novellas. 
 
 They describe the functions and duties of the higher 
 officials. They give us the rules by which their compo- 
 site municipal institutions were governed. They make 
 careful provisions for the work of the treasury, of the 
 mint, of the markets, of the tax collectors. They describe 
 the method and arrangement of their military system, 
 show how the limitanean allotments were protected, tell 
 us how their public games were regulated; and lastly, 
 show us how completely the Christian form of worship 
 and Christian belief had destroyed the old Pagan cult. 
 In short, the Theodosian code is the best picture that I 
 know of Roman life just before the time when the Roman 
 Empire of the world came to an end.
 
 LECTURE II. 
 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 
 
 Destruction of National Spirit at the Fall of the Empire This owing 
 (1) to the Despotic Character of the Government ; (2) to the 
 Annihilation of the Middle Class ; (3) to the Misery of the In- 
 habitants of the Towns and of the Agricultural Community- 
 Sketch of the Eoman Municipalities down to the Eeign of Leo 
 the Philosopher Danger to the Municipalities from the Bar- 
 barian Invasions ; from the Populace ; and from the Army The 
 Privileged Classes and their Exemptions from Public Duties 
 Increasing Influence of the Clergy in the Municipalities and in 
 the Rural Districts -General Condition of affairs at the time of 
 the Conquest of Europe by the Barbarians Consequences of tbe 
 Conquest Transition from Wandering Tribes to Proprietors of 
 Land among the Barbarians Influence of Land upon Status 
 Development of Royalty Rise of a Territorial Aristocracy 
 Increasing Influence of the Clergy Tbe Franks, their Early 
 History Influence of Frankish Ideas on the Conquered Lands. 
 
 THE fall of the Roman Empire in the West presents a 
 remarkable phenomenon. Not only did the nation not 
 sustain the Government in its contest with the Bar- 
 barians, but left to itself it attempted no resistance what- 
 ever. Nay, more, during the long strife there is nothing 
 to show the existence of a national spirit. The nation 
 submitted to all the miseries of war, of pillage, and of 
 famine, to a complete change of state, in silence, and ap- 
 parently with indifference. 
 
 16
 
 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 17 
 
 In the fifth century the remains of the Roman legions 
 strove to resist the hordes of Barbarians by whom the 
 immense territory of Rome was overrun. They strove in 
 rain. These barbarian hordes seized the provinces into 
 which they pressed. The Roman nation ceased to exist, 
 and only one body of individuals appear as having any 
 pretence to political life, viz. the bishops and the clergy. 
 
 Except for the fact of the survival of the Roman law, 
 no one would imagine that a Roman population once 
 occupied the soil. Yet there was a time when Gaul, 
 Italy, and Spain were covered with towns once rich and 
 populous. Civilization was developed among them in a 
 remarkable manner. Roads, aqueducts, amphitheatres, 
 schools were made, built, and established in all of them. 
 Nothing was wanting to attest the wealthy condition of 
 their inhabitants or to exhibit the extent of their power. 
 But the invasions of the Barbarians destroyed all this 
 wealth, dispersed the schools, and made a desert of the 
 pleasant places. The very existence of the nation came 
 to an end. 
 
 Should it be asked, How came all this to happen ? an 
 answer may be found in the following causes : the des- 
 potic character of the Imperial Government ; the debase- 
 ment of popular sentiment ; and the profound apathy 
 which had spread through all ranks. 
 
 But besides these there was another agency, still more 
 powerful, and that was the dissolution, the disappearance, 
 the destruction of the middle class in the Roman world. 
 When the barbaric hordes poured into the Imperial 
 provinces, this class no longer remained. With its dis- 
 appearance the national spirit died out. 
 
 A. L. C
 
 1 8 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 
 
 If we want to get a true idea of the conditions of 
 social life in a civilized country, I take it that there are 
 two classes towards whom our attention is naturally at 
 once directed, the inhabitants of the towns and the 
 cultivating or agricultural class. 
 
 I shall speak as briefly as I can of these two classes 
 under the Roman domination, because I think I shall be 
 able to show that in spite of the destructive effect of 
 Roman civilization on one of them, and the debasing dis- 
 regard of Imperial Rome for the well-being of the other, 
 an agency was at work which preserved the life and 
 beneficially influenced for a time the condition of each, 
 even as against the narrow individualism and the 
 rapacious spirit of the Teutonic invaders of Italy and 
 Gaul : I mean the agency of ecclesiastical power and 
 authority. Let me then draw your attention to the state 
 of things affecting each of these classes under Roman 
 rule. 
 
 First as to the municipalities. The history of the 
 municipal institutions in the Roman period of govern- 
 ment divides itself into three epochs. 
 
 In the first, which embraces the hundred years that 
 followed upon the establishment of the Empire, we find 
 the municipal or corporate spirit firmly established ; the 
 importance of the Municipia, of the Colonise, and of the 
 Pncfecturse recognised, and excellent regulations for their 
 proper management sanctioned ; but at the same time we 
 find the fatal blot which disfigures the constitutional life 
 of Rome : I mean the inclination to centralization, that 
 later on became still more developed ; and the separation 
 between corporate interests and political interests that
 
 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 19 
 
 was productive of so much mischief as time advanced. 
 In the towns, no doubt, municipal interests and duties, 
 properly so called, Avere protected, but all the higher 
 range of political duties was transferred to Rome. 
 
 In the second epoch, down to the reign of Constantine, 
 the severance of the political from the municipal privi- 
 leges became still more marked, and what was worse, 
 Rome absorbed everything; the leading members of the 
 muuicipia nocked to Rome in order to share there either 
 in the comitia, or in the different public functions and 
 in the administration of public matters. Then, when 
 the comitia were abolished, and when by this blow all 
 free intervention in state affairs was abolished, neither at 
 Rome nor away from Rome was any interest in political 
 life left. 
 
 Still there was some compensation for the towns, for 
 as the importance which Rome itself had hitherto offered 
 to their leading citizens disappeared, the leading citizens 
 no longer quitted those towns. Strangers to the govern- 
 ment of the State, they remained in their own localities, 
 and so the administration of the municipalities offered 
 more attractions than before. The dignity of the de- 
 curionatus was enlarged, and was consequently in greater 
 request ; and in default of political rights and political 
 guarantees, the rights and guarantees of the citizen class 
 at home were more largely developed. 
 
 The third epoch, which extends from the reign of 
 Constantine to the fall of the Empire in the West, and 
 to the reign of Leo the Philosopher in the East (A.D. 806) 
 marks the gradual decay and final destruction of muni- 
 cipal life. Two causes led to this : the ruin of the central
 
 20 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 
 
 authority, after the time of Septimius Severus, in the 
 Empire, and with its fall, and as a consequence, the ever 
 increasing burdens and dangers cast upon the municipal 
 authorities, and the growing power of that Christian 
 society which was steadily progressing, and which even- 
 tually overpowered the old Pagan forms of worship. 
 
 At the same time there were three dangers ever 
 present to the despotism of the Roman emperors : the 
 Barbarians, whose incursions were constantly renewed, 
 and who had either to be conquered or bought off ; the 
 Populace, whose growing numbers required food, amuse- 
 ment, and restraint ; and the Army, the sole means of 
 keeping these two bodies in restraint. To meet the 
 demands that the exigencies of the times imposed, the 
 towns were called upon to provide the means, and upon 
 the decurions was thrown the labour of collecting and 
 transmitting the immense sums that the central authori- 
 ties required. 
 
 Time does not allow me to exhibit the history of the 
 events that led to the destruction of corporate life in the 
 Roman provincial towns. It is enough for me to say 
 that whilst on the one hand the pernicious principle of 
 allowing to the privileged classes (that is, to the senators, 
 the officers of the palace, the clergy, the officials employed 
 in the maintenance of order and of the execution of the 
 laws, and the military class) exemption from the burden- 
 some office of the decurionatus made the municipal 
 offices sources of danger rather than of reward ; on the 
 other hand the separation between political interests and 
 municipal interests, coming as it did upon the destruction 
 of the middle class, evoked that utter feeling of apathy
 
 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 
 
 which, as I have above mentioned, pnt an end to all 
 national life and spirit. 
 
 Then this remarkable result followed, that the civil 
 head of the munieipium disappeared ; the ecclesiastical 
 authority took the place of the old civil authority ; and 
 the bishop became the natural chief, the real mayor of 
 the borough. His election, and the part which the . 
 citizens took therein, became the important business in 
 the towns, and thus it was that Roman customs and 
 llornau corporate life were preserved for a while by the 
 clergy. 
 
 As I have already stated, between the old municipal 
 regulations of Rome and the municipal regulations of the 
 burghers of the Middle Ages, the municipal rule of the 
 ecclesiastical body intervened. The conversion of the 
 Prankish kings to the Christian faith (as I shall show 
 by-and-by) served to enlarge the influence thus obtained 
 by the clergy, and this so far as corporate life and spirit 
 are concerned was not unproductive of benefit to the pro- 
 gress of civilization and to the settlement of society in 
 Enrope. 
 
 Now if this influence was beneficial in respect of 
 municipal institutions, it was equally so in respect of the 
 agricultural portion of the community ; and this I shall 
 endeavour to make clear, first by exhibiting to you the 
 condition of the cultivating portion of the community 
 under the Roman rule, and then by pointing out what 
 were the ameliorations in their condition effected by the 
 clergy. 
 
 The rural districts played a very small part in Roman 
 society, the preponderance of the cities was immense,
 
 22 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 
 
 and but for the efforts of the ecclesiastics to maintain 
 and improve their lot, the rural inhabitants might have 
 died out altogether. 
 
 Under the Roman rule the special class inhabiting the 
 rural districts and devoting themselves to agricultural 
 labours were called coloni, rustici, originarii, adscript!, 
 inquilini, tributarii, censiti ; and their condition was this : 
 (1) they were not slaves ; (2) they could contract legal 
 marriages ; (3) they could serve in the Roman armies ; 
 (4) they could hold property. But then their liberty 
 was confined to very narrow limits, and was subject to 
 very harsh conditions. (1) They were attached to the 
 estates, servi terrce, glebes inhcerentes ; under no pretext 
 could they quit the domain to which they belonged, and 
 if they did make their escape, the proprietor had a right 
 to claim them wherever he found them. (2) Like slaves 
 they were subject to corporal punishment, not so fre- 
 quently as slaves, but in certain cases and to certain 
 punishments from which freemen were exempt. (3) 
 Although they could hold property, that property was 
 not complete nor truly independent. They enjoyed it at 
 their will, they transmitted it to their family; but they 
 were forbidden from alienating it without their master's 
 consent. 1 
 
 On the other hand they possessed, as a sort of compen- 
 sation for their hard condition, some advantages. 1 will 
 mention two : (1) The proprietors could not separate 
 them from the domain ; they could only be sold with the 
 estate, and the estate could not be sold without them. 
 
 1 Cf. Cod. Theod., lib. v. (Epit.); Titles ix. x. xi.
 
 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 23 
 
 (2) The rent which they paid the proprietor of the soil 
 (a rent almost always paid in kind, and called redittis, 
 annuoe functioned} could not in any case be raised, it was 
 always to remain the same, as fixed by ancient customs 
 and independent of the will of the proprietors. 
 
 By the first, as you may easily see, their security, if not 
 their liberty, was guaranteed. 
 
 By the second, the idea of an immutable land tax (one 
 of the most efficacious causes of the agricultural prosperity 
 of a country) was created, and if other circumstances had 
 not diminished its benefits in the Roman Empire, the 
 evils of the condition of the coloni would to some extent 
 have been counter-balanced by it ; but, unfortunately, in 
 addition to this fixed rent which they had to pay to the 
 proprietors of the soil, they were subjected to a less fixed 
 and more onerous tax. 
 
 There were two great contributions payable to the 
 imperial treasury : a land contribution by the proprietors, 
 and a personal contribution, or capitation tax, by all the 
 inhabitants of the territory. This capitation tax was 
 charged upon the proprietors in the first instance, but 
 they wrung it out of the cultivators. It was always in- 
 creasing, and was a source of constant vexation towards 
 the labourers. It destroyed, to a great extent, the benefit 
 derivable from the exaction of a fixed and ascertained 
 rent, and hence with other causes came that decline of 
 the agricultural population which preceded the invasion 
 of the Barbarians and facilitated its success. 
 
 At the period, then, of the conquest by the Barbarians 
 and when they had firmly established themselves on 
 Roman territory, they found almost all the rural popu-
 
 24 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 
 
 lation reduced to a condition little better than that of 
 bond labourers. At the same time the Roman Church 
 possessed considerable territorial property, and towards 
 the improvement of the ordinary cultivators' lot, as well 
 as towards the amelioration of the condition of their own 
 labourei-s, the efforts of the ecclesiastical proprietors were 
 assiduously directed. 1 
 
 Well, then, at the fall of the Empire, what did the 
 barbarian invaders of Europe find ? They found, it is 
 true, an imperial head of the Empire, but one whose power 
 was almost nil, and whose authority was utterly despised ; 
 they found a people without national feeling, ignorant 
 of national sentiment, and reduced to a state of utter 
 
 1 In proof of this read the letter addressed by Gregory the Great 
 (A.D. 590-604) to the Sub-Deacon Peter, the officer charged with the 
 administration of the property of the Church in Sicily. See Guizot's 
 " History of Civilization in France," vol. iii. p. 13G, translated by 
 Win. Hazlitt (Bonn's edition, 1846) ; and at p. 147 of same volume, 
 the Ordonnance of Louis le Gros on the demand of Thibault, Abbot 
 of Saint Pierre des Fosses. 
 
 " We may rejoice to know and to acknowledge," says Sir James 
 Stephen, in his " Lectures on the History of France " (vol. i. lect. i. 
 p. 37), " that in Gaul the early Church was the one great antagonist 
 of the wrongs which were then done upon the earth ; that she nar- 
 rowed the range of fiscal tyranny; that she mitigated the overwhelm- 
 ing poverty of the people; that she promoted the accumulation of 
 capital ; that she contributed to the restoration of agriculture ; that 
 she balanced and held in full check the imperial despotism; and 
 that she revived within herself the remembrance and the use of the 
 great franchise of popular election." Nothing truer than what is 
 here stated. But I shall have to advert to this particular subject 
 again, and to notice somewhat in detail the rise of the clergy to 
 power and influence, political as well as social, the causes therefor, 
 and the special consequences resultiug therefrom.
 
 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 25 
 
 apathy a nation composed of a privileged class and of 
 an impoverished lower class, the middle class no longer 
 existing ; they found towns governed by heads and pos- 
 sessed of regulations, but pauperised by the exactions of 
 the imperial city ; they also found a powerful, vigorous, 
 and well trained body of ecclesiastics, into whose hands 
 had fallen the real direction of corporate business ; more- 
 over, they found an agricultural population ground down 
 by the exactions of the proprietors under whom they 
 worked, and destitute of any notion of freedom. 
 
 Still, they did find a remnant of municipal life ; and / 
 in spite of what more recent writers are inclined to hold, 
 viz., that modern corporate life owes very little to Roman 
 customs and law, I venture to maintain that the idea of 
 municipal institutions not only is of Roman origin, but 
 is largely influenced by the old Roman spirit that was 
 caught and worked upon by the barbarian invaders of 
 Italy and Gaul. 
 
 Further, I hold that the enforced connection of the 
 agricultural labourer with the land on which he was born 
 (and this, as we know, reappeared as one of the pecu- 
 liarities of the feudal notions) is traceable to the institu- 
 tions of Imperial Rome. 
 
 I now go on to show the effect of the barbarian invasion 
 and settlement upon Europe in respect of social life and 
 constitutional ideas. 
 
 One consequence of the invasions of the barbarian 
 hordes by which the Roman Empire was overrun was to 
 put an end to all regular, habitual, and easy intercourse 
 between the various parts of the territory, and to all 
 security, all hope of comfort, in the future. In Gaul
 
 26 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 
 
 Roman society was destroyed ; the ties by which Borne 
 had been enabled to combine together the various parts 
 of the Roman world were loosened ; that great system of 
 administration, of imposts, of recruiting, of public works, 
 of roads, was overthrown. What remained was nothing 
 1 save the wreck of municipal institutions. 
 
 Under the Roman imperial administration the 
 governors of provinces, the consuls, the presidents fill 
 the scene, and reappear in the laws and in the history 
 of Rome. 
 
 In the sixth century, though the Roman titles of duke, 
 count, or praefect survived, their power and duties were 
 of a different character. 1 The old separation between 
 the civil and military professions vanished, and under the 
 duke, count, or praefect, the command of the troops and 
 the administration of justice were united. Thus the 
 towns existed, but the rural districts became the prey of 
 the Barbarians. It was there they established themselves 
 with their men ; there they introduced new institutions 
 and a new organization. 
 
 In the ancient German communities two social condi- 
 tions are visible : one, that of the society or tribe, with a 
 decided tendency to sedentary habits, and existing upon 
 a limited territory cultivated by means of labourers and 
 slaves ; the other, that of the warfai-ing horde grouped 
 round some famous chief, and leading a wandering life. 
 
 When a tribe small in number, as were all the German 
 tribes, occupied a limited territory ; when each head of a 
 family was established upon his domain in the midst of 
 
 1 See Appendix, Note A.
 
 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 27 
 
 the people, the social organization continued for a time, 
 the assembly of proprietors, of heads of families, decided 
 upon all matters, each tribe had its own assembly, justice 
 was dispensed by the freemen themselves under the 
 direction of the older members, and so in time a kind of 
 public polity arose between the confederate tribes. This 
 is the form of free institutions met with in the infancy 
 of nations. 
 
 The organization of the warfaring band was different. 
 Another principle is visible here, that of the patron, of 
 the chief, of aristocratic clientship and military subordin- 
 ation. 
 
 The German warfaring band, therefore, contained a 
 political element not possessed by the tribe, viz., arbitrary 
 power and enforced obedience ; and this is an influence 
 that prevails in warlike bodies with more force than in 
 communities that do not recognise war as their chief and 
 dominating idea. At the same time the spirit of freedom 
 thereby engendered was great. No man engaged himself 
 against his will. The warriors chose their chief and his 
 companions, but undertook nothing unless he had given 
 his own free will to the adventure. 
 
 Xor was the inequality between the chiefs and their 
 men of large proportions. In fact it was little more than 
 the natural inequality arising from superior strength, 
 skill, or courage. Although the chief had the biggest 
 share of the booty, though he possessed more horses and 
 more arms, he was not so far above his companions in 
 wealth as to be able to insist upon their attendance with- 
 out their own consent. Each warrior entered into the 
 warlike association with his strength and conrage differ-
 
 28 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 
 
 ing very little from the others, and at liberty to leave 
 when he pleased. 
 
 Now the characteristic fact, the great result of the in- 
 vasion as regards the Germans, was their change to the 
 condition of proprietors, the cessation of the wandering 
 life, and the definitive establishment of the agricultural 
 life; and the consequence of this as regards the warfaring 
 band or tribe was as follows. 
 
 When the tribe was transplanted to Gaul, the habita- 
 tions were further dispersed. The chiefs of families 
 established themselves at a greater distance from one 
 another; they occupied vast domains; their houses after- 
 wards became castles ; the villages which were grouped 
 around them were no longer peopled with inhabitants 
 who were free, who were their equals, but with labourers 
 attached to their lands. Thus the tribe became dissolved 
 by the very fact of its new establishment. 
 
 The effect upon its institutions was this : the assembly 
 of the freemen was now got together with greater diffi- 
 culty. So long as they had lived near one another, there 
 was no need of any pressure or persuasion in order to 
 induce the members to meet and discuss their affairs in 
 common. But when a population is scattered, in order 
 that the principles and forms of free institutions may be 
 continued a great social development is necessarily im- 
 plied ; riches, intelligence, many things, in fact, become 
 factors which hitherto had been wanting to a rough 
 German horde transported to a territory far more exten- 
 sive than what it had ever before occupied. 
 
 When once the tribe was established in Gaul, the 
 assemblies of the freemen became less frequent. So that
 
 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 29 
 
 in the middle of the eighth century, we find instead of the 
 old weekly and monthly gatherings in each division, bat 
 three assemblies in the year, and these not regularly kept. 
 
 lu the more primitive times when these assemblies 
 Avere frequent, the freemen, under the name of Rachim- 
 burgi, Ahrimanni, Boni homines, 1 decided upon the affairs 
 of the tribe ; but when the attendance became infrequent 
 or neglected, it was necessary on urgent occasions to 
 supply the places of these earlier personages ; hence we 
 find the freemen replaced in judicial functions by per- 
 manent judges. Thus the scabini, or sheriffs, of Charle- 
 magne, became regular judges. In each county five, 
 seven, or nine freemen were appointed by the Count, or 
 by the other local magistrates, whose duty it was to pre- 
 sent themselves at the assembly of the county to decide 
 upon causes. Hence the primitive institutions ceased to 
 maintain their old influence, and the judicial power 
 passed from the people to the magistrates. 
 
 There was another cause which materially affected the 
 condition of life and society at the period I am now 
 speaking of, and one which I shall show by-and-by intro- 
 duced a new set of principles, changing the legal idea of 
 status from that of the person to that of the land, and 
 eventually producing that important element of feudal 
 life, the attachment to the king or great chiefs of their 
 men by the " fees " distributed to them ; I refer to the 
 parcelling out of lands. 
 
 Consequent upon this three great facts are visible 
 First, a tendency to the development of royalty. Nar- 
 
 1 See Appendix, Note B.
 
 30 THE FRANKlSh INVASION. 
 
 row and crude in the commencement, the kingly office 
 became less warlike and more religious and more 
 political than it had been. So that eventually we find 
 it assuming the character of imperial polity. 
 
 Second, the rise of a territorial aristocracy. For from 
 allodial property the tendency was to a fixed and per- 
 manent settlement, and to the introduction of the notion 
 of hereditary succession. 
 
 Third, the increasing influence of the Church and of the 
 Clergy ; who from being at the outset only the counsellors 
 of the barbaric kings, gradually became the magistrates 
 and patrons of the still surviving municipality. More- 
 over, the clergy were established as great proprietors, 
 entering into that hierarchical organization of manorial 
 property which, comparatively small at first, afterwards 
 occupied a considerable space in the social order. 
 
 Such then, briefly stated, was the condition of things 
 which appeared in a large part of the old Roman im- 
 perial dominion after the fall of the Empire. 
 
 I propose now to give a short account of the people 
 and the leading men who played the chief part in this 
 history. I shall confine my remarks to the occupation of 
 Gaul by the Franks. 
 
 The Franks, or Free-men, were a German race. They 
 appear for the first time in history about the year A.D. 
 240. They were a collection of tribes Chauci, Ansibarii, 
 Chernsci, Chamavi, and Franci who, occupying at the 
 earliest period of their history territory on the right 
 bank of the Rhine, pressed into Gaul from time to time. 1 
 
 1 In an ancient chart or itinerary of the Eoman Empire, drawn
 
 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 31 
 
 Some of these tribes, under the name of Ripuarii, 
 obtained an establishment along the Rhine, where they 
 were tolerated as defenders of the frontiers of the Empire 
 in that quarter. Others, under the name of Loeti, after 
 some period of service in the Roman army, received allot- 
 ments of land in the interior of Gaul. Others again 
 wandered at will over the country, stopping in any district 
 that seized their fancy, and taking possession of a depopu- 
 lated town or a deserted portion of the country. There 
 they deposited their booty and cultivated the surround- 
 ing lands with their slave gangs. Eventually they became 
 inhabitants of Gaul without ceasing to be barbarians. 
 
 These tribes, few in number, and maintaining no settled 
 intercourse among themselves, preserved their original 
 customs and selected their own chiefs. 
 
 They recognised with a half contemptuous indifference 
 the insignificant claim of suzerainty of the Emperors, by 
 whom their chiefs were invested with a title that, if it 
 slightly admitted the superiority of the imperial authority 
 from whom it was received, gave the recipients themselves 
 some importance in their own eyes. So they were called 
 Comites, Duces, Magistri Militioe; 1 and so the Roman 
 Empire nominally prolonged its existence in the places 
 which these Barbarians occupied, and which they retained 
 as the real masters of the soil and of the inhabitants. 
 
 up apparently in the reign of Tbeodosius the Great, or in that of 
 Honorius, the territory on the right bank of the Bhine is called 
 Francia (Guizot, " Essais sur 1'Histoire de France, IP. essai, p. 47, 
 note 1 ; tenth edition, 1860). See also Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," 
 cli. z. 
 
 1 See Appendix, Note A.
 
 32 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 
 
 In process of time, as their numbers increased, their 
 chiefs assumed an importance warranted by the situation 
 of affairs. The imperial authority was quietly but com- 
 pletely set aside, and thus it came to pass that the leaders 
 of the various tribes looked on themselves and were 
 I'ecognised as the kings of the districts occupied by them. 
 Gregory of Tours, speaks of Syagrius as King of the 
 Romans, Clovis as King of the Franks, Ragnachaire of 
 Cambray, Sigebert of Cologne. 
 
 Towards the end of the fifth century Clovis makes his 
 appearance. 1 He succeeded his father Childeric as head 
 of the Frankish population quartered in and about 
 Tournai, and by him the Frankish monarchy was estab- 
 lished. 
 
 Clovis was one of those men who seem born for great 
 deeds and to make history. A barbarian in the midst of 
 barbarians, he was endowed with superior faculties, and 
 with that activity which accompanies them. A man 
 whom nothing satisfies or wearies, who finds in rest and 
 repose only impatience and wearisomeness, ever longing 
 for energetic action, ever disdainful of control ; such men 
 as he are not to be stayed in their enterprises or balked 
 in their resolutions by a crime, an obstacle, or a danger. 
 This is the clue to the constant wars in which Clovis 
 engaged, and this was the secret of his success, a suc- 
 cess which raised him from the position of head of a few 
 thousand warriors to that of founder of the Frank is h 
 
 1 His first victory over the Burgundians under Gundobald, be- 
 tween Langres and Dijon, was in A.D. 500. See for the events of this 
 period, and for a full account of Clovis, Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," 
 ch. xxxviii.
 
 THE PRANKISH INVASION. 33 
 
 domination over all the neighbouring tribes and petty 
 kingdoms, and founder, too, of the Merovingian dynasty. 
 Such was Clovis, and such was the position he attained 
 by force of superior will and invincible activity of mind. 
 
 Let me now point out what was the special character 
 that the substitution of German life for the old Roman 
 life impressed upon Europe. 
 
 It was the sentiment of personal independence ; a love 
 of liberty displaying itself at all risks, and resolute 
 in the acquisition and maintenance of it. This was a 
 sentiment unknown to the Roman or to the Christian 
 society. It was a sentiment which was brought in by 
 the Frankish conquerors of Gaul. It stirred into glow 
 the decaying embers of civilization, and produced results 
 that have been felt in a material degree in our own 
 country under the influence of our Norman conquerors. 
 
 Again, to the Franks Europe owes the notion of 
 military clientship, the bond which established itself 
 between individuals, and which, without destroying the 
 liberty of each individual or the equality existing among 
 them, gave birth to that aristocratical organization which 
 afterwards expanded into feudalism. The development 
 of these characteristics, the development of a still more 
 important element in the proper settlement and improve- 
 ment of society, were worked out by a far greater mind 
 and a far more sagacious monarch than Clovis. I mean 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 A. L,
 
 LECTURE III. 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 The Early Social Organization of the German Tribes down to the 
 time of Clovis The Classification of the Members of the Ger- 
 man Community adverted to Beasons for the Substitution of 
 the Carlovingian for the Merovingian Dynasty Chief Cause of 
 the Fall of the Merovingian Kings owing to the Constant 
 Divisions of Lands Neustria and Austrasia Eise of the 
 Mayors of the Palace The Era of Charlemagne Splendour of 
 his Beign His Social and Legal Beforms His Beign Marks 
 the Birth of Modern Social Life Its Influence on the Norman 
 Invaders of Europe, and through them on England. 
 
 I CLOSED my last lecture with the name of the great 
 Emperor Charlemagne; but before I speak of the influence 
 exerted by him upon the history of European life, I will 
 say a few words about the social organization of the 
 German tribes prior to and at the time of Clovis. 
 
 First we have the nation, composed of a collective body 
 of freemen, 1 in whom resided the sovereignty. Secondly, 
 we find the division of the territory into cantons, with 
 close relations existing between all of them, and in each 
 canton the freemen forming the political organization. 
 
 1 These freemen are spoken of under different names. Among 
 the Lombards they are called Ahrimans, Ehrimans, Hermans ; among 
 the Franks Bachimburgi, Bathimburgi, Begimburgi. The Latin 
 equivalent for all of them was Boni homines. See Appendix, Note B. 
 
 34
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 35 
 
 Next, we find every canton governed by a comes or 
 count, invested with military power and with civil juris- 
 diction, and lieutenants acting tinder and obeying the 
 orders of the comes, and supplementing his various 
 duties. Lastly, we find the comes, or his lieutenant, 
 presiding over the tribunals of justice, but without any 
 deliberative voice, for the decision of the matter imme- 
 diately before the tribunal belonged to the freemen of 
 the canton, who were called together sometimes en masse 
 and sometimes individually. 1 
 
 Then, as to the old Germanic Constitution, that is, 
 prior to the time of Clovis : (1) there was a superior 
 or noble class, composed of the Rach or Rek, 2 and the 
 leading men of the state. (2) This class of nobles (be- 
 coming in time hereditary) formed eventually a separate 
 body, but without any special preponderance in the 
 government or in the administration of justice ; for the 
 nobles (whose distinction was but a personal one) were 
 simply individual members in the national and judicial 
 assemblies. (3) Later on it is true royalty was intro- 
 duced, but prior to that institution the dux or duke 
 was the temporary head or chief in warlike expeditions ; 
 his functions ceased with the war, and under him were 
 counts, who were commanders of the bands or regiments 
 
 1 This was one of Charlemagne's great alterations, appearing in 
 the establishment of the Scabini or Echevins. For explanations of 
 the terms Comes, Dux, Scabini, and Echevin, see Appendix, Notes 
 A and C. 
 
 2 Hence the Bachimburgi. Each, probably from the Teutonic word 
 "rek," meaning great, powerful. See Savigny, " Geschte. des Bom. 
 Becht," i. ch. iv. 64 ; and Appendix, Note B.
 
 36 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 of warriors. In course of time these duces or dukes be- 
 came, by nomination, governors of provinces ; and then, 
 by a gradual process not easy to trace, the union of civil 
 and warlike duties and functions took effect ; and so we 
 find the duke and count merged in one dignity. Finally, 
 when the Frankish domination was firmly established, we 
 have the duke elevated to the dignity of king ; king, 
 that is, in relation to the conquered inhabitants, but only 
 vassal in relation to some more powerful individual. 
 
 From this review of the social organization of the 
 barbarian invaders of Gaul, I proceed to another topic 
 deserving notice, viz., the classification of the members 
 of the community. 
 
 Besides the chief, we meet with the superior class, viz., 
 the Leudes, the Antrustions or Fideles, 1 the Clergy, the 
 Enfranchised class, and the Slaves ; but befare I speak 
 of them, there are two other remarkable features of the 
 new condition of things consequent upon the introduction 
 of the Teutonic settlement to which I shall have to 
 advert. I mean the important influence of land upon the 
 status of the individual, and the weregild, that is, the 
 composition or money payment that the slayer of a man 
 had to make to the family of the slain. 
 
 Of each of these I shall speak hereafter at some little 
 length, because each of them marks the special nature 
 of the change in the habits and customs of society, and 
 because the influence of land upon the status of the 
 individual is one of the remarkable features of a new set 
 of ideas which, destroying the old Roman notion of the 
 
 1 For the explanation of these terms see Appendix, Notes C and D.
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 37 
 
 importance of the family, eventually led to the establish- 
 ment of those feudal customs that kept a strong hold on 
 the laws and customs of our own country as well as of 
 other parts of Europe. 
 
 I defer, however, my explanation of these matters, in 
 order to finish the history of the changes in the Frankish 
 land that led to the establishment of the power of 
 Charlemagne and the settlement of society resulting 
 from his domination. That is to say, the substitution 
 of the Carlovingian dynasty in place of the long-haired 
 Merovingian kings. 
 
 It was a long-established belief that the fall of the 
 Merovingian race was owing to the utter feebleness and 
 inefficiency of a succession of weak kings, and to the am- 
 bition of Pepin le Bref ; and to explain this some writers 
 have fancied that the cause for their overthrow by the 
 mayors of the palace was traceable to the fact that these 
 personages, becoming by degrees chiefs of that aristocracy 
 of great proprietors which on the one hand conquest, and 
 on the other the benefices had created, were enabled, by 
 dint of the influence and power which they acquired, to 
 wage a successful contest with royalty, and eventually 
 (between the seventh and the first half of the eighth 
 century) to overthrow the dynasty under which they had 
 obtained their hold of office. 
 
 Others have thought that the power of the kings and 
 that of the mayors of the palace were gradually but 
 steadily growing side by side, until the elevation of 
 Pepin to the dignity of mayor placed in office a man of 
 vigour and boldness sufficient to produce the definitive 
 victory of the official over the king.
 
 38 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 But the true nature of the two revolutions which over- 
 threw, one the descendants of Clovis, the other that of 
 Charlemagne, is to be found in events of another date 
 than those just mentioned. 
 
 Childeric III. was not the only inert and feeble king 
 who found himself under the influence of an ambitious 
 mayor of the palace. Nor was the power of these mayors 
 greater in the hands of Pepin le Bref than it had been 
 under those of his predecessors, of Herstall, or of Ebroin, 
 or of Grimoald. The contest between the great propi-ie- 
 tors and the kings had been going on during the seventh 
 century without immediately producing the fall of the 
 Merovingian dynasty. 
 
 These and other causes of the ultimate revolution had 
 existed for some time, but that which really tended to 
 help on the revolution was a cause of a more general 
 nature, and one that was intimately connected with the 
 Frankish nation itself. 
 
 This was the constant division of lands which had 
 been made on the deaths of the different Frankish kings. 
 Five divisions of this nature had taken place between the 
 reigns of Clovis I. in A.D. 561 and Clovis II. in A.D. 656. 
 The result of the final division was the establishment 
 of the two kingdoms of Neustria and Australia. The 
 former comprised the territory situated between the Loire 
 and the Meuse, the latter that which extended from the 
 Meuse to the Rhine. 
 
 The countries which formed Austrasia were in Gaul, those 
 originally occupied by the Franks. These countries ran 
 up to the confines of Germany, and were united in terms 
 of alliance with the old Frankish confederation which had
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 39 
 
 not passed the Rhine. After their expeditions, whether 
 for the purpose of war or of plunder, their troops, instead 
 of remaining in the lands which they had conquered, 
 generally returned with their booty to their old settle- 
 ments. 
 
 Roman civilization and Roman habits of life had 
 never taken footing on the Rhine frontiers as firmly as 
 was the case in the interior of Gaul. They had been 
 almost annihilated by the frequent incursions of the 
 barbarian invaders, and so German manners and habits 
 exclusively prevailed in Austrasia. 
 
 In Neustria, on the contrary, the Franks were less 
 numerous, more scattered, and farther removed from 
 their old German compatriots and from their old country. 
 They were surrounded by Gauls, and were in effect a 
 colony of Barbarians transported into the midst of the 
 Roman people and into Roman civilization. 
 
 The result of this was a distinction as much racial as 
 geographical, affecting not only the political and social 
 arrangements of the two divisions, but the language of 
 each. Francia Teutonica is the name that the writers 
 of the fifth century give to Austrasia ; Francia Romana 
 to Neustria. In the former, so these writers say, the 
 German language prevailed, in the latter the Roman or 
 Latin language. 1 
 
 Between these two kingdoms the contest for power 
 lasted for some time. At first the superiority of Neustria 
 
 1 Luitprand, lib. i. cap. vii., and Othon de Freysingen, lib. iv. cap. 
 xxii., cited by Guizot : " Essais sur 1'histoire de France," III 6 essai, 
 p. 62 (tenth edition, 1860).
 
 40 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 was the most marked, but towards the end of the sixth 
 century the rivalry of the two queens, Fredegonde and 
 Brunehault, brought the struggle to a climax. To resist 
 the efforts of the Neustrian queen, Brunehault, the 
 Austrasian nobility formed an alliance with that of the 
 Neustrian, and the murder of Brunehault was the 
 consequence. 
 
 From that time the Ansfcrasian power became domi- 
 nant, and the elevation of the mayors of the palace 
 favoured its further development. 
 
 Against the efforts of the leading proprietors, Frankish 
 and Gaulish, to obtain an independent footing in their 
 own domains, and to live as absolute masters, the kings, 
 at the head of their leudes or fideles, and supported by 
 the clergy, were desirous of restraining and reducing 
 them to subjection. The kings at first made use of the 
 mayors of the palace in the struggle, and for a while 
 with some success. 
 
 But the mayors of the palace from being the advisers 
 and assistants of the kings, soon became the masters of 
 the situation ; and when, at the commencement of the 
 seventh century, Neustria fell, and became a prey to in- 
 cessant disorder, the Austrasian faction found vigorous 
 chiefs in the Pepin family, and Roman France yielded to 
 the superior force of German France. 
 
 Finally, when Pepin le Bref, in A.D. 752, was crowned 
 king, and received the sanction of the pope, the Franks 
 swore, under pain of excommunication, never to elect any 
 other king than the issue of his loins. 
 
 The Merovingian dynasty came to an end, and under 
 Charlemagne a larger and more important empire was
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 41 
 
 founded than the Frankish invaders could ever have 
 dreamed of. Under his powerful sway the invasion of 
 the Barbarians in the West was arrested; Germany 
 ceased to be the theatre of the incessant fluctuations of a 
 wandering population ; the different tribes and the form 
 of government became settled, and the social order and 
 settlement of modern times received its first proper form 
 and shape. 
 
 The reign of Charlemagne marks an era of splendid 
 character in the story of civilization and of political 
 progress. All the eminent writers of history who have 
 dealt with that period of European life, dwell with evi- 
 dent pleasure on the subject, and by all of them has the 
 subject been treated in a manner worthy of its greatness. 
 
 Gibbon, at the end of his fine description of the 
 deeds and fame of Charlemagne, sums up thus : l " The 
 dignity of his person, the length of his reign, the 
 prosperity of his arms, the vigour of his government, 
 and the reverence of distant nations distinguish him from 
 the royal crowd, and Europe dates a new era from his 
 restoration of the Western Empire." Guizot shows how 
 the design of civilizing his people was his predominating 
 idea, and how strenuously he laboured to introduce order 
 and unity into the administration of all the countries 
 which he possessed, and how by means of his " Missi 
 dominici," and his general assemblies, he strove to reduce 
 the chaotic and discordant elements of disorder and con- 
 fusion in his territories to method, regularity, and 
 cohesion." 
 
 1 " Decline and Fall," ch. xlix.
 
 42 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 What Sir James Stephen, in his " Lectures on the 
 History of France," says of him I shall advert to further 
 on ; but let me here specially refer my audience to his 
 glowing eulogium at vol. i. pp. 85, 89. One cannot but 
 note with approval Sir James's castigation of Gibbon for 
 deforming his story of Charlemagne's character with re- 
 volting obscenities. But this was a tendency of Gibbon's 
 nature which too often disfigures his great and valuable 
 work. Had he always put his offensive detail in a 
 learned language, it would have been better for most 
 of his readers. 
 
 Sir Henry Maine, without dissenting from the view of 
 later French writers, that Charlemagne was far before 
 his age, quite as much in the character of his designs as 
 in the energy with which he prosecuted them, says that 
 " whether this be true or not, it is certainly true that in 
 aiming at an unlimited dominion he was emphatically 
 taking the only course which the characteristic ideas of 
 his age permitted him to follow, and that of his intel- 
 lectual eminence there cannot be a question, but that is 
 proved by his acts and not by his theory." l 
 
 So fine is the eulogium that Hallam passes upon him, 
 that I cannot resist the citation of it at length : 
 
 " In analysing the character of heroes, it is hardly 
 possible to separate altogether the share of fortune from 
 their own. The epoch made by Charlemagne in the history 
 of the world, the illustrious families which prided them- 
 selves in him as their progenitor, the very legends of 
 romance which are full of his fabulous exploits, have cast 
 
 1 " Ancient Law," ch. iv. p. 106.
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 43 
 
 a lustre round his head, and testify the greatness that 
 has embodied itself in his name. None indeed of 
 Chai'lemagne's wars can be compared with the Saracenic 
 victory of Charles Martel ; but that was a contest for 
 freedom, his for conquest ; and fame is more partial to 
 successful aggression than to patriotic resistance. As a 
 scholar his acquisitions were probably little superior to 
 those of his unrespected son, and in several points of 
 view the glory of Charlemagne might be exterminated by 
 an analytical discussion. But rejecting a mode of judg- 
 ing equally uncandid and fallacious, we shall find that 
 he possessed in everything that grandeur of conception 
 which distinguishes extraordinary minds. Like Alexander 
 he seemed born for universal innovation. In a life rest- 
 lessly active, we see him reforming the coinage and 
 establishing the legal divisions of money ; gathering 
 about him the learned of every country; founding schools 
 and collecting libraries ; interfering, but with the tone of 
 a king, in religious controversies ; aiming, though pre- 
 maturely, at the formation of a naval force ; attempting 
 for the sake of commerce the magnificent design of 
 uniting the Rhine and the Danube, and meditating to 
 mould the discordant codes of Roman and Barbarian laws 
 into an uniform system. A strong sympathy for intel- 
 lectual greatness was the leading characteristic of Char- 
 lemagne, and this undoubtedly biassed him in the chief 
 political error of his conduct, that of encouraging the power 
 and pretension of the hierarchy. But perhaps his greatest 
 eulogy is written in the disgraces of succeeding times, 
 and the miseries of Europe. He stands alone, like a 
 beacon upon the waste, or a rock in the broad ocean.
 
 44 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 His sceptre was the bow of Ulysses, which could not be 
 drawn by any weaker hand. In the dark ages of European 
 history the reign of Charlemagne affords a solitary rest- 
 ing place between the two long periods of turbulence and 
 ignominy, deriving the advantages of contrast both from 
 that of the preceding dynasty and of a posterity for 
 whom he had formed an empire which they were un- 
 worthy and unequal to maintain." l 
 
 Prom this review of the special influence of Charle- 
 magne's reign upon the development of social, political, 
 and intellectual progress in Europe, I shall proceed to 
 notice shortly the reasons why the dynasty of Clovis and 
 the Merovingian race of kings was so completely sub- 
 verted by the Carlovingian race. It is to Sir James 
 Stephens' " Lectures on the History of France " that I 
 am indebted for the means of presenting them to you. a 
 
 First, the Frankish Conquest of the Roman Gallic pro- 
 vinces was never thoroughly accomplished ; for in addition 
 to the antipathy which alienated the Franks from the 
 Gauls, the dominant from the subject race, the two sets 
 of people were further divided one from the other by the 
 indelible contrast of their characters, natural and here- 
 ditary. 
 
 Secondly, when Clovis became the conqueror of Gaul, 
 he was not held by himself or others to have become the 
 monarch of a definite territory, or even to have become, 
 in the proper sense of the term, the sovereign of the 
 old Roman Gallic inhabitants. No attempt was made to 
 
 1 " Europe during the Middle Ages," vol. i. ch. i. part i. p. 12. 
 
 2 "Lectures on the History of France," vol. i. lect. ii. pp. 60-68.
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 45 
 
 impose upon the people the laws, the language, or the 
 customs of the conquerors. 
 
 Thirdly, there was no system of civil administrative 
 government, of which the Merovingian king was the 
 head, or to which the provincial Gauls were subjected. 
 Under the Romans, as we have seen, Gaul was divided 
 into cities and rural provinces. In the cities rural affairs 
 were conducted by municipalities. In the provinces . 
 municipal authority was represented and administered 
 by a dux, or comes, or vice-comes. After the conquest 
 the Frank herizog superseded the duke (taking his 
 name, by the way) ; the Frank graf took the place and 
 name of the count, or vice-count, and claimed in every 
 city an authority co-ordinate with that of the old munici- 
 pal magistrates. But the herizog and the graf did not 
 maintain with the cyning (king) relations corresponding 
 with those which the duke or count maintained with the 
 emperor. The German viceroy raised the military re- 
 cruits for which his district or city was liable, but made 
 no other practical acknowledgment of responsibility or 
 subordination to the king or to any other human being. 
 Each herizog or graf was regarded as supreme, or at least 
 as independent, within the limits of his own command. 
 
 Fourthly, destitute as the cyning (or king) thus was of 
 all civil and judicial authority, he was equally powerless 
 in the government of the Church. Her bishops and 
 ministers were elected by the people at large, and pro- 
 vincial synods promulgated ecclesiastical laws without 
 any preceding or retrospective sanction from the tem- 
 poral sovereign. 
 
 Fifthly, negotiations and alliances with foreign states
 
 46 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 were equally beyond his province, for as yet diplomacy 
 and diplomatic relations were not. Nor was he the con- 
 servator of the peace of his people, for he had neither 
 magistrates nor police under his orders. 
 
 Sixthly, the Merovingian king was not the legislator 
 /for his people, or rather, there was in those ages no 
 Gallo-Frankish legislature whatever. 
 
 It is under this clause that Sir James combats the 
 opinion that each of the German tribes, on its entrance 
 into Gaul, promulgated at once the ancient codes of its 
 nation, and then afterwards introduced into that code 
 such amendments as experience suggested. He argues 
 that the Gothic, Salian, Ripuarian, and Burgundian 
 Codes were never established by the deliberate acts of 
 a formal legislature, but were recapitulated (that is, 
 edited) by aged men as memorials of the customs of 
 their country. Whether one can give complete assent to 
 this opinion of the learned and able writer now referred 
 to is not free from doubt. The subject is one that opens 
 ample opportunity for discussion ; l but at all events this 
 may be conceded, that the codes above spoken of were 
 not, like the Capitularies of Charlemagne, the work of 
 the supreme head of the state. 
 
 Seventhly, the Merovings were not the administrators 
 ' of finance, nor had they any national revenue. 
 
 Now in all these points the distinctive characteristics 
 of the founder of the Carlovingian line stand out clearly, 
 
 1 For this discussion, see the preface to the Salic Law, sot out at 
 full length in Guizot's " History of Civilization in France," ninth 
 lecture, vol. i. pp. 453-456 (Bohn's edition).
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 47 
 
 and show good reason for the complete and successful 
 subversion of the Merovingian race of kings by Charle- 
 magne and those who came after him. 
 
 There had, no doubt, been causes at work that helped 
 on the revolution, but the crisis came when the great 
 emperor appeared on the scene, and to his genius the 
 ultimate triumph of the one race over the other must be 
 ascribed. For under him the empire was firmly settled 
 and definitely fixed. Its different parts were welded into 
 one compact body. He did become and was sovereign de 
 facto over all the inhabitants of his vast domain ; and he 
 did attempt, and that with success, to impose upon them 
 all the laws and customs of his own people. He intro- 
 duced and strongly maintained a system of civil adminis- 
 trative government. He was the political head of his 
 people, deciding upon all questions of war and peace, and 
 regulating the magistrates and police, who were under 
 his orders. By his scabini l and his missi dominici he 
 upheld the regulations imposed by him on the different 
 portions of his empire, and by means of his capitularies 
 he provided for the legislation of his subjects. By his 
 religious and canonical laws he declared himself the head 
 and guiding spirit of the ecclesiastical body, reconstitut- 
 ing the ecclesiastical authority, and giving it a system of 
 regularity and cohesion which it had to a large extent lost, 
 and exhibiting to his people such a desire for their moral 
 improvement as makes his reign a landmark at a period 
 of time when the social, as well as the intellectual, pro- 
 gress of mankind was threatened with the gravest perils. 
 
 1 For Scabini, see Appendix, Note C.
 
 48 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 You may perhaps wonder why I have dwelt at 
 this length upon the life and character of Charle- 
 magne, seeing that my business is not with the history 
 of this or any other part of Europe generally, but with 
 the rise, progress, and development of Feudalism and its 
 influence upon the constitutional and political forms of 
 life, first on the Continent and then in England. 
 
 I have done so for these reasons : first, the era of 
 Charlemagne is that of the settlement of order, of law, 
 and of government in France ; second, because the order, 
 law, government, and institutions of France were im- 
 pressed upon the Norman invaders and conquerors of 
 England ; and third, because from the time of Charle- 
 magne dates the forward and progressive movement of 
 that Feudal system which, as I shall hereafter show, has 
 so materially affected in many details of law and cus- 
 tomary life our own system of jurisprudence and our own 
 legislation. 
 
 What, then, was the precise effect of Charlemagne's 
 government upon the history of European civilization 
 and constitutional law ? 
 
 It was this. He attempted, though complete success 
 did not follow his efforts, to establish a system of 
 administration that should be a lasting one. As M. 
 Guizot says, despite the unity, despite the activity of his 
 thought and power, the disorder around him was too 
 large and too strong to be entirely overcome. Still, he 
 did what none of his predecessors had ever thought of, 
 he resolutely tried to introduce and maintain system and 
 order. 
 
 He did his best to establish a local government as
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 49 
 
 distinguished from a central government, and this was 
 effected by his two classes of agents one local and per- 
 manent, the other itinerant and temporary. 
 
 In the first class were the dukes, counts, centeners (or 
 hundred men), and the scabini, who were all resident 
 magistrates, nominated by himself or by his delegates, 
 and charged in his name to raise forces, to render jus- 
 tice, to maintain order, to receive tributes. With them 
 appeared the beneficiaries or vassals of the king, who held 
 from him, sometimes hereditarily, sometimes for life (often 
 without any stipulation or rule), estates or domains 
 wherein they exercised, partly in their own name, partly 
 in that of the emperor, a certain jurisdiction and almost 
 all the rights of sovereignty, whatever the nature and 
 extent of their power might be (as to which the records 
 are not very clear). All these were, beyond doubt, in 
 habitual relation with Charlemagne, who made use of 
 them everywhere, in order to convey and execute his 
 will. 
 
 In the second class, and above these local and resident 
 agents, were the missi dominici, temporary authorities 
 charged in the name of the emperor to inspect the 
 provinces, authorized to penetrate into conceded domains 
 as well as into free lands, invested with the right of 
 reforming abuses, and called upon to render an account 
 of everything to the emperor. These missi dominici 
 were for the provinces the principal medium of order and 
 administration. 
 
 Then Charlemagne strove to make the central govern- 
 ment strong and effective, and to give it the character 
 of a true government by the establishment of national 
 
 A. L.
 
 50 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 assemblies. 1 Of these assemblies no less than thirty- 
 five were held in the period of forty years between A.D. 
 770 and 813. Sixty capitularies and two hundred and 
 forty-seven public documents and acts are enumerated 
 by M. Guizot as evidence of the legislative enterprise of 
 the emperor, and of his incessant care for the interests of 
 his subjects. " Surely," says this learned writer, " such 
 a table in itself testifies his activity of mind and of his 
 energy." 
 
 But in addition to this we must not forget the revision 
 which he caused to be made of the ancient laws of his 
 Barbarian predecessors, especially the Salic and Lom- 
 bardic laws. 
 
 In fact, activity an universal, insatiable activity ; a 
 desire to think of everything, to introduce everywhere 
 and with all despatch, life and order, rule and govern- 
 ment, mark his reign. This is one of the striking charac- 
 teristics of the man whose genius is impressed on the 
 history of his own times, and still attracts our admiration 
 at the present day. 
 
 At this period, then, of Franko- German story, I stop. 
 It is not my design to discuss the history of Europe. All 
 that I purpose to do is to exhibit the changes that have 
 taken place in social order from the fall of the Roman 
 Empire to the Norman Conquest of England. 
 
 1 See as to these assemblies, Guizot's " History of Civilization in 
 Europe," vol. ii. pp. 194-197 (Bolin's edition). The letter of instruc- 
 tion written by Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims, is cited by M. Guizot 
 at page 194. In it a most interesting account of these assemblies is 
 given.
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 51 
 
 Why I have dwelt at some length on Charlemagne's 
 reign is because, as I have said, it marks the birth of 
 modern social life. 
 
 Great as he was, and far in advance of his time, he 
 was unable to do more than to lay the foundation of a 
 structure which, under the feeble Carlovingian kings who 
 followed him, received many rude shocks. His epoch 
 marks in the history of Europe the exact point at which 
 the dissolution of the ancient Roman and Barbarian 
 world was consummated, and it is from his reign that the 
 formation of modern Eui'ope and of the new world really 
 dates. 
 
 When I come to that portion of my lectures which 
 deals with the invasion of England by the Normans, and 
 with the consequent introduction of Norman customs and 
 Norman laws, as well as with the introduction of Feudal 
 notions, I shall show what was the effect upon them of 
 the customs and laws which were prevailing in the 
 country wherever these Normans settled under Rolf. By 
 that settlement, when Rolf attorned to the French king 
 as vassal, and received from Charles the Simple the land 
 " in alode et in fundo" the Normans became Frenchmen, 
 and made Gaul French. 
 
 They settled at the point of transition when the old 
 German state of things, though beginning to give way 
 to the new French state of things, was still in visible 
 existence ; and if, on the one hand, Gaul was made 
 French, and French Paris the capital of France by the 
 Normans ; on the other hand it was the Capetian revolu- 
 tion which gave Normandy her definite position in Gaul 
 and in Europe, converting her people from a horde
 
 $2 THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FRANKS. 
 
 of piratical barbarians to a nation influenced by the 
 civilizing laws and customs which Charlemagne had first 
 impressed upon the country of their adoption. 1 
 
 1 For Eolf and the events of his life, his exploits and character, and 
 the nature of his settlement in Normandy, the reader is referred to 
 the graphic account thereof in Professor Freeman's " History of the 
 Norman Conquest," vol. i. ch. iv. pp. 1C3-174 (3rd edition, revised. 
 1877).
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE WEREKILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 The Incidents of the Teutonic Settlement The Weregild and the 
 Influence of Land on Status The Weregild Explained Qittzre, 
 whether it can be regarded as a Means of Classification Its Im- 
 portance on Two Grounds : First, as Introducing a Punishment 
 for Manslaughter ; Next, as Limiting the Ancient Faahde or 
 Feud Right of Warfare The Difference between Ancient and 
 Modern Legislation in the Matter of Punishment for Crime 
 noticed The Influence of Land on Social Organization and on 
 Status Sketch of the Three Stages of Landed Property between 
 the Fifth and Tenth Centuries ; viz. : Allodial, Beneficiary, and 
 Tributary Allodial Property, its Character, Incidents, and 
 Burdens. 
 
 IN a former part of my lectures, I spoke of two remark- 
 able incidents of the Teutonic settlement of Europe that 
 demand a somewhat lengthened explanation. I mean 
 the wehrgeld or weregild, the money payment for the 
 slaying of a man, and the influence of land upon the 
 status of the individual. 
 
 These two incidents of Teutonic society deserve a 
 special notice, because, when I come to speak of the 
 Anglo-Saxon customs of England, we shall find one of 
 them in existence, and because it is not easy to under- 
 stand and properly appreciate the meaning and extent of 
 Feudalism without a full, clear grasp of the other. 
 
 The substitution of death or imprisonment as the 
 punishment for murder or manslaughter is a feature of 
 
 53
 
 54 THE WEREG1LD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 later legislation, and connotes the influence of a later set 
 of legal notions upon social life. 
 
 The importance of land as a factor in the organization 
 of society, which is so strikingly visible in England, 
 emphasises the divergence of Teutonic from Roman cus- 
 toms. To these two subjects I now address myself. 
 
 I begin with that of the weregild, though I am in- 
 clined to think that, in point of time, it was posterior to 
 the altered conditions of tenure of land, being a conse- 
 quence of the new order of things that grew out of that 
 distribution of land which resulted from the Frankish 
 and Lombardic settlements in Gaul and Italy. 
 
 Generally speaking, the term weregild means the sum 
 of money imposed on a man-slayer as a composition pay- 
 able to the family of the dead man. According to some 
 writers, this sum may be looked upon as the infallible 
 proof or sign of the social condition of men in the com- 
 munity ; for by fixing the exact value of each particular 
 life, the measure of its quality in the social scale was given. 
 
 The inference these writers draw is that the weregild 
 afforded a satisfactory test for the classification of the 
 different members of the social group. In M. Guizot's 
 opinion, these writers assign too much importance to the 
 weregild when they look upon it as a method of classifi- 
 cation. Yet, if we turn to the tabulated statement given 
 by him of the vai'ious amounts payable under this com- 
 position, 1 I am inclined to think that the examples he 
 cites somewhat militate against his view. 
 
 1 See " Essais sur L'Histoire de France," IV I! Essai, p. 169 (tenth 
 edition, 1860).
 
 THE WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 55 
 
 Certainly a different opinion is held by a very learned 
 authority on mediaeval customs and law, Bishop Stubbs. 
 According to him, the weregild does mark a real dis- 
 tinction of rank. Every man's life had its fixed and 
 precise value, and upon that estimate the actual value 
 of his oath in courts of justice varied, and for offences 
 against his life and property atonement was made. 
 
 Be this as it may, and even if we are not to look upon 
 the weregild as a means of classification, yet its import- 
 ance in two other remarkable points must not be over- 
 looked. 
 
 It shows us, first, that in the times I am speaking 
 the individual man was considered with reference to the 
 particular community with which he was connected. 
 His death, or an injury to him, was regarded as an actual 
 loss to that body, and so the wrong had to be atoned for 
 to that body in the shape of compensation. The idea 
 that murder or manslaughter was a crime against the 
 whole community, to be expiated by the highest punish- 
 ment that can be given, viz. death, is an idea of later 
 times, and of a very different and altered set of legal 
 notions. In the early Franko-German legislation, and in 
 our own country ^ prior to and down to the time of its 
 settlement under its Norman conquerors, homicide was 
 avenged in the manner above described. 
 
 But there is another feature of the weregild equally 
 deserving of attention ; and that is its connection with 
 
 1 Alfred arid Guthrun's Peace (A.D. 879), 2. See "Documents 
 Illustrative of English History," by Wm. Stubbs, M.A. (Begins 
 Professor of History, University of Oxford) (edition 1870, p. 63).
 
 56 THE WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 ihefcehde, or feud-right of warfare, which every Teutonic 
 freeman looked upon as an obligation attaching to each 
 member of the family or tribe, and as inalienable. 
 
 This private right of warfare, as the history of the 
 Teutonic settlers of Gaul, and of the Celtic tribes or clans 
 in Scotland shows, was not confined to individual families' 
 it was extended to the tribe or the clan. Nor was it 
 limited by time ; it was transmissible from father to son, 
 and to later descendants. 
 
 Probably many of you know Sir Walter Scott's novel, 
 " The Fair Maid of Perth." One of the incidents of that 
 story is the feud between the two Highland clans, the 
 Clan Chattan, and the Clan Quhaile. Sir Walter 1ms 
 worked with great vigour upon that theme, and shoAvn the 
 intensity of hatred consequent upon the hereditary feud 
 between the two clans, resulting in the utter extinction of 
 one of them in the combat fought upon the Inches of Perth. 
 
 Now, one may well understand that a right of this 
 kind, a privilege possessed by every freeman before he 
 consented to enter into any political bond ; a right which, 
 admitting as its most general term that each freeman 
 was at liberty to defend himself, his family, and his 
 friends, and avenge his and their wrongs to the very 
 utmost, might be a source of danger to the whole com- 
 munity, and, further, might be productive of loss of lives 
 that for fighting purposes were valuable at a time when 
 warfare and foraging were incessant. 
 
 The idea of homicide as morally wrong was an idea 
 utterly alien to the rough notions of a community that 
 lived for and maintained itself by war; but the idea 
 that its fighting strength might be weakened by losses
 
 THE WERE-GILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 57 
 
 consequent on private feuds, or that these might interfere 
 with public enterprises, would naturally occur to its wiser 
 heads as a source of danger to the strength and consis- 
 tency of the tribe or nation. Hence, ex necessitate rei, 
 this right of private feud must in time require some 
 restrictive regulations. 
 
 The first step in that direction would naturally be to 
 provide some method defining and limiting its sphere 
 and the extent of its action. This was effected by recog- 
 nising a lex talionis, viz., life for life and limb for limb ; 
 then, by imposing a tariff by which injuries should be 
 rated, the State being the arbitrator, and the State assum- 
 ing to itself the duty of compelling the injured party or 
 parties to receive, and the wrong-doer to pay, the settled 
 amount; then, by introducing a life- price, that is, a 
 weregild, as the basis on which the proper settlement of 
 feuds should depend ; and lastly, by making this life- 
 price an amount proportioned to the special value to 
 the State as well as to the private family of the life 
 taken or the person injured. 
 
 The weregild, therefore, is of importance in the early 
 history of social organization ; first, as showing the value 
 in the social scale of the different members of the com- 
 munity, and to that extent a clue to the proper classifica- 
 tion of the individual men in the nation ; and secondly, 
 as the commencement of the later notion of punishment 
 for homicide. 
 
 But then there is a remarkable difference between this 
 old mode of remedying wrongs of violence and the later 
 modern idea of penal legislation, which deserves atten- 
 tion ; and it is this.
 
 58 THE WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 In modern legislation the law strikes and punishes 
 without troubling itself to know whether the guilty party 
 accepts the penalty or not, whether he acknowledges the 
 wrong, whether his will does or does not concur with 
 the will of the law. Modern legislation acts only by 
 constraint, and it is under the feature of force that 
 justice appears to him whom she condemns. 
 
 Whether this be wrong or not is another question, 
 which I do not attempt to discuss. I speak of it as the 
 opposite to the archaic form of composition or the 
 weregild. For this supposes the avowal of wrong by 
 the offender. It is, in its way, an act of liberty. The 
 offender may refuse the composition, but then he runs 
 the risk of vengeance from the offended and his kin. He 
 may accept it, and then he acknowledges himself guilty, 
 and offers reparation for the offence. The offended party 
 or parties, on his or their side, in accepting the compo- 
 sition, reconciles or reconcile themselves, each or all of 
 them, with the offender, solemnly promising to forget, to 
 abandon vengeance ; so that, as is well pointed out by 
 M. Guizot, composition as a penalty has characteristics 
 much more moral than the punishments of more learned 
 legislations. It gives evidence of a profound feeling of 
 morality and liberty. 
 
 From the weregild I go on to the consideration of 
 that other important incident arising out of the settle- 
 ment of the Teutonic conquerors of Europe, which I 
 have mentioned above. I mean the influence of land 
 upon the social organization, and the change resulting 
 from the possession of land upon the status of the in- 
 dividual.
 
 THE WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 59 
 
 If I were lecturing upon the history of property, and 
 the changes that have taken place therein, first by the 
 Roman law, and second by the Barbarian customs and 
 laws, I should have very little difficulty in dealing with 
 the subject by a large reference to Sir Henry Maine's 
 admirable chapter (ch. viii.) in his well-known treatise 
 on Ancient Law. 
 
 But my object now is not to portray the changes that 
 have taken place in the history of property ; all that I 
 want to show is by what steps law in its relation to land 
 became a feudalized law, and how, from the time of the 
 fall of the Roman Empire, the status of the individual 
 became closely bound up with territorial property. For 
 (as I think I shall be able to prove) Feudalism, which for 
 so long a time kept its hold over the greater part of 
 Europe, was really the result of this intimate connection 
 of personal status and territorial status ; and therefore, 
 what I am going to do is to trace the various stages of 
 property in land from the end of the fifth to the end 
 of the tenth century. 
 
 Those stages are three : first, Allodial lands ; second, 
 Beneficiary lands; and third, Tributary lands; and this 
 will bring me to Feudalism proper, the political force 
 and influence of which I shall have to dwell upon. The 
 proper understanding of this matter is, I venture to 
 think, a fitting introduction to the history of social order 
 and social organization in England. 
 
 I begin, then, with Allodial lands. 
 
 The exact meaning of the word alod has engaged the 
 attention, with strangely varying results, of many learned 
 English and foreign writers, and much controversy as to
 
 60 THE WEREG1LD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 its true derivation has been stirred. I reserve for a note 
 at the end of this work what has been said about it. 1 
 
 With one of these writers, M. Guizot, I am inclined to 
 agree. He thinks, and supports his view with a good 
 deal of reason, that the term alod is connected with the 
 old German word loos, lot. At all events this is certain, 
 that the first alods were the conquered lands which in 
 Italy were occupied and distributed, or lotted out. 
 
 These lands so lotted out were latinized in the word 
 sors, and thus we meet in the old Barbarian laws with the 
 terms, Sortes Burgundionum, Sortes Gothornm, etc. 
 
 What seems to have taken place was this. Each 
 warrior who was of sufficient importance to demand or 
 to receive a share of the conquered lands, took or received 
 two-thirds of the lands in the territory which was 
 assigned to him. Duas terrarum paries ex eo loco in quo 
 ei hospitalitas fuerat delegata (Lex Burg., lib. liv., 1). 
 
 It is true that in the history of the Frankish conquests 
 we do not come across any formal indication of a similar 
 distribution. Yet we do know that the booty which fell 
 to the share of each set of conquerors was allotted among 
 the warriors of the tribe, and we do find that, in respect 
 of territorial property, a manor (rnansus) was originally 
 called sors (loos). The first alods, then, were properties 
 entirely independent, and held by the owner or proprietor 
 free from all control, and from all suit or service, and 
 capable of disposition as the holder pleased. 
 
 A man held his alod, it was affirmed, of no one but 
 God and his sword ; and so Hugh Capet was said to hold 
 
 1 See Appendix, Note E.
 
 THE WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 6l 
 
 his crown, because he was bound to no one. Every 
 Frankish warrior then, we may assume, who took or 
 received by lot a portion of land, was as much master of 
 it as he was of his own person. Therefore, full and entire 
 liberty of ownership "was the fundamental characteristic 
 of the first alods, and in this manner Ducange explains 
 the nature of the property, as not only free from all pay- 
 ments, but quit of any and every service, real or personal, 
 even though the owner of the alod did acknowledge a 
 superior lord, under Avhom he held it infeudum honoratum. 1 
 
 The advantage of holding in possession lands under 
 these free conditions was too great to be long confined to 
 allottees, and so the extension of the allodial quality was 
 soon attached to other forms of acquisition obtained not 
 by lot but by sale, succession, or any other way. In this 
 way the number of alods was largely increased, equally 
 marked by similar freedom from burdens of all sorts. 
 
 Still, the term itself (alod) was for a while confined to 
 the original allotments, as distinguished from the later 
 acquisitions, although these later ones were held on the 
 same independent terms. In the Formulas of Marculf 
 appear many instances of this distinction : e.g., " Tarn 
 de alode aut de comparato vel de quolibet attractn " 
 (" Formulas," lib. ii. cap. vii.), " As well of alod or of 
 acquired land, or land got in any manner " ; " Tarn de 
 alode paterno quam de comparato" (Id., cap. xii.), "As 
 well of the paternal alod as of acquired land " ; " Tarn 
 quod de alode parentum quam ex meo contractu mihi 
 obvenit" (App., cap. xlvii.), "As well what has come to 
 
 1 A.feudum honoratum was a fee owing no service whatever.
 
 62 THE WE REG I LD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 me either as the alod of my ancestors, as by my own 
 contract." 
 
 Now here we get a possible and probable explanation 
 of what was called Salic land, in respect of which was 
 attached the condition of the exclusion of females from 
 the inheritance. 1 This Salic land, in all probability, was 
 the original alod ; the domain acquired at the moment 
 of conquest, and which was capable of becoming the prin- 
 cipal establishment of the chieftain of the house. 
 
 In this sense you will find that the Salic land of the 
 Salian Franks is met with among all the barbarian 
 populations of this period. Among the Ripuarian Franks 
 it was called terra, aviatica ; among the Burgundians, 
 terra sortis titulo acquisita; among the Saxons, Ticereditas ; 
 and in the Formulae of Marculf, terra paterna. 
 
 What these lands were, and what was the cause of the 
 exclusion of females as a distinctive mark appertaining 
 to them, has been a subject of much dispute. 
 
 Hallam suggests as a probable cause that this practice 
 of exclusion was strictly in accordance with the ancient 
 usages of the Salian Franks, in order to secure the 
 military service of every proprietor. And this view is 
 to some extent supported by the fact that lands subse- 
 quently acquired by other means, though equally bound to 
 the public defence, were relieved from the severity of this 
 rule, and presumed not to belong to the class of Salic. 
 
 By degrees the distinction I have pointed out between 
 the original alod and the later acquisitions disappeared, 
 
 1 See the provisions as to this in the " Lex Salica," lib. Ixii. cap. vi., 
 and the " Lex Ripuaria," lib. Ivi cap. iii.
 
 THE WEREG1LD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 63 
 
 and the term alod was applied indifferently to all lands, 
 however held or acquired, which were free from service 
 to a superior lord, and then, the distinctive characteristic 
 of the alod consisted no longer in its originating title, but 
 in its complete independence ; and so the terms proprium, 
 possessio^ prcedium, etc., were employed as synonymous with 
 the term alod. This probably was the process by which 
 the gradual extinction of the ancient rigorous exclu- 
 sion of females from the succession to the Salic land was 
 worked out. 1 
 
 We see, then, what the alod was in its origin, and what 
 became of its earliest characteristics. The next point 
 to be noticed is the burdens and obligations that were im- 
 posed upon allodial proprietors. 
 
 Before the conquest of Gaul, the relations of the 
 Franks amongst themselves were entirely personal. The 
 state was the family; the tribe was the warrior band. 
 The idea of territorial property had scarcely any exist- 
 ence. It was not an element in the social organization. 
 It created no tie, no permanent relations whatever. 
 
 After the conquest, the Franks became proprietors. 
 Many of them were settled in the lands which they had 
 received or seized. As a consequence, this important 
 revolution of ideas was affected, that the state came to 
 be made up, not only of men but of territory, and terri- 
 torial relations were added to personal relations. 
 
 Such a revolution was of slow growth. It was neces- 
 sary that the Franks should comprehend the idea of the 
 state as a territorial body, and should grasp the notion 
 
 1 See Appendix, Note F.
 
 64 THE WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 that the proprietors of land ought to have cohesion and 
 unity. 
 
 For a long while the personal relations of the mem- 
 bers of the community one with the other were the only 
 ones recognised, and to their eyes the independence of 
 the individual alone presented the true idea of liberty. 
 The possessions or holdings were as free as the indi- 
 viduals themselves, and the Frankish proprietor under- 
 stood as little of the existence of obligation towai'ds the 
 state as the Frankish huntsman or warrior had formerly 
 done towards the band from which he was always free to 
 separate. 
 
 Thus the establishment of the Barbarians on the soil 
 almost entailed the dissolution of the old social life 
 before it became the principle of the new social life. 
 
 Up to this time the men of the band or tribe had 
 lived together. Their relations were only personal, it is 
 true, but they had some element of unity in them. As 
 soon as they became proprietors, they separated, and 
 the separation, the isolation of the individuals, was the 
 first step towards the new condition of social relations 
 which property rights must bring with them. 
 
 It is difficult, therefore, to imagine that at a period 
 when personal relations were dissolved without being 
 replaced by real relations, that is those resulting from 
 the possession of land, that the holdings or properties 
 should be bound together either among themselves or 
 towards the state by any well regulated system of 
 public obligation. 
 
 The public body, the state, had no actual existence in 
 the imagination of the Franks, who only recognised the
 
 Tf/E WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 65 
 
 relations of man with man ; and a tax or charge, in the 
 meaning that we attach to the terms, appeared to them 
 nothing but a violation of freedom, or a theft imposed 
 by the strong, and to which the weak alone would be 
 forced to submit. 
 
 The allodial proprietors, then, were subject to no 
 public impost. Absolute independence was the right of 
 the proprietors, as regarded their property as well as 
 their persons. Doubtless this condition of independence 
 rested on no other guarantee than the power of the 
 possessor, but in resorting to force to defend that inde- 
 pendence, he believed he was legally justified. 
 
 One may well conceive that the social body cannot 
 subsist in such a state of possible dissolution as must be 
 the direct consequence of the isolation of the individual. 
 Hence the system of allodial proprietorship was bound 
 to disappear by degrees, and to give place to that of 
 beneficiary proprietorship ; for this alone was capable, 
 at this era of civilization, of forming out of a great 
 territory a state, and out of the mass of proprietors a 
 social body. 
 
 We shall see, by-and-by, how this change was effected. 
 But during the intermediate period, it is impossible to 
 suppose that the allodial proprietors would be allowed to 
 isolate themselves entirely, and that the alods could be 
 exempted from the payment of certain imposts. 
 
 What these imposts were I will now state. First, 
 
 gifts made to the king, either at the time when the 
 
 assemblies of the Champs de Mars were held, or when 
 
 the king was passing through and staying in the different 
 
 A. L. F
 
 66 THE WEREG1LD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 provinces. 1 These gifts were at first purely voluntary, 
 as a mark of deference or attachment, or as means of 
 attracting the favourable notice of some powerful chief- 
 tain. By degrees custom and force impressed upon them 
 a kind of obligatory requisition, from which the alods 
 were not exempt, and then in time the form and mode of 
 giving them were regulated by rule. 
 
 At last the obligatory nature of these gifts became so 
 well established that Louis le Debonnaire (in A.D. 817) 
 published at Aix La Chapelle a list of those monasteries 
 which were bound to make such gifts, and of those that 
 were not so bound. 
 
 Secondly, taxes for providing means of transport and 
 for other objects, either for the inissi of the king, or the 
 other inissi whose duty it was to traverse the country 
 at the royal command. This impost was probably the 
 origin of a public charge imposed on property for public 
 purposes, and affecting all kinds of territorial property 
 without distinction. 2 
 
 1 " On the day of the Champs de Mars, according to ancient cus- 
 tom, gifts were offered by the people." Annales Hildcsh., A.D. 750, 
 op. Leibnitzii Script. Rerum, Brunswick, torn. i. p. 712. 
 
 " He who was declared to be king was carried on a waggon drawn 
 by two oxen. Then sitting on some elevated place, once a year he 
 showed himself to the people, and received the gifts that were offered 
 him." Ann. Fuld., A.D. 751. 
 
 2 The king to all his agents now declares : " Following our direc- 
 tions already given to the most reverend Bishop and the Lord Count 
 of those parts, our present orders are that you see to the providing 
 in all those convenient places mentioned of proper facilities for travel- 
 ling (cvectio), and due supply of food and drink (humanitas) ; that is 
 to say, you are to have ready so many post horses for public roads
 
 THE WE REG I LD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 67 
 
 Thirdly, military service. This duty had been looked 
 upon as necessarily imposed on allodial property. But 
 whether rightly so is doubtful, inasmuch as such a notion 
 attributes to the Barbarian settlers a degree of combina- 
 tion too regular and too provident for these early times. 
 
 Originally the military service was imposed on a man 
 as a consequence of his quality as a Frank, and not as 
 a consequence of the lands which he possessed. The 
 obligation was purely personal. It was the natural 
 result of the situation of the Franks, who found them- 
 selves exposed to the necessity of defending themselves 
 in their new establishments, or whose taste for military 
 expeditions and plunder required military forces. It was 
 also a kind of moral obligation, affecting every free man 
 in his connection with the chieftain whom he had chosen. 
 The quality of proprietorship was to so small an extent 
 the source of the obligation, that on their settlement in 
 Gaul, matters of this sort went on pretty much in the 
 way the Frankish invaders had been accustomed to in 
 the parts from which they had come. 
 
 As the address of Theodoric to his Franks (A.D. 528) 
 shows, his followers were stirred to action and summoned 
 to arms in order to avenge the insults and wrongs to 
 which he and they had been subjected by the Thur- 
 
 (r credos), and so many post horses for extraordinary emergencies 
 (paraveredos) ; so many loaves of white bread, so many measures of 
 wine, so many pounds of bacon. All these things you are to see to, 
 and to have at hand on the days named, to be ready for us at our 
 going and coming In Dei nomine." Marculfi Form., lib. i. cap. xi. 
 See also "Lex llipuaria," tit. Ixv. 3; and in the " Capitul. 
 Begum Fraucorum " ^teph. Baluzii), t. i. pp. 549, 018, and 671.
 
 68 THE WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 ingians. Sometimes, too, the call to arms and the cry of 
 vengeance came from the tribe or band itself. 
 
 In either case the summons was seldom made in vain ; 
 still, there was no necessary obligation to obey ; certainly 
 no tax or impost was levied on the property of the 
 individuals of the tribe. By degrees a kind of legal 
 obligation was introduced in these military assemblies, 
 an obligation, moreover, sanctioned by a penalty payable 
 by those who absented themselves from the call to 
 arms. 1 
 
 Sometimes this penalty was inflicted for causes apart 
 from defensive calls. No distinction in this matter was 
 made between the proprietor of an alod and any other 
 kind of proprietor. The reason clearly lay in the fact 
 of the difficulty experienced in collecting an array of 
 warriors owing to the dispersion of the proprietors, and 
 the consequent isolation of individual interests from 
 public business. 
 
 Under Charlemagne the obligation of military service 
 was imposed on all persons, whether allodial owners or 
 beneficiaries, and was regulated by a tariff proportioned 
 to their properties. 2 
 
 Eventually this obligation became no longer dependent 
 on the consent of the individual, no longer the conse- 
 quence of the relations between himself and his chieftain, 
 but an actual recognised public service imposed on every 
 individual, and proportioned to the nature and extent of 
 his property. 
 
 1 See, for instance, the "Lex llipuaria," lib. Ixv. 1. 
 
 2 See " Capit. Car. Mag.," A.I>. 814, . 7, cited by Baluz, torn i. p. 530.
 
 THE IVEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 69 
 
 Every owner of three manors (mansi) or more was 
 bound to march, in person. The owners of one or two 
 manors were allowed to join their funds together for 
 the purpose of providing the expenses and equipment 
 of one of their number, but in this proportion, three 
 manors were bound to provide one fighting man. As 
 to those who had no landed property whatever, but were 
 possessed of moveables to the value of five solidi, they 
 were divided into sets of six, and each set was bound to 
 provide the expenses and equipment of one of their 
 number as a fighting man. 
 
 Nor was this charge or impost confined to the lay 
 portion of the Frankish country. Ecclesiastical cor- 
 porations were subject to it. 
 
 Under Charles the Bald exemption from military 
 service was restricted to the case of an invasion of the 
 country by an enemy, and then the whole body of the 
 freemen, under the name of landwehr, was bound to 
 answer to the summons to war (A.D. 847-877) - 1 
 
 Occasionally, also, other charges were imposed on the 
 allodial proprietors, as, for instance, to meet the pres- 
 sure of great or unforeseen emergencies, or in order to 
 provide for the special exigencies of the time. Thus 
 Charlemagne (in A.D. 779) levied a duty in consequence 
 of a severe famine, as did Charles the Bald (in A.D. 877) 
 in order to provide for the money required to buy off the 
 Normans and to secure their retreat. 
 
 From this examination of the nature of allodial holcl- 
 
 1 See the Treaty of A.D. 847 between Lothaire, Louis le German- 
 ique and Charles le Chauve, in the collection by Baluz, torn. ii. p. 44.
 
 70 THE WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 ings and the charges to which they were liable, I proceed 
 to explain their historj, and to note the changes and 
 alterations in them prior to the period if not of their de- 
 struction, at least of their restriction consequent on the 
 full establishment of the feudal system. 
 
 It must not be taken for granted that after the con- 
 quest all the Franks became proprietors, and that as a 
 result the number of alods grew all at once to large 
 proportions. As I have already pointed out, what the 
 Franks cared most for in their earlier invasions was 
 plunder and booty, not land. Enriched with that booty, 
 they were content to return to their original habitations, 
 remaining there till their restlessness or their greed 
 impelled them on to fresh invasions. 
 
 Again, it would be a mistake to suppose that after 
 every successful expedition the band of warriors broke up 
 and, separating into individual families, settled at once 
 upon the conquered land. This would have been not only 
 a source of danger to themselves, but something contrary 
 to their primitive ideas and habits of life. Hence there 
 .- were at first very few distributions of land. 
 
 Every warlike band comprised a certain number of 
 chieftains, who were followed by a certain number of 
 companions. Each chieftain took or received the lands 
 for himself and his followers, and these continued to live 
 with him. Apart from the very nature of the expedi- 
 tions, and later, upon the establishment of the feudal 
 system, one special circumstance removes all doubt in 
 this matter. I mean the great number of poorer Franks 
 who lived on the unpossessed lands in the vills of the 
 king or of some chieftain.
 
 THE WEREG1LD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 71 
 
 The old laws are full of enactments regulating the 
 rights and the lot of this class. These laws provide for 
 the summoning the freemen who are dwelling on the 
 territory of some other person to the public assembly or 
 placitum. Moreover, we have the form of contract by 
 which a man placed himself not only under the protec- 
 tion, but in the service, of another, on condition of being 
 fed and clothed, though still free. The number of . 
 Franks, then, who were directly and personally pro- 
 prietors of alods was at first far from extensive. 
 
 Two important causes tended to produce this effect : 
 one was forcible deprivation or dispossession, the other 
 was the custom of donations to the churches. 
 
 There can be no doubt (for the chronicles and the laws 
 prove it) that from the seventh to the tenth century the 
 proprietors of small alods were little by little robbed 
 of their small holdings, or reduced to the condition of 
 tributary tenants by the rapacity of the great proprietors. 
 
 Marculf gives us a specimen of a royal mandate to the 
 counts, directing them to give ear to the complaints of a 
 fidelis who prayed for relief against the forcible invasion 
 and seizure of some one in this or that particular county 
 on and upon the complainant's land. 1 
 
 Nor were the counts themselves, the bishops or the 
 abbots, free from blame. Thus an ordonnance of Louis le 
 Debonnaire (in A.D. 816) in answer to a remonstrance of 
 certain Spaniards who had fled from the Saracens and 
 were settled in the south of France, shows us the extent 
 to which the grievances of the small proprietors had 
 
 1 Marculfi " Form.," lib. i. cap. xxviii.
 
 72 THE WEREGILD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 reached owing to the violence of their more powerful 
 neighbours. 1 
 
 The constant repetition of these royal injunctions 
 attests the inability of the royal power to redress the 
 mischiefs complained of ; and thus, through the aggres- 
 sion and violence of the more powerful owners, the 
 number of the smaller and poorer alods suffered diminu- 
 tion. 
 
 In addition to this cause another was at work, viz., the 
 increasing tendency to make gifts to the churches. To 
 extend their landed holdings and to add to their import- 
 ance, the bishops had never been less inclined to force 
 and violence than the powerful members of the lay body. 
 
 But in addition to that active form of acquisition, the 
 ecclesiastical corporations possessed means of augmenting 
 their wealth quite as efficacious to them, and one which 
 they alone could turn to account. That was the oppor- 
 tunity which they readily seized of working on the 
 superstitious fears and hopes of the Barbarian converts 
 to Christianity. 
 
 This means of enlarging the possessions of the churches 
 and monasteries, strengthened as it was by the approval 
 and sanction of the royal publishers of the barbaric 
 codes and laws, was so successful that endowments of 
 ecclesiastical bodies by the Crown and by individual pro- 
 prietors were ever on the increase. 
 
 The old histories and capitularies are full of such 
 
 1 The ordonnance is cited at full length by M. Gnizot, " Essaia snr 
 1'Histoire de France," IV e essai, p. 94, tenth ed. 1860, from T3aluz, 
 t. i. pp. 569-572.
 
 THE WEREG1LD AND TERRITORIAL STATUS. 73 
 
 donations, and thus through the two influences of force 
 and superstition, the number of alods was constantly 
 diminishing, and save for a cause of which I have now to 
 speak, allodial property that is, free and independent 
 property would have utterly disappeared at a much 
 earlier date than that of its actual decline. This cause 
 was the introduction of what has been termed benefices. 
 
 When the notion of beneficiary holdings was first 
 started, the tenure was in one important point distinct 
 from the allodial possession, viz., that the benefices were 
 held not in full, complete, and perpetual freedom, but 
 precariously and in dependence on the donor. To get 
 rid of these shackles and to convert the dependent 
 tenancy into a free alod was the constant effort of the 
 beneficiary grantees ; and to restrain their efforts in the 
 direction of conversion, royal interdicts were always 
 being published. 
 
 From the time of Pepin and Carloman down to that of 
 Charles the Bald this contest was a determined one. At 
 length, in the time of this last king (about A.D. 860), when 
 the feudal system was starting into life, allodial property 
 gave way to beneficiary tenancy, and though the terms 
 " alod " and " alodes " still remained in the royal procla- 
 mations and capitularies, yet they were really used to 
 designate the new class of hereditary benefices and bene- 
 ficiaries.
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS (Continued). 
 
 Beneficiary Possession What was a " Beneficium " ? How did the 
 idea of Beneficiary Possession arise ? Its History Traced Four 
 Kinds of Beneficiary Possession Explanation of each Kind 
 Influence of the Custom of Commendation on Allodial Property 
 Its Connection with Beneficiary Grants Its Importance in 
 Relation to Feudalism Tributary Holdings : their Character, 
 and the History of them Prepare the Way for Feudal Tenures. 
 
 BETWEEN the reigns of Charlemagne, whose efforts to 
 prevent the benefices from being converted into alods, 
 and that of Charles the Bald, a remarkable change was 
 being worked out. The benefices had acquired the sta- 
 bility of alods, and the greater part of the alods had 
 disappeared or been converted into benefices. How this 
 took place I shall now try to make clear. 
 
 And first we must know what a benefice was. Alod, 
 as I have shown you, was full, independent property. 
 Beneficium, or benefice, on the contrary, meant, as the 
 Avord itself expresses, an estate received fix>m a superior 
 lord by way of recompense or of favour, and to which 
 certain duties and services were appended. This is the 
 explanation of the term as derived from the word itself, 
 but this explanation does not, of course, show how the 
 idea of beneficiary interest, so utterly at variance with 
 allodial property, arose. 
 
 74
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 75 
 
 To ascertain this idea, that is to get at the origin of 
 benefices, one must go back to a very early period of the 
 social life of the Germanic or Teutonic hordes. Now, if 
 you refer to the "Germania" of Tacitus, cap. xiv., you 
 will read that as a reward for their bravery in the field, 
 and as a means of attraction to war or attachment to the 
 person of the chiefs, presents of arms or of horses were 
 made to the bravest warriors of the band by these chiefs. 
 Later on GIFTS of estates (iiot allotments) were added to 
 the presents of movables, and these gifts were precisely 
 what the word benefice implies rewards and recompenses 
 for services rendered. 
 
 Two results of an opposing nature were the outcome of 
 these two classes of gifts. By the presents of arms, 
 horses, and feastings, the chief retained around him those 
 whom he had so enriched, as well as others who were 
 hoping for similar rewards in the future. Again, these 
 personal presents were unlimited, at least to a large 
 extent unlimited, and the fund from which they came 
 was the spoil of the battle ground ; therefore the re- 
 cipients of the booty, as well as other expectants of 
 favours, were always ready to follow their chiefs on other 
 expeditions. 
 
 Personal presents and personal rewards were therefore 
 a stimulant to cohesion. But the gifts of estates had an 
 effect entirely different from the personal gifts. Those 
 who received the estates naturally wished to establish 
 themselves upon the benefices and to live on their estates, 
 there to become in time the centre of a new society. 
 
 Again, the distribution of lands, unlike that of booty, 
 was a distribution of a limited nature. In process of
 
 76 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 time, and as the number of expectants increased, the 
 means of distribution would become gradually circum- 
 scribed, and so the result of beneficiary gifts of lands was 
 not cohesion but separation, not an eager longing for 
 more rewards, but a quiet contentment with the terri- 
 torial gift. 
 
 This, of course, was not a very favourable condition 
 of things for the chiefs, who by these beneficiary gifts 
 found a process of disintegration going on, and so their 
 constant efforts were directed to the resumption of the 
 gifts whenever it suited them, whereby to obtain the 
 means of attracting to their ranks other companions. 
 
 In opposition to them, the beneficiaries strove with all 
 their power to retain the full and unalterable possession 
 of their estates, and to free themselves from their obliga- 
 tions towards the chief from whom they held them, but 
 with whom they no longer lived, and whose fortune they 
 no longer shared. 
 
 The gift by way of benefice, then, was a feature of 
 Frankish life as old as any of their earliest adopted 
 forms, and is contemporary with their most remote 
 settlements in Gaul. It Avas a direct result of the neces- 
 sary influence of territorial conquest upon social life and 
 social habits. 
 
 The effect it produced was this : the beneficiary gifts 
 bound the fi deles and the leudes to the chief by whom 
 they were given ; and this we see repeated at a later date 
 in the connection of lord and vassal under the feudal 
 system. 
 
 I have already pointed out the disintegrating process 
 consequent on these beneficiary gifts of land. The war-
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 77 
 
 rior band lost its strength through the inclination of 
 many of its members to retire on to their benefices and 
 live apart from the main body. The problem that the 
 leaders of the bands had to solve was how to retain, these 
 beneficiary followers, or how to recall them to the ranks, 
 as well as how to have in store a continued supply of gifts 
 of this sort. A solution of these problems is to be found 
 in the mode in which these donations were conceded, and 
 in the duration of such concessions. 
 
 As I have already stated, from the earliest date of the 
 complete Frankish settlement down to the feudal period, 
 two opposite agencies were at work, so far as these dona- 
 tions are concerned. One, that of the recipients to keep 
 their hold on them, even beyond their lives. The other, 
 that of the donors, whether royal or otherwise, to recall 
 them at will, or to grant them only for a limited term. 
 
 Therefore, Avhat we find as a fact in the history of this 
 form of gift is a fourfold division of benefices : first, 
 those revocable at will by the donor ; second, temporary 
 benefices ; third, benefices for life ; and fourth, hereditary 
 benefices, whether so expressed in the gift, or made herit- 
 able after and apart from the gift. 
 
 As to those revocable at will ; under the Merovingian 
 kings, arbitrary revocation was an established fact, but 
 a fact only, and not a right. The grantors of the bene- 
 fices sought to retake, and very frequently did succeed in 
 retaking, the land which they had given; but it was 
 only by dint of superior force, and against the will of the 
 grantees, who so far from recognising as a right the claim 
 of the donors to recover the lands, were urgent in their 
 reclamations against the illegality of these acts of violence.
 
 78 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 In the Treaty of Andely between G outran and Childe- 
 bert (A.D. 587), a clause of restoration in the event 
 of wrongful seizure of land was inserted ; and Charle- 
 magne, says Eginhard, would never allow a lord to retake 
 in anger or without just cause the benefices with which 
 he had endowed his vassals. The later capitularies bear 
 constant testimony to the illegality of the seizures, to the 
 complaints of those who were wronged, and to the denun- 
 ciations of the kings against the wrongdoers. As a fact, 
 the power of arbitrary recovery existed, but the only 
 right that was recognised by the laws was that of the 
 donor to retake his grant in the event of failure of fealty, 
 of treason, of rebellion, or of any act committed by the 
 fidelis resulting in injury to the chief or in loss or 
 diminution of service. 
 
 At this time, then, absolute possession and arbitrary 
 resumption Avere never the privilege of the beneficiary 
 or the right of the grantor. Nor was there any recog- 
 nised rule in regard to the duration of these grants, or 
 the obligations attaching to them. Still, it was always 
 understood, so long as the ordinary duties and obligations 
 that were due from the fidelis to his chief were fulfilled, 
 that the interest of the former in his benefice would not 
 be interfered with. 
 
 According to Montesquieu, these temporary benefices 
 mark the second stage of the beneficiary grants. His 
 thesis is that the custom of annual grant was the feature 
 by which they were specially distinguishable. Against 
 this view Guizot contends, and with much sound reasoning. 
 
 As he points out, there is no special or positive 
 instance of the existence of any temporary beneficiary
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 79 
 
 grants, although there are cases of what may be called 
 tenancies, granted by the churches for a fixed quit rent, 
 and on a contract framed upon the model of the old 
 Roman form of precaritim, lasting generally for a year. 
 This form of grant was frequently conceded by the 
 ecclesiastics in order to obtain protection from some 
 powerful neighbour, or for some other special reason. 
 Sometimes no payment was asked for. 
 
 The practice thus introduced became subject to abuse, 
 and a good deal of injustice was the result of it, very 
 often to the detriment of the spiritual grantors, whose 
 temporary grants were made the ground of a permanent 
 seizure. Sometimes, too, in times of pressing emergency, 
 when the means of carrying on hostile expeditions were 
 needed, the king made a demand upon the ecclesiastical 
 proprietors, and under a precarious grant from these 
 bodies to him took possession of their domains. 
 
 This was done by Charles Martel and by Pepin, and in 
 the capitularies of Pepin and his brother Carloman we 
 read of a forcible seizure of this sort made for the main- 
 tenance of their troops on the condition of a money pay- 
 ment, to the owners, of a solidus, or twelve deniers, for 
 every metairie of land, with a further condition for a 
 i-enewal of the grant for such longer period as might be 
 necessary. 1 
 
 In all probability very few of the benefices thus seized 
 were ever restored, and thus it happened that these 
 
 1 A decree of Charles the Bald fixes the duration of precarious 
 benefices at five years, as in accordance with ancient usage, with a 
 power of renewal if needed. Cf. Baluz, torn. ii. p. 64.
 
 8o TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 concessions, which originally were granted by way of 
 precarium, between the sixth and the tenth centuries 
 ceased to be temporary, and were converted by the 
 grantees into benefices of an hereditary character. 
 
 The third class of benefices comprises those that were 
 granted for the life of the grantee. Of these there are 
 many examples in the old documents. From the time of 
 the establishment of the Carlovingian dynasty, instances 
 of this sort of gi-ant are of frequent occurrence in the capi- 
 tularies, and then the custom grew of extending the grant 
 from the life of the immediate grantee to that of his son. 
 
 Under Charlemagne, the practice of making grants for 
 life only was in vogue, and his efforts were strenuously 
 directed to the prevention of these beneficiary grants 
 from being converted into alods, that is, into property 
 that might be transmitted to the heir. He also strove 
 to provide for the proper management of the estates by 
 the grantees, so as not to injure the reversionary interests 
 o the grantor ; for the humane treatment of the slaves 
 employed upon the beneficiary domains ; and for the re- 
 striction of sales of the produce of the land beyond the 
 necessary wants of the concessionaries. The same regu- 
 lations were enacted by Louis le Debonnaire. 
 
 But all were without effect ; for, in spite of royal 
 decrees, the beneficiary proprietors succeeded in obtain- 
 ing full and complete property rights over the lands 
 granted to them. 
 
 Thus the fourth stage of these grants was reached, viz., 
 that of benefices with the power of transmission to the 
 heir of the grantee. 1 
 
 1 See Appendix, Note G.
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 81 
 
 Such, then, is the progressive history of these bene- 
 ficiary grants. First, a grant dependent for its duration 
 on the will of the grantor ; then a concession of the prin- 
 ciple of possession for a fixed term, whether for one year 
 or for five years. Then an extension of this fixed period 
 to the life of the grantee ; and then, finally, full and com- 
 plete ownership, with a power of transmission after death. 
 
 It would take up too much time if I were to discuss in 
 detail all the matters appertaining to this class of pro- 
 prietary ownership of land, and I must therefore notice 
 in a very brief manner one or two points connected with 
 them. One relates to the obligations and duties to which 
 the beneficiary proprietors were subject ; the other to the 
 causes of the constant and steady extension of this mode 
 of grant. 
 
 As to their obligations. The beneficiaries were bound 
 primarily and imperatively to render military aid and 
 assistance to their lords or superiors, under pain of for- 
 feiture ; and next in some cases to render services both 
 personal and domestic. 
 
 They were frequently summoned to attend the king's 
 court, and failing attendance were liable to lose their 
 benefices. Thus Eginhard writes to the Count of the 
 Palace to intercede with the Emperor Louis le Debonnaire 
 in favour of one Frumold, whose old age and infirmities 
 had prevented him from doing suit to the emperor, pray- 
 ing him to prevent the forfeiture of his benefice, which 
 had descended to him through his father. 1 
 
 1 See Epist. Eginhardi, ep. xxvi., in the "Recueil des Historiens 
 de France," torn. vi. p. 374. 
 
 A. L. G
 
 82 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 Under Charlemagne the custom of exacting an oath of 
 fidelity to the king became very frequent, a custom con- 
 tinued by his successors. 
 
 From these causes, then, and from others, the number 
 of beneficiary grants was always on the increase. Bene- 
 fices were freely granted for services rendered to the 
 royal chief. They were carved out of various neglected 
 portions of the royal domains by the great lords who had 
 taken advantage of the weakness of the Crown, or the 
 negligence of the king's officials, to appropriate them to 
 themselves, and thus were established in places where the 
 lands had been deserted by their former holders, and had 
 gone out of cultivation owing to the insecurity of the 
 times and the consequent decay of the population. 
 
 But there was one special cause which, more than any 
 of those above noticed, acted in a remarkable manner 
 upon this class of proprietors, and swelled their ranks. 
 I mean that curious form called " Commendation," owing 
 to which alods were converted into benefices by the volun- 
 tary acts of the allodial owners themselves. 
 
 The mode of operation was a very singular one, and is 
 carefully set out by Marculf (" Form.," lib. i. cap. xiii.). It 
 took place thus. The owner of a domain, holding in his 
 hand a turf or a branch, presented himself before the 
 king or some powerful leader under whose protection he 
 wished to place himself, and yielding up to him his own 
 free holding, received it back again as a beneficiary grant, 
 to be held, transferred, and disposed of on his own terms, 
 but subject to this condition, that the grantee should 
 thereafter acknowledge the grantor as his superior and 
 territorial patron.
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 83 
 
 I shall not attempt to discuss at length the origin of 
 this custom. It is traceable to a very early date, for 
 something like it is visible in the laws of the Visigoths 
 and of the Lombards. Charlemagne, on assigning the 
 throne of Italy to his son Pepin, received from him 
 the assurance " that the Lombard freemen should 
 always be allowed to commend themselves to whom 
 they pleased, in accordance with the custom in vogue 
 of old under the Lombard kings." 
 
 The special features of commendation were as follows : 
 It introduced a tie or relation between the two parties 
 of a closer kind than that between the lord and vassal 
 under the beneficiary grants, because it was of a personal 
 nature, more nearly approaching to that of patron and 
 client in the Roman Republic. Then (and herein con- 
 sisted its importance) it afforded a protection for the 
 weaker proprietors by the aid of a more powerful 
 superior, and also gave the Government more security for 
 public order. 1 Thirdly, it prevented the drifting of the 
 less powerful freemen into a condition of servitude and 
 of feudal vassalage, because it enabled them still to pre- 
 serve their allodial property, and to insure its defence 
 by the stipulated money payment called salvamentum. It 
 enabled the weaker party to avoid the risk of mere feudal 
 dependence by the power conferred on him of dissolving 
 the contract at his pleasure without incurring a forfeiture. 
 And lastly, it was beneficial to the superior by the 
 exaction of homage and frequently of military service. 
 
 1 In this respect it was regarded as a useful institution even in 
 Anglo-Saxon England,
 
 84 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 Historically, it is of importance because, among other 
 causes, it prepared the way for feudalism proper, the 
 influence of which, as I shall show hereafter, effected 
 striking changes in the laws and customs of England 
 after the Conquest. 
 
 In concluding my remarks upon this subject, commen- 
 dation, I quote the following passage from Hallam : l 
 *' Let the reader keep in mind that the feudal system, 
 as it is commonly called, was the general establishment 
 of a peculiar relation between the sovereign (not as king, 
 but as lord) and his immediate vassals, between these 
 again and others standing to them in the same relation 
 of vassalage, and thus frequently through several links 
 in the chain of tenancy. If this relation, and especially if 
 the latter and its essential element, sub infeudation, is not 
 to be found, there is no feudal system, though there may 
 be analogies to it more or less remarkable and strict. 
 But if he asks what were the immediate causes of estab- 
 lishing this polity, we must refer him to three alone : to 
 the grants of beneficiary lands to the vassal and his heirs, 
 without which there would hardly be sub infeudation ; to 
 the analogous grants of official honours, particularly that 
 of count or governor of a district; and lastly, to the 
 voluntary conversion of allodial into feudal tenure through 
 free landholders submitting their persons and estates by 
 way of commendation to a superior lord or to the count 
 of a district. All these (though several instances, especially 
 of the first, occurred much earlier) belong generally to 
 the ninth century, and may be supposed to have been fully 
 
 i 
 
 Europe During the Middle Ages," vol. i. p. 318, note tc ck. ii.
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 85 
 
 accomplished about the beginning of the tenth. To which 
 period, therefore, and not to an earlier one, we refer the 
 feudal system in France." 
 
 At that period the contact between the French and 
 the Normans had become closer. Am I wrong, then, in 
 assuming that the history of the development of the 
 feudal system visible among the Normans (upon their 
 establishment in England) must be traced back to the 
 causes of its rise and progress among the Frankish 
 settlers in Gaul. 
 
 I have now taken you through the two epochs in the 
 progressive settlement of property in land after the dis- 
 appearance of Roman life, habits, and customs in Europe, 
 consequent upon the Barbarian invasions; viz., the Alod 
 and the Benefice. 
 
 I still have to speak of the third stage in the history 
 of land tenures that of the Tributary. When I have 
 done that I shall have prepared the way for the consider- 
 ation of the feudal system. 
 
 All the old muniments show the existence of tributary 
 lands. I do not assert that they were subject to any 
 public tax, but that they were held under a superior lord 
 upon payment of some kind, and that the cultivators did 
 not retain full and complete proprietorship in respect of 
 them. 
 
 You will find instances of this in the capitularies of 
 Charlemagne, of Louis the Pious, of Charles the Bald 
 and of other kings. Even before the invasion of Gaul 
 by the barbarians (as a passage from Salvianus proves) l 
 
 1 Cited (from "L'Histoire de la Monarchic Fran^aise " of M. de
 
 86 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 some such thing is to be found. For even then, such was 
 the weakness of the laws and of the officials, that the 
 feebler and poorer proprietors were obliged to purchase 
 the protection of some stronger individual. 
 
 This state of things became worse after the conquest 
 of Italy and Gaul, and so the number of tributary occu- 
 piers was ever on the increase. 
 
 When the Barbarians seized the conquered provinces, 
 their chief object was to obtain the means of living rather 
 than to settle for the purpose of cultivation. Their ideas 
 as to property in land were without form or consistency. 
 
 The old cultivators of the soil had never been abso- 
 lutely dispossessed, nor were they reduced to a condition 
 of slavery. It was enough for the new comers if the old 
 inhabitants were able to provide for the wants and 
 wishes of their masters, or to work the lands for their 
 benefit, subject to the caprice of the conquerors. 
 
 When the Lombards invaded Italy, they were satisfied 
 at first with exacting a third of the produce of the soil, 
 or, in other words, with making the old occupiers tribu- 
 taries. Therefore, whenever a barbarian chief settled 
 with his folloAving, he allowed the old cultivators to 
 remain on the land. Nor did he attempt to reduce them 
 to a state of slavery. They became tributary to the chief 
 and his band. 
 
 Now the conquest of Gaul (and of Italy) was, as I 
 have already shown, not a sudden act, or accomplished in 
 a short time. 
 
 Montlosier, torn. i. pp. 9, 339) by M. Guizot, " Essais sur 1'Histoire 
 de France," essai IV C , iii. p. 151 (tenth edition, 1860).
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 87 
 
 Each barbarian, in his inroads, contrived to attach 
 to himself all that portion of the land which surrounded 
 his principal establishment. That is to say, he claimed 
 the right to receive from the old inhabitants payments 
 or duties of various kinds. This process was constantly 
 going on during the repeated invasions of the barbarian 
 settlers. 
 
 I have already pointed out how the greater part of the 
 alods disappeared under these violent attacks, and how 
 powerless the lords were to repress them. 
 
 The same causes which led to the destruction of the 
 alods, or to their conversion into benefices, acted in the 
 same way, with still more force, upon the benefices. 
 
 The great proprietors, rapacious and lazy, often found 
 it more advantageous to reduce their neighbours to the 
 condition of tributaries than to strip them of their lands. 
 Many royal edicts were published with the view of put- 
 ting a stop to the exactions thus imposed, but without 
 effect. For the power of the Crown was too feeble to 
 contend against the chiefs, whose obedience was little 
 more than nominal. 
 
 Moreover, under the custom of commendation many 
 proprietors had changed their alods into benefices, and 
 a large number of the weakest had fallen into the con- 
 dition of tributaries. 
 
 They came before some powerful neighbour, holding in 
 their hands not only a branch or a turf, but the hair that 
 fell over their foreheads, and humbly submitted their 
 persons and their property to his will. This hard fate 
 was at first confined to the old inhabitants, but before 
 long it extended to the new settlers themselves, and if
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 the individual was too weak to resist the demands of the 
 stronger, it mattered little whether he were a Frank or 
 a Roman. 
 
 At last many of the great proprietors, not satisfied with 
 the concessions which they made by way of benefices 
 to those whom they wished to attach to themselves as 
 vassals, distributed a large portion of their lands to the 
 ordinary cultivators who were living on them, in return 
 for a money payment or for personal services of various 
 kinds. 
 
 This distribution assumed many forms. Sometimes 
 the cultivators were freemen, sometimes merely serfs ; 
 some of them were ordinary farmers, some were tenants 
 with a power of transmitting after death the right of 
 cultivation which they had enjoyed during life. This 
 accounts for the peculiar terminology applicable to this 
 class of tenancies ; as for instance, mansus indominicatus, 
 ingenuilis, servilis, tnbutalis, vestitus. 1 
 
 It also partly accounts for the number and infinite 
 variety of dues, claims, and rights in later times com- 
 prised in the term "feudal." The greater portion of these 
 had their source in the primitive relations arising out of 
 
 1 Mansus is a vill, or the dwelling of the family. Indominicalus 
 means a vill held by the occupier as his own demesne. Inyenuilis, 
 a vill or locus that was cultivated by men of a free condition, or not 
 obnoxious to any servile duties. Sercilis was one that was cultivated 
 by slaves or by husbandmen who were subject to rent and other duties 
 of a servile nature. Tributalis was a vill or locus that was subject 
 to a tax imposed by the king for war purposes and for the public 
 demands. Vestitus was one that was cultivated, as opposed to 
 absolutus uncultivated.
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 89 
 
 the tributary land between the owner thereof and the 
 more powerful proprietor under whom he held it. 
 
 It may therefore be fairly inferred that at the end of 
 the tenth century the larger number of cultivators farmed 
 their tributary lands. An inference deducible, not only 
 from the instances to be seen in the historical and legal 
 documents of the period, but from this fact, viz., the 
 steadily increasing concentration of manorial property, 
 and the immense extent of the domains acquired by the 
 great and powerful chiefs. 
 
 The assertion that force, especially strong force, was at 
 this time the sole guarantee of complete property rights 
 needs no proof. The story of this period shows us that 
 the want of strength compelled many of the weaker class 
 to submit to be reduced to the position of mere usufruc- 
 tuary tenants, with a title more or less precarious. 
 
 Landed property, like personal property, is of little 
 real value to the owner if his rights in and over it are not 
 independent, if he is unable to dispose as he pleases of 
 what belongs to him, and if his tenure and possession are 
 not fully guaranteed and safeguarded. 
 
 When the conditions of social life are such that 
 property rights rest on a safe and sound basis, are pro- 
 tec ted by law, and are not secured merely by the power 
 and ability of the holder to keep them, the inclination 
 of the proprietors is to separate, not to congregate, be- 
 cause the desire of every individual owner then is to 
 betake himself to his holding, safe in the assurance of 
 peace and security. 
 
 On the other hand, when, owing to the absence of legal 
 authority, and to the irresistible influence of force, the
 
 90 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 
 
 weak are at the mercy of the strong ; and when the 
 means and opportunity for the accumulation of land by 
 the strong (small by comparison though their numbers 
 may be) are always at hand, that accumulation will 
 necessarily take place. This was the tendency of things 
 from the fifth to the tenth centuries. 
 
 Throughout this range of years property in land was 
 a source of danger to all who were \inable to repel force 
 by force. The owner was always exposed to the fear of 
 attack, plunder, and dispossession from some more power- 
 ful neighbour. 
 
 On the other hand, the position of the usufructuary 
 tenant, though of an inferior and meaner -quality, was a 
 safer and more agreeable one. . 
 
 It may be that his title was less dignified than that of 
 an actual owner, and that he had to share with a power- 
 ful proprietor the produce of the soil ; but then he felt 
 himself safe and secure under the protection of that 
 personage, his life and his property were free from the 
 risk of attack, and he could work on in comfort and 
 content. 
 
 So it came to pass that the number of proprietors who 
 .voluntarily surrendered their rights of ownership con- 
 stantly grew larger; but then, as these rights had no 
 substantial existence and no real safeguards, such surren- 
 der was a matter of but little concern. 
 
 Gradually, then, owners of land became tenant culti- 
 vators, and thus the way was prepared for another 
 revolution in the history of property rights; and it is 
 * this. 
 
 As this system of tenant - cultivation increased in quan-
 
 TERRITORIAL STATUS. 91 
 
 tity and grew in favour, the cultivators in time acquired 
 stronger and better rights in respect of the lands they 
 were improving ; and as the conditions of life and society 
 improved, these rights were moulded into a more con- 
 sistent shape. 
 
 Gradually it became difficult to consider the cultivator 
 as a mere temporary farmer, or to eject at will one whose 
 father and grandfather, and others before them, had 
 laboured on the lands and improved them under the 
 eyes of the lords, and ancestors. 
 
 Thus labour, strengthened by continuous enjoyment, 
 re-acquired what violence had originally seized ; and so, 
 whilst the old proprietors had been constrained to submit 
 to the necessity of becoming mere cultivators, later on 
 the cultivators recovered their position as proprietors. 
 
 This, however, was not the work of a few years, but of 
 many generations. It was, as I have already noted, the 
 land question that effected important and beneficial 
 changes in the development and progress of the social 
 state.
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 
 
 A Notice of some Political and Social Institutions that have acted on 
 the Later Constitutional Life of Europe ; e.g., Royalty, the 
 Church and the Clergy, the Nobility Introduction of the Notion 
 of Fidelity or Fealty Formation and Growth of the Class of tlie 
 " Leudes " Its Influence on the Social and Political Group 
 The Clergy and their Rise to Power Reasons therefor Rise of 
 Free Institutions, Aristocratic Institutions, and Monarchical 
 Institutions Their Conflicts and the Result thereof Review of 
 the History of Social Progress from the Fall of the Roman 
 Empire down to the Introduction of Feudalism. 
 
 I HAVE thus given you a detailed account, in its regular 
 and successive stages, of the changes in the possession and 
 tenure of land from the earlier settlement of the Bar- 
 barians in Europe down to the time when the feudal 
 system makes its appearance ; and thus I have prepared 
 the way for an examination of that system. 
 
 But before I proceed to this part of my work, I must 
 exhibit the special effects of the different facts we have 
 been considering upon the social condition of Europe. 
 Now this leads me to an inquiry into some very impor- 
 tant features connected with the composition of the 
 modern social group, and to a notice of some political 
 and social institutions that have worked with great force 
 upon the formation of the constitutional life of Europe. 
 
 92
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 93 
 
 I propose to say something now about royalty and 
 nobility; about the rise to power, and the causes there-for, 
 of the clergy; and about monarchical and political insti- 
 tutions. All of these necessarily present matters of no 
 little interest in the history of the settlement of society 
 in our own country. 
 
 Some pages back I drew attention to the classification 
 of the members of the old Prankish community, follow- 
 ing upon their settlement in Gaul, and stated it as re- 
 solving itself into the chief, the superior class (i.e., the 
 leudes, the antrustions, and fi deles), the clergy, the 
 enfranchised class, and the slaves. 
 
 I am now about to trace the steps by which from the 
 chief, converted in time into king, grew the notion of 
 royalty ; how from the leudes came the notion of an aris- 
 tocracy or nobility ; and how the clergy attained a power 
 and importance in the social order as decided as it was 
 remarkable. I have already told you who the leudes 
 were, the men attached to their chief, swearing fidelity to 
 him, and called in consequence fideles, and from the 
 trust reposed in them antrustions. 1 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that an institution of this 
 sort does not owe its origin to a time when society is 
 firmly established, and when civilization has welded 
 together in one homogeneous whole the different parts 
 and branches of the social circle. 
 
 Men who are living under established laws, and are 
 conscious of the protection of a just and strong govern- 
 
 1 This term, antrustion, it should be noticed, was specially ap- 
 plicable to the king's fideles.
 
 94 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 
 
 ment, know that they can place reliance upon the 
 protection accorded them by the government and the 
 law. There is no need of special oaths of fidelity. 
 
 It is in times of disorder, when the individual members 
 of a community are few and scattered, when law has little 
 or no force, and when might is stronger than right, that 
 the idea of a strengthening tie (such as is engendered by 
 an oath of fidelity) arises. 
 
 Its advantages are twofold. It gives confidence to the 
 scattered and weaker individuals who repose their trust 
 in a chief possessed of courage, skill, and power; and 
 it adds to the strength and power of this chief himself 
 by the addition of a number of followers bound to him 
 in terms of solemn assurance. The more vigorously he 
 exerts himself in support of his trusting followers, the 
 larger and more lasting is his influence, not only over 
 them, but as against some other chief ; and the greater 
 the confidence impressed upon his fideles by their oath of 
 fidelity, the more secure and settled will be their social 
 position and condition. 
 
 The advantages derivable from the establishment of 
 fidelity and trustship were a constant and increasing 
 reason for its extension, and therefore the history of the 
 Barbarian settlement in Gaul shows beyond all doubt 
 the tendency to the steady and constant increase in the 
 class of the leudes. 
 
 By it a check was given to the inclination to disperse 
 and live in scattered dwellings, the great proprietors 
 became the centre of new associations, based upon the 
 engagements of man to man, and through the bond of 
 fealty given and received between the chief and his faith-
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 95 
 
 f ul followers society obtained and kept up its organisa- 
 tion. 
 
 From the fifth century, then, the extension of this class 
 of social relations became more marked, the powerful 
 leaders found themselves necessitated to add to the num- 
 ber of their leudes, and the freemen were compelled to 
 enrol themselves as the leudes of the chieftain. 
 
 In A.D. 587, Gontran and Childebert stipulate "that 
 they will reciprocally avoid all attempts to detach the 
 leudes of each of them, and will not accept the service 
 of any who have left the ranks of either one or the 
 other." Marculf gives us the formula by which a man 
 of rank and note places himself with his own companions 
 in the service of the king as one of his leudes. 1 Charle- 
 magne publishes express enactments on the subject. 
 
 The concession of benefices, as we have seen, was the 
 principal means of gaining and attaching these leudes, 
 but it was not the only means. Public offices and court 
 offices were equally efficacious in that direction. 
 
 There is reason to believe that the powerful leaders 
 and the chiefs of a band established in this or that par- 
 ticular district were the first counts of each district, and 
 that in the times which immediately followed the con- 
 quests, the kings did not create these officials at their 
 own will. There is every indication that the title was 
 conferred on the individual whose special pre-eminence 
 in this or that locality led to his elevation, and that 
 thereupon he took his place among the royal leudes. 
 
 But when the power of the king, or rather that of the 
 
 1 Marculf, " Form.," lib. i. cap. xviii.
 
 56 A'fsVG, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 
 
 leudes who surrounded him and lived near him, was en- 
 larged, the public offices became benefices of another kind, 
 which were distributed by the royal hand with the sole 
 view of compensating his fideles, or of gaining fresh ones. 
 
 As regards the places at court, they were numerous. 
 The organization of the palace in the days of Imperial 
 Rome offered a charm of novelty and vanity which the 
 then barbarian kings were unable to resist. 
 
 A count of the palace, a great referendary, a great 
 seneschal, a great marshal, a great chamberlain, or door- 
 keeper, the office of butler, of falconer, and others of 
 a similar nature, were soon looked upon as necessary 
 appendages of royalty among the barbarians, and the 
 creation of these offices became a sure and easy mode of 
 attaching to the king the most important personages 
 among his followers. 
 
 The attractions of the Court, with its feasts, its com- 
 parative splendour, were too great to be resisted, and 
 so the royal palaces of Metz, Soissons, and Paris were 
 thronged with aspirants for honours, and became the 
 resort of all, even the most powerful chiefs. Thus the 
 number of the king's leudes increased from year to year. 
 
 In the same line did the great proprietors act each in 
 his own district. They also had benefices to distribute, 
 and they also kept up a show of splendour, creating and 
 assigning among their followers similar offices to those of 
 the royal circle. 
 
 The mansion of each chieftain afforded similar attrac- 
 tions, though on a smaller scale, to those of the court ; 
 and thus by the same form of fealty the number of the 
 chief's leudes was constantly being enlarged.
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 97 
 
 Now it is precisely from this cause and out of this 
 class that modern nobility has its origin. Between the 
 fifth and the tenth centuries there is no evidence of the 
 existence of any separate noble class among the Franks. 
 The idea of perfect equality among all the freemen of 
 that nation was for a long period a persistent one, and 
 the notion of anything like hereditary claims to honours 
 was very slow in making its appearance. 
 
 Thus was formed the class of the leudes, neither set- 
 ting store on hereditary descent nor claiming any legal 
 condition beyond that of freedom. Assembling round 
 their chief, whether he were the king or a great proprietor, 
 they placed heir services at his command in exchange 
 for the benefits conferred on them by his protection. 
 
 By virtue of their title of leudes, they possessed no 
 special importance, no public existence, and no elevated 
 rank in the State. They were simply a portion of the 
 public with certain rights and with certain powers. They 
 became the men of one particular man, acquiring no rights 
 save such as he conceded to them, and contracting no 
 duties except in relation to him. Rights that were pre- 
 carious, duties that were uncertain, frequently violated 
 and often misunderstood, but rights and duties that gave 
 rise to special associations which alone were capable in 
 the midst of the confusion and lawlessness of the times of 
 being moulded into stability. 
 
 In the midst of this confusion and uncertainty, follow- 
 ing on the conquest, the fusion of the invaders and of the 
 original inhabitants progressed, and the Roman, on attain- 
 ing freedom and wealth, took his proper place among his 
 Prankish neighbours. 
 
 A. L. B
 
 98 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 
 
 Gradually the difference between the two sets of people 
 disappeared, and then the general history of Frankish 
 Gaul is nothing more than that of the king and his leudes; 
 the history of each locality, that of the dominant chief 
 and the leudes who rallied round him. 
 
 Feudal society, then, finds its origin in the leudes. 
 Their place lies between the wandering companions of 
 the German chiefs and the vassals of the Middle Ages, 
 just as benefices did between the presents of horses or 
 arms and the fiefs ; and so it is that the territorial acqui- 
 sitions and the personal status, as well as the institutions, 
 political and local, travel on the same lines. 
 
 I propose now to speak of the ecclesiastical body, the 
 clergy. For soon after the conquest, the bishops and the 
 heads of the great ecclesiastical corporations the abbots, 
 priors, etc. took their place among the leudes of the 
 king. 
 
 Before the invasion of the barbarians, as we have 
 already seen, the power of the clergy was the sole rem- 
 nant of power in the midst of the ruins of the Empire. 
 It grew in strength every day. 
 
 As proofs of this, the history of the times points to the 
 wealth of the churches ; the influence of the clergy on the 
 superstitious or pious sentiments of the populace; and 
 to the administration by the clerical body of municipal 
 matters which had almost entirely fallen into their hands. 
 
 These are direct and positive proofs, but there is another 
 proof of an indirect nature that marks still more clearly 
 the ever-prevailing influence of the ecclesiastics. I mean 
 the eagerness with which the dignity of bishop was sought 
 after.
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 99 
 
 No office of rank, no position has at any time been the 
 subject of so much intrigue and so much violence as the 
 office and position of bishop in these early days. Nay, the 
 vacancy in an episcopal diocese was sometimes a cause of 
 war. 
 
 Thus we read of tumultuous meetings and assemblies 
 of armed bands, called together to assist the episcopal 
 nominees of Hilary, Archbishop of Aries, against the 
 bishops whom he had, contrary to all law and in defiance 
 of justice, ejected from their dioceses. So we read of a 
 reverend father in God invading with an armed force the 
 place where he should have preached the Gospel of peace. 
 So, too, Athalric, king of the Visigoths, fulminated his 
 edicts against the artifices and manoeuvres of candidates 
 for a bishopric. In a word, no office seems to have been 
 so much an incentive to fraud, violence, and corruption 
 as that of the episcopal dignity. 
 
 Xow what were the causes of the powerful position 
 that the clergy attained ? 
 
 One would have thought that the destruction of the 
 Empire by the heathen bands of the barbarian invaders 
 would have carried with it grave injury to if not exter- 
 mination of the members of the Christian faith ; but so 
 far from this being the case, the establishment of the 
 Germans in Gaul actually increased their influence. 
 AVhatever the causes which led to their conversion to 
 the Christian faith, " however capricious and accidental," 
 to use Gibbon's language, 1 "were the motives which 
 influenced the reason or the passions of the barbarian 
 
 1 Gibbon's " Decline auJ Fall," ch. xxxvii.
 
 loo KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 
 
 converts a dream, 1 an omen, the report of a miracle, the 
 example of some priest or hero, the charms of a believing 
 wife, or, above all, the fortunate event of a prayer or a 
 vow which, in a moment of danger, they had addressed 
 to the God of the Christian the result is undoubted, the 
 belief in the Christian tenets achieved a full and com- 
 plete conquest over the barbarian settlers. The advan- 
 tage of temporal prosperity had deserted the pagan cause 
 and passed over to the service of Christianity. Before 
 the age of Charlemagne the Christian nations of Europe 
 might exult in the exclusive possession of the tem- 
 perate climates, of the fertile lands, which produced 
 corn, wine, and oil, while the savage idolaters and their 
 helpless idols were confined to the extremities of the 
 earth the dark and frozen regions of the north. Chris- 
 tianity," continues the author of the " Decline and Fall of 
 the Roman Empire," " which opened the gates of heaven 
 to the barbarians, introduced an important change in 
 their moral and political condition. They received at 
 the same time the use of letters, so essential to a religion 
 whose doctrines are contained in a sacred book ; and 
 while they studied the divine truth their minds were 
 insensibly enlarged by the distant view of history, of 
 nature, of the arts, and of society. In the most corrupt 
 state of Christianity the barbarians might learn justice 
 from the law and mercy from the gospel ; and if the 
 knowledge of their duty was insufficient to guide their 
 actions or to regulate their passions, they were some- 
 times restrained by conscience and frequently punished 
 
 1 See Appendix, Note H.
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 101 
 
 by remorse. In the days of paganism the priests of 
 Gaul and Germany reigned over the people and con- 
 trolled the jurisdiction of the magistrates, and the 
 zealous proselytes transferred an equal or more ample 
 measure of devout obedience to the pontiffs of the Chris- 
 tian faith. The sacred character of the bishops was 
 supported by their temporal possessions. They obtained 
 an honourable seat in the legislative assemblies of 
 soldiers and freemen ; and it was their interest, as well 
 as their duty, to mollify, by peaceful counsels, the fierce 
 spirit of the barbarians. The perpetual correspondence 
 of the latin clergy, the frequent pilgrimages to Rome 
 and Jerusalem, and the growing authority of the popes, 
 cemented the union of the Christian republic, and gra- 
 dually produced the similar manners and common 
 jurisprudence which distinguished from the rest of 
 mankind the independent and even hostile nations of 
 modern Europe." 
 
 Such is the testimony which a writer, always supposed 
 not to be too friendly to the dogmas of the Christian 
 faith, and never regarded with much admiration by its 
 warmest champions, ascribes to the spread of Christianity 
 arid the causes of its success among the barbarians. 
 
 There are other reasons for that success, which I will 
 here add. 
 
 If the clergy required the countenance of the conquer- 
 ing invaders of Europe, these conquerors, in their turn, 
 required the help of the clergy. 
 
 One immediate, and for some time continuous, effect 
 of the invasion was, as I have already pointed out, the 
 dissolution and destruction of order, law, and the old
 
 102 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 
 
 form of government. The ancient officials were thrust 
 aside, the people, deprived of the benefits of law and 
 order, were sunk in misery and poverty. The new 
 settlers, or rather conquerors, reducing the conquered 
 territory to a desert waste, found no bodies of individuals 
 capable of continuing even the semblance of social 
 organization ; and but for the intervention of the clergy, 
 society itself must have come to an end. 
 
 The clergy formed a corporation in perfect union 
 amongst themselves, conscious of their own strength, 
 firmly persuaded of the justice of the rights they assumed 
 to claim, and by their very unity assured of a continuity 
 of life. They alone were able to preserve the social body 
 from utter extinction, because they alone were possessed 
 of common interests and institutions. 
 
 The bishops, and the spiritual heads of the mona- 
 steries maintained a correspondence on fairly equal 
 terms with the barbarian kings. They entered into and 
 formed a not unimportant portion of the assemblies of 
 the leudes ; and at the same time the Roman population 
 rallied to them in the cities. They acquired immense pro- 
 perty through benefices, legacies, and gifts of all kinds. 
 They took their place among the leaders of the conquer- 
 ing tribes, and at the same time they retained in their own 
 domains the use of the Roman jurisprudence, and obtained 
 immunities which, as I have shown you, they employed 
 for the benefit of the Roman cultivators of the soil. 
 
 Thus they formed the one single body of the old 
 stock which was able to hold its own alongside of the 
 new race. They became the one single part of the new 
 aristocracy which was closely bound up with the older
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 103 
 
 people. So they were in effect the bond of unity be- 
 tween the two sets, and their power was a social necessity 
 as much for the conquerors as for the conquered. 
 
 AYhen, then, the necessity for their agency had borne 
 fruit, when the power of the bishops was firmly estab- 
 lished, when the wealth and possessions of the churches 
 ceased to be exposed to the constant pillage that resulted 
 from the earlier devastations of the invaders, the bar- 
 barians themselves turned their attention to the dignity 
 of the episcopal office. I need not cite instances of this ; 
 they are plentiful in the old annals. 
 
 It is enough to say that bishoprics were an object of 
 ambition eagerly coveted; and thus it came to pass that 
 as soon as the bishops succeeded in obtaining a footing 
 among the leudes, the leudes themselves claimed and 
 obtained the sees ; and so the fusion of the two races, the 
 Roman and the German, was worked out through the 
 fusion of these two social classes ; and this in its turn, at 
 a later period, helped on the formation and establishment 
 of the aristocracy of the feudal regime. The development 
 of this was materially assisted by the direct intervention 
 of the royal authority in the nomination of bishops and 
 in the collation to bishoprics. 
 
 I need not pursue the history of the ecclesiastical body 
 further, nor examine in detail their civil position. My 
 object has been and is to describe, as far as I can, the 
 political as well as the social state of Europe during the 
 centuries under review. I will content myself with re- 
 ferring only to the direct consequences of the great in- 
 fluence of the clergy, obtained as it was in the manner 
 I have described.
 
 104 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 
 
 The times, as I have shown, were marked by violence, 
 lawlessness, and disorder. The misery of the weaker 
 portion of the community was extreme ; the exactions 
 and superiority of the strong and powerful were resistless. 
 
 In the midst of this savage and anarchical condition 
 of life, the clergy alone recognised a sentiment of a 
 higher and holier nature than material force ; namely, 
 the influence of moral force. They alone appealed to a 
 law that extended its benefits and protection to all, 
 that pleaded for the poor against the rich, that admitted 
 and sanctioned rights, duties, and mercy. 
 
 This was the secret of the influence the clergy obtained ; 
 and though they themselves were not free from nay, were 
 too often subject to many of the evil qualities of human 
 nature among them certainly cupidity and lust of power 
 still, they did exert themselves to improve the lot of 
 those of their weaker fellow-creatures with whom they 
 came into contact, and did address themselves to the work 
 of cultivating and improving their social and moral life. 
 
 Recognised as benefactors by the poor and the weak, 
 and acting upon the ignorance and superstition of 
 many of the stronger portions of the community, they 
 succeeded in enlarging their own influence, and in adding 
 to their own wealth and territorial power. 
 
 By the principles of morality which they certainly did 
 strive to inculcate, as well as by the position in the State 
 and in the country which was conceded to them, they 
 preserved European society from the imminent risk of 
 utter destruction. 
 
 From the consideration of the origin, causes, and effect 
 of the rise of the ecclesiastical body to power and in-
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 105 
 
 fluence in the state, and its direct effect upon the forma- 
 tion and development of social life and order, I proceed 
 to an examination of the local and political institutions 
 visible in Europe from the fifth to the tenth centuries. 
 The history of these institutions will show us two 
 tendencies one to the decay of freedom, the other to 
 the rise of a hierarchical aristocracy of proprietors, 
 accompanied with a condition of slavery among the lower 
 classes. 
 
 Soon after the establishment of the barbarians in Gaul 
 three separate institutions emerge from the chaos of the 
 times. Varying widely in their forms, their principles, 
 and their effects, they existed together for some time, but 
 eventually came into opposition and conflict. For five 
 centuries this opposition and conflict continued, until at 
 length the superiority of one of them asserted itself. 
 
 In their primitive associations, as I have more than 
 once pointed out, the barbarians, whether in their tribes 
 or their warrior bands, lived together and acted together. 
 Every warrior was a citizen, every individual was free 
 and independent. No important enterprise was under- 
 taken without the consent of the majority. Military 
 expeditions, judicial sentences and decrees, business of all 
 kinds, were debated and decided at the general assemblies. 
 Common interests and deliberation in common was the 
 work of the whole community, and the outcome was the 
 rise and formation of free institutions. 
 
 But another notion, not unusual even in the rudest 
 forms of ancient society (that of patron and client), 
 appeared at a very early stage of old German life. At 
 Hrst tlu- chief nut fitted by his bravery or renown to
 
 io6 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 
 
 demand it, claimed and received the assistance of his 
 companions in his expeditions. They marched under his 
 orders and acted under his guidance. Then these wan- 
 dering chiefs were transformed into proprietors, their 
 followers receiving benefices from them, and becoming 
 beneficiaries or vassals. This produced a more complete 
 dependence of the inferior on the superior, and a stronger 
 tie between them was thus formed. 
 
 Soon the influence of the chief became a power, and 
 his patronage a jurisdiction, and soon too there grew up 
 a system of aristocratic institutions, wherein inequality 
 was a recognised idea, and the subordination of man to 
 man an admitted consequence. 
 
 In course of time royal authority exerted its influence. 
 Slight, and confined within very narrow limits before the 
 immigration of the tribes from the farther side of the 
 Rhine, after the invasion and the conquest it necessarily 
 grew in strength and weight. For the conquered people 
 it was the government. It received the sanction of the 
 Church. The principle of hereditary succession attached 
 to it, and, as combined with these advantages, the king 
 was the richest proprietor of all, the change to a complete 
 monarchical institution attracted and obtained a decided 
 recognition. 
 
 Thus very early in the history of social order in 
 Europe free institutions, aristocratic institutions, and 
 monarchical institutions appeared side by side. So too 
 appeared three forms of national administration : that 
 derived from the assemblies of the freemen ; that claimed 
 by the proprietors in their own localities ; and that 
 claimed by royalty. There were also three lower classes
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 107 
 
 in the social organization citizens, vassals, and subjects. 
 
 These three rival institutions were never united, were . 
 constantly and incessantly at variance. The first to give 
 way was the system of free institutions. Between the 
 other two the strife continued. At the end of the Mero- 
 vingian dynasty, the monarchical system was at the point 
 of death. Charlemagne arrested its fall for a while, but 
 his successors were unequal to the contest. The aristo- 
 cratic principle remained master of the political situation, 
 and so at the end of the tenth century there was left 
 neither citizen nor subject. Lordship and vassalage or 
 serfdom was what remained, and feudalism became the 
 dominant idea. 
 
 I have now brought you down to the period in the 
 social history of Europe when feudalism was established 
 and became a recognised political fact, or to use the 
 words of the great writer whose thoughts and words I 
 have all along made use of (M. Guizot), I have traced out 
 " the slow and laborious birth of the feudal system." 
 
 I propose now to examine its true political character, 
 and to attempt to exhibit as precisely as I can what 
 feudalism was, considered as a system of social organism 
 and of government. 
 
 And here let me briefly recount what I have done, or 
 endeavoured to do, in the review I have submitted to you 
 of the history of society from the fall of the Roman 
 Empire to the introduction of feudalism. 
 
 Rome, as I have pointed out, was a mere municipality, 
 a corporation. The distinctive character of Roman gov- 
 ernment is that it was a combination of municipal 
 institutions.
 
 io8 KING, CLERGY, AXD NOBILITY. 
 
 In Italy nations were nothing more than confederations 
 of cities ; and what we have seen in the preceding narra- 
 tive of Roman social life and government has been the 
 almost exclusive preponderance of cities and the absence 
 ' of country population and dwellings. 
 
 The conquest of the world was easy ; to govern it and 
 weld it into one whole was difficult. Hence, one of the 
 causes that led to the establishment of the empire was 
 the need of a concentrated form of government. The 
 empire strove to unite and bind the scattered society. 
 But as it was necessarily despotic, a strong tendency to 
 centralization marked its progress. One or two emperors 
 (notably in the beginning of the fifth century) tried to 
 introduce a repi'esentative system, though without any 
 abiding results, and so for a time the spirit of localization 
 and of municipalism reappeared. The Roman world had 
 ' been formed of cities, and to cities it returned. 
 
 Thus there were two notions which passed from Roman 
 civilization into the forces which had subverted it : (1) 
 The system of municipal corporations, together with a 
 general civil legislation, the principle of liberty and order ; 
 (2) the idea of imperial majesty, i.e., absolute power, the 
 - principle of servitude. 
 
 Then came a moral notion, a moral influence, that of 
 the church, bringing with it the severance of temporal 
 from spiritual power. 
 
 And then followed the sentiment of personal inde- 
 pendence, a direct consequence of the invasion of the 
 barbarians, whose characteristic was love of individual 
 liberty. 
 
 To them we are indebted for the desire for personal
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 109 
 
 independence, for a determined inclination for personal 
 liberty. To them also we owe military patronage, the 
 origin of that aristocratic organization which at a later 
 period grew into the feudal system, the germ of this 
 development being the attachment of man to man, the 
 fidelity which united individuals. 
 
 Between the fifth and the tenth centuries feudalism 
 was gradually but persistently working its way. In the 
 tenth century it became predominant. The universality 
 of its adoption at that period would seem to indicate the 
 necessity for it, for wherever barbarism ceased feudalism 
 became strong. 
 
 When I say that feudalism was universal, I limit the 
 proposition to its form only. The feudal form was uni- 
 versal, but the feudal principle was not so. Feudal 
 despotism was always hateful to the county people, for it 
 is the authority of man over man, the dominion of the 
 personal, capricious will of an individual. 1 The attempt 
 was made to change the obligations by which the posses- 
 sors of fiefs were bound (i.e. of service and protection), 
 their duties and sentiments, into laws and institutions; 
 but these laws and institutions had no guarantee save 
 force. The only political right which the feudal system 
 acknowledged was the right of resistance. The possessor 
 of a fief within his domain was invested with all the 
 rights and privileges of sovereignty; he inherited them with 
 the territory ; they were a matter of private property. 
 
 There was good reason, then, as you may well perceive, 
 
 1 For the burdrnsome character of the feudal services, see 
 Appendix, Note I.
 
 KING, CLERGY, AND NOBILITY. 
 
 for the hatred which the principle of feudalism inspired. 
 This hatred was never appeased, and grew with the in- 
 creasing tendency to exactions on the part of the lords. 
 This was an agency of itself sufficient in time to establish 
 a successful opposition to feudalism ; but there was an- 
 other agency at work which was even more effective, 
 that was the rise of free cities. 
 
 Corporate cities had, as I have shown, formed the 
 important feature of Roman political life. They had 
 never been completely destroyed, as I have also shown, 
 during the whole period of anxiety and confusion conse- 
 quent on the barbarian invasions. They had been kept 
 alive by the influence of the clergy ; and so at the close 
 of the tenth century, and during the eleventh and twelfth 
 centuries, we find them making a figure in history. 
 
 Prior to the eleventh century corporate cities did not 
 play any important part in the great drama of the 
 European world as connected with modern civilization 
 and with the development of social life. After the 
 eleventh century they did, for then we meet with grants 
 of charters to cities, and these charters are positive 
 treaties of peace between the burgesses and their lords, 
 engendering, first, a sense of security within their Avails ; 
 second, a strong appreciation of freedom, and a strong 
 power as well as spirit of resistance to feudal force ; and 
 third, a struggle of classes, a struggle which constitutes 
 the very fact of modern history, and of which it is full.
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 Feudalism, its Rise and Progress Its Characteristics Its Influence 
 on Later Events Contrast between it and other Forms of 
 Government Causes of the Popular Hatred towards it, and of 
 its Ultimate Decay and Fall Difference between the Feudal 
 Aristocracy of France and the Barons of England noted. 
 
 I AM now on the threshold of feudalism, and on that 
 subject I propose to dwell at some little length. " Feu- 
 dalism," says Bishop Stubbs, 1 "was by its historic origin 
 a growth distinctly Frank." The word "feudum," as he 
 points out, is not found earlier than the close of the ninth 
 century. 2 The actual development of feudalism may be 
 traced step by step, under Frank influence, from its first 
 appearance on the conquered soil of Roman Gaul to its 
 full establishment in the jurisprudence of the Middle 
 Ages. 
 
 As regards both tenure and government, so far as 
 it existed in England, it was brought full-blown from 
 France. In the form which it has reached at the Norman 
 Conquest, it may be described as a complete organization 
 of society through the medium of land tenure, in which, 
 
 1 " Constitutional History of England," vol. i. p 286. 
 1 See Appendix, Note K.
 
 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 from the king down to the lowest landowner, all are 
 bound together by obligation of service and defence the 
 lord to protect the vassal, and the vassal to do service to 
 the lord the defence and service being based on and 
 regulated by the nature and extent of the land held by 
 the one of the other. 
 
 In states in which feudal government has reached its 
 utmost growth, the political, financial, judicial, nay, every 
 branch of public administration, is regulated by the same 
 conditions. The central authority is a mere shadow of a 
 name. 
 
 Transported to England in the eleventh century by the 
 Normans, and firmly rooted there till the middle of the 
 seventeenth century, the influence of feudalism on the 
 habits and customs of this country, and on its social order, 
 was undoubtedly extensive ; yet the revolt against that 
 influence was so decided and so impressive as to lead to 
 its destruction in the manner I have above pointed out. 
 
 Great as were the evils and mischiefs that resulted from 
 it, it still had some countervailing advantages, and there- 
 fore it will not be out of place if I attempt to exhibit 
 the moral and political effect of feudalism upon the social 
 life of Europe ; and what I propose to do is to translate 
 a large portion of M. Guizot's fifth essay, " On the Poli- 
 tical character of the feudal system," for no author that 
 I know of has discussed the subject with so much learning, 
 with so much sound criticism, and so eloquently as that 
 great writer. 1 
 
 1 " Essais sur 1'Histoire de France," V e essai, p. 290 (tenth edition, 
 1860).
 
 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 113 
 
 la the tenth century men and lands in France were 
 shared out among the possessors of fiefs as they had been 
 in the sixth century among the barbarian conquerors. 
 Gauls and Franks, conquerors and conquered, are no 
 longer visible ; everything was displaced, changed, and 
 confused. But the conquest, the long disorders that en- 
 sued, the struggle between different political tendencies, 
 had produced this result, that a certain number of men 
 under the authority of lords over vassals, established each 
 in his own domain and united each with each by feudal 
 ties, were the masters of the population and of the soil. 
 
 This domination was not universal nor everywhere 
 regularly compact. Some proprietors of alods remained 
 outside the feudal circle, whilst among the mass of the 
 people who possessed neither alods nor fiefs, the con- 
 dition of life was varying and unequal. 
 
 In one place they were mere serfs, in another they 
 enjoyed some remains of liberty, some fragments of pro- 
 prietary rights. 
 
 Again, in this almost deserted corner or that forgotten 
 district, a kind of independence existed due simply to the 
 isolation of the place. 
 
 Such were the disorder of the times, the feebleness of 
 the native dwellers, the difficulty of communication, the 
 ignorance of the masses, the want of cohesion and order 
 in the institutions, that there was opportunity for any 
 and every sort of variation, chance, and anomaly. 
 
 But through all these disturbing elements, in France 
 the feudal principle made steady and decided progress. 
 From time to time the external limits of feudalism 
 became more extended, and its internal power more 
 
 A. L. I
 
 U4 KISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 decisive. From time to time the proprietors of fiefs 
 advanced towards the exclusive possession of territory 
 and of dominion. 
 
 What, then, was the special nature of this aristocracy ? 
 What was the political character of its government r* 
 
 It was a confederation of little sovereigns, of small 
 despots, unequal among themselves, and possessing and 
 owing each towards the other rights and duties, yet in- 
 vested in their own domains, over their own immediate 
 subjects, with absolute arbitrary power. This is what 
 feudalism really was, and this is what distinguishes it 
 from every other aristocratic form, from every other 
 kind of government. 
 
 Despotic and aristocratic governments have had their 
 day on this earth from time to time, and the history of 
 the world shows us nations ruled over by a single indi- 
 vidual, by a college of priests, by a body of patricians. 
 But not one of these resembles in any respect the feudal 
 form. 
 
 Where the sovereign power has been placed in the 
 hands of a single individual, it is very possible and 
 probable that the condition of the people may become 
 servile and miserable. 
 
 Feudalism presents a better aspect than this, as I will 
 show presently ; yet still the condition of things under 
 despotism has, it must be admitted, appeared less heavy 
 and more acceptable to the governed than that of the 
 feudal rule. The reason is, that in great monarchies 
 those below the head of the subject body are able to 
 acquire among themselves a kind of equality, and have 
 met with a certain amount of quiet and rest. Granted
 
 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 115 
 
 that the equality may not be a matter to be prond of, nor 
 the qiiiet and rest always and altogether satisfactory, 
 still the people are in some situations and in the last 
 period of their existence not absolutely discontented 
 with their lot. 
 
 From the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, liberty, 
 equality, and peace were all wanting to the inhabitants 
 of the Seigneurial domains. Their sovereign was at their 
 door. Not one of them was too obscure for his notice or 
 too far removed from his power. 
 
 Of all tyrannies, the worst is that which is thus able to 
 overawe its subjects, and which can survey from the seat 
 of power the full extent of its authority. The caprices 
 of the individual are then displayed in all their extrava- 
 gance, and with irresistible promptness. Then it is that 
 the inequality of the conditions of life comes rudely to 
 the front. Wealth, power, independence of control, with 
 all their proud advantages and influences, are visible at 
 every moment in sti'ong contrast with poverty, weakness, 
 servile dependence. 
 
 To the dwellers in the feudal domains there was very 
 little hope of rest and quiet. Incessantly compromised 
 in the quarrels of their lords, and ever a prey to the 
 devastating attacks of the rivals of these lords, they led 
 lives more harassing and more precarious than those of 
 their lords. They had to contemplate the never-ceasing 
 prospect of war, and to submit to the oppression arising 
 from unrestrained force and absolute power. 
 
 If between the feudal form of government and that 
 tinder a despotism there was this wide distinction, the 
 difference between the feudal form and that of a college
 
 ii6 KISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 of priests or a senate of patricians is equally marked 
 and distinct. 
 
 In the latter the mass of the population is ruled and 
 governed by a united aristocratic body. In the former 
 the governing body is not united. It is separated into 
 individual members, each one of whom is ruler and ad- 
 ministrator on his own account over a certain number 
 of dependents. 
 
 Moreover, under a priestly government the power of 
 the governing body is based upon forms of faith and 
 articles of belief which are shared in common by the 
 mass of the governed, and as in common forms of faith 
 and belief thus shared there is a moral tie, so a sentiment 
 of equality on the part of the governed arises out of it, 
 producing a tacit adhesion to government itself. 
 
 Under the patrician form, composed as the council or 
 senate is of several personages, their deliberations neces- 
 sarily are free from the capricious and arbitrary decisions 
 to which a despotism is subject, and as their sovereignty 
 is collective, the measures discussed by them are of a 
 more general nature. Besides, in such a body there must 
 always be cliques, factions, parties ; and each set, striving 
 to conciliate the favour of the people, may not be indis- 
 posed to discuss measures likely to result in the improve- 
 ment of the masses. 
 
 Thus the people themselves may be able, through the 
 rivalries of the different factions, to obtain some amelior- 
 ation of their own lot. 
 
 But the feudal form of government was not, strictly 
 speaking, an aristocratic form. It was not a council or 
 senate of kings, It was a collection of individual despots,
 
 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 117 
 
 aristocrats, it is true, but aristocrats isolated each from 
 the other, each supreme as sovereign and legislator in his 
 own demesne, but each entirely independent of the other, 
 and answerable for his conduct towards his subjects to no 
 one. 
 
 Can we be astonished, then, at the hatred of the people 
 for their feudal rulers, a hatred aggravated by the con- 
 sciousness always borne in upon them that their condition 
 was a serfdom as galling as it was continuous ? 
 
 The despotic form was there as conspicuous as under 
 an absolute monarchy, and the claim of privilege was 
 asserted as vigorously as under the most concentrated 
 aristocracy, both of them exhibited in the most offensive 
 and crude shape, and both exercised by an individual 
 who was never absent, was ever close at hand, and never 
 bound or inclined to summon his equals to the common 
 consideration of matters that concerned the welfare of 
 the whole body. 
 
 Passing from the subjects to the rulers, from the 
 nation possessed to the sovereign power, another feature 
 is noticeable. Here we see liberty, rights, guarantees, 
 which not only offered honour and protection to those 
 who enjoyed them, but which from their very nature and 
 tendency opened a door for a better future to the subject 
 people. For if the feudal form of government has not 
 been wanting either in dignity or glory, so, it must be 
 confessed, it did not condemn its subjects to slavery with- 
 out offering something like an equivalent, wherein it 
 differed from the theocracy of Egypt, the despotism of 
 Asia, or the aristocracy of Venice. If it oppressed its sub- 
 jects, it afforded them some chance of enfranchisement.
 
 n8 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 Now, granting that feudalism did make its despotic 
 character more odious and burdensome by placing the 
 master close to the subject, yet it did also put the 
 inferior near the superior in the sovereign nation, a very 
 efficacious cause of equality and liberty. 
 
 The vice of absolute monarchy is the elevation of the 
 sovereign on so lofty an eminence, and the surrounding 
 him with so much pomp as to turn the head of the ruler, 
 and to oppress with awe all his subjects. The sovereign 
 believes himself a god ; the people fall down and worship 
 him. Write as eloquently as you may about the duties 
 of kings and the rights of their subjects, your words are 
 thrown away. Facts are stronger than words ; for when 
 the inequality is immense, the former easily forget their 
 duties, the rights of the latter are too easily depressed. 
 
 But the feudal greatness was different from this. It 
 was simple and accessible. The distance between the 
 lord and the vassal was slight. They lived together on 
 terms of familiarity, and on the footing of companions 
 The superiority was not absolutely unlimited, nor was 
 the subordination absolutely slavish. Each was neces- 
 sary to the other, and thus the reciprocity of rights and 
 duties was guaranteed and strengthened. 
 
 To this expansion of domestic life, this nobility of per- 
 sonal services, one of the most generous principles of 
 the Middle Ages owes its birth, viz., " fealty " or fidelity, 
 a principle which marvellously united the dignity of 
 the lord to the devotion of the vassal. 
 
 Moreover, the position of the lord, if it was an exalted 
 one, was not an absolutely independent one. The seignior 
 in one fief was often vassal in another. Sometimes, by
 
 X7SE OF FEUDALISM, 119 
 
 virtue of different fiefs, the same personages were in a 
 condition of vassalage as well as of suzerainty. Some- 
 times also powerful lords admitted duties to smaller ones. 
 Thus the King of France himself, who held his crown 
 only of God and his sword, held lands under several 
 seigniors. Here, then, was a new principle of reciprocity 
 and equality. 
 
 Lastly, by the sacredly recognised nature of the inter- 
 connection of fiefs, the gap between the lowest and the 
 highest of the feudal proprietors was filled up ; and so 
 by degrees the least of them was bound to the king, 
 without running the risk of losing the sentiment of his 
 own dignity which would have been the result had the 
 tie been a sudden and forced one, owing to the inequality 
 thereby produced. 
 
 This sentiment, which even in social bodies that differ 
 widely from the feudal idea in principle and form is the 
 surest bulwark as it is the noblest product of liberty, is 
 largely indebted for its development and its consistency 
 to another cause. 
 
 We have just been considering, so far as the subject 
 nation is concerned, the results of the dispersion of the 
 citizens, the government being administered not as for 
 one collective whole, but for the special individual mem- 
 bers of the body. The people suffered from this. The 
 feudal aristocracy also lost much in the matter of 
 cohesion and permanency. But the possessors of fiefs 
 gained in respect of independence and personal dignity. 
 
 The power and glory of the Roman or Venetian senate 
 acted upon the power and glory of the Patricians. Each 
 of them had his own share in this collective greatness.
 
 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 But he owed his own importance to the particular body 
 ' to which he belonged, not to himself. 
 
 In the feudal aristocracy, on the contrary, everything 
 was individual and personal. From himself alone, not 
 from the corporation of which he was a member, each 
 possessor of a fief drew his strength and his importance. 
 Isolated in his domains, the task fell on him to maintain 
 himself there, to extend his power, to watch over the 
 safety of his subjects, his faithful vassals, and to punish 
 those who failed in obedience to him or to their oath of 
 fealty. The ties which united him to his superiors or 
 to his equals were too weak, the guarantees too remote and 
 too slow of accomplishment, to warrant him in trusting 
 his fortunes to their hands. 
 
 The result was a feeling of strong and proud indi- 
 vidualism, which was the distinguishing characteristic 
 of feudalism in its highest aspect. Hence the feudal 
 group was a collection of scattered citizens, each one of 
 whom, always ready for battle, and followed by his own 
 troop or entrenched in his own stronghold, watched over 
 his own safety and his own rights, and depended more on 
 his own courage and renown than on the protection of any 
 public body or power. 
 
 Such a condition of things wears rather the appear- 
 ance of war than of social life ; but it stirs into action 
 individual energy and dignity, and out of it social life 
 may emerge. 
 
 Thus we soon perceive the strong and increasing 
 growth of social life out of and in the midst of these 
 feudal habits, tui'bulent, oppressive, and odious as they 
 were.
 
 KISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 It took France five centuries to escape finally from 
 barbarism. During these five centuries all conditions of 
 private life, all public institutions, were precarious, rest- 
 less, and incessantly exposed to uncertainty and violence. 
 So much so that it is impossible to discern any general 
 principle, or to note any sign of real progress. 
 
 Across this long and gloomy anarchy, the only notable 
 fact is feudalism establishing itself at the expense, some- 
 times of liberty, sometimes of order ; not polishing and 
 perfecting the social state, but existing as the sole system 
 which was able to acquire any degree of firmness a 
 necessary makeshift, as it were, failing anything better. 
 
 As soon as it struck root, and began to grow, every- 
 thing wore another aspect. Social life, till then deformed 
 and half-paralysed, received a new being and started on 
 its progress with fresh vigour. Yet almost at the moment 
 of victory, the inroads upon the continuous life of the 
 feudal system began. The lower ranks of the people, as 
 well as the highest of all, were the assailants. The mass 
 of the people strove to reconquer some portions of liberty 
 of pi-operty and of laAV, the kings strove to recover their 
 public position, and again to reassert their claims to the 
 headship of the nation. 
 
 These efforts were no longer attempted in the midst 
 of the shock and din of diverging systems, reducing both 
 sets of opponents to weakness and anarchy. They came 
 into existence when the feudal system itself was compact, 
 and they were directed against it alone. 
 
 The assailants were no longer mere freemen, holding 
 an unsettled and doubtful position, and defending them- 
 selves badly against the power of the chiefs under whom
 
 KISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 they tenanted lands which were the relics of their old 
 barbarian independence. Now they had acquired the 
 position of burgesses, farmers, serfs, whose condition was 
 clear and settled, who thoroughly understood the evils 
 from which they suffered, and who were incessantly at 
 work to free themselves from those evils. 
 
 The royal head was no longer a mere kingling, uncer- 
 tain as to his title or the nature of his power, whether 
 a chief of warriors, or the wealthiest proprietor of the 
 locality, or the anointed of the Lord, or the heir of an 
 imperial throne, striving, but without method or order, to 
 rule over independent subjects or exacting leudes, whose 
 efforts were constantly dii*ected to the invasion of his 
 authority, or to his absolute isolation. 
 
 Now he has raised himself to supreme rank among the 
 feudal lords, and is aiming, not without success, at lord- 
 ship over them, and at the substitution of sovereignty for 
 mere seignorial claims. 
 
 Thus at the end of the tenth century the enfranchise- 
 ment of the people was started into life, in spite of the 
 servile condition into which it had fallen, and royalty began 
 to assert and retain power, notwithstanding the weakness, 
 or rather effacement, to which it had been reduced. 
 
 The monarchical system, which the genius of Charle- 
 magne had failed to establish, was brought out of ob- 
 scurity to light by kings vastly his inferiors. The rights 
 and guarantees which the German warriors were unable 
 to preserve were recovered by the commonalty. 
 
 Feudalism, then, emerging from barbarism, advanced 
 to greatness and power, bearing with it the seeds of 
 monai-chy and liberty. Under the feudal form, and in
 
 KISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 spite of it, the crown acquired authority, the commons 
 and the country people achieved liberty ; and yet it was 
 under its very rule that the forces which overcame it 
 were brought into existence, and attained strength and 
 permanence. 
 
 It is said that liberty is contagious ; yet, as history 
 shows us this maxim is not without exceptions. Nations 
 have not always possessed this happiness. More aris- 
 tocracies than one have professed to care for the prin- 
 ciple of liberty, and have yet condemned their subjects 
 to an unyielding state of slavery. 
 
 As a rule this continuous state of serfdom is to be 
 found only in aristocracies in which the principle of 
 excessive centralization and government by a senate 
 existed ; for these have been able to oppose an impene- 
 trable barrier to the efforts of the people to obtain their 
 enfranchisement, or able to force their subjects into a 
 humiliating acceptance of the yoke imposed on them. 
 
 The feudal aristocracy could not effect either the one 
 or the other of these results. Its ranks were not com- 
 pact. Its power of oppression and of resistance was not 
 that of a body but that of individuals. Its oppression, if 
 more arbitrary, was less skilful. 
 
 Secure shelter from accidents and power of unwearied 
 resistance are possessed only by collective bodies. 
 
 A fortunate opportunity or an unexpected revolt com- 
 pelled a feudal lord to grant concessions. Sometimes he 
 strove to recall them, and was successful ; but on the 
 renewal of the outbreak the object of the rebellious 
 vassals was attained. 
 
 Even a king could not always remain at war with his
 
 124 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 subjects. If the rise in revolt of the inhabitants of tho 
 towns and the country against the nobility was a sudden 
 and a general one, victory, as a rule, fell to the nobility ; 
 for, being constrained to act together, the compactness of 
 their opposition gave them an advantage. 
 
 But where the resistance was not at one point but 
 many, and was local, the chances of success were greater ; 
 and this was the kind of resistance that the feudal aris- 
 tocracy provoked. And it provoked it more than any 
 other aristocracy did, because of its personal and ever- 
 present tyranny. At the same time it was far less 
 capable of overcoming the resistance. 
 
 Moreover, the feudal aristocracy was no longer pos- 
 sessed of that power of degrading the people, and re- 
 taining them in a state of apathy and moral depravity, 
 which a despotic government and aristocratic senates 
 have so often acquired. 
 
 Under no form of administration, and at no period, has 
 the condition of man worn such a hard and contemptible 
 appearance as under the feudal rule ; and yet the in- 
 stinctive appreciation of law, and the sentiment of man's 
 dignity, were stirred into life and strengthened under 
 this rule; and that not in the minds of the individual 
 possessors of fiefs only, but among the vassals also. 
 
 This sentiment of dignity a people may lose when 
 under the yoke of a despot, surrounded with all the in- 
 fluence derivable from superstitious awe, and with all 
 the attractions offered by a dazzling superiority enhanced 
 by the possession of unlimited power. 
 
 A conquered people may be reduced to hopeless 
 humiliation under the sway of a governing body acting in
 
 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 125 
 
 unity, and so enabled to compel obedience in every part 
 of its territory and over each one of its subjects. Their 
 intelligence, as well as their existence, succumbs to such 
 a pressure, and the complete submission to servitude is 
 the natural legitimate consequence of such a state. 
 
 But when the authority in power is not merely a 
 solitary individual, but is one who is close at hand, when 
 it cannot appeal to a sacred source, or does not emanate 
 from a great body, when its decrees are those of one 
 person to another and direct, it has no such means as 
 other governing bodies have of destroying every instinct 
 of resistance and every craving for freedom ; for no man 
 ever assents to absolute humiliation at the hands of a 
 being of whom, when the two meet face to face, the one 
 thinks he sees in the other an equal. 
 
 Such was the position of the feudal aristocracy. It 
 was oppressive, but not very imposing. It was armed 
 with sufficient force to disperse mere peasants, but 
 divested of all that prestige which in the person of an 
 absolute monarch strikes awe into his inferiors. 
 
 In the eleventh century noble families had as yet no 
 existence. The proprietors of fiefs could not in support 
 of their claims to rule appeal to the privilege of birth 
 or to the long possession of social advantages. Their 
 superiority was a fact visible and striking, but not a 
 right of ancient date and held in respect. 
 
 Thus it happened that the very freedom which they 
 themselves enjoyed was contagious, and that, in spite of 
 their brutal tyranny, the idea of personal dignity was 
 developed around them. 
 
 The burgess nay, the mere villein learnt from his
 
 126 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 lord something which he never would have learnt from 
 an aristocratic assembly or from a king ; that is, to rely 
 on his own rights and to defend them. The example 
 of freedom was close at hand, and was a personal matter, 
 just as clearly as the source of oppression. 
 
 In his relations with his own suzerain and with his 
 vassals, every lord claimed unceasingly his rights, his 
 privileges, the fulfilment of contracts or of promises. He 
 appealed to the inhabitants of his own domains to help 
 him in maintaining them, even should war be the conse- 
 quence. 
 
 These inhabitants perceived that they also might claim 
 rights or make treaties. They felt the stirring of a moral 
 life, and hardly had a century passed away when, through 
 the general movement of the commons towards enfran- 
 chisement and charters, we discover the different sets of 
 people, impatient of their old degradation, claiming and 
 retaining some dignity, some energy, under a system the 
 most arbitrary and harassing of any that the history of 
 Europe has shown us. 
 
 At the same time, and owing to other consequences 
 arising out of similar causes, feudalism opened the way 
 on every side to the progress of royalty, though still 
 exhibiting its distrust for, and still continuing its hos- 
 tility to, it. Its opposition to royalty was as devoid of 
 cohesion as was its opposition to the enfranchisement of 
 the people. 
 
 To each of these opposing elements a senate or council 
 might have presented a firm and solid front, acting con- 
 tinuously, animated by a united spirit, and aiming at one 
 special object.
 
 X1SE OF FEUDALISM. 127 
 
 But feudalism was only able to confront the crown 
 and the people with separate individual resistance, or 
 with coalitions possessing little if any real unity, and 
 little if any duration. 
 
 The progressive development of French monarchy is 
 not the result of any political movement or the contest of 
 a central power with an aristocracy defending and losing 
 its liberties. 
 
 It is a series of victories, the war of one prince against 
 other princes defending and losing their states. It is 
 exactly here, says M. Guizot, that the fundamental 
 difference between France and England is to be seen, 
 a difference that had an abiding influence on the fortunes 
 of the two countries. 
 
 The English Barons were never mere aristocrats. 
 They preserved their rights, and imposed institutions on 
 their sovereigns. 
 
 In the eleventh century France was covered with king- 
 doms whose rulers were conquered, and in their fall lost 
 everything. Feudal relations and feudal duties were the 
 sole tie which united these various princes, and prevented 
 them from being completely isolated ; thus the co- 
 existence of these princes on French soil was little more 
 than the phantom of an aristocratic federation. But this 
 connection by its very nature turned out a gain not to the 
 aristocracy but to royalty. 
 
 Every aristocratic body is really an association of indi- 
 viduals on a footing of equality. On this footing stood 
 the Patricians of Rome and of Venice, and the Barons 
 of England. The firm union of these forces derived its 
 source from their position and from their rights.
 
 128 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 
 
 Ill France the feudal aristocracy was only a hierarchy 
 of superiors and inferiors. A hierarchy founded on tho 
 possession of reciprocal rights and duties, and sustained 
 by generous sentiments, but incapable of acquiring the 
 consistency of a political corporation owing to the in- 
 tense individualism that pervaded every part of its 
 system. 1 
 
 At length, when the king was placed at the head of 
 this confederation, whose dominant principle was isola- 
 tion and inequality, he became the centre of all feudal 
 obligations, the most distinct and visible object of fealty 
 and devotion. 
 
 From that moment feudalism was conquered, and 
 showed clearly its true character. It is evident that its 
 sole use was in affording to social life its first step out of 
 barbarism, but it was totally incompatible with the 
 progress of civilization. It carried in its bosom the germ 
 of no public lasting institution. It wanted the principle 
 of every other form of government, aristocratic or other- 
 wise, and in its fall it left a class of nobles round the 
 throne aristocrats above the people, but no aristocracy 
 in the state ; and this, adds M. Guizot, is what happened 
 throughout the whole of Europe save in England, whose 
 destiny was an entirely different one, owing to causes 
 that were utterly unconnected with any feudal form of 
 government. 
 
 1 See as to this M. J. Matt'.r " De 1'iufluence des mceurs sur lea 
 lois," livre ii. ch. xix. p. 262 (ed. 1843).
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 CIVILIZATION AND SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The History of the Progress of Civilization in England from the 
 Earliest Times to the Norman Conquest From the Immigra- 
 tions of the First Settlers down to the Eoman Invasion The 
 Roman Conquest and Settlement Some of the Results of the 
 Roman Settlement noticed The Anglo-Saxon Period War 
 between the Angles and the Saxons The Reigns of Edwin, 
 Penda, and Offa referred to. 
 
 I HAVE now brought the inquiry into the rise and pro- 
 gress of social life in England down to the introduction 
 and establishment of feudalism. Hitherto my aim has 
 been to show you the history of social life in other parts 
 of Europe than our own country, and in doing this I have 
 endeavoured to place before you its various fate and 
 fortune, and its shifting aspect from the fall of the 
 Roman Empire down to the eleventh century. 
 
 The way has been cleared for the examination of the 
 subject so far as England is concerned, and my lectures 
 now will be directed to the history of civilization in 
 England from the earliest times down to the Norman 
 Conquest. 
 
 The authorities I shall have occasion to refer to are 
 
 such as will, I think, throw most valuable light upon 
 
 many obscure portions of early English history ; and the 
 
 researches which these authorities have made into the old 
 
 A. L. l *' J K
 
 130 EARLY BRITISH LIFE. 
 
 documents, historical and legal, have given an immense 
 advantage to the student of the present day. 
 
 We can never be too grateful for the valuable results 
 of the labour and study of the men I speak of Kemble, 
 Palgrave, Lappenberg, Guizot, Freeman, Green, Stubbs, 
 Maine, and Pearson. 
 
 I divide the history of civilization and social life in 
 England into four parts. The first embraces the period 
 of time between the earliest immigrations of the Teutonic 
 occupiers and the invasion of England by the Romans. 
 The second occupies the period covered by the Roman 
 Conquest; the third embraces the Anglo-Saxon period, 
 and the fourth the Norman settlement consequent on the 
 victory at Hastings, or, to use its other name, Senlac. 
 
 I am not proposing to narrate the general history of 
 England. My theme, as I have stated above, is the rise 
 and progress of its social life. Therefore I shall not go 
 into the question of how this country was originally 
 occupied, nor shall I describe at length its physical aspect 
 in what may be called pre-historic times. 1 It will be 
 sufficient if I state that, after the first settlement here of 
 an old Mongolian set of colonists, roaming over the land 
 with flocks and herds, and exhibiting but little advance 
 in civilization a race, as some think, of dwarfs, using 
 bone implements at first, and later on stone-tipped and 
 horn ones, and waging war with the wild beasts of the 
 forest, or harpooning the whale there came into the land 
 a Keltic race. Then from time to time arrived adven- 
 
 1 As to this, the reader is referred to " The Making of England," 
 by the late Mr. J. E. Green, Introduction, pp. 1-21.
 
 EARLY BRITISH LIFE. 131 
 
 turers from Gaul, whether Belgae, Cenimagni, Iceni, or 
 Simeni, leaving to this day some trace of their existence 
 in this land in names familiar to us, as e.g., Tamar, 
 London, Arwystli, and settling down through the country 
 in clans or tribes, with a chief and his kindred, druids 
 or a priestly caste, bards half-priestly in character, fight- 
 ing men, a labouring population, and a distinct body of 
 slaves, formed partly out of the conquered inhabitants, 
 the old occupants, and partly out of prisoners taken in 
 war. 1 
 
 These were our British ancestors, weak and impulsive, 
 but not devoid of intelligence. Regarding their women 
 with respect, and even with some degree of reverence, 
 they allowed them to enjoy political influence and dignity. 
 Their ideas of moral purity were not of the highest class. 
 
 A portion of them, according to Caesar's account, were 
 unacquainted with tillage at the time of his landing. 
 The most civilized seem to have used coined money, and 
 to have been able to work tin and lead mines. They 
 made bronze, fashioned jet into shape, cemented stones 
 by glazing, used wicker work, made coracles and war 
 chariots, ornamented their arms, and dressed the clay soil 
 with lime. 
 
 So they were above the condition of mere wild savages, 
 were not averse from commerce with Gaul in glass vessels 
 and trinkets ; they burnt their dead, threw them into a 
 circular pit, raising a large stone as a monument over the 
 chief. 
 
 1 I have taken this description, and what follows, mainly from Mr. 
 C. H. Pearson's " History of England," vol. i. ch. i.
 
 132 EARLY BRITISH LIFE. 
 
 Of their earliest homes, some were in islands formed 
 of piles driven into the bottom of a bog or river, and 
 connected by a causeway with the land. The stronger 
 and more warlike tribes secured themselves from surprise 
 in townships or camps, possessing the natural advantage 
 of hill, forest, or marsh, and defended with felled timber 
 and a ditch. 
 
 Their villages were circles of huts hollowed out of 
 the hill or heath, the sides were wattled, and the roofs 
 thatched. Here and there, in places where there was 
 better culture, circular-shaped houses were constructed, 
 with low stone walls, conical shingle roofs, and a single 
 arched entrance, which served for window as well as door. 
 
 Their food was parched peas or grain, and the flesh 
 of the animals they caught. They were huntsmen and 
 fishermen of necessity, using trained dogs in the pursuit 
 of their game, amusing themselves by way of play with 
 something like ninepins. 
 
 To complete the details of this picture, we may imagine 
 a British chief, says Pearson, with his " glib of matted 
 chestnut hair and moustache, broad-chested, long-armed, 
 high-cheekboned, with plaid thrown loosely about him, 
 living among his clan in patriarchal fashion, with fight- 
 ing men ready to do his will, and with none to share his 
 power save the druid and the bard." 
 
 As to his religious faith, he believed in a human 
 personality that would outlast the body, but also held 
 the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. In his eyes 
 many of our common animals were sacred. He reverenced 
 the mistletoe, found omens in the voices of birds and 
 horses, propitiated his gods with the blood of men, consult-
 
 THE ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 133 
 
 ing the quivering entrails to learn his destiny. Looking 
 on the astral influences that presided at his birth as 
 affecting his life, he was subject to sudden fits of despon- 
 dency, succeeding bursts of courage ; and in the belief 
 that the stars of heaven were fighting against him, he 
 submitted to defeat as coming from a higher power than 
 man. 1 
 
 Such were the men, and such their condition of life 
 and civilization, at the time when Caesar and his fleet in 
 August (B.C. 55) appeai-ed in the bay of Dover. 
 
 Of that expedition I say no more than that it was 
 practically a failure. In the following year the invasion 
 was repeated, with somewhat more success, but without 
 the result of conquest, for no Roman soldiers set foot 
 in Britain again for one hundred years. And so I pass 
 over the defeat of Caractacus by Paulinus at the Island 
 of Mona (Anglesea), A.D. 61, and the consequent disap- 
 pearance of Druidism as a historical religion, as well 
 as the defeat and death of Boadicea, a little later, by 
 Suetonius. I do not dwell on the government of Britain 
 by Caius Julius Agricola (A.D. 78-86), nor do I dwell on 
 the final success of the Emperor Severus (about A.D. 190) 
 at the Frith of Cromarty. 
 
 It is sufficient to say that Britain now became a Roman 
 province, at first for a century administered by a single 
 prefect, afterwards by two prefects, and then by a 
 vicarins (an officer of high rank, invested with legislative 
 as well as administrative powers), under whom were five 
 prefects, acting as heads of five provinces. 
 
 1 Pearson's " History of England," vol. i. ch. i. pp. 17-21.
 
 134 THE ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The Roman rule lasted down to the end of the first 
 quarter of the fifth century, when the native tribes, the 
 foreign settlers, and the Roman colonists in the towns 
 were left to their own fate, without an army, without 
 imperial taxes, and without any central government. 
 
 Now what effect had this Roman rule upon the social 
 life and the civilization of England ? 
 
 Looking at the question with reference to national 
 identity, to formation of national character, or to racial 
 changes, the answer is little or none ; for the English 
 nation, in its later and stronger development, is, as I 
 shall presently show, " of distinctly Teutonic or German 
 origin, owing its beginning of life to the Angles, Jutes, 
 and Saxons, the immigrants into Britain of the fifth 
 century, who formed portions of the tribes of Lower 
 Germany, which had been the least affected in any way 
 by Roman influences." 1 
 
 Whatever variations of physical and mental character- 
 istics have been in progress in England, they are the 
 work of a period of time dating, not from Roman days, 
 but from the eleventh century, and are the consequences 
 of the intermixture of English and German types, not of 
 Roman and British blood. "From the Briton and the 
 Roman of the fifth century we have received nothing. 
 Our whole internal history testifies unmistakably to our 
 inheritance of Teutonic institutions from the first immi- 
 grants after the cessation of Roman administration." l 
 
 But if we discuss the question from the side of other 
 
 1 "Documents Illustrative of English History," by W. Stubbs, 
 M.A. ; edition 1880, part i. p. 1.
 
 THE ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 135 
 
 influences than those above mentioned, the answer is a 
 different one ; for the Roman occupation has left distinct 
 marks, and has worked influences that can hardly be 
 over-rated. To these I will briefly advert. 
 
 According to a writer, whose early death is as much to 
 be deplored as his reputation for sound learning, ample 
 research, acute discrimination, and admirable style stands 
 deservedly high (I mean Mr. Gi'een), the only influence 
 of Roman Britain on New England was exhibited in three 
 lines : (1) that of giving limits to the country; (2) that 
 of determining the bounds of kingdoms and tribes ; and 
 (3) that of acting upon the social settlement. 1 In every 
 other way, says Mr. Green, Roman life disappeared. 
 
 So it did certainly ; but these three lines upon which 
 Roman life ran, in its alteration and amelioration of 
 British social life, are important ones. In themselves 
 they would be strong marks of the genius of a colonizing 
 people. But there are other influences for good which 
 the Roman conquerors left behind them, and which to 
 this day are visible. 
 
 The first of these is in a direction that is especially 
 Roman, and that was road-making. In the making of 
 these roads, the materials that came first to hand were 
 used gravel and stone, if they could be procured, if 
 not, any other stuff that would serve the purpose of the 
 makers. Although not resting on stone or concrete (as 
 was the custom near Rome), nor framed with the same 
 massive solidity as the roads in the neighbourhood of 
 that city, yet so sound was the work and so skilful was 
 
 1 " Making of England," ch. ir. p. 147.
 
 136 THE ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the design, that even to this day the traces of the old 
 Roman roads in Britain can be distinctly seen. 
 
 Two great roads connected London with the lines of 
 Hadrian, one going westward to Chester, turning east 
 to York, and then going west to Bowness. This is the 
 famous Watling Street. In Anglo-Saxon times it was 
 one of the king's roads, and is familiar by name at least 
 to the readers of " Ivanhoe." A second road went north 
 from London, through Bedfordshire to York, afterwards 
 called Ermine Street, and still visible near Hitchin in 
 Hertfordshire, and on the Gogmagog Hills in Cambridge- 
 shire. A third passed through Colchester, Cambridge, 
 and Lincoln, turned off to York, and then ran eastward 
 to the Wall. Akeman Street connected Bath, through 
 Speen and Wallingford, with London. The Fosse Way 
 and the Ryknild Way connected Lincoln and York with 
 Bath and with the Severn. Roads radiated in different 
 directions to Southampton, Salisbury, and Exeter; and 
 from Canterbury to Richborough, Dover, and Lymne. 1 
 
 From a military point of view, a complete intersection 
 of a country by the formation of roads, it need hardly 
 be said, is of the first importance in the settlement of 
 such a tract of land as Britain presented to her Roman 
 invaders. But from the side of social progress and 
 civilizing influences, road-making is a factor of no slight 
 weight. 
 
 1 Pearson's "History of England," vol. i. pp. 40-42. For the 
 number and the lines of route of the Eoman roads, as well as for 
 the names of the stations on them, see Pearson's Historical Maps, 
 " Britannia Romana."
 
 THE ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 137 
 
 In the first place, the country along the line of ronte 
 becomes settled, then villages and towns appear, and 
 within their boundaries trade and commerce grow into 
 life, followed by law and order, by civil administration 
 and wealth. In the next place, the inhabitants are 
 brought together, natives and settlers see and learn to 
 understand one another ; and thus is produced a har- 
 mony which, as the progress of settlement expands, tends 
 to develop good-will, intelligence, and the more humane 
 instincts consequent on moral improvements. 
 
 Now this is very much what took place in Britain 
 during the fourth century. 
 
 The first half of the fourth century is chiefly remark- 
 able in Britain on account of the harmony with which 
 the natives and the Romans, as well as other settlers, 
 united in the arts of peace. 
 
 The cultivation of grain had been carried to such a 
 height that Britain became the granary of the northern 
 provinces of the Empire, and by yearly exports supplied 
 other countries with food, to its own material benefit. 
 
 Civic establishments were so flourishing, that builders 
 and other artificers were sent for from Britain, in order 
 to give the aid of their skill to the restoration of the 
 desolated provinces. 
 
 Imperial Rome in the period of full vigour, however 
 greedy of conquest she was, knew well how to confirm 
 her victories and to settle her conquests. Among other 
 factors in the production of firm and orderly government, 
 with its civilizing influences, none was looked on with 
 more favour or carried out with more determination and 
 care than road-making.
 
 138 THE ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 But besides road-making, there was another very im- 
 portant factor in the work of social progress in Britain : 
 that was the establishment of a complete system of organ- 
 ization in all the towns throughout the five provinces 
 into which Britain was divided. 
 
 Modelled exactly upon the lines prescribed in the 
 civil jurisprudence of Rome, the Roman-British towns, 
 although not in any sense of the term centres of corpo- 
 rate life, self-governing communities of citizens, yet were, 
 as the representatives of law and systematic government, 
 elements in the spread of civilization. 
 
 Annexed to them, and presided over by special magis- 
 trates and district prefects, the country districts (pagi) 
 in their turn received the ameliorating touch of order 
 and local government. The cultivation of the land was 
 regulated by law ; markets and fairs were instituted 
 (held commonly on Sundays), trade expanded, and even 
 some notion 'of a national life was started. 
 
 By means of the roads (constructed originally for the 
 passage of troops) highways of trade were opened up. 
 By means of military colonies, schools of municipal or- 
 ganization and law appeared, and out of the decurional 
 system of town and village government grew the Saxon 
 gemots and the idea of parliamentary life. 
 
 I do not know that you will find a better summary of 
 the effect of the Roman occupation upon the economical 
 and moral conditions of life in Britain than that given 
 by Mr. Pearson. Therefore I end this part of my survey 
 with the following extract : l 
 
 1 Pearson's "History of Englaud," vol. i. ch. ir. p. 55.
 
 THE ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 139 
 
 " To sum up all these, the occupation of Britain by the 
 Romans was like the French colonization of Algeria, with 
 the differences of a long and short tenure. The govern- 
 ment was military and municipal, the conquerors unsym- 
 pathetic and hard. But the peace which they enforced 
 favoured commerce, and the mines which they developed 
 were prolific in salt, iron, tin, and lead. 
 
 " They burned coal where wood was scanty in the 
 north, and in one instance carried a mine under water. 
 
 " Under Julian (A.D. 358) 800 vessels were employed in 
 the corn trade between the English coasts and the Roman 
 colonies on the Rhine. 
 
 " Before Caesar's time even the beech and the fir had 
 been unknown in our forests, and the apple, the nut, and 
 the raspberry were probably the chief of our native fruits. 
 The better half of our common trees from the cherry 
 to the chestnut are of Roman origin ; the vine and the 
 fig tree were introduced and maintained themselves ; the 
 pea, the radish, and other common vegetables were then 
 added to the garden, and it is even possible that it is 
 to Rome we owe the rose, the lily, and the pa3ony. 
 
 " The mule and pigeon followed the track of the Roman 
 legions. Yet a country life was not that to which the 
 Roman colonist generally inclined. He was rather a 
 dweller in towns, a trader, and a builder, and he scattered 
 cities broadcast over the island. 
 
 " The splendour of Roman remains attracted attention 
 in the twelfth century, when the grass was growing over 
 them, and generations had already quartered in them 
 for homes. Above all, those numerous cities had been 
 centres of Roman polity and law. These influences can
 
 140 THE ROMANS IN ENGLAND. 
 
 hardly be over-rated, nor can it be doubted that many 
 of them remained and even gathered strength where all 
 seemed to be swept away. For good or for evil, England 
 was henceforth a part of the European commonwealth 
 of nations ; sharing that commerce, for want of which 
 Ireland remained barbarous ; sharing the alliances, for 
 disregarding which the Saxon dynasty perished; pene- 
 trated by ideas which have connected the people in every 
 historical struggle in the Crusades and French wars with 
 the sympathies and hopes of other men." 
 
 In the year 406 A.D. the Roman legions were for a 
 second time since the conquest withdrawn by the Emperor 
 Honorius. They returned for a short stay, in the hope 
 of making head against the inroads of the Picts and Scots ; 
 but in spite of a transient success, they were recalled to 
 Gaul and Italy in order to repel invaders and insurgents 
 in those regions. 
 
 In A.D. 446, in reply to the supplicating embassy of the 
 Britons, ^}tius was unable to give help, and thus before 
 the fifth century was closed Britain no longer formed a 
 part of Roman dominion, and was left to its fate. 
 
 Henceforth a new era begins, and British life ceasing 
 to exist under the constant immigrations of Angles, Jutes, 
 Saxons, and other Germanic and northern incomers, 
 changed from Keltic, British, or Roman forms to Teutonic. 
 
 The Briton disappears, the Anglo-Saxon takes his place, 
 and the language, the form of life, the habits and the 
 customs of the country, begin to assume a shape that 
 lasted from the seventh to the eleventh century. 
 
 Early in the seventh century the subjugation of the 
 Britons by the Angles and Saxons was complete, and
 
 THE TEUTONIC IMMIGRATION. 141 
 
 British nationality gave way to the Teutonic element that 
 had thus been introduced. 
 
 England was then broken up into little kingdoms, each 
 having a chief potentate as lord paramount ; for gradually 
 the counties became absorbed into provinces, and the 
 provinces into kingdoms. 
 
 Inasmuch, then, as the conquest of the island was 
 achieved by two great races of Teutonic origin, these two 
 races divided it. In the north and east the Angles settled 
 and ruled ; in the south the Saxons. 
 
 Still the influence of Rome remained in one of the lines 
 in which, as Mr. Green has pointed out, its influence was 
 permanent, for the old Roman limits were preserved in 
 those of the three great sovereignties which successively 
 rose and fell in England. The Anglian province of Deira 
 corresponded to the Roman Maxima Cffisariensis. The 
 Saxon province of Wessex, including Kent, corresponded 
 to the Roman Britannia Prima, and the Mercian kingdom 
 under Offa in the Midlands and Easterns corresponded 
 to the Roman Flavia Cassariensis. 
 
 Between the Angles and the Saxons a war for 
 sovereignty was waged, as clearly marked as it was 
 important in its results. Not a bloody and bitter one 
 (as Mr. Pearson notes), 1 nor envenomed by the contempt 
 of the strong for the weak, but one that lasted till the 
 coming of the Danes, explaining why the Danes were 
 able to plant themselves, with a hearty acceptance from 
 the people, in the Anglian districts, explaining also the 
 weakness of England under every sovereign until the 
 
 1 Pearson's " History of England," vol. i. ch. ix. p. 136.
 
 142 THE ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOM. EDWIN. 
 
 Norman yoke and the Norman nobility welded Angle and 
 Dane and Saxon into Englishmen. 
 
 Now, because (as I have before said) I am not narrat- 
 ing the genei'al history of England, but am only engaged 
 upon an inquiry into the fate and fortune of its social 
 life, I shall not attempt to describe the events that led 
 to the establishment of an Anglo-Saxon kingdom and to 
 its displacement by a Norman power. I will only advert, 
 with all brevity, to a few leading facts. 
 
 The first king of any note in England was a king of 
 Kent, succeeded by kings of Northumbria. Under tlio 
 Northumbi-ian Edwin (A.D. 626) the forces of Wessex 
 were crushed and five of their princes slain. 
 
 This victory, acting upon the remembrance of a vision 
 in which Edwin, at a time of extreme danger and de- 
 spondency, -had been assured of help by a strange and 
 mysterious visitant if he would hear and obey the doc- 
 trines of life and salvation better and more efficacious 
 than any his relatives had ever heard, coupled with the 
 exhortations of the Christian missionary Paulinus, stirred 
 in Edwin's mind a desire for the new faith, and on an 
 appeal to his friends and the witan, the scene took place 
 which I have elsewhere narrated. 1 The result was the 
 renunciation of idolatry by the king and the people, and 
 the establishment of the Christian worship, followed by 
 the erection of York into an archiepiscopal see. 
 
 But the comforting assurances of the mysterious visi- 
 tant and the prayers of Paulinus were unfortunately not 
 attended with continued prosperity. Seven years later 
 
 1 See as to this, Appendix, Note G.
 
 / 
 
 THE ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOM. FEND A. 143 
 
 Edwin was dofeate-\ and slain at the great battle of Hat- 
 field, in Yorkshire } by the Saxons of Mercia and Wessex 
 under Fenda. 
 
 Penda, pagan a,s he was, was not intolerant. He allowed 
 the Christian converts to remain in their new faith, but 
 compelled ther u to live up to the standard they professed. 1 
 
 For more t^aan twenty years Penda waged a successful 
 war, but at \ast lost life and fortune in the battle near 
 Win \vood (A. D . 655). 
 
 Edwin's reign ought not to be passed by without a few 
 words of Notice, as bearing upon that subject with which 
 I am principally concerned, viz., the development of social 
 life in Pjngland. 
 
 The close of his reign is noteworthy on account of the 
 unification of the community, of their gathering into a 
 single people. For in the place of the three great groups 
 southern, midland, and northern there was formed, 
 under Edwin as king, a single English people. 3 
 
 Bu,j then, as Mr. Green points out, he was a king 
 superior to all who had preceded him in his aptitude and 
 genius for civil government. 3 "A woman," said the old 
 pr-bverb, " with her babe might walk scatheless from sea 
 to sea in Edwin's days." In his choice of York as the 
 Capital of his kingdom and seat of his council, he dis- 
 played his sound sense as well as his thorough apprecia- 
 tion of local advantages. 
 
 1 See Bede's "Ecclesiastical History," ch. xxi. p. 144 (Bohn's 
 Antiq. Library). 
 
 2 Bede, book ii. ch. ix. p. 83 (Bohn's Antiq. Library). 
 
 3 " Making of England," ch. vi. p. 259.
 
 144 EDWIN. 1NE AND <~-)FFA. 
 
 Last of all, by his conversion to C^' 'istianity, and the 
 efforts he made to extend the moral g^ > iS to be obtained 
 from its tenets, he helped on a work which, some ten 
 years later, was taken in hand by Theodore of Tarsus, 
 and which, though devised principally for the immediate 
 advantage of the ecclesiastical body, was indirectly ad- 
 vantageous to the national council, the Witenagemot, 
 owing to the introduction of the forms a. n d decencies 
 of the ecclesiastical councils into the meetings o f the 
 nation. 
 
 As a ruler, as an administrator, and as an ei^jghtened 
 Englishman, Edwin played his part well in the develop- 
 ment of civilization and social life in England. 
 
 From the death of Penda a long war, or rathei* series 
 of wars, followed until (in A.D. 686-697) the roy^l li ne 
 of Wessex succeeded in obtaining the supremacy., an d, 
 in its King Ine, a legislator as well as a general came 
 to the front, whose laws survive to this day, exhi'oitinc* 
 his wisdom as a maker of law and his desire to do 'even- 
 handed justice to all, British as well as Saxon. 
 
 From the reign of Ine, when Anglo-Saxon royalty ; ia d 
 ' its actual beginning, down to that of Offa (A.D. 757), ti ie 
 process of settlement went on, though not without revolt 
 and bloodshed. 
 
 Offa ruled for forty years, and his reign is the first real 
 / orderly epoch in Anglo-Saxon history. 
 
 Under his sway the country may be said to have taken 
 rank as a single power with the states of the Continent. 
 
 The reign of Offa is remarkable for more incidents than 
 one, and certainly may be regarded as an eventful period 
 in the advance of English civilization and social life. By
 
 KINGS INE AND OFFA, 145 
 
 him the Church order was remodelled, Church discipline 
 was reformed, and the Church lands were distributed. 
 A contemporary of the great Charlemagne, he carried 
 on diplomatic intercourse with that renowned monarch. 
 He was a patron of men of letters, 1 as well as a friend 
 and supporter of learning. By his intercourse with the 
 papal power in Italy, and with the Frankish court under 
 Charlemagne, Offa brought his countrymen into connec- 
 tion with lands more advanced in civilization than their 
 own, thus lifting them out of their former obscurity, and 
 giving them an insight into the life, manners, and range 
 of thought of a broader type and more cultivated 
 character. 2 
 
 1 Two of these, the friends of Charlemagne, are specially deserving 
 of notice Alcuin and John Scotus (Scotus Erigena). 
 
 2 See Green's " Making of England," ch. viii. pp. 418-425, and 
 Pearson's " History of England," vol. i. ch. ix. pp. 142-146 See also 
 " The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," from A.D. 755 to A.D. 794 (at pp. 
 338-342 in Bohn's Antiq. Library). 
 
 A. L.
 
 LECTUEE IX. 
 
 KING ALFRED. 
 
 Alfred and the Special Benefits conferred by him upon the Political 
 and Social Life of England Anglo-Saxon Nationality: its 
 Characteristic Features The King, the Witenagemot, the Shire- 
 Moot, the Hundred-Moot Mode of Life among the Anglo-Saxons 
 The Eorl, the Ceorl, the Laet, the Theowna The Eights and 
 Privileges of Royalty. 
 
 IN my last lecture I was speaking about the events of the 
 reigns of Edwin and Offa. I shall commence this one 
 with some further remarks of one to whom learning, 
 social advancement, law, and political energy in Saxon 
 England owe as much as to any ruler one whom no 
 Englishman deserving of the name ought to forget, or 
 to speak of without the admiration that his many virtues 
 and excellences have deserved. I mean Alfred. 
 
 As a patron of learning he stands high in the roll of 
 fame. Though apparently uneducated in his youth, 1 he 
 strove with all his power to elevate and enlarge the 
 intellectual and mental qualities of his subjects. He 
 attracted to his court scholars from Old Saxony, from 
 
 1 See as to this, Asser (ed. Wise), cited by Mr. Pearson, " History of 
 England," vol. i. p. 176, note 2. In later years " he taught himself 
 Latin, and was able to render Latin books into the English tongue." 
 See Green's " Conquest of England," ch. iv. p. 158, citing in note 1 
 Pauli, " Life of Alfred," p. 168. 
 
 146
 
 KING ALFRED. 147 
 
 Gaul, and from Ireland. He founded schools at Shaftes- 
 bnry and Athelney, and at Oxford also. If we are to 
 believe tradition, he busied himself in the furtherance 
 of translations of the literary works of other lands. To 
 him the Saxon of his day owed an acquaintance with 
 Orosius's "History of the World," Bede's "History of 
 the Anglo-Saxon Church," Boethius's " Consolation of 
 Philosophy," Gregory's " Pastoral Book." To him also 
 later generations are indebted for the Chronicles of the 
 contemporary events of his reign in the Saxon tongue. 
 
 As a lawgiver, he distinguished the great principles 
 of law from the local customs that modified the applica- 
 tion of those principles, in the code wherein is developed 
 the conception of a State as an ideal commonwealth; 
 wherein the right living of man is upheld as the primary 
 object of good government ; wherein also are set down 
 the general principles of the English law; wherein the 
 right of fend is confined within just limits ; and wherein 
 the powers of the courts of justice are extended. 
 
 As a political administrator, he so used the poor re- 
 sources of his country as to enlarge his dominion, to 
 exact an honourable peace for his countrymen, to extend 
 the maritime defences of the island, and to bring out the 
 fact that Britain can and ought to rely upon and maintain 
 its firm hold of the seas surrounding its shores. 
 
 Clear-headed and economical in the distribution of the 
 country's resources, he raised revenue, and used it for 
 the benefit of his countrymen. 
 
 Just in all his dealings, and thoroughly acquainted 
 with every portion of his kingdom, he impressed on his 
 subjects the lesson that a king, even in those times of
 
 148 KING ALFRED. 
 
 warfare and exaction, may be something more than the 
 wearer of a crown, that he may aspire to be regarded 
 with veneration as the father of his country. 
 
 There is a fine passage in Mr. Pearson's " History of 
 England," wherein the merits of Alfred are well and 
 tersely stated. 1 I refer my readers to it, contenting 
 myself with this short extract : " His character was of 
 that sterling conservative type which bases itself upon 
 old facts, but accepts new facts as a reason for change. 
 . . . The watchwords of modern democracy would 
 have sounded strangely in his ears." 
 
 Looking at him from all sides of his character, it must 
 be acknowledged that his tact, his statesmanship, the 
 energy of his mind and the goodness of his heart, won 
 for him a success, and have given him a fame, far beyond 
 those of any other ruler than the great Charlemagne. 
 
 We have now come to the period of time in our history 
 when the Anglo-Saxon nationality makes its appearance. 
 Of it, its characteristic features, and its effect upon the 
 social life of England, I shall speak. 
 
 In every respect it was different from aught that Eng- 
 land had hitherto seen. The Briton had long vanished, 
 and with him had departed the tribe or clan life which 
 had marked his presence. The Roman, with his unyield- 
 ing claim of power and stern discipline, his careful admi- 
 nistration, his aptitude for and belief in law, his military 
 
 1 "History of England," vol. i. ch. xi. pp. 179-181. See also 
 Green's "The Conquest of England," ch. iv. pp. 187, 188. Hal- 
 lam's "Middle Ages," vol. ii. ch. viii. p. 285, edition 1853, and 
 Lappenberg's "Anglo-Saxon Kings," vol. ii. ch. v., edition 1884 
 (Bell & Sons).
 
 ANGLO-SAXON NATIONALITY. 149 
 
 skill and knowledge, and his intensely centralizing 
 inclination, had disappeared; and now, after years of 
 predatory incursions and devastating warfare, a nation- 
 ality totally different, as I have said, from anything 
 preceding it, and distinctly Teutonic, made Avhat once 
 was British or Roman-British English. 
 
 Its differentiating marks are not hard to seize. They 
 stand out clearly in the history of the people. 1 In the 
 first place we have a nation with a king at its head, not 
 a supreme lawgiver, nor the fountain of justice, nor the 
 irresponsible leader, nor the sole and supreme politician, 
 nor the primary landowner, but the head of the race, . 
 the chosen representative of its identity, the successful 
 leader of its enterprises, the president of its assemblies, 
 created by it, and answerable to his people. 
 
 He is the national representative ; the national officers 
 are his officers ; he leads the army of the nation ; he is 
 supreme judge. In each capacity his power is limited by 
 a council of free advisers, and he is bound by his oath to 
 his people to govern ivell, to maintain religion, peace, and jus- 
 tice, they being bound to him by a general oath of fidelity. 2 
 
 To assist the king in the work of administration, a 
 council meets called the Witenagemot, or Witan, whose 
 members are the princes, the wise men, the counts and 
 the councillors of royalty, the bishops, the ealdormen, and 
 the king's thegns. 
 
 1 See "English Constitutional History," by W. Stubbs, M.A. ; 
 edition 1870 ; part i. pp. 8-12. 
 
 2 For an exemplification of this, see the preamble to the laws of 
 Ine (A.D. circa 690), Wessex, at p. 208 inf.
 
 150 THE WITENAGEMOT. 
 
 On greater matters the princes consult, on smaller ones 
 all. The plebs or " folk " have no admission to or voice 
 in this council, for their court is a different one, as I shall 
 presently show. 
 
 The Witan have the right, where they are able, of 
 electing and deposing kings. Together with the king, 
 they nominate ealdormen and bishops ; they regulate the 
 transfer of public lands, impose taxes, vote supplies, and 
 so decide peace and war ; they authorise the enforcement 
 of ecclesiastical decrees, join in making laws, and sit as 
 a high court of justice over all persons and causes. 1 
 
 As to the taxation, this is not very troublesome work, 
 for the " trinoda necessitas " 2 and the rents of public 
 lands for a long time provide all the necessary expenses of 
 government. Beyond this, no taxation is imposed save on 
 extraordinary occasions, e.g., the Danegeld 3 and the Ship- 
 geld. 4 As to legislation, this is concerned principally 
 in minute adjustments and modifications of customs. 
 
 Besides the Witenagemot, there are other councils, of 
 minor standing, but of considerable importance and value 
 for the special work assigned to them. 
 
 These councils depend on the territorial divisions of 
 
 1 For a valuable dissertation on " The Origin and Powers of the 
 Witenagemot," I refer my readers to Professor Freeman's " History 
 of the Norman Conquest " (third edition, revised 1877), vol. i. ch. iii. 
 3, pp. 100-117. 
 
 2 That was moneys levied Ly way of contribution to the military 
 expeditions, to the repair of fortresses and of bridges. 
 
 8 A tax of two shillings on evfiry hide of land as a bribe to the 
 Danes. 
 
 4 A contribution of a ship and its equipments levied on the shires, 
 in order to resist the Danes.
 
 THE HUNDRED-MOOT. 151 
 
 the whole country. The lowest of all, where the ttnit 
 is the township, is the hundred-moot, assigned for the 
 hundred or wapentake, 1 composed of a cluster of towns 
 presided over by a hundred-man, who is generally elected, 
 but sometimes nominated by the noble or prelate to whom 
 the hundred belongs. 
 
 His duty is to call the hundred together, to lead them 
 to the host, or to the hue and cry, or to the shire-moot. 
 He is helped by a body of freemen twelve, or a multiple 
 of twelve, who declare the report of the hundred, and 
 are capable also of declaring the law ; for questions of 
 fact are determined by compurgation and ordeal. 
 
 From the hundred-moot the appeal is to the shire-moot 2 
 or folk-moot, and, when both fail to do justice, to the 
 Witan. 
 
 In the shire- moot the unit is the hundred, a cluster of 
 hundreds making up the shire. Its magistrates are the 
 ealdormen, the sheriff, and the bishop ; its councillors 
 the thegns, who declare the report of the shire; its 
 judges are the folk assembled in the shire-moot : the 
 people, the lords of land with their stewards ; and from 
 the townships come the reeve and four men, and the 
 parish priest. 
 
 1 The wapentake (from wapen-tac, the taking or touching the 
 arms or weapons), corresponding to the hundred, was a division 
 peculiar to the north of England (Yorkshire). It took its name from 
 the ceremony which accompanied the chief magistrate, who, dis- 
 mounting from his horse, fixed his spear in the ground. This was 
 touched by the spears of all who were present. 
 
 ! Shire (scire, scir), a division, province, county, derived from 
 sciran, sceran, to clear, cut off, divide.
 
 1 52 THE SHIRE-MOOT. 
 
 So, then, you see how the progress of order has ad- 
 vanced in the country. A settled form of government, 
 in which the national and popular spirit is each of them 
 apparent, and where royalty (although at times some 
 more powerful monarch than usual may have the disposal 
 of offices and even of public land at his own will) is 
 dependent in the matter of legislation and taxation, and 
 in the execution of judgments, upon the advice and voices 
 of others. 
 
 The principle of popular representation is recognised 
 in the folk-moot, wherein all the freemen in person or by 
 representation appear. 
 
 The idea of a common national union is developed in 
 the Witan, where the ealdorman is appointed to represent 
 the freemen, and where all ranks are combined for the 
 purpose of maintaining the defence of the country. The 
 shire, led by the ealdormen ; the freemen by the sheriff ; 
 the vassals by their lords ; the tenants of the Church by 
 the bishop's reeve or the abbot's reeve all acting under 
 the ealdorman as the national leader. 
 
 Moreover, the national as well as popular feeling is 
 maintained in the execution of justice, and the securing 
 of the rights of the king or nation in the shire by the 
 sheriff. 
 
 Again, the principle of unity is further guarded by the 
 union of the shires in the kingdom, whose head is the 
 king, and whose national council is the Witenagemot. 
 
 The national organism, then, between the seventh and 
 the eleventh centuries may be thus generally described : 1 
 
 'Eugluh Constitutional History," by W. Stubbs, M.A. (Intro-
 
 THE NATIONAL ORGANISM. 153 
 
 " The people occupy settled seats ; the land is appro- 
 priated to separate townships, and in these certain 
 portions belong in entire possession to allodial owners ; 
 others are the common property of the community, and 
 there are large unappropriated estates at the disposal of 
 the nation. 
 
 " Each of these townships has an organization of its 
 own for certain purposes ; the inhabitants are united by 
 the mutual responsibility of the kindred, or of the guild, 
 or of the frithborh ; for others they are tinder the 
 authority of their reeve, who settles their petty disputes, 
 collects their contributions to the national revenue, leads 
 the effective men to the ' fyrd,' l and with his four com- 
 panions represents the township in the court of the 
 hundred or of the moot. 
 
 "The townships are not always independent. Some- 
 times they are the demesne of the lord, who is a noble 
 follower 'comes,' 'gesith,' ' thegn of the king' with 
 jurisdiction over the men of the township, and many of 
 the rights which we associate with feudalism. Where, 
 however, they are independent, the organization is of the 
 same sort, the ' reeve ' is the lord's nominee, the ' moot ' 
 
 ductory Sketch, p. 8). See also for full information as to origin, 
 development, and early history of the " Ga" or " Scir," Kemble's 
 " Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. iii. ; and for the Saxon Hundred and 
 the Saxon Shire, see Sir F. Palgrave's " Rise and Progress of the 
 English Commonwealth," vol. i. ch. iii. at pp. 96-104 and pp. 
 116-119. 
 
 1 "Fyrd," the duty of military service for the defence of the 
 country. Refusal to attend or neglect to attend this gathering ren- 
 dered the defaulter liable to fine and forfeiture of land. See the laws 
 of Ine in Thorpe's " Collection of Ancient Laws."
 
 154 ANGLO-SAXON MODE OF LIFE. 
 
 is the lord's court, the status of the inhabitants is scarcely 
 less than free, and their duties to the State are as impera- 
 tive as if they were free." 1 
 
 Such was the national organization of the Saxon people 
 at the time of its complete development. Let us now 
 take a look at their mode of life and their dwellings. 
 Perhaps as good a description of the dwelling of a Saxon 
 "thegn" that is, of an "eorl" of the highest and 
 noblest class is the one that Sir Walter Scott has given 
 us in his novel " Ivanhoe." 
 
 And let me just say who and what was such an one as 
 Sir Walter has described in the person of Cedric. 
 
 He was the freeman, the setheling, whose homestead 
 rose high above the lowly dwelling of the " ceorl," him- 
 self free and free-necked ; himself also a weaponed man, 
 bearing spear and sword, and entitled to the right of self- 
 redress or private war. As " eorl," he Avas distinguished 
 by his wealth and noble blood; held by his fellow- 
 villagers in hereditary reverence; one of the chosen 
 host-leaders in time of war, whether of the hundred or 
 of the tribe. 
 
 As "thegn" (a title which was recognised in the laws 
 of William the Conqueror, as we shall see when I come 
 to read those and other laws), he ranked among the 
 greatest and the noblest; was rewarded by exemption 
 from the general jurisdiction of hundred-moot or folk- 
 moot; and though exempt also from actual service in the 
 king's household, or in the king's war-band, was bound 
 
 1 Upon this passage from Bishop Stubbs' work, some explanatory 
 comments will be found iu the Appendix, see Note L.
 
 THE /ETHELING OR THEGN. 155 
 
 to him by personal ties of allegiance far closer than those 
 which, anciently bound an "eorl" to the chosen war- 
 leader of the tribe. 
 
 Supreme in his own household, and in the locality in 
 which he was placed, he was not far removed from the 
 position of a feudal lord. 
 
 Indeed, as Mr. Green has pointed out, thegnhood con- 
 tained in itself the germ of the later feudalism which 
 was to battle so fiercely with the Teutonic freedom out 
 of which it grew. 1 
 
 No wonder, then, that a man, such as Sir Walter Scott 
 has pourtrayed in Cedric, proud of the old glories of his 
 Saxon forefathers, should chafe with bitter indignation 
 under the yoke of a race whom he looked upon as men 
 of an inferior strain to himself. 
 
 His dwelling and his style of life are well painted in 
 " Ivanhoe." " Rotherwood presented the appearance of 
 a low, irregular building, containing several courtyards 
 or enclosures, extending over a considerable space of 
 ground, and which, though its size argued the inhabitant 
 to be a person of wealth, differed entirely from the 
 tall, tnrreted, and castellated buildings of the Norman 
 nobility. Defended by a deep fosse, which was drawn 
 round the whole building, and filled with water from a 
 neighbouring stream, it was strengthened by a double 
 stockade or palisade, composed of pointed beams supplied 
 from the adjacent forest. From the west there was an 
 entrance through the outer stockade, which communi- 
 cated by a drawbridge with a similar opening in the 
 
 1 " The Making of England," cb. iv. p. 180.
 
 156 THE CEORL. 
 
 interior defences. These entrances were protected by 
 projecting angles, where, in case of need, archers or 
 slingers might be posted." 
 
 Of the inner arrangements of the house, and of the 
 dress and food of the inhabitants, I will not speak. They 
 are so well described in the work from which I am 
 quoting, that I need only refer you to its pages. 
 
 The home of the " ceorl " or freeman differed only in 
 degree from that of the " thegn." It was built of wood, 
 and contained the large common living-place for all the 
 dwellers, known as the hall. A board set up on trestles, 
 when needed, formed the rough table for the family meal, 
 and when this was cleared away, and the wooden beer- 
 cups or drinking-horns were passed round by the women 
 to the house-master and his friends, the gleeman (some 
 Allen-a-Dale) sang his song or played his harp, or a 
 jester (some Wamba), if they could get him from the 
 big hall, played his pranks and cut his jokes. By the 
 side of the hall stood the chambers for the women and 
 the household, and round the farmyard were stable, 
 threshing-floor, and barn. 
 
 The homestead supplied the provender, grain, milk and 
 cheese, honey and wax, ale and beer and mead. 
 
 The work of the farm was done by the freeman and 
 his serfs, for oxherd, cowherd, shepherd, goatherd, 
 swineherd (like Gurth), to drive the hogs into the forest 
 and woodland, barn-man and sower, were in the wealthier 
 household the serfs ; the poorer freeman had to content 
 himself with his own labour. 
 
 Now all these freemen were not casual comers. They 
 had been brought together from many a day long past.
 
 THE L&T. 157 
 
 They were welded into a common body by a close connec- 
 tion, founded on the ancient blood- tie, and eventually 
 resulting in a form of kinsmanship, out of which grew 
 that mutual responsibility of which I have not long ago 
 spoken, carrying with it the claim to lad and wer. 1 
 
 I have just said that the farm work of the wealthier 
 freeman was carried on by himself and his serfs ; there- 
 fore I purpose to add something about the condition of life 
 of those who were in the position of unfree and of serf. 2 
 
 The freeman, or " ceorl," was, as I have intimated, the 
 only person who was allowed to share in the common land, 
 a privilege which marked him off from the unfree man, or 
 " last," the tiller of the land. 
 
 The one was the descendant of settlers who, either from 
 their earlier arrival, or, later, by kinship with the first 
 settlers, had been admitted to a share in the land and its 
 corporate life. 
 
 The other was the descendant of later comers, to whom 
 such share was denied. Inferior in this respect to the 
 freeman, still the " Iset " was not of absolutely serfish 
 condition. His house and home were his own. His life 
 and limb were secure, save as against his lord. So far as 
 more recent laws affected him, he was capable of being 
 summoned to the folk-moot, had equal right at law with 
 the freeman, and was called like him to the hosting. 
 
 But in addition to his inability to share in the common 
 
 1 See on all this Green's " Making of England,'' ch. iv. pp. ITS- 
 IS? ; and Lappenberg's " Anglo- Saxon Kings," ed. 1874 (Bell & Sons), 
 chs. xx. and xxii. 
 
 - See, for larger information on this subject, Kemble's " Anglo- 
 Saxons," vol. i. ch. viii.
 
 158 THE SLAVE OR THEOWNA. 
 
 land, he had to pay rent, in labour or in kind, for the land 
 which he tilled, holding it as tenant under some freeman 
 who was his lord. Against him he had no rights, nor 
 could he leave him or the land at his will ; for in tillage 
 as in fight he was bound to render due service to his lord. 
 Still, so long as these services were done, the land was his 
 own. His lord could not take it from him, and was bound 
 to give him aid and protection in exchange for his services. 
 Such was the condition of the " loet." 
 
 Far different was that of the slave or serf, the " the- 
 owna," the " esna." Of these some were slaves by birth, 
 whose forefathers had been either Roman slaves, British 
 prisoners of war, or captured from other enemies. Some 
 again were " wite theownas," feudal slaves, who once had 
 been freemen, but were reduced by sentence of law to 
 the servile condition on account of debt or delinquency. 
 Sometimes, too, the poverty of a father compelled him to 
 sell his children and wife into bondage. 1 
 
 In any case the slave became part of the live stock of 
 his master's estate, to be willed away at death with horse 
 or ox. His children were bondsmen, and even in the case 
 of children born of a slave mother to a freeman, the taint 
 of bondage attached to the offspring. His master could 
 slay him if he pleased. He had no place in the justice 
 court, no kinsmen to claim vengeance or guilt-fine for the 
 wrong. 
 
 If a stranger slew him, his master could claim damages, 
 for a special " weregild " was attached to the person of the 
 
 1 Of these serfs or " theowns," at the time of the Conquest tbe 
 number, as registered in the Domesday Book, was a little over 25,000.
 
 THE SLAVE OR THROWN A. 159 
 
 " theow." One-half of this fell to the master, and one- 
 half to the kin (i.e., the kin of the village). 
 
 If he did wrong he was liable to the lash ; if he fled he 
 might be chased like a stray beast, and when caught 
 might be flogged to death. If the wrong-doer was a 
 woman, she might be burned. 
 
 Under a merciful or indulgent master his condition 
 would not be intolerable, and, as in the case of Gurth, he 
 might, by his superior qualities, creep into his master's 
 favour, or succeed in working out or even purchasing his 
 enfranchisement, for manumissions were of frequent occur- 
 rence, obtained sometimes in the life of his master, 
 sometimes by will after his death. 1 
 
 These manumissions were greatly favoured by the 
 clergy, who certainly strove to improve the condition of 
 this unfortunate class of human beings. 
 
 A class of half freemen, whose name betrays their 
 Danish origin, occurs in the north of England, called 
 " Drenghs," a word which, like the German Jcnappen 
 (knaves), and similar designations, signified first the son, 
 and then the servant. They were, it appears, bound to 
 render military service to the chief manor. 
 
 They are noticeable on the land between the Ribble 
 and the Mersey, and in the Vale of the Tyne, and corre- 
 spond on the Scottish frontier to the Radchenistre on the 
 Welsh border, and to the Radman of West Wales. 
 
 I have thus given an account of the social grouping, 
 the national life, an.d the mode of living, by which the 
 
 1 As may be seen in the laws of King Wihtred, about A.D. 696. On 
 this subject, see Kemble's "Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. viii. pp. 211-216.
 
 160 ANGLO-SAXON RANKS OF SOCIETY. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon period of English history was distinguished. 
 Let me finish it with a short, compendious detail of the 
 different ranks of society, premising it with saying that 
 the possession of freedom was the special mark of the 
 Anglo-Saxon occupier, and that the right to share in the 
 common land was the accompaniment of the free state 
 and the privilege of the free man. 
 
 At the top of all stood the king, not a Bretwalda or 
 ruler of the Britons, not possessed of imperial power, but 
 a dominant leader, exercising, before the close of the 
 sixth century, a greatly consolidated authority, and 
 standing much above the mere chiefs or kinglings who 
 appeared at the head of the tribe in the early British 
 times, "the son of the nation, the ruler of the people, 
 claiming and receiving indisputable predominance over 
 the numerous dynastic families which still remained scat- 
 tered over the face of the country, as well as over the 
 freeholders in the gd or scyr " (Kemble, vol. ii. p. 24). 
 
 To his person a distinct " weregild " was affixed, and 
 later on, against his life conspiracy, even indirect, was 
 punishable with death and loss of property. He was 
 invested with dignities and privileges through which he 
 could discharge public functions for the benefit of the 
 common weal. 
 
 The rights of royalty were numerous and valuable. 
 They are set out at full length by Mr. Kemble (see vol. ii. 
 ch, ii.). Among them the following deserve notice : 
 
 The king possessed the power in certain cases of stay- 
 ing execution and granting pardon. In process of time he 
 obtained the privilege of escheat and forfeiture for certain 
 offences. He could impose fines, which were levied by
 
 THE RIGHTS OF ROYALTY. 161 
 
 the public officers to his use. He was entitled to " trea- 
 sure trove." He could insist on the payment of royal 
 dues during his progress through the country (called 
 "cyninges feorm "), could claim the service of horses or 
 palfreys for the carriage of his effects ; was privileged 
 with the right of proper watch over him when he came into 
 a district (called in Saxon, " heafodweard," or head ward). 
 
 But above all, and most important as well as valuable, 
 were his rights to " wreck," to " coinage, and the nomina- 
 tion of moneyers," and to mines and minerals. Grants 
 of market, with power to levy tolls and provide for the 
 maintenance of order therein were royalties. So were 
 wardship and marriage (but confined, in all probability, 
 says Mr. Kemble, to the children and widows of the thanes 
 or comites) ; and so were "heriots." 1 
 
 Almost on a level with the king (the cyning) was his 
 wife (cwen), the "hlaefdige," ladyship, as she was termed 
 par excellence. If married to him before his accession to 
 the throne, her consecration and crowning took place at the 
 same time with his. If she had been married to him after 
 his consecration, then she was consecrated separately. 
 The object of as much respect as the " cyning " himself, 
 she was entitled to a throne by his side. If need required 
 it, she might be called on to play a leading part in the 
 affairs of the country. 
 
 Surrounding the royal personages were the attendants 
 
 1 The above enumeration of royal rights is abridged from Kemble's 
 " Anglo-Saxons," vol. ii. ch. ii. The reader is also referred for an 
 admirable account of " the old English Kingship " to Professor Free- 
 man's " History of the Norm an Conquest," vol. i. ch. iii. 1, pp. 
 72-80 (third edition, revised, 1877). 
 
 A. L. 1C
 
 162 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 of the Court, the followers of the household. The most 
 important of these were the chamberlain, whose desig- 
 nations are various; viz., " hrasgelthegn," i.e., thane or 
 servant of the wardrobe, " cubicularius," " camerarius," 
 "bur-thegn," or bower thane, "dispensator regis," " stia- 
 ward," and " thesanrarius." What his precise duties 
 were it is difficult now to say, but probably the general 
 management of the royal property and the regulation of 
 the household were entrusted to him. " In this capacity " 
 (says Mr. Kemble, vol. ii. ch. iii.) " he may have been the 
 recognised chief of the ' cyninges tiingerefan,' or king's 
 bailiffs on the several estates." He was the Lord Cham- 
 berlain of the Household, rather than the Lord Great 
 Chamberlain of more modern times. 
 
 The marshal (marescallus among the Franks), comes 
 stabuli, or master of the horse. According to Mr. Kemble, 
 he must be looked upon as the general of the household 
 troops, inasmuch as he gradually became head of the 
 active and disposable military force of the palace. 1 His 
 Anglo-Saxon denomination of " steallere " (comes stabuli) 
 rather indicates the Roman origin of the office, but the 
 terms, "cyninges horsthegn," " stabulator," and " strator 
 regis " are also applied to this officer. 
 
 The steward (" dapifer," " discifer regis"). To this 
 officer, whose Anglo-Saxon name was " disc-thegn " (thane 
 of the table), was committed the duty of looking after the 
 service of the royal table, in which probably was included 
 
 1 " It was thus that the high military dignity of Constable or 
 Grand Marshal by degrees was developed (Kemble, vol. ii. ch. iii. p. 
 107). " We have no evidence," says the same writer, " of the existence 
 of he office before the end of the ninth century."
 
 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. 163 
 
 the arrangement for the household generally, wherever 
 the king's residence might be. The office was one of high 
 position even in old times, but it did not attain to the 
 importance and power that distinguished the seneschal or 
 " dapifer angliae " in later days. 
 
 Last of all, the butler (" pincerna "). Whether this 
 official discharged duties other than those which the name 
 imports is not to be found now, but the post was one of 
 the highest position, and held by men of noble birth and 
 great eminence. 
 
 These offices, as Mr. Kemble points out, were household 
 dignities, and had nothing to do with the general admi- 
 nistration of business in the country. They grew into 
 importance as the old and comparatively less aristocratic 
 spirit of free organization became altered and weakened. 
 As the kingly power rose in influence and strength, so 
 these offices attained to distinction, and became dependent 
 on the royal favour. When the freemen perished, and 
 the notion of thaneship took the place of freemanship, 
 these officials, as the trusted friends of the king, became 
 his agents in the administration of the country. After 
 the introduction of the feudal system, the holders of these 
 court functions became holders of hereditary fiefs, and 
 then in time, from being the trusted friends and sup- 
 porters of the Crown, they were strong enongh and of 
 infl uence enough to oppose its authority. " As long as a 
 vestige of the free constitution remained, we hear but little 
 of court offices ; what they became upon its downfall is 
 known to every reader of history." l 
 
 1 Keinhle, vol. ii. ch. iii. p. 112.
 
 1 64 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. 
 
 Of the other officials working with those above men- 
 tioned, or acting under them, I do not propose to speak. 
 Those who desire information as to them and their duties 
 will find it in the chapter of Kemble's " Anglo-Saxons " 
 from which has been drawn what I have given above. 
 
 To one only will I make reference, because of the 
 opposite views of Kemble and Lappenberg as regards 
 the antiquity of the office. 
 
 Lappenberg, relying on a charter of ^Ethelbert (A.D. 
 600), is of opinion that in the time of that king at least 
 the old Frankish officer called " referendarius," or holder 
 of the king's signet, had a place on the list of Anglo- 
 Saxon ministers, and was the same dignitary as the one 
 who, in the time of Edward the Elder, was called chan- 
 cellor. 
 
 From this view Kemble entirely dissents. The charter 
 relied on by Lappenberg is, so Kemble holds, a glaring 
 forgery, and all trustworthy history, so he says, leads to 
 the conclusion that the office of " referendarius," or " apo- 
 crisiarius," does not make its appearance till the reign of 
 Edward the Confessor, a consequence, among other things, 
 of that king's well-known predilection for Norman cus- 
 toms. We must beware, says the author of " The Saxons 
 in England," of giving too much importance to the intro- 
 duction of this official into Edward's Court, and be careful 
 not to confound him with the great functionary whom we 
 now call the Lord High Chancellor. 1 
 
 1 See Kemble, vol. ii. ch. iii. pp. 112-115.
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 THE ANGLO-SAXON NOBILITY AND THE CLERGY. 
 
 Nobility among the Saxons Quaere whether Nobility by Birth was 
 known and recognised The Ealdorman and the Heregeata or 
 Heriot The more Modern Dignity of Alderman : his Position, 
 Duties, and Privileges Keview of the Subject-matter hitherto 
 Discussed The Influence of the Church and the Clergy on the 
 Political and Social Life of Anglo-Saxon England. 
 
 IN my last lecture I drew attention to the rise and pro- 
 gress of royalty in England, and to the rights, privileges, 
 and official dignity of the Anglo-Saxon king. 
 
 I now proceed to the subject of nobility as exhibited 
 in the early times now under discussion. 
 
 According to Lappenberg (vol. ii. p. 382, Bonn's library 
 edition, 1884), nobility by birth was not observable 
 among the Anglo-Saxons, save in the case of descendants 
 of the military king or of the sea king. But Kemble, 
 in his chapter on "nobility by service " (vol. i. ch. vii.), 
 seems to assume not only the existence of nobility by 
 birth as an established notion, but as a fact of import- 
 ance ; for he speaks of the old national nobility of birth 
 sinking into a lower level under the steady advance of 
 the royal power, through the assistance given it by the 
 
 "gesith," or nnfree members of the old Teutonic "comi- 
 
 ic:,
 
 1 66 NOBILITY BY SERVICE. 
 
 tatus," and he also speaks of nobles by birth becoming 
 absorbed in the ever-widening whirlpool. According to 
 Pearson (" History of England," vol. i. p. 113), there were 
 three great ranks of the earliest Anglo-Saxon society 
 the noble by birth, the noble by service, and the free ; to 
 which, after the conquest of England, would be added the 
 free by service, and the slave. 
 
 Possibly nobility by birth among the earliest Anglo- 
 Saxon people draws its source from the military or sea 
 king, and it is not improbable that in course of time the 
 numbers of their descendants would increase so much 
 as to form a considerable body of nobles by birth, the 
 aathelings of the Anglo-Saxon communities. Be that as 
 it may, shortly after the conquest of England nobility by 
 service made its appearance. The result of this was the 
 gradual establishment of a class of feudal nobles, closely 
 attached to the king. Although unfree and dependent 
 upon the king's bounty, gratitude, or forbearance, and 
 bound closely to him, yet in time they grew into such 
 power and influence, " that the ofBces which had passed 
 from the election of the freemen to the gift of the Crown 
 were conferred upon them, and the ealdorman, duke, 
 gerefa, judge, and even the bishop were at length selected 
 from their ranks." * 
 
 Of far more importance, from a political and adminis- 
 trative point of view, was the office of " ealdorman," or 
 " duke," the " heretoga," or ruler and leader of an army. 
 As Mr. Kemble shows in his chapter on this dignity (vol. 
 ii. ch. iv.), the name itself marks the high esteem in which 
 
 1 Kemble's " Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. viii. p. 184.
 
 THE EALDORMAN. 167 
 
 tho possessor of the office was held. Ealdor, or aldor, the 
 man of princely dignity, the oldest, that is the most dig- 
 nified, personage. One of the " yldestan witan," or eldest 
 councillors, he stands out pre-eminently as next in impor- 
 tance to royalty. 
 
 Heretog, dux, princeps, comes, are the terms given to this 
 individual by the Latin writers and compilers of annals 
 and charters ; but by the Saxon chroniclers, and in the 
 Saxon chronicles, " ealdorman " is the word used. 1 
 
 According to Mr. Kemble, who has reviewed the 
 history of the office with the closest criticism, the word 
 ealdorman is not introduced into the laws before the 
 beginning of the eighth century. He thinks that Kent 
 had no such officers, even at that date. " Duke " was 
 the title in Wessex and Sussex, and " prince " in Xorth- 
 umbria ; and duke it remained until the death of Edmund 
 Ironside. 
 
 In the preamble to the laws of King Ine (A.D. 690) we 
 meet with the term, thus, " so that none of our ealdormen 
 nor of our subjects should hereafter pervert these our 
 dooms " ; and from that time, says Kemble, we have the 
 means of tracing the institution with some certainty. 
 
 The dignity and high estimation of the office are 
 marked by three distinguishing features. First, the 
 appointment to it in its then title, as afterwards, be- 
 longed solely to the Crown, as the declaration of the 
 
 1 For an historical account of the "Comes" and "Dux," from 
 Constantino's time, including a notice of the " Magistri militum," 
 pee Palgrave's "History of the English Commonwealth/' vol. i. ch. x. 
 pp. 358-360.
 
 168 THE EALDORMAN. 
 
 Council of Beccanuld, A.D. 696, shows. " It is for the 
 king to appoint the princes, the prefect, or the duces." ] 
 Secondly, the office itself was inseparable from a "shire" 
 or " ga." It was a political as well as territorial office, 
 and as such its holder stood at the head of the justice of 
 the county, possessing full power of trying suits, and of 
 executing civil and criminal process. His authority in 
 the county was executive as well as judicial. Like the 
 Frankish " graf," he was the military leader of the levee en 
 masse, i.e. the posse comitatus of the freemen. He was a 
 noble of the first rank, having armed retainers of his own. 
 To him was submitted the internal regulations of the 
 shire, as well as its political relation to the whole kingdom, 
 with the " shire gerefa," " wic gerefa," " tun gerefa," and 
 " king's gerefa," subordinate to and acting on his orders. 
 Thirdly, his "weregild" and oath were marks of the 
 value put upon him. If at first his weregild ranked him 
 only with the general class of the nobility, in this respect 
 later on he was rated on a level with the bishop, and above 
 the ordinary nobles. By the Northumbrian law he was 
 rated at more than thirty times the value of the " ceorl." 
 In the same proportion was the value of his oath. 
 
 In addition to all this, his house was in some sort a 
 sanctuary. For breach of peace therein the breaker was 
 liable to a heavy penalty. For " burhbryce," or violation 
 of his castle, the fine was eighty shillings, a very heavy 
 penalty in those days. Two pounds was the fine for 
 breach of his " borh " or surety, and his " mundbyrd " or 
 protection; and for "fihtwite" (that is the pejialty for 
 
 1 See as to this, Kemble, vol. ii. ch. iv. pp. 147-149.
 
 THE HEREGEATA OR HERIOT. 169 
 
 drawing a sword and fighting in his presence), the offender 
 had to pay one hundred shillings. 
 
 "Thus," says Mr. Kemble, "the position which his 
 nobility, his power, and his wealth conferred upon him 
 was a brilliant one. In fact, the whole executive govern- 
 ment may be considered as a great aristocratical asso- 
 ciation, of which the ealdormen were the constituent 
 members, and the king little more than the president." 
 Like the German graf, the revenues of the " ealdorman " 
 were derived from fines appertaining to the office, and 
 from a third of the fines and several profits accruing to 
 the several courts which came within his jurisdiction, as 
 well as from other royal sources of income. 
 
 Connected with this office of ealdorman is an ancient 
 Germanic custom, which, brought into England by our 
 Teutonic settlers, survived the Saxon period of rule, and 
 reappeared in an entirely altered form under the feudal 
 conquerors of our country. I allude to the " heregeata," 
 heriot. Among the ancient German invaders of Europe 
 it was the practice for the king to deliver to the senior 
 as well as to the other military chiefs their arms, a war- 
 steed and buckler, a sword and spear. These presents of 
 arms, which at first doubtless were the voluntary offer- 
 ings of the leader of the band as a reward for or incentive 
 to valiant service in the field, afterwards were converted 
 into perquisites which the leader was bound to allow. 
 As a counterbalance to this compulsory generosity on his 
 part, the chief obtained the privilege of claiming and re- 
 ceiving back the gift on the death of the receiver. 
 
 In Knut's time a fixed relief out of the heritage of 
 the deceased was established, payable by the heirs, and
 
 170 THE MODERN DIGNITY OF ALDERMAN. 
 
 for an " ealdorman " this consisted of four saddled and 
 four unsaddled horses, four helmets, four coats of mail, 
 eight spears, eight shields, four swords, and two hundred 
 mancuses of gold. In later times the payment or re- 
 demption on the death of the last possessor was converted 
 into a pecuniary burthen on the successor. 1 
 
 According to Stowe, the civic dignity of alderman is 
 connected with and traceable from the ancient Saxon 
 office of " ealdorman." His account of the more modern 
 office is interesting. 
 
 " Alderman," he says, " answers to senator among the 
 Romans, yet in aldermen the old age of the mind is more 
 to be regarded than of the body, and the gravity of man- 
 ners rather than antiquity of years. Whence, in the old 
 laws of King Knut and other Saxon kings, he was called 
 alderman who is now called judge or justiciary. 
 
 " These aldermen were also called as well in name as 
 in honour 'barones.' For it is found about the year A.D. 
 1350, that in the burial of aldermen that ancient, honour- 
 able custom was observed, viz. that in the church where 
 an alderman was to be buried, one armed with his arms, 
 bearing in his hand a standard on an horse with trap- 
 pings, carried aloft his shield, helmet, and his other arms 
 with the standard, as the manner yet is of burying the 
 lord barons. But by reason of the sudden and frequent 
 changes of the aldermen, and often plagues, by little and 
 little the custom vanished in London. 
 
 1 See Lappenberg, " Anglo-Saxon Kings," vol. ii. ch. xix., ed. 1884 
 <Bell & Sons). Kemble, "History of the Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch, 
 viii. p. 178.
 
 7 HE MODERN ALDERMAN. 171 
 
 "But by this it appears how great honour was in ancient 
 times given to aldermen. For none were accepted for 
 alderman nnless he were without deformity in body, wise 
 and discreet in mind, wealthy, honourable, faithful, free, 
 and of no base or servile condition, that no disgrace which 
 might happen unto him on account of his birth might 
 thence redound on the rest of the aldermen or the whole 
 city. And hence it came to pass that none was made ap- 
 prentice, or at least admitted into the liberty of the city, 
 unless he was known to be of gentlemanlike condition ; 
 or if, after he had been made free, it came to be known 
 that he was of servile condition, for that very thing he 
 lost the freedom of the city. As it happened to Thomas 
 le Bedel, Robert le Bedel, Alan Underwode, and Edmond 
 Ray, butchers, who in the mayoralty of John le Blount 
 lost their freedom because they acknowledged they held 
 lands de villenagio of the Bishop of London, and they re- 
 mained without the liberty of the city." (Lib. c. fo. 88.) 
 
 Formerly the city wards took their names from alder- 
 men ; i.e., the particular ward designated in the books 
 and maps by its ancient name, was spoken of in ordinary 
 parlance from year to year as the ward of, say, Thomas 
 de Rasing, or Simon Hadestock. 
 
 Among their privileges was exemption from being put 
 into inquisitions, for they were judges of the city. 
 
 The mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen were all clothed 
 alike, in honourable furs with a lining of silk. For an 
 assault upon an alderman the punishment was striking 
 off the hand of the offender. 
 
 They were irremovable from their office save for some 
 great offence or enormous crime, involving forfeiture of
 
 172 RESUME OF PREVIOUS MATTER. 
 
 freedom of the city. They were exempt from serving the 
 office of constable of the county district in which they 
 might chance to have a residence. (See the case of John 
 Abdy, reported "Croke's Cases," p. 110.) 
 
 But for further learning on the matter, I must refer to 
 " Stowe's Survey," book v. chs. v. and viii. 
 
 And now I have traced the progress of social improve- 
 ment and of civilization in England through its various 
 stages and in its varying chances and fortunes. I have 
 shown you its early state of primitive patriarchal life, 
 when the British clans lived under their chiefs in the 
 dark forest and amid the swamps and morasses of the 
 country. 
 
 This clearly was a condition of things that never could 
 have lasted long. The vicinity of our islands to the 
 Continent of Europe would have saved them from a fate 
 that the great land across the Atlantic or the islands in 
 the North Pacific have refused to submit to. And so the 
 work of restoration and advancement was carried on by 
 that old conqueror of the world the Roman. 
 
 Yet under his rule, had it continued, England would 
 have been in a sorry plight, at least so far as national 
 spirit and political life are concerned. 
 
 It would have been impossible for the conquered people 
 to have borne for ever the yoke which the centralizing, 
 despotic power of the Roman loved to impose. With all 
 the advantages that his genius for colonizing and settling 
 imported with his government, a revolt against such an 
 authority must have come in time. 
 
 Under the Teutonic immigrants, and later on under the 
 Saxon conquerors who succeeded the Roman, the progress
 
 RESUME OF PREVIOUS MATTER. 173 
 
 of the country in the path of social improvement went 
 on. But there was much in the Anglo-Saxon character 
 that needed a stimulant, and that stimulant was found 
 in the infusion of another northern temperament intro- 
 duced among us by two sets of fierce invaders, the Danes 
 and the Normans. 
 
 Of them and the influence they exerted on our Saxon 
 habits and Saxon temperament it will be ray duty to 
 speak. 
 
 Yet before I proceed to consider the Danish settlement 
 perfected into conquest under Knut, and the Norman 
 invasion ripened into a permanent occupation under 
 William, I must say a few words about the influence, 
 silent yet sure, upon the national, political, and local life 
 of England, of an institution to which I have already 
 drawn your attention in a former lecture I mean the 
 Church. 
 
 Now if one fact is more distinct than any other in the 
 history of the world, it is this, that, look back as far as 
 you will, and cast your eyes over what part of the civi- 
 lized world you will, you will find the presence of a 
 priestly caste acting upon and influencing to some the 
 action and influence may be odious, to others it may be 
 grateful, but acting upon and influencing largely the 
 history and life and political character of the countries 
 of which they formed a part of the constitutional as well 
 as the social machine. 
 
 The priestly order meets us at every stage of our in- 
 quiries into the social life of this and all other nations. 
 Unfortunately with the priesthood we too often find 
 priestcraft combined.
 
 174 THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 As I have already pointed out in the first of these lec- 
 tures, the populations of Europe, especially the poorer 
 portions, have experienced the benefits that the ecclesi- 
 astical corporations were able to confer upon them, and 
 many ameliorations of the hard lot of the labourer and 
 the serf have been obtained by the action of the clergy. 
 
 On the other hand, one cannot be blind to the facb that 
 the clerical body has not been free from faults, most 
 patent at times in the history of European social and 
 political progress, intolerance, lust of power, gi-eed of 
 wealth, and even unchaste living among them. 
 
 The history of Latin Christianity as recorded in the 
 pages of Milman is not altogether pleasant reading for 
 the pictures it gives us of sectarian hatred and sectarian 
 cruelty. 
 
 Yet it must, I think, be admitted, when one reflects 
 upon the work that the Church took in hand and was 
 able to carry out, that in the social, as well as in the 
 political aspect of the subject, not only on the Continent 
 of Europe, but in this island also, the Church has con- 
 ferred benefits upon the people and the land of a high 
 order, and to refuse to recognise them would be an act of 
 narrow-minded and harsh prejudice. 
 
 From a social point of view, then, the Church has 
 done good work in the cause of order and improvement, 
 mental, moral, and material. 
 
 Every one who has read anything of the history of 
 literature knows well the desperate plight into which 
 learning had fallen from the end of the fifth to the close 
 of the sixth centuries. Its utter destruction was arrested 
 by the ecclesiastical body, who with all the gross igno-
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH. 175 
 
 rauce that affected many of them, yet did by their Latin 
 services and by their organized hierarchy keep, to use 
 Hallam's words, "a slender but living stream flowing" 
 in the worst of times. 
 
 If on the one hand Gregory I. (the founder of papal 
 supremacy), and the clergy of his time, set their faces 
 against secular learning, on the other hand Benedict, 
 by the injunction he laid on the brethren of his order 
 to read, copy, and collect books not insisting that reli- 
 gious books only should be the object of their labours, 
 gave an increased stir to the spread of general learning, 
 and thus became the means of preserving and multiplying 
 classical manuscripts at the hands of men whose habits 
 of life and monastic leisure afforded them ample oppor- 
 tunity to rescue literature from the gloom into which it 
 had passed. 
 
 In England, as early as the sixth century, a little 
 glimmer of light was perceptible in the Irish monasteries, 
 and to that country schoolmen and students resorted. 
 
 But it was to Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury 
 (A.D. 668), and to his companion, Adrian, that this 
 country is indebted for its first strong step in the path 
 of literature and learning. 1 
 
 Others succeeded him, like the Venerable Bede and 
 Alcuin (Bede's equal in ability, but not in erudition) ; 
 but to Theodore is England indebted for the first begin- 
 ning of civilization and social improvement in that part 
 where all improvement begins, viz., the cultivation of 
 
 1 Hallam, " The Literature of Europe," vol. i. ch. i. 7 ; am". 
 Southey, " Book of the Church," ch. vi. p. 48.
 
 176 THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 the mental powers, of which literature and learning are 
 such powerful instruments for good. 
 
 In addition to the benefits which the clerical body 
 have conferred upon England in this respect, those which 
 they have afforded to the development of a moral tone 
 must be added. Upon this topic I need not dwell, as 
 I have already adverted to it sufficiently for my purpose 
 in a former lecture. 
 
 Let me only add a few words upon the subject of the 
 material and political gains that England has derived 
 from the ecclesiastical institutions which the favour or 
 the superstitious feelings of the rulers of the land helped 
 to foster. 
 
 From a material point of view, the monasteries must 
 be looked upon as the sources of all that is good in the 
 country districts. 
 
 To them we are indebted for the settlement of these 
 districts, and for the spread of agriculture and horti- 
 culture ; to them we owe the establishment of markets 
 and fairs in many parts that would, without them, have 
 been little better than wastes ; and to them the serf 
 owed a large portion of the emancipations that were 
 wrung from royalty and from the feudal lords. 1 
 
 Wherever a monastery was settled, the cultivation of 
 the land and a comparative security for the cultivators 
 followed, and in their train there followed also comfort 
 and some degree of wealth. 
 
 Moreover, whenever a monastery was founded, the 
 
 1 See as to this subject, Kemble's " Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. viii. 
 pp. 211-213.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH. 177 
 
 miserable peasant, and the still more miserable serf, 
 obtained masters who were not indifferent to the prin- 
 ciples of justice, to the spirit of benevolence, or to the 
 voice of mercy. 
 
 The amelioration in the life of this lower class thus 
 promoted by the clergy was extended to such of them 
 as lived in the domains of the king ; for the same cause 
 that influenced the ecclesiastical owners of land influ- 
 enced the sovereign also, viz., the desire, or rather the 
 necessity, of obtaining a superiority over the lay lords, 
 and so, both from the advantages derived from the 
 ecclesiastical alliance, as well as from the wish to estab- 
 lish their legislative power beyond their own immediate 
 demesnes, the kings accorded to their bond-labourers privi- 
 leges similar to those that the clergy had succeeded in 
 obtaining. 
 
 If from an intellectual, moral, and material point of 
 view the influence of the Church upon the settlement 
 of society in these early times of history was so con- 
 spicuous, it was no less remarkable from the political 
 point of view. 
 
 I quote Bishop Stubbs in confirmation of this, and to 
 \vhat better or sounder authority can I refer ? l 
 
 " The reduction of the whole Church organization of 
 the seven kingdoms into the National Church was the 
 work of Theodore of Tarsus. The introduction of the 
 forms and decencies of ecclesiastical councils into the 
 meetings of the nations gives its peculiar character to the 
 English Witenagemot ; and the union of ecclesiastical 
 
 1 " Documents Illustrative of English History," Introduction, p. 8. 
 A. L. N
 
 1 78 THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 and civil organization throughout the land impresses 
 a perpetuity on the divisions and sub-divisions Avhich 
 before had been determined by the occupancy of the 
 family or tribe. 
 
 " The ' mark,' ' vicus,' or ' township ' becomes the 
 sphere or duty of a single priest, and later is called his 
 parish ; the kingdom becomes the diocese of a bishop ; 
 the whole land the province of the metropolitan. The 
 rival archbishops head rival nationalities. The greater 
 dioceses are sub-divided, on the lines of the earlier under- 
 kingdoms, in six of the seven states, and when Wessex 
 late in the day begins to subdivide, she follows the same 
 idea. The organism of Church and State advances side 
 by side ; the shires become the archdeaconries, and the 
 hundreds the deaneries of a later age ; the archdeacon 
 or bishop presides with the ealdorman and sheriff in the 
 shire-moot ; the parish priest leads his people to the 
 hundred-moot, or even to the fyrd. 1 The Witenagemot 
 has its most distinct and permanent constituent in the 
 clergy, bishops, and abbots." 
 
 Now, it is an historic fact that the introduction of 
 Christianity, and the spread of its tenets in early Anglo- 
 Saxon times, began and was effected not where religious 
 enthusiasm as a general rule makes its appearance, that 
 is among the lower classes and the oppressed, as was 
 the case in the early days of Christendom, and more 
 especially in the suffering Romanic nationality, but with 
 the Anglo-Saxon king and the Court. The phenomenon 
 is a strange one, but it is to be accounted for by the 
 
 1 The military array for the defence of the country.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH. 179 
 
 thoroughly aristocratic character of society in the Ger- 
 manic tribes. 
 
 Hence it happened that the highest offices of the 
 Christian priesthood in England were from the first 
 coveted and obtained by the Anglo-Saxon nobility, who 
 therefore willingly followed the king's example when his 
 conversion was effected. 1 
 
 But then two consequences ensued neither of them 
 injurious to the settlement of social life : first, nowhere 
 else was the priest so good a citizen as in England, and 
 this resulted from the close connection of the State and 
 the Church ; and, second, nowhere else was the tendency 
 to turn Church endowments into private property so 
 early manifested as in England. 
 
 Thus Christianity and the Church worked side by 
 side, and helped onward the cause of the making of 
 England intellectually, morally, and politically, and 
 each exerted a special influence upon English social 
 life. 
 
 The revolution which Christianity effected on the indi- 
 vidual life of England is as conspicuous as the benefits 
 flowing from that revolution were large. 
 
 A new law of conduct, new habits, new conceptions 
 of life and society, were forced on Englishmen. Moi-e 
 especially were these visible in the home itself. Chris- 
 tianity curtailed the freeman's powers over wife and 
 child and slave, for it forbad infanticide, it forbad the 
 putting away of wives, and it denounced and stopped 
 cruelty to the serf. 
 
 1 Pearson, " History of England," vol. i. ch. viii. p. 33.
 
 i8o THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 It was even bold enough to deny to the king his 
 heritage of the blood of the gods. 
 
 Slavery and war were declared by it to be evil, manual 
 labour was upheld as a virtue. Revenge was denounced, 
 gluttony and drunkenness were attacked as sins. Best 
 from toil on Sunday and holy days was enjoined. Mar- 
 riage was invested with a holier and more lasting 
 character than it had possessed under the old faith. 
 Baptism was substituted for the old " dragging through 
 the earth," and child and parents received a new kin 
 at this Christian ceremony. The burial rite was altered, 
 and a common resting-place for all in the village church- 
 yard was substituted for the solitary mound on the 
 headland or hill. 
 
 Thus through life men were taught to look on one 
 another as members of a community knit together in 
 brotherhood, and after life were laid side by side in a 
 common resting-place as friend and brother. 1 
 
 Not less remarkable was the influence of the English 
 Church upon English society in another direction, and 
 that was the change effected by the unmonastic clergy, 
 the Seculars, as they were termed, by the substitution 
 of the parochial organization for monasticism. 
 
 This is so ,well described by Mr. Green, that I will 
 quote his remarks at full length : 3 "It was only by slow 
 degrees that the parish or kirkshire as it was then 
 called attained a settled form. The three classes of 
 
 1 Green, "The Conquest of England," ch. i. pp. 8, 9; Pearson, 
 " History of England," vol. i. ch. xx. pp. 319-322 ; and cf. Gibbon, 
 " Decline and Fall," ch. xlv., ap.finem. 
 
 2 Green, " The Conquest of England," ch. i. p. 13.
 
 PAROCHIAL ORGANfZATION. 181 
 
 churches which we find noted in the laws mark so many 
 stages in the religious annexation of the land. 
 
 " The minster or mother church, which levied dues 
 over wide tracts, recalled the earlier days when the 
 Church still had a monastic form, and its preachers went 
 forth to evangelize the country. 
 
 " The next stage was represented by the manorial 
 church ; the establishment through this wide area, by 
 lord after lord, of churches on their own estates, for the 
 service of their dependents, the extent of whose spiri- 
 tual jurisdiction was at first coincident with the estate 
 itself. 
 
 "A third class of small churches without burial 
 grounds represented the growing demands of popular 
 religion. From Baeda's letter to Archbishop Egberht, 
 we see that the establishment of manorial churches, that 
 is, of what we commonly mean by a parochial system, 
 was still far from complete, at least in Northumbria, 
 in the middle of the eighth century, but in the half 
 century that followed it had probably extended itself far 
 over the land." 
 
 An attempt was also made to provide a settled live- 
 lihood for the parish priests in the " tithe," or payment 
 of a tenth part of the farm produce by their parishioners 
 (see Laws of ^Ethelred, Thorpe, i. p. 319; Laws of 
 Alfred and Guthrnn, Thorpe, p. 171), but the obligation 
 to pay this was still only imperfectly recognised, and 
 the repeated injunctions of kings and synods, from 
 ^Ethelstan downwards, bear witness by their repetition 
 to the general disobedience. 
 
 It is probable that the priest as yet relied far more
 
 182 PAROCHIAL ORGANIZATION. 
 
 for his subsistence on his dues, on the " plough alms " 
 after Easter, " the church shot " l at Martinmas, and the 
 " light shot " thrice in the year, as well as the " soul 
 shot" that was paid at the open grave. 
 
 " Nothing is more remarkable in this extension of the 
 ecclesiastical system than the changes wrought by it 
 upon the original unit of English social life. The stages 
 by which the township passed into its modern form of 
 the parish, and by which almost every trace of its civil 
 life successively disappeared, are obscure and hard to 
 follow ; but the change began with the first entry of the 
 Christian priest into the township. 
 
 " The village church seems often to have been built on 
 the very mound that had served till then for the gather- 
 ing of the tunsfolk. It is through this that we so often 
 find in later days the tun-moot held in the churchyard or 
 ground about the church, and the common practice even 
 now of the farmers gathering for conference outside the 
 church porch before morning service, may preserve a 
 memory of this freer open-air life of the moot before it 
 became merged in the parish vestry. 
 
 " The church thus became the centre of village life. 
 It was at the church door, as in the moot, that banns 
 were proclaimed, marriages and bargains made. Even 
 the fair or market was held in the churchyard, and the 
 village feast, an institution no doubt of immemorial 
 antiquity, was held on the day of the saint to which the 
 church was dedicated. While the priest himself, as its 
 custodian, displaced more and more the tun-reeve or elder. 
 
 1 Shot scot, sceatte tax or contribution.
 
 PAROCHIAL ORGANIZATION. 183 
 
 " It was lie who preserved the weights and measures 
 of the little community, who administered its oaths and 
 ordeals, who led its four chosen men to hundred-moot or 
 folk-moot, and sometimes even to the field. The revo- 
 lution which was transforming the free township into 
 the manor of a lord aided in giving the priest a public 
 position. 
 
 " Though the lord's court came to absorb the bulk 
 of the work of the older tun-moot, the regulation and 
 apportionment of land, the enforcement of by-laws, the 
 business of its police yet the tun-moot retained the 
 little that grant and custom had not stripped from it. 
 And it is thus that in its election of village officers, of 
 churchwarden and way-warden, as well as in its exer- 
 cise of the right of taxation of the township for the 
 support of the church and poor, we are enabled to 
 recognise in the parish vestry, with the priest at its 
 head, the survival of the village moot, which had been 
 the nucleus of our early life." l 
 
 1 For a more coiupleie and exhaustive account of the influence 
 of Christianity and the Church on the intellectual, moral, political, 
 and social phases of life in Anglo-Saxon England, the reader is 
 referred to Southey's " Book of the Church," ch. iv. ; Kemble's 
 " Anglo-Saxons," vol. ii. ch. viii. pp. 373-375 ; Green's " Making of 
 England," ch. vii. ; Green's " Conquest of England," ch. i. ; and Pear- 
 son's " History of England," vol. i. ch. xx. ; and, for a full account 
 of Theodore and the good work done by him in Britain, see Bede's 
 " Ecclesiastical History," chs. ii. v. and xvii. pp. 2, 10, and 26 ; 
 and the " Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," at pp. 324-328, in Bonn's 
 Antiquarian Library edition ; Southey's " Book of the Church," 
 ch. vi. pp. 48-51 ; Green's " Making of England," ch. vii., pp. 330- 
 337 ; and Kemble's " Saxons in England," vol. ii. ch. viii. pp. 364- 
 870.
 
 LECTURE XI. 
 THE DANISH INVASION. 
 
 The Danish Invasion The Danes, their Characteristics Reasons 
 why the Danish Invasion was Successful Benefits conferred on 
 the National and Social Life of England by the Danish Invasion 
 Christianity and its Effects upon Anglo-Saxon England 
 Anglo-Saxon Codes History of the Development of Law Penal 
 Legislation in Relation to Archaic Society Distinction between 
 Teutonic Ideas and those of Later Times in the matter of Offences 
 and Crimes The Law of Theft in Ancient Legislation. 
 
 THE subject to which. I now shall advert is the Danish, 
 invasion, and its effect upon the political and social life 
 of England. For upwards of 200 years these Norse 
 pirates vexed the land, that is, from the year A.D. 787 
 (when a few adventurers sailed to Dorchester and slew 
 the town reeve) to the year A.D. 1014, when, under 
 Knut, their supremacy was established. 
 
 They ravaged, burnt, and destroyed with a fury that 
 marked the presence of men who had framed the pro- 
 fession of murder and rapine into a civil polity. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, in his poem, " Harold the Dauntless," 
 has described, in language well suited to the men and 
 their deeds, their fierce onslaughts, and the terror in- 
 spired by the presence of their ships. 
 
 It was not merely the stirring joy of battle that roused 
 
 18V
 
 THE DANISH INVASION. 185 
 
 these adventurers to action, but it was a supreme con- 
 tempt for death. " I fear not death," said Sigurd, the 
 pirate, when he saw his comrades butchered around 
 him. " I fear not death, since I have fulfilled the greatest 
 duty of life ; but I pray thee not to let my hair be touched 
 by a slave or stained with blood." So, too, Si ward of 
 Northumbria, whose profession of Christianity deterred 
 him from suicide, stood armed and erect out of his bed, 
 in his last moments, that at least he might not die 
 huddled up like a cow. And thus another pirate chief 
 met death : at his own request, when he felt that the 
 last hour of his life was coming, his faithful followers 
 wrapped him in his armour, and so clad, lying on the 
 deck of one of his galleys, he was sent afloat, to die 
 alone on the element where the best part of his life had 
 been spent. 
 
 Against a race of men animated with such a spirit of 
 adventure and stirred by such reckless courage, it would 
 have been hard for those upon whom their blows fell to 
 make head; but there were some special reasons why 
 the incursions of the Danes in England met with a more 
 decisive success than generally falls to the lot of mere 
 predatory invaders. 
 
 In the first place, the land was in dire confusion conse- 
 quent on the feud of Angle and Saxon, which was always 
 breaking out, and that at a time when unity was imperative. 
 
 In the next, the institutions of the Norsemen in their 
 own country resembled those of the Anglo-Saxons as to 
 their main features. The same distinctions of family, 
 similar popular assemblies, similar money measurements 
 for crimes and offences, the same form of judicial process,
 
 186 THE DANISH INVASION. 
 
 viz., the duel, and the same acceptance of the frith -guild 
 system, were features of social life that enabled the two 
 sets of people, the attackers and the attacked, to settle 
 down gradually together, and in process of time to be 
 united into one community. Moreover, the necessities of 
 a seafaring life and of incessant war developed the mili- 
 tary qualities of daring and discipline among the Norse- 
 men to an extent that has perhaps never been equalled. 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten, as Mr. Pearson points out, 1 
 that the war that these sea-kings carried on was not one 
 between themselves and a national army, but between 
 them and a local militia. To the Saxons defeat was ruin, 
 to the Norsemen only a temporary check from which they 
 soon rallied, for their armed bands and their fleets were 
 recruited from every nation of the north. Dacians along- 
 side of Goths, Norwegians of Swedes, and Vandals of Fri- 
 sians were led to battle under one chief. 
 
 Now, was there no benefit conferred upon the social 
 and national life of England from all this ? 
 
 Certainly there was. Energy and courage were infused 
 into the people from the example that their invaders 
 set them. 
 
 Even though the commonwealth was shattered, the 
 people were regenerated. The reckless daring of the 
 Norseman, and his very contempt of death, carried with 
 it and encouraged a punctilious love of truth resembling 
 honour, and the pursuit of arms, though it excluded labour 
 from the ordinaiy pursuits of life, involved a severe disci- 
 pline, not unproductive of advantage to the community. 
 
 1 Pearson's " History of England," vol. i. ch. x. p. 159.
 
 THE DANISH CONQUEST. 187 
 
 Thus the Anglo-Saxon character was materially affected 
 I think I may say affected for the better by the fresh 
 introduction of northern habits, customs, and mental 
 qualities. 
 
 But from a political point of view there is one result 
 of the Danish conquest which must never be forgotten, 
 and which Mr. Pearson has, with his usual acuteness, 
 seized on as worthy of note. I will give you the extract 
 in his own words. 
 
 " Although the more prominent aspects of the struggle 
 between Christendom and the Danes was the question 
 which of two religions should prevail, the political results 
 of the contest are not less important. 
 
 'The greatness of Charlemagne's character can scarcely 
 be over-rated, but his ideas and policy were Byzantine. 
 He aimed at reuniting the nations of the world under one 
 empire, at crushing local freedom in every state. Had he 
 succeeded more entirely, if his captains, sated with con- 
 quest, had been capable of loyal allegiance, if his sons 
 had been more united, or one of them truly imperial, the 
 path of the world would have been arrested. The mono- 
 tonous unity of the Roman Empire would have been re- 
 produced at a lower level of civilization; and thought and 
 faith, imprisoned within a system whose confines were 
 the limits of the earth, would have beaten out their lives 
 against the bars of their cage. 
 
 " We owe it to the divine fury of the Danes that we 
 were saved from that calamity the plunderers became 
 conquerors, and carved half a dozen kingdoms out of the 
 Europe that was to have been one. 
 
 "Even as regards England, we may see that the country
 
 1 88 THE DANISH CONQUEST. 
 
 was not yet ripe for consolidation ; its tendencies were 
 always to form a world apart, and to separate itself from 
 the struggles and progress of its neighbours. At the very 
 moment when it was lapsing into centralization and weak- 
 ness, its provinces were roused into new life by the neces- 
 sity of defence." * 
 
 To the Danish invasion, then, England owes much in 
 its progress towards social improvement, political settle- 
 ment, and national development. Courage in resisting 
 danger, energy in action, and discipline, mental as well 
 as physical, were some of the moral results of tne clash- 
 ing of Saxon and Norseman in the strife of two hundred 
 years that ended in Knut's triumph. 
 
 The creation of a single united England, stirred into 
 national consciousness and firmly bound into national 
 union, whose fruition was a resurrection of that pride in 
 the English name which the house of Alfred had begot- 
 ten, was another gift that England owes to its Danish 
 settlers. 
 
 And as a political gain, we must reckon the complete 
 development of its institutions, whether administrative, 
 fiscal, or judicial, which had been growing into shape 
 under the West Saxon kings, and which, as I shall show 
 when I come to read and comment on the laws of Knut, 
 was the work which he took in hand and successfully 
 carried out. 
 
 I have thus traced the events that led to the formation 
 and settlement of social life among our Anglo-Saxon fore- 
 fathers, and I have arrived at a period of change in one 
 
 1 Pearson's " History of England," vol. i. ch. x. p. 158.
 
 ANGLO-SAXON' LA WS. 189 
 
 part of that social life that marks a noteworthy era in a 
 very important branch of it I mean in the history of its 
 jurisprudence. For as I am about to read to you extracts 
 from the laws of the Anglo-Saxon kings, I am advancing 
 to that sharply denned epoch of jurisprudence, viz., the 
 era of written laws or codes. 
 
 That which preceded it was the era of customary law, 
 and as the change from customary law to codes indicates 
 a very marked alteration in the progress of a community, 
 I shall premise my comments upon the written laws I 
 have to put before you with some remarks upon custom- 
 ary law and written law, in order that you may under- 
 stand what advances in settled order a community has 
 made when it arrives at the era of codes. 
 
 And here I will begin with saying that the author from 
 whom these remarks will be drawn is one who in his able 
 and valuable treatise on "Ancient Law " has done so 
 much for the right appreciation of the history of law in 
 all its vicissitudes and changes. 
 
 In tracing out the historical development of law, Sir 
 Henry Maine, taking as the best and readiest source of 
 information the old Homeric poems, " considered not as 
 a history of actual occurrences, but as a description not 
 wholly idealized of a state of society known to the 
 writer," uses as a starting point, or as the first stage 
 in the progress of the history of law, the decision of a 
 personal agent, a king, whose sentence in the matter of 
 disputes referred to him was assumed to be the result of 
 direct inspiration, and whose "themistes," or awards, are 
 judgments, not laws. 
 
 In the simple mechanism of ancient society, as Sir
 
 190 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 
 
 Henry shows, there would, as a rule, be parities of circum- 
 stances, and so in the succession of similar cases awards 
 would also as a rule follow and resemble each other. 
 
 Here, then, we have the germ or rudiment of custom, 
 and so we arrive at the second stage of Law's history, 
 viz., Custom. 
 
 "Themis, award," "Dike, a fluctuation between cus- 
 tom or usage and judgment," are the only two jural 
 terms met with in the Homeric writings ; " Nomos, a 
 law," has no place in it. 1 
 
 From the epoch of kingly rule we come everywhere in 
 Europe to the epoch of oligarchies, and so gradually to the 
 establishment of a political aristocracy, and then we find 
 ourselves face to face with " an important point for the 
 jurist," which is this, "that these aristocracies become 
 universally the depositaries and administrators of law. 
 They seem to have succeeded to the prerogatives of the 
 king, with the important difference that they do not 
 appear to have pretended to direct inspiration for each 
 sentence. What they do claim is to monopolise the 
 knowledge of the laws, to have the exclusive possession 
 of the principles by which quarrels are decided." a So 
 that now we have arrived at the epoch of Customary 
 Law, which at its early, stage is confined entirely for its 
 precepts to a privileged minority, whether a caste, an 
 aristocracy, a priestly tribe, or a sacerdotal college, and 
 which is true unwritten law. 
 
 Against this system of distributing justice men would 
 
 1 See Appendix, Note M. 
 
 2 Sir H. Maine, " Ancient Law," ch. i. pp. 2-6 and p. 12.
 
 CUSTOMARY LAW AND CODES. 191 
 
 naturally wage strenuous war as society advanced to- 
 wards improvement and as numbers increased. 
 
 The jealousy of the majority at the sight of so much 
 power lodged in the hands of a small number of indi- 
 viduals, influenced by those exclusive feelings that neces- 
 sarily attach to a privileged class, and above all the de- 
 sire to see as well as to be told of the customs that were 
 crystallizing into law, would force on a change, and that 
 change was from an unwritten to a written system. 
 
 So now we come to another sharply defined epoch in 
 the history of jurisprudence, viz., the era of Codes, of 
 which the XII. Tables of Rome is the most famous 
 specimen. 
 
 The exact value of this change consists in the publicity 
 given to the legal rules ; in the knowledge furnished by 
 them to everybody as to what he was to do and what 
 he was not to do ; and in the fact that the particular 
 laws of each particular tribe or people have found a better 
 depositary and a better security for preservation than 
 the mere memory of a number of persons, however 
 strengthened that memory might be by habitual exer- 
 cise. 
 
 The process thus sketched whereby arbitrary decisions 
 to which Divine inspiration was ascribed grew into cus- 
 toms, and so by graduated steps ripened into customary 
 law, is visible in the early history of our own country. 
 
 Many years, however, passed after the departure of 
 the Romans and the disappearance of Roman civilization 
 and Roman law ere written law made its mark upon 
 Anglo-Saxon life. 
 
 To -^Ethelberht, who ruled over the great kingdom of
 
 192 ANGLO-SAXON CODES. &THELBERHT. 
 
 Mid Britain between the years A.D. 577-617, belongs the 
 honour of having given his people a code. 
 
 His reign is remai'kable for two events, which bear on 
 the matter I am now noticing. First, the successful 
 mission of Gregory, whose Roman abbot, Augustine, 
 spread the tenets of the gospel in the south-eastern dis- 
 trict; and secondly, the conversion of the king himself 
 to the Christian faith. 
 
 As Mr. Green points out in his narrative of the first 
 of these events, 1 Canterbury, the earliest city-centre of 
 the new England, became the centre of Latin influence. 
 " The Roman tongue became again one of the tongues 
 of Britain, the language of its worship, its correspondence, 
 and its literature. But more than the tongue of Rome 
 returned with Augustine. Practically, his landing re- 
 newed that union with the Western world which the 
 landing of Hengist had all but destroyed. The new Eng- 
 land was admitted into the commonwealth of nations. 
 The civilization, arts, letters, which had fled before the 
 sword of the English conquerors, returned with the Chris- 
 tian faith. The fabric of the Roman law indeed never 
 took root in England, but it is impossible not to recognise 
 the influence of the Roman missionaries in the fact that 
 codes of the customary English law began to be put into 
 writing soon after their arrival. Of yet greater import 
 was the weight which the new faith was to exercise on 
 the drift of the English towards national unity. It was 
 impossible for England to become Christian without seeing 
 itself organized and knit together into a single life by its 
 
 1 " The Making of England," ch. v. pp. 221-224.
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND ANGLO-SAXON LIFE. 193 
 
 Christian organization, without seeing a great national 
 fabric of religious order rise in the face of its civil dis- 
 order." i 
 
 With -^Ethelstan's reign there is started a new period 
 of improvement in the social life of this country. By his 
 conversion to Christianity, the notion of a higher moral 
 influence began slowly to affect its institutions and laws, 
 and by the introduction of a code the whole conception 
 of law was changed. " Its sacred character, as well as 
 the mystery which had veiled its sources in the memory 
 of the ' lawman,' was taken from it, the mere writing 
 them down fixed and hardened the customs themselves, 
 and took from them their power of adaptation and self- 
 development. But then this result followed, that change 
 in the laws could henceforth only be wrought con- 
 sciously, and on grounds of reason or necessity, which 
 questioned or set aside the authority they drew from the 
 past." 2 
 
 What I shall do will be to append to the short account 
 I shall give of the events in the reigns of some of the 
 Anglo-Saxon kings extracts from their written laws, 
 adding to them such explanations of the special object 
 of the laws themselves, and of the terms used in them, 
 as may be necessary ; and, by way of preface, I will say 
 why I think it useful, as well as instructive, to put these 
 extracts before you. 
 
 1 See as to the history of this mission and the character of 
 Augustine's work and life, Bede'g " Ecclesiastical History," book i. 
 chs. xxiii.-xxxiii., and book ii. chs. i.-iv. (Bonn's Antiq. Library 
 edition). 
 
 8 Green's " Conquest of England," ch. i. p. 20. 
 
 A. L.
 
 I 9 4 CODES AND STATUTES. 
 
 The reason is that I know no better way of getting 
 at the spirit of our old Anglo-Saxon life. 
 
 For just as in the later periods of English history it 
 is difficult to meet with any particular books, any 
 authoritative work or works, which will exactly exhibit 
 the real inner history of English life, so in this pai-t of 
 it, even with the help of the authorities I have so fre- 
 quently referred to, we do not always find all we want. 
 
 Now in the written laws of a country, and in England 
 in the statute book, we have the means of extending our 
 inquiries and in getting a real insight into the makings 
 of a nation. Mr. Froude, in his essay on " Suggestions 
 on the Best Means of Teaching English History," l has 
 dwelt upon the value and importance of this source of 
 information with remarkable skill and with great effect. 
 
 He shows us how a whole picture arises out of the 
 code or the statute book of the old English nation, its 
 life, its habits, its character, its occupations, amusements, 
 hopes, fears. " The political economy, the education, 
 the relations between man and man, between landlord 
 and tenant, between employer and employed, are all 
 laid out before us there in unconscious simplicity, with 
 the duties wherein all such relations were supposed to 
 be involved, and the degree in which such duties were 
 fulfilled." 
 
 If, then, I put before you extracts from our early 
 Anglo-Saxon Codes, I shall be making use of the most 
 sei'viceablo as well as the most trustworthy witnesses 
 of the rise and progress of social life in England. 
 
 1 " Oxford Essays," 1855.
 
 ANGLO-SAXON CODES. 195 
 
 Another remark I would make, by way of introduction 
 to the Anglo-Saxon laws, and here I cite one of our best 
 and most zealous workmen in the cause of English con- 
 stitutional history. 1 It is this : " Of the existing Anglo- 
 Saxon laws, those of ^Ethelbert, Hlothsere, and Eadric, 
 Wihtranl, Ine, Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edmund, 
 and Edgar are mainly in the nature of amendments of 
 customs. Those of Alfred, ^Bthelred, Knut, and those 
 described as Edward the Confessor's, aspire to the char- 
 acter of codes ; but English law, from its first to its 
 latest phase, has never professed an authoritative, con. 
 structive, systematic, or approximately' exhaustive state- 
 ment, such as was attempted by the great compilers of the 
 civil and canon laws, by Alfonso the Wise or Napoleon 
 Bonaparte." 
 
 I begin with ^Ethelbert's compilation (A..D. 600). His 
 laws are little more than a record of the customary fines 
 for penal offences, with a provision for the legal status 
 of the new Christian priesthood. 2 Out of ninety clauses, 
 forty-one fix the fines for injury to various parts of the 
 body. Almost all the laws refer to violent attacks on 
 person or property. There is no mention of trade or 
 agriculture. The Church is referred to in the first clause 
 only. 
 
 Now here it may be asked, how it is that in the earliest 
 attempt to give to a community the special advantage 
 of a written system of law, a code, so much space should 
 
 1 "Documents Illustrative of English History," by W. Stubbs, 
 M.A., edition 1870, part ii. p. 70. 
 
 2 Green's " Conquest of England," cli. i. p. 21.
 
 I 9 5 JETHELBERTS LAWS. 
 
 be devoted to offences, and so little to rules relating to 
 property, none to succession or to contract. 
 
 The answer, briefly stated (and you will find it ex- 
 pi-essed in fuller language in Sir H. Maine's " Ancient 
 Law " l ), is that in all the known collections of ancient 
 law, more especially the Teutonic codes, including those 
 of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, the attention bestowed on 
 the law of offences is out of all proportion to that devoted 
 to the civil law. The more archaic the code, the more 
 full and minute is its penal legislation. 
 
 Something no doubt, by way of explanation, is due to 
 the violence habitual to the communities which for the 
 first time reduced their laws to writing ; but the better 
 and more natural reason lies in the fact that the laws of 
 these older phases of society are drawn from and adapted 
 to the old habits and customs of life. " The law of 
 persons, which is nothing else than the law of status, will 
 be restricted to the scantiest limits as long as all forms 
 of status are merged in common subjection to the paternal 
 power or to the tribal claims. Rules relating to property 
 and succession can never be plentiful so long as land and 
 goods devolve within the family or the tribe, and, if dis- 
 tributed at all, are distributed within its circle. From 
 this cause the law of contract will not make its appear- 
 ance in the first instance at all, and later on only when 
 the moral notions on which contract depends are appre- 
 ciated with sufficient strength to compete with and 
 eventually oust from its former supremacy the elaborate 
 machinery of oaths and compensation." 
 
 1 Maine's " Ancient Law," cb. x.
 
 LAW OF TORTS IN THE TEUTONIC CODES. 197 
 
 In speaking of the Teutonic codes just above, I used 
 the expression, law of offences, advisedly. I avoided the 
 terra criminal Jaiv, because the law which they exhibit is 
 not true criminal law, at least in the sense which we 
 apply to it. 
 
 To our modem notions the line of separation between 
 offences against the State or community, and offences 
 against the individual, is always kept in view when we 
 mean to distinguish between criminal law and the law 
 of torts or wrongs. But the penal law of ancient com- 
 munities is not the law of crimes ; it is the law of wrongs. 
 The person injured there has his remedy against the 
 wrongdoer, and the wrong is atoned for by compensation 
 in the shape of money damages. 
 
 Offences which we look upon as crimes were, in the 
 older times of which I am speaking, regarded as torts, 
 giving rise to an obligation or vinculnm juris, and requited 
 by a money payment. 
 
 Nowhere was this more strongly brought out than in 
 the laws of the Germanic tribes. Without an exception 
 they describe an immense system of money compensations 
 for homicide, and with few exceptions as large a scheme 
 of compensation for minor injuries. " Under Anglo- 
 Saxon law," says Mr. Kemble, 1 " a sum was placed 
 on the life of every freeman according to his rank, and 
 a corresponding sum on every wound that could be in- 
 flicted on his person, for nearly every injury that could 
 be done to his civil rights, honour, or peace, the sum be- 
 ing aggravated according to adventitious circumstances." 
 
 1 Kemble's " Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. p. 277.
 
 198 ANGLO-SAXON LAW OF TORTS. 
 
 For the reasons given, torts or wrongs occupy a large 
 space in ancient codes. But though the law of tort is 
 more marked in the manner described in the Teutonic 
 and Anglo-Saxon Codes, and the law of crimes, so far 
 as concerned the community, was not as yet an important 
 branch of penal legislation, still, you must not be under 
 the impression that a conception of wrong 'done to the 
 State was wanting in early society ; for we know that 
 when the freemen of the Teutonic races assembled for 
 legislation, they also claimed authority to punish offences 
 of peculiar blackness or committed by persons of exalted 
 station. And of this nature was the criminal jurisdiction 
 of the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. 
 
 Moreover, the State did affect to assert its own right 
 to strike the offender ; l for, as we shall see even so early 
 as ^Ethelred's Code, in one particular class of offences, in 
 addition to compensation for the injury, a pecuniary fine, 
 payable to the king as head of the State, was imposed. 
 
 How it came about that the important change known 
 to much later days was effected, viz., that the doctrine that 
 the chastisement of crimes belonged in a special manner 
 to the sovereign as the representative and mandatary 
 of the people, displacing the old belief that it was the 
 business of the collective community to avenge its own 
 wrongs by its own hands, how this, I say, came about, 
 it may be my business to show hereafter. 
 
 Another query presents itself. How comes it that the 
 law of theft occupies so important a position in the early 
 Anglo-Saxon Codes ? and why, in settling the damages, 
 
 1 Kemble's " The Saxons in England," vol. i. ch. x. pp. 2G9-271.
 
 ANGLO-SAXON LAW OF THEFT. 199 
 
 did the framers of them take as their guide the measure 
 of damages likely to be exacted by an aggrieved person 
 under the circumstances of the case F 
 
 The answer to the first query is, that property was of 
 very great importance to the tribe itself, from the fact 
 that a community of interest in the property of the 
 individual members of the tribe was a dominant factor 
 in the calculation of the wealth of the tribe. 
 
 The reason for the second query is to be found in the 
 fact that the earliest administrators of justice simulated 
 the probable acts of persons engaged in a private quarrel. 
 The ancient lawgiver doubtless considered that the in- 
 jured proprietor, if left to himself, would inflict a very 
 different punishment when his blood was hot from that 
 with which he would be satisfied when the thief was 
 detected after a considerable interval ; and to this calcu- 
 lation the legal scale of penalties was adjusted. This 
 principle is exactly what we meet with in the Anglo- 
 Saxon Codes, where they suffered a thief chased down 
 and caught with the booty to be hanged or decapitated 
 on the spot, while they exacted the full penalties of 
 homicide from anybody who kills him after the pursuit 
 has been interrupted. 1 " Distinctions such as these," 
 says Sir H. Maine, " bring home to us very forcibly the 
 distance of a refined from a rude jurisprudence." 
 
 Moreover, from the community of interest that existed 
 in the tribe or body politic, the tribe, i.e., the State, 
 conceived itself to be wronged. Therefore the popular 
 assembly struck straight at the offender with the same 
 
 1 Maine's " Ancient Law,' 1 ch. x.
 
 200 ANGLO-SAXON LAW OF THEFT. 
 
 movement that accompanied its legislative action. Hence 
 you will find, when you come to look at these old laws 
 whose spirit I am now discussing, that they make clear 
 another remarkable feature, viz., that the earliest criminal 
 tribunals were merely subdivisions or committees of the 
 legislature.
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 ANGLO-SAXON LAWS. 
 
 The Laws or Dooms of /Ethelbert The Laws or Dooms of Hlothaere 
 and Eadric Explanation of Anglo-Saxon Terms used in them 
 The Laws of TVihtrrcd Reasons why they deserve Notice The 
 Laws of Ine Importance of these Laws King Eadberht's Reign 
 Noteworthy Bede and Ecgberht : their Influence on the Social 
 Life of Anglo-Saxon England The Pontifical of Ecgberht The 
 Reign of Offa The Concilium Legatinum Analysis of the Con- 
 cilium, and its Importance. 
 
 Ix this and some following lectures I intend to read and 
 explain, where necessary, extracts from the published 
 laws of some of our Anglo-Saxon kings, and I begin with 
 the earliest specimen, those of king ^Ethelbert. 
 
 Of the laws or " dooms " established by king ^Ethel- 
 bert (A.D. 600), there are ninety in all, though only one is 
 noticed by Bishop Stubbs ; but then that one is important 
 in this respect, that it is connected with the constitution 
 itself, for the summoning the " leod," or people, was an 
 event of no small interest to the community. 
 
 All were bound to obey the summons ; all were under 
 protection in going and coming to and from the assembly, 
 and brawling or disturbance at the meeting was punish- 
 able as the law shows : first, by bot, i.e., compensation 
 in damages to the party injured ; second, by fine to the 
 head of the State. 
 
 "With one or two exceptions, ^Ethelbert's laws are regu- 
 201
 
 202 ^.THELBF.RrS LAWS. 
 
 lations against injury to life and limb, and against other 
 acts of violence. 
 
 By the first law the property of the Church is parti- 
 cularly safeguarded in the shape of penalties for injuries 
 thereto, graduated in amount according to the rank and 
 position of the ecclesiastical owner of the property. In 
 the case of a bishop, elevenfold ; in that of a priest, nine- 
 fold ; of a deacon, sixfold ; of a clerk, threefold ; in that 
 of God and the Church, twelvefold. For injury to 
 church frith (i.e., to the right of sanctuary), the fine 
 was twofold, that is, double the amount of fine payable 
 for an invasion of the ordinary frith (or peace). 
 
 The second law is the one I have noted above as cited 
 by Bishop Stubbs, and it runs thus : " If the king call 
 his ' leod ' to him, and any one there do them evil, let 
 him compensate with a twofold ' bot ' and fifty shillings 
 to the king." (This penalty to the Crown Avas called 
 " wite.") 
 
 Of the laws or " dooms " of Hlotha3re and Eadric 
 (written A.D. 680), there ai-e sixteen. They commence 
 with this preface : " Hlothrere and Eadric, kings of the 
 Kentish men, augmented the laws which their elders had 
 before made by these 'dooms,' which hereafter say"; 
 and then follow the laws. Half of these laws are aimed 
 at acts of violence. The rest relate to plaints in a suit, 
 provide regulations for chapmen, 1 and impose fines for 
 man-stealing. In none of these laws is the Church 
 
 1 Chapman, i.e., one who buys or sells, a trader or merchant. The 
 \vord comes from " ceapan," to buy. These regulations appear 
 again in some of Ine's laws. As to chapman, see Chaucer, " Canter- 
 bury Tales ": " The Shipmanne's Tale."
 
 LAWS OF HLOTH&RE AND EADRIC. 203 
 
 mentioned. Only one law is cited by Bishop Stubbs, viz., 
 law 8. I shall advert to and explain the terms used in it 
 presently. There are one or two others that deserve 
 notice, and so I add them to this law 8. 
 
 I begin Avith law 6, which runs thus : " If a husband 
 die, wife and child yet living, it is right that the child 
 follow the mother (that is, that she be its guardian), and 
 let ' borh ' (that is, surety or pledge) be given to him 
 from among his paternal kinsmen to keep his property 
 till he be X. years of age. 
 
 " L. 8. If one man make plaint against another in 
 a suit, and he cite the man to a ' methel ' or ' thing,' let 
 the man always give ' borh ' to the other, and do him 
 such right as the Kentish judges prescribe to them. 
 
 " L. 11. If one man calls another perjurer in another 
 ' flet ' (that is, the habitation of a ' ceorl '), or shamefully 
 bespeak him with abusive words, let him pay a ' shilling ' 
 to him who owns the flet, vi. ' shillings ' to him to whom 
 he said the words, and xii. ' shillings ' to the king. 
 
 " L. 12. If a man remove a stoup from another where 
 men are drinking unoffendingly, according to ancient 
 usage, let him pay a ' shilling ' to him who owns the 
 ' flet' (that is, the house where they arc drinking), and 
 vi. 'shillings' to him from whom he removed the stoup, 
 and xii. ' shillings ' to the king." 
 
 These laws of Hlothaore and Eadric are noteworthy as 
 containing in their list one (1. 8) which, for the first time 
 introduced into our jurisprudence an attempt to define 
 the position of plaintiff and defendant in a suit at law, 
 and also marked the form of the inceptive process in 
 such suit, viz., citation to the public assembly.
 
 204 LAWS OF WIHTR&D. 
 
 " Borh " means surety, and is equivalent to plegium 
 or plegius. "Methel" means an assembly, a " gemot," 
 and "gemot" means a meeting. The "methel" here 
 spoken of, says Thorpe, is the same as the "hundred 
 gemot " of later times. " Thing," which may be the 
 same as the old Teutonic word " Thinx," was in the 
 old capitularies of the Frankish kings used for the 
 common council of the people. Between " Gemot " and 
 ' " Thing " there seems to have been very little difference. 
 Thorpe asserts that it was in later days the court of the 
 " Tithing." " Thing " also meant " plea," from " Ding " 
 and "Denghen," a lawsuit; and so "Denghen," to litigate. 
 
 From the laws of HlothaBre and Eadric, with whose 
 examination I have last been engaged, I proceed to those 
 put forth by Wihtrsed. 
 
 Of Wihtned's reign (from A.D. 694 to 725) but little is 
 recorded. He ruled over Kent (and Kent was among the 
 most civilized portions of England 1 ). Still, even in Kent 
 we read of the great men setting the doom of the " folk- 
 moot " at defiance. For this reason, as a matter of neces- 
 sity, the folks' justice was made to pass into the king's 
 justice; and so, as a new scope was given to the justice 
 of the king, we find the king's power attaining to larger 
 dimensions, and its judicial activity acquiring a larger 
 development. 
 
 Hence the Saxon kings from being at first one of a 
 small number of petty kings or chieftains, then by the 
 process of consolidation of countries which was going on 
 down to the commencement of the seventh century an 
 
 1 Shakespeare : 2nd part of Henry the Sixth, act iv. score vii.
 
 LAWS OF WIHTR^ED. 205 
 
 actual sovereign, head of one independent kingdom out 
 of at least eight other similar kingdoms, and then the 
 ruler as well as leader of a nation for which he had 
 obtained predominance at last arrived at the position 
 of an extensive powerful monarch, a king whose power 
 was widely extended, a " bryten-wealda." * Therefore in 
 time the English king, from being the chief of the great 
 landowners, came to be looked upon as the origin and 
 som-ce of title and power, as well as the chief leader and 
 ruler. 
 
 Hence, at the first great council held at Beccanceld 
 (A.D. 694), where were assembled the archbishop, bishop, 
 abbots, abbesses, and many wise men, we read of the 
 king, after defining the rights and privileges of the 
 churches, thus announcing the law of the land : " It 
 belongs to the king to appoint the principes, prcefectos 
 sen, duces, or, as the Anglo-Saxon chronicle phrases it, 
 the eorlas and ealclormen, schire-revan, and doomsmen 
 throughout the land." 2 
 
 "King Wihtroed, also, at Berkhampstead (A.D. 695), 
 with the advice of his great men and by their suffrages, 
 decreed the dooms that at that council were framed, 
 adding them to the lawful customs of the Kentish men." 
 Of these dooms or laws there were twenty-eight in all. 
 By the two first of them it was enacted that the Church 
 should have freedom from imposts ; that the king should 
 be prayed for and revered without command and of free 
 
 1 See as to this, Kemble's " Anglo-Saxons," vol. ii. cb. i. 
 
 2 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. C94, at p. 331 ; in Bohn's Anti- 
 quarian Library.'
 
 206 LAWS OF WIHTRALD. 
 
 will ; also that for " mund-byrd " (or right of guardian- 
 ship over those under its protection) the Church should 
 pay fifty shillings to the king. By another law (1. 8) it 
 was proclaimed that in the case of solemn manumission 
 at the altar, although the emancipated serf was made 
 folk-free, yet the inheritance, the weregild and the mund 
 of his family should remain to the lord, whether the new 
 freedman continued to reside within the Mark or not. 1 
 
 These laws of Wihtraed's deserve notice for the proof 
 they give of the wide and distinct difference existing at 
 the time between the several ranks of the community, 
 and of the immense influence and power which, the 
 clergy had acquired. 
 
 The last of Wihtra?d's laws is a remarkable one, as 
 exhibiting the unsettled state of the times and the sus- 
 picious temper of the communities. In enacts " that if 
 a man comes from afar, or a stranger goes out of the 
 highway, and he then neither shouts nor blows a horn, 
 he is to be accounted a thief, either to be slain or to bo 
 redeemed." 
 
 The country to which the notice of the old Saxon laws 
 now takes us is Wessex, and the king whose laws or 
 rather extracts from whose laws I shall presently give, is 
 Ine, " the son of Cenred, and, like his predecessor Cead- 
 walla, a descendant of Cutha, the son of Ceawlin." 3 
 
 Wessex at this time had recovered strength and re- 
 nown. The losses of territory that she had suffered since 
 
 1 See as to this, Kemble's " Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. viii. p. 220. 
 
 2 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. C88 (Bohn's Antiquarian 
 Library, at p. 330).
 
 LA WS OF INE, 207 
 
 Ceawlin's time had been repaired, and under Ine's rule, 
 " not only the whole land south of the Thames, but PJssex 
 also, together with London, acknowledged Ine as lord." l 
 
 Ine's fame is noteworthy for three reasons at least. In 
 the first place, he was a bold and successful warrior ; 
 Kent, East Anglia, and Mercia felt the vigour of his 
 arm and experienced the force of his skill as a general. 
 
 But it was not as a soldier and leader of armies only 
 that he gained renown. As a prudent administrator of 
 affairs, he is worthy of praise, and as a patron of learning 
 and a friend of one whose name stands not far below that 
 of the venerable Bede himself I mean the Bishop Eald- 
 Lelm Ine deserves mention. 
 
 Above all, the ruler of Wessex ranks high among the 
 Saxon kings who preceded Alfred as a lawgiver and 
 legislator. By his command a collection of laws was 
 made for Wessex, and this collection is, with the excep- 
 tion of those published by the Kentish kings, the earliest 
 known to us among the Anglo-Saxons. 2 
 
 In this collection of laws there are two or three matters 
 of interest as evincing the change of feeling that had 
 come upon the land. In the first place, as the preamble 
 shows, we see the authoritative position that the Chris- 
 tian faith had gained. Next, and as a consequence 
 thereof, the power to which the Church had attained ; 
 and then the remarkable fact of the positive recognition 
 of a moral sentiment hitherto unknown in the land. 
 
 Ninety years after the conversion of the first Saxon 
 
 1 Green's "Making of England," ch. viii. p. 386. 
 Lappenberg's "Anglo Saxon Kings,' 1 Bolm's Library Edition, 
 vol. i. ch. xv. p. 331.
 
 208 LAWS OF INE. 
 
 king, Christianity asserts its influence over the kingly 
 office and in the council chamber. The king is spoken of 
 as " king by God's grace " ; and the council is described 
 as " a large assembly of God's servants." Then we see 
 the bishop introduced as a " teacher and counsellor " ; 
 and, further, we read of " the health of our souls," and 
 "just law and just kingly dooms " as matters of import- 
 ance to all. 
 
 Moreover, we have in Chapter 11 a noteworthy piece of 
 legislation in the cause of humanity, an attempt to put 
 a stop to the cruel practice of selling a man into slavery. 
 
 These, then, are the extracts from the laws of King Ine 
 (circ. A.D. 690). 
 
 " Wesscx ; Ine; Preamlle io ihe lau-s. 
 
 I, Ine, by God's grace, King of the West Saxons, with 
 the counsel and with the teaching of Cenred my father, 
 and of Hedde my bishop, and of Eorcenwold my bishop, 
 with all my ealdormen and the most distinguished ' Witan' 
 (wise men) of my people, and also with a large assembly 
 of God's servants, have been considering of the health of 
 our souls, and of the stability of our realm, so that just 
 law and just kingly 'dooms' (judgments) might be settled 
 and established throughout our folk ; so that none of the 
 ealdormen, nor of our subjects, should hereafter pervert 
 these dooms. 
 
 Cap. 8. If any one demand justice before a'scirman' 
 or other judge, and cannot obtain it, and a man (i.e., the 
 defendant) will not give him ' wedd ' (pledge or gage- 
 radium), let him make ' bot ' with xxx. shillings, and 
 within seven days do him justics.
 
 LA WS OF INE. 209 
 
 Cap. 11. If any one sell his own countryman, bond or 
 free, though he (viz., the person sold) be guilty, over sea, 
 let him (the seller) pay for him according to his 'wer' 
 (i.e., according to the pecuniary value of the person sold). 
 
 Cap. 36. Let him who takes a thief, or to -whom one 
 taken is given, and he then lets him go, or conceals the 
 theft, pay for the thief according to his ' wer.' If he be 
 an ealdcrman, let him forfeit his shire (i.e., lose his posi- 
 tion as magistrate in the shire), unless the king is willing 
 to be merciful to him. 
 
 Cap. 39. If any one go from his lord without leave, 
 or steal himself away into another shire, and he be dis- 
 covered, let him go where he was before, and pay to his 
 lord lx. shillings. 
 
 Cap. 45. ' Bot ' (i.e., amends, reparation) shall be 
 made for the king's burg-bryce l and a bishop's, where 
 his jurisdiction is, with cxx. shillings ; for an ealdorman's, 
 with Ixxx. shillings ; for a king's thegn's, with lx. shil- 
 lings ; for a ' gesithcundman,' having land, with xxx. 
 shillings ; and according to this make the legal denial. 
 
 Cap. 51. If a 'gesithcundman,' owning land, neglect 
 the ' fyrd ' (that is, the summons to the military expedi- 
 tions), let him pay cxx. shillings, and forfeit his land ; 
 one not owning land, lx. shillings ; a ceorlish man, xxx. 
 shillings, as 'fyrdwite' (that is, penalty for neglecting 
 the 'fyrd'). " 2 
 
 In the work to which I have so frequently referred, 3 
 
 1 Burg-bryce was literally the breaking of a fortified place. Here 
 it means the violation of a castle or dwelling. 
 
 2 See Appendix, Note N. 
 
 3 " Documents Illustrative of English History," by Bishop Stubbs. 
 
 A. L. P
 
 210 FROM A.D. 760 TO A.D. 787. 
 
 among the illustrative extracts from the old Saxon laws, 
 there are two passages selected by the author ascribed 
 to the years A.D. 760 and A.D. 787. I propose to notice 
 them both, as they mark distinctly two features of 
 interest from a political as well as social point of view. 
 I mean the continuing influence of the Church in affairs 
 of State, and the reference to moral sentiment as a 
 matter of importance in the administration of justice. 
 
 These two passages are not extracted from any body 
 of laws emanating from the Crown or Council of the 
 State, but are ecclesiastical utterances. 
 
 The first is taken from the Pontifical of Egbert, Arch- 
 bishop of York. The second is a very short passage 
 from the twelfth chapter of the Legatine Council, which 
 apparently was held at Celcyth x (see Anglo-Saxon 
 Chronicle, A.D. 785). 
 
 Before I cite and comment on them, I have something 
 to say about the times, the localities, and some of the 
 events connected with the passages cited by Bishop 
 Stubbs. 
 
 To begin with the first date, that of the year A.D. 760, 
 or thereabouts. The extract from the Pontifical of 
 Egbert speaks of a newly consecrated king. This was 
 probably Osulf, who succeeded to the throne of North 
 Britain on the retirement into a monastery of his father, 
 Eadberht (in A.D. 758). 
 
 Eadberht himself was a man of remarkable ability. 
 
 1 In Wilkins, vol. i., at p. 145, it is called " Concilium Calccn- 
 thense." The learned authors, Haddou and Stubbs, of " Councils 
 and Ecclesiastical Documents " (in vol. iii. p. 444), give the name as 
 " Celcyth," or " Chelsea."
 
 KING EADBERHT. 21 1 
 
 At no period of time Lad the government of North- 
 umbria been in more vigorous hands. His reputation 
 abroad stood so high that his friendship was eagerly 
 sought for by the Frankish king Pepin. It was wise 
 policy on the monarch's part to be on good terms with 
 the ruler of North Britain. An alliance with that part 
 of England in the event of a Avar between Pepin and the 
 southern portion of our island would, of course, be of 
 material service to the Frankish king. 
 
 Under Eadberht, the northern division of this country 
 had become the political as well as the religious centre 
 of the fame and power of the Anglo-Saxon race. Under 
 Eadberht also, learning and religion had gone on hand 
 in hand in a grand progress of advancement and of gain 
 to the country. 
 
 One name stands out pre-eminently in the annals of 
 the times. A name that no lover of learning, no believer 
 in the beneficial influences of morality and religion upon 
 social life, would pass over, or, naming, would omit to 
 d \vell on with reverence. I mean Bede, " the Venerable 
 Bede," as he is called in history, whose life, though 
 spent in Jarrow, was spent so well that after ages dwell 
 with fitting regard upon the man, and record his name 
 and virtues with more than mere respect, even with fond 
 recollection. 1 
 
 " The father of English learning," as Burke calls him*, 
 he spent his life at Jarrow in the service of the Church 
 and in the pursuit of knowledge. " All my life," so runs 
 his own narrative, "I spent in that same monastery, giving 
 
 1 Wordsworth's '' Ecclesiastical Sonnets," part i. sonnet xiii,
 
 212 BEDE. 
 
 my whole attention to the study of the Holy Scriptures, 
 and in the intervals between the hours of regular dis- 
 cipline and the duties of singing in the church, I alw;iys 
 took pleasure in learning or preaching, or writing some- 
 thing." 
 
 To Bede we owe the revival of a taste for classical 
 learning which, let its opponents say what they may 
 against it, will, I venture to hope, long continue to be 
 regarded as a sound and useful foundation of education. 
 
 Above all, we owe to Bede, not merely the first real 
 history of the English nation, but the first true model of 
 how that and all history should be written, never for- 
 getting his own words, " If, in what I have written, any 
 one finds anything not delivered according to the truth, 
 I humbly entreat the reader that he will not impute the 
 same to me, who, as the rule of history requires, have 
 laboured sincerely to commit to writing such things as 
 I could gather from common report for the instruction 
 of posterity." l 
 
 Death came upon him as he was finishing the last and 
 dearest of all his works, the version of Saint John's 
 Gospel into the English tongue. The story is thus told 
 by his pupil Cnthbert in a letter to his fellow reader 
 Cuthwin. 3 
 
 " To us he seemed very well to know the time of his 
 departure, and so he spent the night awake in thanks- 
 giving; and when the morning appeared, that is Wednes- 
 
 1 " Ecclesiastical History," book i., Preface, p. 3 in Bobn's Anti- 
 quarian Library Edition. 
 
 * Preface to the " Ecclesiastical History," in the same edition, nt 
 pp. xviii. to xxi.
 
 BEDE: HIS DEATH. 213 
 
 day, lie ordered us to write with all speed what he had 
 begun. . . . There was one of us with him who said 
 to him, 'Most dear master, there is still one chapter 
 wanting ; do you think it troubles you to be asked any 
 more questions ? ' he answered, ' It is no trouble, take 
 your pen, and make ready and write fast.' . . . 
 Having said much more, he passed the day joyfully till 
 the evening, and the boy above mentioned said, 'Dear 
 master, there is yet one sentence not written.' He 
 answered, 'Write quickly.' Soon after the boy said, 
 ' The sentence is now written.' He replied, ' It is well, 
 you have said the truth. It is ended. Receive my hand 
 into your hands, for it is a great satisfaction to me to sit 
 facing my holy place, where I was wont to pray, that I 
 may also sitting call upon my Father.' And thus on the 
 pavement of his little singing, ' Glory be to the 
 
 Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,' when ho 
 had named the Holy Ghost he breathed his last, and so 
 departed to the heavenly kingdom." 
 
 Thus died on the 2Gth May, A.D. 735, " the first among 
 English scholars, the first among English theologians, 
 and the first among English historians, the monk of 
 Jarrow, whose zeal for English learning enabled English 
 learning to strike its roots deep into English soil," 1 and 
 deep into all true English hearts has the recollection of 
 his good deeds struck its roots. 
 
 From Bede and his efforts to improve the culture and 
 the moral tone of his countrymen, I pass to the man who 
 next to him, nor yet without success, strove to make 
 
 1 Green, "The Making of Eug'ancl," i\ 401.
 
 214 AKCHBISIIOP ECGBERHT. 
 
 smooth the path of learning, and who, following in Bede's 
 steps, worked with strength and skill in the cause of the 
 social improvement of his country. Among the learned 
 men and the earnest toilers of the day, the monk 
 Ecgberht deserves record. His early life was spent in 
 Ireland, where he lived for many years. From Ireland 
 he passed over to Hii or lona. There, accoi-ding to 13edc>, 
 his special mission was to bring the monks of that island 
 into the proper observance of the rules and regulations 
 of the mother Church. 
 
 Then he attracted the notice and favour of the Pope 
 Gregory. By him Bede's scheme of religious reformation 
 was carried out in one feature of it. viz. the revival of 
 the Archbishopric in the North of England, and from 
 Gregory Ecgberht obtained the papal recognition of his 
 appointment to the see of York, as Archbishop, in the 
 year 735. 
 
 With Ealdfrith, the ruler of Northumbria (himself a 
 man of learning and study), Ecgberht quickened the 
 intellectual temper of that part of England, and lived to 
 see the result of his labours in years of peace and order, 
 of literary and ai-tistic development ; so that Northumbria 
 became the life and centre even of Western Europe. 
 
 The consequence of Ecgberht's elevation to the Arehi- 
 opiscopal dignity was not merely the religious independ- 
 ence of the northern kingdom added to its political im- 
 portance, but a close connection between the see of York 
 and the northern throne. 
 
 By the determined efforts of Ecgberht to stir into 
 warmth the sparks of learning which Bede's zeal had 
 kindled, the intellectual improvement of the populations
 
 ARCHBISHOP ECGBERHT. 215 
 
 of the northern parts of England continued to progress. 
 York, which in Wilfrid's time had been the religious centre 
 of the district, through Ecgberht's energy became the 
 capital of the north, as distinguished for its culture and 
 moral advancement as for its wealth and material power. 
 
 By the Archbishop's energy the little wooden bap- 
 tistery which, in the days of Paulinus, had been the 
 beginning of the great cathedral, 1 arid which Wilfrid (in 
 A.D. 670) had endeavoured to restore and improve, was 
 enlarged and decorated so as before his death to be a 
 rival to the churches of Ripon and Hexham. 
 
 Ecgberht founded a school which was attached to the 
 church, supplying it with a library whose fame was 
 known throughout the length and breadth of the land, 
 and was the subject of Alcuin's learned eulogium. In 
 that school Ecgberht was a diligent teacher. To it 
 scholars flocked from every country, and to the teacher 
 as well as to his school belongs the glory of having 
 rescued learning from the degradation into which it had 
 fallen in other parts of England as well as in the Frank- 
 ish kingdoms across the water. The school long survived 
 its founder. 
 
 Among the makers of the mental and moral life of 
 England, Ecgberht well deserves a high place ; and as I 
 am describing the history of social life in England, it 
 would be unbecoming in me to pass over unnoticed one 
 to whom learning and culture in England owe so much. 2 
 
 1 Bede's " Ecclesiastical History," book ii. cb. xiv., at p. 96, in 
 Bolm's Antiquarian Library Edition. 
 
 - Green's " Making of England," ch. viii. pp. 405-408. There is 
 a very slight reference to this School of York iu Hallam's "Litera-
 
 216 THE PONTIFICAL OF ECGBERHT. 
 
 These are the words of the " Pontificale Egbert! Archi- 
 episcopi Eboracensis," which I translate from the Latin 
 version. The heading runs thus: 
 
 " Blessings upon the king recently elected. Here you 
 may see the first mandate of the king to his people. 
 
 " It is the right of the king recently elected and raised 
 to the throne to enjoin these three precepts on the 
 Christian folk subject to him. 
 
 " Imprimis, that the Church of God, and that all 
 Christian folk, obsei've and keep in full the peace at all 
 times. Amen. 
 
 " Secondly, that (the king) do forbid all robbery and all 
 evil doing throughout all ranks of people. Amen. 
 
 " Thirdly, that in all dooms the king do enjoin the 
 observance of justice and mercy, so that God the just and 
 merciful may shed His mercy upon us. Amen." 
 
 The second extract is taken from the " Concilium 
 Legatinum," at the twelfth chapter. Before I cite it, I 
 will say something first in respect of the importance from 
 a political point of view of the document, and then in 
 explanation of the document itself. 
 
 Its importance consists in this, that it marks in a 
 strong manner the intimate relations existing at the 
 period of its publication (A.D. 786) between the papal 
 see and the King of Mercia Offa. 
 
 The period of time now referred to had been an eventful 
 one for Rome, especially during the thirty years prior to 
 
 ture of Europe," vol. i. part i. ch. i. p. 6 ; bnt a much fuller and 
 more eulogistic one in Guizot's " History of Civilization in Europe," 
 22nd lecture, vol. ii. pp. 232, 233 (Bolm's edition).
 
 REIGN OF OFF A. 217 
 
 the dale above-mentioned. Pepin the Short, the son of 
 Charles Martel, had been anointed King of the Franks, 
 with the assent of Boniface, acting as legate of the papal 
 see. A few years later Pepin repaid his debt to Rome 
 by crossing the Alps and delivering the Pontiff of Rome 
 from the dangerous attacks of the Lombards, whose power 
 for mischief was a few years later entirely destroyed by 
 the conquering arms of Pepin's great son Charlemagne. 1 
 
 Meanwhile an intercourse had been going on between 
 the Frankish Court and Britain through the missionaries 
 sent from Rome to England. This was productive of 
 advantage to the papal see in the opportunity it afforded 
 of strengthening the hold which the ecclesiastical ad- 
 ministrators of the Church had already got over the 
 English Court and in English political affairs. 
 
 The early part of Offa's reign had been a period of 
 constant and fierce warfare against the "West Saxons and 
 against the Welsh. In the year 786 A.D. he succeeded, 
 by force of arms, as well as by diplomatic skill, in bring- 
 ing about a settlement of the country on terms advan- 
 tageous to himself. 
 
 On one project he was steadily bent. That was to take 
 as the permanent basis of the political order in Britain 
 its threefold division. This he strove to effect by erecting 
 a third archbishopric at Lichfield. Whatever might have 
 been the special object that Offa had in view in carrying 
 out this scheme, the result, political as well as ecclesias- 
 tical, was of no small consequence and no small gain to 
 the papal power. 
 
 1 Gibbon, " Decline and Fall," ch. xlix.
 
 2i8 REIGN OF OFF A. 
 
 As Mr. Green points out, it brought England into new 
 and more direct relations with Rome. It enabled the 
 pope to send legates, who assumed the right to remould 
 the fabric of the English Church, and in return for the 
 pope's sanction to Offa's design, it obtained for the papal 
 see a yearly contribution in alms and lights payable by 
 the king and his successor. 
 
 Thus it introduced a claim on the pope's part of some- 
 thing very much resembling a tax leviable for the benefit 
 of a foreign potentate. 
 
 The political consequence of Offa's attempt to raise a 
 third archbishopric, had it been completely carried out, 
 would have been of no less weight. It would " have 
 strengthened the isolation of mid-Britain, and have cast 
 a f re ah hindrance in tho way of any fusion of Englishmen 
 into a single people." 
 
 Fortunately for the independence of England and its 
 freedom from the control of an exacting foreign prelate, 
 as well as for its future political well-being, Offa's project 
 was unsuccessful. 1 
 
 I have now to give a short account of the document 
 from which the extract I shall presently append is taken. 
 Bishop Stubbs 2 calls it " Concilium Legatinum." It 
 appears to have been the report to the pope by the two 
 papal legates, Geoi'ge and Theophylact, of the proceedings 
 
 1 For the events and political aspect of this period of Anglo-Saxon 
 history, the reader is referred to Green's " Making of England," cb. 
 viii. pp. 417-428; to Pearson's "History of England," vol. i. cli. Ix. 
 pp. 142-146; and to Lappenberg's "Anglo-Saxon Kings" (Bonn's 
 Library Edition), vol. iii. ch. xiii. pp. 287-299. 
 
 4 " Documents Illustrative of English History," p. C2.
 
 THE LEGATINE COUNCIL. 219 
 
 that took place at a solemn council held, either in the year 
 786 or 787, at Cealchyth or Celoyth, probably Chelsea, 
 and called by Wilkins 1 " Concilium Calcenthense." 
 
 The mission of these two legates was the result of 
 urgent letters from the King Offa to the pope. 
 
 According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (A.D. 785), 
 ' : This year a contentious synod 2 was held at Cealcyth, 
 and Archbishop Lambert gave up some portion of his 
 bishopric, and Ecgberhfc was elected by King Offa ; and 
 at this time messengers were sent from Rome by Pope 
 Adrian to England to renew the faith and the peace which 
 St. Gregory had sent us by Augustine the bishop." 
 
 There is some doubt whether the Council of Celcyth 
 and the Legatine Council are identical. Probably they 
 are not. 
 
 Be this as it may, whatever has come down to us of 
 the proceedings of one or the other is derived from the 
 document that is set out at full length in Wilkins's col- 
 lection and in the third volume of Haddon and Stnbbs's 
 " Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents." 
 
 The importance of this document consists in the fact 
 that this is the only record of any legislation framed in 
 Offa's time. There is evidence that a code of Mercian 
 laws was formed or collected by him, and was in existence 
 
 1 Vol. i. at p. 145. 
 
 : There seem to have been two meetings, one of king's ecclesiastics 
 and elders in council at Cealcyth or Celcytb, and another au eccle- 
 siastical synod of the West Saxon, Kentish, and Mercian bishops, 
 either at the same place or at some other site near London. See 
 Haddon and Stubbs's " Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents," voL 
 iii. p. 414 (in the notes).
 
 220 THE LEGATINE COUNCIL. 
 
 apparently in Alfred's reign, or known to that sovereign, 
 but unfortunately it has been lost. 
 
 Sir F. Palgrave notices the proceedings of the " Con- 
 cilium Calcenthense " at some length, and speaks of them 
 as worthy of perusal for the light they throw upon the 
 constitution of ecclesiastical councils when held con- 
 currently with the secular councils of the kingdom. 1 
 
 For this " Concilium Legatinum," then, as it is termed 
 by Bishop Stubbs, we are indebted to the two legates 
 above mentioned. They seem to have made an elaborate 
 report to the pope of all they heard and witnessed during 
 their stay in England, and the heads of what they re- 
 ported are as follows. 
 
 The document contains twenty chapters, which profess 
 to be decrees on the subjects set out. It commences with 
 a preamble or Procemium ad Adrianum Papam. That 
 preamble recites the presence at the concilium of the two 
 kings, Offa, King of the Mercians, and Chooniulphus, King 
 of the West Saxons, the chief ecclesiastical authorities, 
 and the elders of the land. 
 
 Then it sets out the journey of the legato George to the 
 Court of King Oswald (this, says Messrs. Had don and 
 Stubbs, should be King ^Ifwold), and what came of it. 
 
 Then comes the statement that the two legates have 
 thereunder ti-anscribed a chapter on each of the matters 
 discussed and sanctioned at the council. 
 
 And then follow the chapters : 
 
 Chapter I. sets out that the rules of the Niccne Council 
 should be observed; that priests should be examined 
 
 1 Falgravo's " English Constitution," vol. i. ch. v. pp. 17.?, 173.
 
 THE LEGAThVE COUNCIL. 
 
 yearly in them, and that general synods are to be held 
 for that purpose. 
 
 Chapter II. declares that baptism shall be in accordance 
 with the canons, and explains what is the nature of the 
 office of godfather. 
 
 Chapter III. states that every bishop is to attend the 
 synod twice a r year, and to go through his diocese once, 
 correcting sins and denouncing the commission of sin. 
 
 Chapter IV. prescribes that the mode of life and the 
 style of dress to be followed and used by the canons (that 
 i.s the clergy living in community but not under monastic 
 vows) are to be such as are in use among the "orientales " 
 (the monks of Italy and Germany), and in accordance with 
 the decrees of the pope. 
 
 Chapter V. declares that in the election of abbots and 
 abbesses only those of approved piety and moral life are 
 to be chosen. 
 
 Chapter VI. relates to the ordination of priests and 
 deacons. 
 
 Chapter VII. insists on the due observance of canonical 
 hours. 
 
 Chapter VIII. enacts that the privileges granted by the 
 Pope of Rome are to be observed. 
 
 Chapter IX. declares that ecclesiastics are not to take 
 refreshments surreptitiously. 
 
 Chapter X., that in the mass no minister at the altar is 
 to appear with bare legs ; that the loaf is to be panis non 
 crusta ; that the cup is not to be of ox's horn ; and that 
 bishops are not to meddle with secular suits. 
 
 Chapter XI. relates to the king's office and the excel- 
 lence of the priesthood.
 
 THE LEGATINE COUNCIL. 
 
 Chapter XII. sets out the subject of the election and 
 honours of the king. 
 
 Chapter XIII. sets out the subject of the decreeing of 
 just and righteous dooms or judgments. 
 
 Chapter XIV. contains the laws against fraud, robbery 
 by violence, and unjust impositions upon the Church. 
 
 Chapter XV. speaks of the prohibitions against iniquit- 
 ous and incestuous marriages. 
 
 Chapter XVI. declares that bastards may not succeed 
 to an inheritance. 
 
 Chapter XVII. that tithes are to be justly and properly 
 paid, and that usury and false weights and measures are 
 to be forbidden. 
 
 Chapter XVIII. that vows are to be faithfully ful- 
 filled. 
 
 Chapter XIX. states that every one is to abjure and 
 renounce the forms of Pagan worship. 
 
 Chapter XX. speaks of renunciation of sin, of repent- 
 ance, and of confession. 
 
 From this curious mixtui-e of ecclesiastical and secular 
 denunciations, rules, and regulations, one may, I think, 
 draw the inference that the legates, at the time they 
 prepared their report, had before them some, if not all, 
 of the decrees and suggestions framed and made at the 
 two assemblies, embodying in their missive such of the 
 secular laws as they thought bore upon the moral side 
 of the matters discussed by the witan. 
 
 The passage that is selected for notice by Bishop Stubbs 
 is extracted from chapter xii., and runs thus (I give the 
 translation) : 
 
 "In the twelfth discussion v*e have sanctioned this,
 
 THE LEG ATI NE COUNCIL. 223 
 
 that in the election of kings no one allow the assenting 
 voice of evil-doers to have any effect. Let kings be elected, 
 in accordance with legal usage, by the chief ecclesiastics, 
 and by the elders of the people, and only persons born in 
 wedlock and of unstained descent." 
 
 It must, I think, be admitted, that the sentiments ex- 
 pressed in this document (professing to be a true report 
 of legal enactments), the word sanximus, used in the 
 chapter just quoted, and the authoritative language 
 running through it, mark emphatically the influence 
 obtained by the ecclesiastical powers in a country where 
 the doctrines of the Christian faith had been so lately 
 introduced, and for a long time had had a sharp fight 
 for existence.
 
 LECTURE XIII. 
 
 ALFRED AND HIS LAWS. 
 
 The Ecign of Alfred Dangers and Difficulties at its Commencement 
 His Administrative Capacity Settlement of the Country undir 
 him Founds a National Monarchy His Legislation and Laws 
 Their Characteristic Features The Shire, Tithing, and Hundred 
 divisions of England not due to him, nor the Modern Jury 
 System His Laws Commented on The Peace of Wedmore 
 Its Contents. 
 
 I NOW come to the reign of Alfred. Of this king I have 
 already given an account, but I should like to sum up 
 his good deeds and state his claim to be considered as 
 the man -who helped on as much as, if not more than, 
 any other king the cause of political and social progress 
 in England one of the real makers >! English life. 1 
 
 He succeeded to the throne at a time when matters 
 looked desperate for a Saxon monarch, and when there 
 never was an hour at which he felt safe from an inroad 
 of the Danes over Watling Street, or a landing of pirates 
 in the Severn. 
 
 " Oh, what a happy man was he," he said, " that man 
 
 1 The character of Alfred (JElfred) is drawn in vigorous language 
 and in terms of glowing eulogium by Professor Freeman. It is so 
 well deserving perusal that the reader is specially referred to it. See 
 " History of the Norman Conquest," vol. i. ch. ii. 4, pp. 49-53 (third 
 edition revised, 1877).
 
 THE REIGN OF ALFRED. 225 
 
 that had a naked sword hanging over his head from a 
 single thread. So as to me it always did." 
 
 Yet what he effected was to stay the progress of the 
 Dane, to curb the pirates' fury, and to restore peace and 
 comfort to his country. 
 
 He formed and established an army, and to do this 
 effectually he gave a new extension to the class of the 
 thegns, seizing on the thegnhood as the nucleus of a new 
 military system. 1 He created a navy, so that in his later 
 years his fleet was able to encounter the pirate ships 
 of the East Anglians, and to leave to his son an English 
 force of an hundred vessels wherewith to assert the 
 mastery of the Channel. 
 
 He reorganized public justice, impressing upon his 
 subjects the belief and the knowledge that justice flowed 
 to every court from the king himself, of whose judical 
 power each judge was representative, and whose appeal 
 was bound to correct or confirm the judgment of all. " It 
 is by gift from God and from me," he said to all who 
 claimed jurisdiction, " that you occupy your office and 
 your rank." To him personally appeals lay from every 
 court, and this jurisdiction he exercised through delegated 
 judges. 
 
 " All the law dooms," says Asser, " that were given in 
 his absence he used keenly to question, of whatever sort 
 they were, just or unjust, and if he found any wrong- 
 doing in them, he would call the judges themselves before 
 him, and either by his own mouth or by some other of 
 his faithful men, seek out Avhy they gave doom so un- 
 
 1 See Appendix, Note 0. 
 A. L. Q
 
 ALFRED AND THE DANES. 
 
 righteous, whether through ignorance, or ill-will, or for 
 love or for hate of any, or for greed of gold." 
 
 He withstood the power of the Danes so successfully 
 that he forced the Danish leader, Guthrun, into a peace, 1 
 the terms of which were most favourable to his own 
 countrymen, and which relieved the country from the 
 long and harassing warfare to which it had hitherto been 
 subject. By that treaty the two nations were brought 
 into a harmony that could never have been contemplated 
 at the beginning of Alfred's reign. The same weregild, 
 the same legal equality, the same freedom of commei'cial 
 intercourse, the same legal process, and the same religious 
 forms were the result of the treaty. -And so Alfred had 
 the happiness of witnessing the union of Saxon and Dane 
 in law, in commerce, in religious observances, and in 
 social life. London ]he won and settled, annexing to it 
 that district which is now so well known as Middlesex. 
 
 He founded a national monarchy, distinct from and in 
 every respect superior to the earlier supremacy of king 
 over king. " At his death," runs the Chronicle, 2 " he was 
 king over all the ' Angel cyn,' except that part that was 
 under the yoke of the Danishmen." The old tribal 
 jealousies were subordinated to the sense of common pro- 
 tection, and a notion of national existence began to give life 
 and vigour to the new conception of a national sovereignty. 
 
 1 At Wedinore, July, A.D. 879. For the analogy between this peace 
 and that concluded at Glair-on Epte between King Charles and Duke 
 Robert of Paris on the one hand, and the Norman Eolf on the other, 
 see Freeman's " History of the Norman Conquest," vol. i. ch. iv. pp. 
 166-187 (3rd edition, 1877). 
 
 ! A.D. 901, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Bolm's Antiq. Edition, p. 36G).
 
 ALFRED'S LEGISLATION. 227 
 
 Bat his grandest triumph was in the conquests he made 
 in the intellectual part of the work entrusted to him ; and 
 what that triumph was only those can tell who take the 
 trouble to read the history of the times, and read his own 
 words. " I remembered also I saw before it had all 
 been ravaged and destroyed, how the churches through- 
 out all England stood filled with treasures and books, 
 ami there was also a great multitude of God's servants." l 
 
 He restored learning, rebuilt the churches, founded 
 libraries, invited to England learned men, endowed 
 places of religion and learning, cultivated literature, 
 and improved the language of his countrymen by trans- 
 lations from the best of the old authors. 
 
 In short, he was a man among men ; a king among 
 kings; and, above all, an Englishman, heart and soul. 
 Royal benefactor and royal regenerator of his country, 
 Alfred stands out in the list of great and good men. 2 
 
 I have now to speak of Alfred's legislation, and of the 
 laws which were framed under his authority for the 
 government of the country under his sway. 
 
 These laws form two collections, and represent two 
 special features. The one set consists of the general 
 body of laws under which the newly united divisions 
 of Kent, Mercia, and Wessex were administered. The 
 
 1 Preface to his translation of Gregory's Pastoral. 
 
 2 For more full accounts of Alfred and his times, the reader is 
 referred to Green's " Conquest of England," eh. iv. ; to Pearson's 
 " History of England," vol. i. ch. xi. ; to Lappenberg's "Anglo-Saxon 
 Kings," vol. ii. chs. iv. and v., to Hallam's " Middle Ages," vol. ii. ch. 
 viii. part i. pp. 268-286; and especially to Freeman's "History of the 
 Norman Conquest," vol. i. ch. ii. 4, pp. 49-56 (3rd edition, revised 
 1877).
 
 228 PREAMBLE TO ALFRED'S LAWS. 
 
 . t 
 
 other set consists of the rules that were framed on the 
 successful termination of the war with the Danes, and 
 that under the designation of Alfred and Guthrun's Peace 
 (A.D. 879) marked emphatically the international settle- 
 ment of the two nations, the Danish and the English. 
 
 The object aimed at by the king in the first collection 
 was to form out of three distinct and somewhat varying 
 codes one whole body of law for all his Saxon subjects. 
 The result thereof was of a stronger and more remarkable 
 character than was probably thought of at the time by 
 Alfred ; for it was in effect the substitution of a national 
 la\v for the separate systems of tribal customs that had 
 hitherto distinguished the codes of his predecessors. 
 
 It was the commencement of national life by the 
 weakening of the old tribal life of the country. The 
 task he set before him for the right administration of the 
 lands that owned his sway he thus describes : 
 
 " I, Alfred, King, gathered these (laws) together, and 
 commanded many of those to be written which our fore- 
 fathers held ; those which to me seemed good. And 
 many of those which to me seemed not good I rejected 
 by the counsel of my ' witan,' and in other wise com- 
 manded them to be holden. For I durst not venture to 
 set down in writing much of my own, for it was unknown 
 to me what of it should please those who should come 
 after us. But those things which I met with, either of 
 the days of King Ine, my kinsman, or of Off a, King 
 of the Mercians, or of ./Ethelbirht, who first among the 
 English race received baptism, those which seemed to me 
 the rightest, those I have here gathered together, and 
 rejected the others. I, then, Alfred, King of the West
 
 ALFRED'S CODE: ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 229 
 
 Saxons, showed these to all my ' witan,' and they then 
 said that it seemed good to them all to be holdeh." 1 
 
 Alfred's code consists of seventy-seven chapters. The 
 subject of personal injuries is provided for in fifty- three 
 of them. These are taken from the Kentish laws, es- 
 pecially those codified by ^Ethelbirht, with but slight 
 change, save in the amount of the fines imposed. 
 
 The other laws are in the main borrowed from Ine's 
 collection, whose agricultural laws, however, are omitted. 
 
 Some miscellaneous laws are added, whether taken 
 from the last code of Offa, or framed by Alfred's witan, 
 is uncertain. 
 
 As this code of the great king to whom our country 
 owed so much marks an era in law-making, it is well 
 that our attention should be directed not only to its 
 details, but to its broad outline. Mr. Pearson has pointed 
 this out with his usual good sense, and I cite his remarks. 
 
 " In Alfred's code we see the great principles of law 
 distinguished from the local customs that modified their 
 application. It may be said to consist of three parts. 
 The first is an abstract of Hebrew law, indicating the 
 divine foundation of society, and blending the secular 
 view of offences as damage with the Christian view of 
 them as sin. The state is looked upon as an ideal com- 
 monwealth, wherein the right living of man is its first 
 object, wherein too the highest standard is indicated, to 
 wit, the gradual extinction of slavery, the duty of hos- 
 pitality, and the Christian law of love. In the second 
 part appear the general principles of the English law. 
 
 1 Thorpe's "Ancient Laws and Institutes."
 
 230 ALFRED'S CODE: ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 Here we find the king for the first time treated as the 
 inviolable head of the state, against whom plotting is 
 punishable by death. On the same footing loyalty to 
 the great lords is established. The frank-pledge system 
 (or individual guarantee for good conduct) is spoken of 
 for the first time as of universal obligation. The right of 
 feud is limited, and the powers of the courts of justice 
 are extended. Thirdly, a copy of the ancient laws of 
 Wessex is subjoined, no doubt to explain the customs 
 of the south of England." 
 
 T\vo popular fallacies in connection with the work that 
 Alfred did should be noticed before going further. The 
 one is that to Alfred we owe the institution of shire, tith- 
 ing, and hundred divisions. The other that we also owe 
 to him the introduction of trial by jury. 
 
 Mr. Kemble, in his " History of the Anglo-Saxons " 
 (vol. i. ch. ix. pp. 247-249), has shown clearly the ground- 
 less nature of the first assertion ; and in Sir F. Palgrave's 
 " History of the English Commonwealth " (vol. i. p. 243) 
 the reader will see not only what in its earliest form and 
 in Alfred's days trial by juiy really was, but that our 
 present form of trial by jury " has not descended to us 
 unchanged from Alfred's days," l but is an institution 
 of a much later growth. 
 
 1 On this subject, see Hallam's " Middle Ages," vol. ii. note viii. 
 at p. 384. As to Alfred's legislation, the reader is referred to 
 Green's " Conquest of England," ch. iv. pp. 145, 146, and Pearson's 
 "History of England," vol. i. ch. xi. pp. 173-175. It is not im- 
 probable that the mistaken idea that to Alfred we owe our jury 
 system was founded on the law which prescribes as the mode of 
 inquiring on the charge of manslaughter as well as lu all suits
 
 ALFRED'S LAWS. 231 
 
 As it would occupy too much space were I to set out 
 all the laws contained in this collection made by Alfred, 
 I content myself with citing only the five chapters that 
 are given in Bishop Stubbs's "Documentary History." 
 They will suffice to show the style and characteristics of 
 Alfred's legislation. 1 
 
 Cap. 22. If any one at the folkmote make declara- 
 tion of a debt, and afterwards wish to withdraw it, let 
 him charge it on a righter person if he can ; if he cannot, 
 let him forfeit his " angylde " (i.e., his legal value, prob- 
 ably equivalent to the " wer "), and (let the reeve) take 
 possession of the " wite " (i.e., the mulct or pecuniary 
 penalty, opposed to the " bot," which was compensation 
 to the injured party). 
 
 Cap. 27. If a man, kinless of paternal relatives, figlit 
 and slay a man, and then if he have maternal relatives, let 
 them pay a third of the " wer " (that is the money value 
 of the man slain), his gyld brethren a third part ; for a 
 
 where the value or amount iu issue was above a certain sum, the 
 clearing of the accused before twelve men of his own degree. But it 
 must be kept in mind tbat those twelve men were not, as our jurymen 
 are, the triers of the issue, founding their opinion upon the evidence, 
 whether oral or written, laid before them, and by their verdict de- 
 claring the judgment which they have formed. They did not examine 
 into the credibility of the evidence ; they did not listen to any dis- 
 cussion of or argument on the question at issue. They were them- 
 selves the witnesses. Their verdict was in substance the examina- 
 tion of themselves as witnesses, and they of their own knowledge, 
 and without the aid of other testimony, gave evidence respecting the 
 acts in question. So that in this, its primitive form, trial by jury 
 was only a trial by witnesses. (See Sir F. Palgrave's " English Com- 
 monwealth," vol. i. p. 243.) 
 
 1 " Documents Illustrative of English History," pp. 62,. 63.
 
 232 REMARKS ON ALFRED'S LA IVS. 
 
 third let him flee. If he have no maternal relatives, let 
 his gyld brethren pay half for half let him flee. 1 
 
 Cap. 28. If a man kill a man thus circumstanced, if 
 he have no relatives, let half (that is of his " wer ") be 
 paid to the king, half to his gyld-brethren. 
 
 Cap. 38. If a man fight before a king's ealdorman in 
 the " gcmot," let him make "bob" (compensation) with 
 (i.e., in addition to) "wer" and " wite " as it may be 
 right, and before this (I.e., as a prior payment), cxx. shil- 
 lings to the ealdorman as " wite." If he disturb the 
 folkmote by drawing his weapon, cxx. shillings to the 
 ealdorman as " wite." If aught of this happen before a 
 king's ealdormaii's junior, or a king's priest, xxx. shillings 
 as " wite." 
 
 Cap. 41. The man who has " boc-land," and which 
 his kindred left him, then ordain we that he must not 
 give it (away) from his "masgburg" (his kindred), if 
 there bo writing or witness that it was forbidden by those 
 men who first acquired it and by those who gave it to 
 him that he should do so, and then let that be declared in 
 the presence of the king and of the bishop before his 
 kinsmen. 
 
 On these laws I will make a fe\v comments. 
 
 Law 22 shows that actions for debt could not be hastily 
 instituted. Something like security for costs was re- 
 quired, the amount of which was fixed, viz., the pecuniary 
 value of the plaintiff recoverable by way of penalty by 
 the " reeve." 
 
 1 On the subject of tbe "gyld" and the " gyld-brethren," see 
 Kemble, vol. i. ch. ix. pp. 237-240.
 
 REMARKS ON ALFRED'S LAWS. 
 
 Laws 27 and 28 show three things ; first, that man- 
 slaughter resulting from fair fight was not treated as a 
 criminal offence, but, in accordance with the old Teutonic 
 sentiment, a tort or wrong to be paid for to the community ; 
 and secondly, that whilst a certain amount of compensa- 
 tion (in one event two-thirds, in another one-half) was 
 payable, the slayer might in any event for a portion 
 avoid payment by flying ; l and thirdly, that in the event 
 of his death by violence compensation had to be paid to 
 the members of his guild (or gyld). 
 
 These two laws also show that the idea of the brother- 
 hood of the particular community had taken the place of 
 that of the old tribal connection. 
 
 Chapter 38 marks the importance in the eye of the 
 law of the " gemot," or general assembly of the residents 
 of the locality, an extension of the principle enunciated 
 in cap. 2 of the laws of King ^Ethelberht. 
 
 Chapter 41 lays down (Mr. Kemble says recognises the 
 old) doctrine that no man should have the power of alien- 
 ating from his kinsmen (" majgsceaft ") boc-lands whose 
 first acquirer had entailed them in the family. 2 
 
 I have already spoken at some length of the events 
 that preceded and led to the peace of Wedmore, resulting 
 in Avhat is known as Alfred and Gnthrun's peace ; I have 
 
 1 Mr. Kemble (vol. i. ch. ix. p. 238) is of opinion that this means 
 tliat the slayer was to become au outlaw, i.e., forfeit his land by flight 
 if he could not pay. But from the next law this to me seems doubt- 
 ful, seeing that that law recognises the legal existence of the slayer, 
 and imposes a penalty for the benefit of his guild in the event of his 
 death by violence. 
 
 - Kemble's "Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. ix. p. 262.
 
 234 PEACE OF WEDMORE. 
 
 only to add the terms in which the settlement of the two 
 hostile forces was expressed. As will be seen from those 
 terms, the intention of the peace, framed into a set of 
 rules, was to provide for the association of Saxon and 
 Dane on the footing of legal equality, and this is how 
 these rules are declared. 
 
 A.D. 879. Alfred and Guthrun's Peace. This is the 
 peace that King Alfred and King Guthrun, and the 
 witan of all the English nation and all the people that 
 are in East Anglia, have all oi'dained, and with oaths con- 
 firmed, for themselves and for their descendants, as well 
 for born as for unborn, who reck of God's mercy or ours. 
 
 (1) Concerning our land boundaries. Up on the 
 Thames and then up on the Lea and along the Lea unto 
 its source (near Hertford), then right to Bedford, then 
 up on the Ouse unto Watling Street (somewhere near 
 Stony Stratford). 
 
 (2) Then is this: If a man be slain, we estimate all 
 equally dear, English and Danish, at vii. half-mai-ks of 
 pure gold, except the "ceorl," who resides on "gafol" land 
 (land charged with dues to the state), and their " lie- 
 sings" (the Danish freemen answering to the " ceorls ") 
 they also are equally dear, either at cc. shillings. (The 
 " wer" for these, viz., the Saxon "ceorl " and the Danish 
 " liesing" is exactly the same, cc. shillings in each case). 
 
 (3) And if a king's thegn be accused of manslaying, 
 if he dare to clear himself, let him do that witli xii. 
 king's thegns. If any one accuse that man who is of 
 less degree than the king's thegn, let him clear himself 
 with xi. of his equals and with one king's thegn. And 
 so in every suit which may be for more than iv. mancuses.
 
 PEACE OF WED .If ORE. 235 
 
 And if he dare not, let him pay for it threefold as it may 
 be valued. 
 
 (4) And that every man know his warrantor for men 
 and for horses and for oxen. 
 
 The meaning of this is that every man was to find as 
 surety a proper and approved member of his " gyld " or 
 his association, to be responsible for his good conduct to 
 man and beast. 
 
 (5) And we all ordained on that day that the oaths 
 were sworn, that neither bond nor free (of our men) 
 might go to the host Avithout leave, no more than any of 
 them (the Danish) to us. But if it happen that from 
 necessity any of them (the Danish) will have traffic with 
 us (the English), or we with them, with cattle and with 
 goods, that is to be allowed in this wise : that hostages 
 be given in pledge of peace, and as evidence whereby it 
 may be known that the party has a clean back (that is, 
 is of approved chai-acter).
 
 LECTURE XIV. 
 
 THE ANGLO-SAXON LAWX. 
 
 Reign of Eadward (the Elder), King of the Angul-Saxona His Laws 
 The Doctrine of Personal Allegiance : its Consequences on the 
 Political Life of England The Administration of Local Busi- 
 ness The Settlement of the People The Office of Gerefa: its 
 various kinds lleign of JSthelstan Eeasons why worthy of 
 comment The Shire System The Frithgilds Saxon Gilds. 
 
 ALFRED died in the year A.D. 901, and Eadward, his son, 
 succeeded him a successor well fitted to carry on the 
 good work that had shed so much lustre on the name of 
 his father Alfred, and well fitted to be what he boldly 
 declared himself entitled to be called King of the Angul 
 Saxons. 
 
 For twenty-four years Eadward (the Elder) fought 
 and conquered and governed with a vigour that made his 
 name of only less note than that of his father, because 
 his father was one whose greatness was of larger pro- 
 portions than falls to the lot of most kings. 
 
 As I have already said in another lecture, I am not 
 attempting to give the history of Anglo-Saxon England ; 
 I am only endeavouring to describe the leading features 
 in the story of the settlement of English political and 
 social life. 
 
 Were I engaged upon a survey of the times I am noting, 
 I should have ample reason for dwelling at no snuJl length 
 
 236
 
 E AD WARD THE ELDER. 237 
 
 upon Ead ward's reign. Suffice it to say that, like his fa- 
 ther, Bad ward was a warrior, and a maker of the English 
 people. The Danes felt his power and acknowledged his 
 supremacy. Towns such as Buckingham, Derby, Chester, 
 Hertford, Tamworth, "Warwick, Manchester (Mancunium), 
 were raised into importance in his reign, and just before 
 he died (A.D. 924) "then chose him for father and for 
 lord the King of the Scots, and the whole nation of the 
 Scots, and Reginald, and the son of Eadwulf, and all those 
 who dwell in Xorthumbria, as well English as Danes, and 
 Northmen and others, and also the King of the Strath 
 Clyde Britons, and all the Strath Clyde Britons " (Anglo- 
 Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 924). And so, ere he passed away, 
 he saw the great idea and purpose of his life as king 
 carried out a single people ruled by a single king, and 
 that one the King of the Angul-Saxons. 1 
 
 Of Eadward's laws I shall give only the three excerpts 
 that Bishop Stubbs has selected. The first relates to a 
 new principle in the government of the country, which 
 as Mr. Green has shown ~ operated Avith great force upon 
 the political life of the people and upon its oi'ganization, 
 and which had a material influence upon English kingship, 
 and beyond it upon the relation of the freeman to the 
 king of his race. 
 
 This new principle, that of " personal allegiance " to 
 the head of the State, arose out of the struggle with the 
 Danes, and was the result of the conquest and settlement 
 
 1 Greeu's " Conquest of England," ch. v. p. 217. See also as to 
 Eadward's reign, Lappenberg's " Anglo-Saxon Kings," vol. ii. c'i. vi. 
 pp. 103-119 (Bonn's Library Edition, 1884). 
 
 * Green's " Conquest of England," ch. v. pp. 208-211.
 
 238 PERSONAL ALLEGIANCE. 
 
 of the conquered Danelaw. It gave a wholly new char- 
 acter to the relations of the people towards its ruler. It 
 emphasized the idea so steadily kept in view by Eadward 
 of a single people ruled by a single king. It marked 
 emphatically the revolution " that had long been silently 
 changing the whole structure of English society," to wit, 
 the obliteration of the older conception of personal free- 
 dom, and in its stead the introduction of a social organi- 
 zation based on personal dependence. Further, it marked 
 with equal force the recognition of the notion of lordship 
 and protection in the place of the ancient equality, free- 
 dom, and independence which were the characteristics of 
 old Teutonic life. 
 
 Then as to its influence upon English kingship, what 
 the new doctrine of personal allegiance did was this : 
 " It added to the tribal character of the kingship, which 
 blended the king with those whom he ruled, a territorial 
 character, in which he stood wholly apart from them, and 
 in which the relation was no longer one of traditional 
 loyalty, but of actual subjection." 1 
 
 The revolution thus effected in the social habits and 
 political life of England, and the alteration of all the old 
 notions and sentiments attached thereto, was as thorough 
 as it was general. All the members of the political and 
 social body recognised and accepted it. Dane as well 
 as Saxon submitted to the change ; and this of necessity, 
 for the only possible tie between the conquered Dane (to 
 whom the idea of traditional loyalty was unknown) and 
 the Saxon king was the acknowledgment on the one 
 
 1 Green's " Conquest of England," ch. v. pp. 208-211.
 
 PERSONAL ALLEGIANCE. 239 
 
 hand, and the insistence on the other, of the principle of 
 lordship and superiority; and so, in exchange for the 
 allegiance exacted by the king, the conquered Dane re- 
 ceived that king's peace and protection. 
 
 As for the Saxon, to him also the change was a neces- 
 sity. The century of warfare through which the land 
 had passed, and the misery and poverty which it entailed, 
 told with disastrous effect on the free tillers of the soil, 
 the " ceorls." They had fared so badly from the strife 
 that they were obliged to seek the protection of some 
 wealthier landowner, or " thegn," and just as was the 
 case among the allodial proprietors and the beneficiary 
 holders of land across the water after the settlement of 
 the Frankish invaders under the protecting form of " com- 
 mendation," they were enabled to save themselves from 
 absolute ruin, obtaining by virtue of it a security which 
 on no other terms could be gotten. Of course the price 
 of this assistance was the surrender of the freeholds which 
 they once enjoyed as free owners, and which now were 
 returned to them as quasi fiefs, burdened with the con- 
 dition of military service. But the result was a change 
 from independence to subjection, and an utter destruction 
 of that spirit of equality which for so many years had 
 distinguished the free " ceorlas " of the old Saxon times. 
 
 This first excerpt, then, from the laws of King Eadward 
 is important because it accentuates clearly and distinctly 
 the changes above specified, and shows the nature as well 
 as the form of the oath of allegiance which, with the 
 advice and assent of the Witan of Essex, the king pub- 
 lished for the maintenance of the public peace. All his 
 subjects, Saxon and Dane, accepted it.
 
 240 EADWARVS LAWS. 
 
 The second of these excerpts exhibits the anxiety of 
 the king to provide for the due administration of local 
 business throughout the realm; and the third shows us 
 how the people were settled in respect of their ranks and 
 through the carrying out of the law under Ead ward's rule. 
 
 These are the Laivs of Edward, circ. A.D. 920. 
 
 King Edward exhorted his " Avitan " when they were 
 at Exeter, that they should all search out how their 
 " frith " (i.e. peace) might be better than it had pre- 
 viously been ; for it seemed to him that it was more 
 indifferently observed than it should be, what he had 
 formerly commanded. He then asked them who would 
 apply to its amendment, and be in that fellowship that 
 he was, and love that which he loved, and shun that 
 Avhich he shunned, both on sea and land. That is, then, 
 that no man deny justice to another ; if any do so, let 
 him make "bot" (reparation), as it before is written. 
 For the first offence with xxx shillings, and for the second 
 offence the like, and for the third with cxxi shillings to 
 the king. 
 
 Cap. 11. I will that each reeve have a "gemot " (meet- 
 ing) always once in four weeks, and so do that every 
 man be worthy of folk-right, and that every suit have 
 an end and a term when it shall be brought forward. If 
 that any one disregard, let him make " bot," as we before 
 
 ordained. 
 
 Of people and ranks : 
 
 (1) It was whilom in the laws of the English that 
 people and law went by ranks, and then were the coun- 
 sellors of the nation of worship worthy each according
 
 E AD WARD'S LAWS. 24 1 
 
 to his condition " eorl " and " ceorl," " thegen " (i e., 
 thane), and ' ; theoden " (i.e., members of the king's 
 courts). 
 
 (~2) And if a " ceorl " throve so that he had fully five 
 hides of his own land, church, and kitchen, bell-house and 
 " burh-gate " (i.e., a seat at the town gate, a local court 
 of justice), and special duty in the king's hall, then was 
 he thenceforth of " thegn-right " worthy. 
 
 (3) And if a " thegn " throve so that he served the 
 king, and on his summons rode among his household. If 
 he then had a " thegn " -who him followed, who to the 
 king's "utwan" (a grant by the king out of the public 
 land) five hides had, and in the king's hall served his 
 lord, and thrice Avith his errand went to the king, he 
 might thenceforth with his " fore-oath " (the oath taken 
 by the parties to a writ at its commencement) his lord 
 represent at various needs, and his plaint lawfully conduct 
 wheresoever he ought. 
 
 (4) And he, who so prosperous a vicegerent had not, 
 swore for himself, according to his light, or it forfeited. 
 
 (o) And if a " thegn " throve so that he became an 
 " eorl," then was he thenceforth of " thegn-right " worthy. 
 
 (6) And if a merchant throve so that he fared thrice 
 over the wide sea by his own means, then was he thence- 
 forth of " thegn-right'' worthy. 
 
 (7) And if there a scholar were who through learning 
 throve so that he had holy orders and served Christ, then 
 was he thenceforth of rank and power so much worthy 
 as then to those orders rightfully belonged, if he himself 
 conducted so as he should, unless he should miado so that 
 he those orders' ministry might not minister. 
 
 A, L. K
 
 242 THE GEREFA. 
 
 (8) And if it happened that any one a man in orders 
 or a stranger anywhere injured by word or work, then 
 pertained it to the king and to the bishop that they 
 should make good as they soonest might. 
 
 What we now see is this : the king, lord; the freeman, 
 the king's man ; the public peace (that is, the observance 
 of customary right between man and man), the king's 
 peace ; and the observance of this right, this peace, en- 
 trusted to the king, and by him remitted to the ealdorman, 
 against whom breach of it is a personal offence. More- 
 over, we have the recognition of an important class of 
 officials throughout the country, of whom I propose now 
 to say something. It is the " reeve-gerefa " to Avhom I 
 allude. 
 
 As to the exact meaning and etymology of the word 
 gerefa, Mr. Kemble has written with much learning and 
 research ("Anglo-Saxons," vol. ii. ch. v. pp. 151-151). 
 He thinks the word may be referable to the word " rof," 
 "clamor; " rof "celeber," "famosus," and a verb " rdfan " 
 or " refan," to call aloud. If so, the name would denote 
 " bannitor," the summoning or proclaiming officer ; him 
 by whose summons the court and levy of the freemen 
 were called together. This explanation answers more 
 nearly than any other to the nature of the original office, 
 and in this sense in yEthelstan's law his district is called 
 the " reeve's manung " or " bannum." 
 
 Whatever be the signification of the word, there can 
 be no question as to the antiquity of the office. Whether 
 we trace it from the old Germanic chiefs, ruling as presi- 
 dents of the freemen of the " ga " at their meetings, the 
 men of whom Tacitus speaks, " qui jura per pagos vicosque
 
 THE SCIR-GEREFA. 
 
 reddunt" (Germ, xii.), or from the equally old ealdormen, 
 " sesagas," " lahmans," of the Teutonic tribes, we note 
 its existence long before it made its appearance by name 
 as " gerefa " in the later Anglo-Saxon laws of Eadward. 
 
 The importance of the office is testified by its universal 
 adoption throughout Saxon England, and the use that 
 was made of it in every department of the local adminis- 
 tration of business. " Wherever there was a court, there/' 
 says Mr. Kemble, "was a reeve, and wherever there 
 was a reeve, he held some sort of court for the guidance 
 and management of the district." Of these officials Mr. 
 Kemble enumerates nine, and I will state as briefly as 
 I can the nature of each official's duties. 
 
 The first is the " heah-gerefa," the high reeve. They 
 were always royal officers, and in some degree like the 
 I'rankish " missi," officers despatched under occasional 
 commissions to supervise, to hold courts of appeal, and 
 to discharge other exceptional duties. These high gerefas 
 were not actually established officers found in all districts, 
 nor did they form a settled part of the machineiy of the 
 government. 
 
 Next, and it may be said most important of all, comes 
 the " scir- gerefa," the head of the "shire," "pagus," or 
 " county ; " the " scirman " or " scirigman," the bailiff. 
 
 In the earliest times he was the elected chief of the 
 " sciregemot " or " folkmoot," the county court, the 
 people's officer. Later on he sank from this old high 
 position, and exercised only a concurrent jurisdiction 
 with the ealdorman or the bishop. 
 
 In Anglo-Saxon legislation the court of the " folkmoot " 
 was held under the presidency of the ealdorman and
 
 244 TJT CYNltfGES-GEREfiA, 
 
 bishop as Well as of the " scir-gerefa," who was, as Mr. 
 Kemble says, probably looked on as the ealdorman's 
 deputy, and this his name of " vice-comes," " vice* 
 dominus " implies. 
 
 Besides his judicial function, the " scir-gerefa " had to 
 execute all legal process, under penalty of a fine for dis- 
 obedience. He had to maintain the king's peace, to pro* 
 tect the abbots on all secular occasions, and to see that 
 dhm-cft dues were properly paid ; viz., tithes, " church 
 shots," " soul shots," and " plough alms." He was the 
 usual witness of bargains and sales. He watched over 
 the security and peace of the county. The mints and the 
 coinage were under his superintendence. He was the 
 principal fiscal officer in the county, levying fines, and 
 collecting taxes. He was the proper leader of the 
 "militia," the "posse comitatus," or "the levy of the 
 freemen." He was nominated to his office by the king, 
 and could be removed therefrom by the king, and to him, 
 as well as to the ealdorman and bishop, the king's writs 
 Were directed. For his support he received a proportion 
 of the fines payable to the king, and from the importance 
 of his position was generally a great, if not one of the 
 greatest, landowners of the district over \vbicli he presided. 
 
 The "cyninges-gerefa," or royal reeve, is sometimes 
 spoken of as meaning the same as " scir-gerefa." But 
 as Mr. Kemble suggests (for very little is really known 
 about this official), he may have been the reeve to whom 
 the king's tenants Avent for justice, and who administered 
 " sac " and " soc " in the king's private lands. It is not 
 unlikely, so the same writer thinks, that this royal reeve 
 and the high reeve were one and the same.
 
 THE WIC-GEREFA. 245 
 
 The " burh-gerefa " was the officer who performed the 
 duties of reeve in a " burh," or fortified town. He prob- 
 ably led their array, was present at sales and exchanges 
 in them, looked after the tithes, and probably also super- 
 vised the condition of the " burh " buildings. 
 
 Like the " bnrh-gerefa," the " port reeve " discharged 
 the same kind of duties in a " port " or commercial town. 
 He seems to have been an elective officer, and in London 
 was a personage or considerable position, holding in it 
 the place of sheriff, and to him, with the earl and the 
 bishop, the king's writs were directed. 
 
 The " wic-gerefa " acted in a similar manner in the 
 " wics," villages, or towns that had grown beyond the size 
 of a mere village though still keeping the name. He 
 was a kind of steward of the manor, varying in dignity 
 with the rank of his employer and the extent of his juris- 
 diction. "In general," says Mr. Kemble, " I should be 
 disposed to construe the word strictly as a ' village 
 reeve,' and especially in any case where the village was 
 not royal, but ducal or episcopal, property," 
 
 That the term " wic " has clung to places which are 
 now of extent and character far beyond the original 
 quality of the place, is an example of the abiding in- 
 fluence of old customs. Harwich, Ipswich, and Norwich, 
 for instance, are now-a-days far removed from anything 
 that Avould lead one to suppose that they had ever been 
 mere villages. But though the little settlement of 
 Gippes-wic has expanded into a large, populous, and 
 wealthy city, we are still reminded of its early beginning, 
 and in the name Har or Ha^r-wic (a town which at one 
 time returned its two members to Parliament, and not so
 
 246 THE SWAN-GEREFA. 
 
 long ago continued to send one), we learn its origin as a 
 military station or camp on the shore of the sea. 
 
 The " tun-gerefa," or ''reeve of a tun, enclosure, farm, 
 Till, or manor," was the bailiff of the estate ; on the royal 
 farms superintending the cultivation and keeping the 
 peace among the labourers. 1 In London he Avas appa- 
 rently subordinate to the port reeve, probably his officer. 
 
 The " swan-geref a " Avas reeve of the forest court, 
 known for a long time as the " swain-moot." He super- 
 intended the "swanas," or swains, the herdsmen and 
 foresters, watching over the right of pasture and regu- 
 lating the use which might be made of the forests. " It 
 Is probably," says Mr. Kemble, " one of the oldest con- 
 stitutional offices, and may have existed by the same 
 name at a time when the organization by marks was 
 common over all England." 
 
 The " weal-gerefa," or Avelsh reeve, is spoken of onoe 
 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (A.D. 897) : " That sarno 
 year died Wulfric, the king's hors-thegn ; he was also 
 ' wealh-gerefa.' " According to Mr. Kemble he seems 
 to have been a royal reeve, to whose care the king's 
 (Alfred's) Welsh serfs were committed. 
 
 Such were these officers, and such their different spheres 
 of work, position, and character. One original feature 
 distinguishes them all, which ought not to be lost sight 
 of. It is this, that in nearly all the places in which they 
 appeared we must look upon them as judges in various 
 courts of more or less importance, public or private, as it 
 might chance to be. 2 
 
 1 Sec as to this, " JEthelstan's Laws," viii. 2 ; Thorpe i. 338. 
 
 2 Kcmble's "Anglo-Saxons," vo 1 , ii. ch. v.
 
 &THELSTAN. 247 
 
 ./Ethelstan's reign (from A.D. 925-940) 1 deserves some 
 words of comment. The extension of his power over 
 parts of England till then not completely subdued is one 
 reason for them. Another is to be found in his own 
 individual qualities in his exploits at home, in the 
 respect he inspired abroad, and in the position he occu- 
 pied in the European Avorld. 2 No king of Cerdic's line 
 could vie with him. By his victories over the Danes, the 
 Scotch, and the Welsh, he formed an united and tribute- 
 rendering English kingdom ; and by his witenagemots, 
 where all the hitherto divided national elements met in 
 common council, he gave to his countrymen an idea of 
 something like national life. By his code he made provi- 
 sions for the due and proper administration of public order, 
 for the defence of property and the protection of the 
 weak against the old overbearing injustice of nobles and 
 thegns, and for the development of the king's justice. 
 Under his careful regulations against theft, for just trade 
 dealings, for the protection of markets, and for a national 
 coinage, the wealth of the West Saxon land grew apace, 
 so that at his death his virtues were had in fond remem- 
 brance by his people. The stain upon his birth and 
 the former complaints against his government were for- 
 gotten. For his success in war, his devotion to his 
 country's welfare, his prudence and his administrative 
 skill, ^Ethelstan may well be justified in looking on him- 
 self as monarch of all Britain, Angul Saxon king, and 
 
 1 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Bonn's edition, pp. 37-4-377). 
 
 2 Lappenberg's " Anglo-Saxon Kings," vol. ii. ch. vii. pp. 130-135 
 (Bonn's Library Edition).
 
 248 THE SHIRE. 
 
 Brytewealda of all these isles. ^Etlielstan's reign is also 
 noteworthy for his intercourse with foreign powers, and 
 for the marriage alliances made by him with the 
 Prankish, Norman, and Flemish Courts. 1 
 
 But the third feature of his time and rule, and one 
 especially deserving of notice, is the extension of the 
 shire system, and the extension of the "frith-gild" 
 system. One of these marks of his wisdom has lasted 
 down to our own days ; the other exercised for a long 
 period a remarkable influence on the progress of England 
 in the path of orderly settlement. 
 
 In old times the word shire simply meant what its 
 name describes a division. It was a division of a 
 territory, as e.g. the bishop's shire, the kirkshire or 
 parish. Later on it came to mean a territorial division 
 for administrative purposes. The representative life of 
 folk moot and of hundred moot being preserved in the 
 shire. 
 
 Looking at it historically, it is a West Saxon institu- 
 tion, traceable to the earliest ages of West Saxon 
 history. 
 
 In Ine's day, and down to Ecberght's time it would ap- 
 pear that each shire drew its name from the "tun " of 
 each locality, the gathering-place of the shirefolk for the 
 moots ; but from Ecgbcrht's day the character of this 
 primitive division was changed, for then the whole of the 
 West Saxon kingdom was arranged in separate " pagi," 
 each with an ealdorman at its head. 
 
 1 See in addition to Lappenberg, vol. ii. p. 139, Green's " Conquest 
 of England," ch. v. pp. 218, 219.
 
 THE FRITH GILD. 249 
 
 Thenceforward the district ceases to draw its name 
 from the central " tun," and the new institution assumed 
 a larger and more important position in the territorial 
 department of the kingdom. 
 
 So that in ^Ethelstan's reign 1 the shire had spread over 
 the Avhole country, and become the i-ecognised political 
 division thereof. 
 
 Whilst this new organization of the country was pro- 
 gressing, another element of a new municipal life was 
 being fostered within English boroughs, and accepted by 
 JEthelstan as a constituent part of borough life in the 
 doom of London. 
 
 This new element was the frith gild, and of that I 
 shall now speak. 
 
 It Avas easy to make laws ; it was often, especially in 
 those times, far from easy to enforce them. The power 
 of the crown was not always sufficient to carry out all its 
 orders ; for where the king's personal action could not be 
 exerted, his will might be and often was disregarded, 
 especially in times when an adequate police or judicial 
 machinery was wanting. 
 
 The object of the frith gilds was to supply that 
 machinery, and the reason why such an institution was 
 needed was because the old power of defending social life 
 and justice, which the mutual responsibility of the kins- 
 folk had afforded, had become weakened and eventually 
 destroyed after the dissolution of the family bond on 
 which it rested ; the altered conditions of social life, 
 owing to the Danish incursions, and the growth of a 
 
 1 The shire is referred to by him as au old arid settled division.
 
 250 THE FRITH GILD. 
 
 feudal temper among the nobles, rendering, as I have 
 already shown, the existence of the freeman most perilous. 
 
 Therefore the old method of protection by means of 
 " the brotherhood of the kinsfolk," was replaced by a 
 new institution, that of a voluntary association of neigh- 
 ' bours for the same purposes of order and self-defence. 
 
 Hence we find that the tendency to unite in frith gilds 
 
 I or peace clubs became general throughout Europe during 
 
 the fifth, sixth, and tenth centuries; roughly met and 
 
 repressed on the Continent, but accepted in England, es- 
 
 ' peoially after the Danish wars, as the base of social order. 
 
 By Alfred the common responsibility of the members 
 of the frith gild, side by side with that of the kinsfolk, 
 was recognised ; and by ^Ethelstan, as will be shown 
 presently, it was solemnly ordained and confirmed. 
 
 Its distinguishing marks were an oath of allegiance, a 
 gild feast held once a month in the common hall, mutual 
 responsibility, " all sharing the same lot ; if any misdo, 
 let all bear it " mutual assistance in case of violence or 
 wrong. 
 
 Mr. Kemble has traced the history of this ancient insti- 
 tution with his usual care and research. 1 It grew, as he 
 tells us, out of the two distinct principles which mai-kcd 
 the early legislation of the Teutonic people, viz., the 
 responsibility of the family, and the existence of small 
 numbers of men forming something like corporate bodies 
 in neighbouring proximity; thus making up the public 
 units in the state itself. 
 
 The primitive settlement of our own Teutonic immi- 
 
 1 Kemble's " Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. x. pp. 237-210.
 
 7 HE SAXON GILDS. 251 
 
 grants is exhibited in the form of inhabitants of the 
 Mark, classed in tens and hundreds (tithings and hun- 
 dreds), composed of a corresponding number of members 
 headed by its officers, a tithing man for each tithing, and 
 a hundred man for each hundred ; the whole forming one 
 body of one hundred and eleven men that is, one hun- 
 dred ordinary members, ten " tithing men," or, to use 
 the equivalent Frankish term, " decani," and one " hun- 
 dred man," or "centenai'ius." 
 
 Although the Anglo-Saxon law does not specify its 
 divisions by these names, "tithing man" and "hundred 
 man," till a somewhat late period, yet the probability is 
 that it implies them under the term gegyldan, " fellows, 
 brothers of the gild." 
 
 In Alfred's laws express reference is made to these 
 gegyldan (Leg. ^Elf., 27) as well known and well estab- 
 lished associations, not accidentally existing, but taken 
 to be old and approved bodies, to which each man of the 
 community was attached as a matter of course. Hence 
 the assumption that is fairly deducible is this, that in 
 Alfred's day the time-honoured and time-hallowed rule 
 was that every individual was taken to be a member of 
 some gild or association, bound by all the regulations of 
 the body, and sharing with others in paying, that is in 
 contributing, to a common purse for festive purposes, for 
 mutual guarantee, and for club funds ; for legal costs, 
 for reciprocal aid and defence, and even, it may be, for 
 funeral celebrations and for charitable objects. Whether 
 the gegyldan was also jointly responsible for taxes or for 
 the expense of the fyrd (or military mustei-ings) is a 
 matter of doubt.
 
 THE SAXON GILDS, 
 
 With good reason does Mr. Pearson say of this gild 
 system, that it is an institution deserving of large praise. 
 Loyalty to the State, protection of liberty, promotion of 
 honour and coin-age, all flow from and are inherent in it. 
 The moral training resulting from it stands as high as 
 the material gains it afforded to the State itself, and so I 
 think we may agree with him in this eulogium : " The 
 Saxon gilds are unmatched in the history of their times 
 as evidences of self-reliance, of mutual self-restraint, and 
 of orderly love of law among a young people." x 
 
 1 Pearson's " History of England," vol. i. ch. xvii. pp. 275, 276. 
 See also Lappenberg, "The Anglo-Saxon Kings" (Boliu's Library 
 Edition) vol. ii. ch. xx. pp. 40G-410, and pp. 433-435.
 
 LECTURE XV. 
 
 THE AXGW-SAXOX L.I MX 
 
 The Laws of Kiug /Ethelstan The Decrees of the Council of 
 Greataulea The Dooms of the City of Exeter Forfang The 
 Dooms of the City of London The Reign of Eadmuud (the First) 
 His Legislature in Eespect of the Right of Feud Eadmund's 
 Laws The Records of Culinton The Oath of Fidelity and the 
 Preservation of the Peace The Reign of Edgar His Character 
 as Described by the Monkish Writers His Favourable Inclina- 
 tions towards the Church -Edgar's Laws The Hundredal 
 Divisions and the Ordinances thereto Reflating Edgar's General 
 Ordinances. 
 
 I COMMENCE this lecture with a few excerpts from the 
 laws of King ^thelstan, in order to exhibit the style and 
 manner of the legal rules provided by him for the wel- 
 fare of his subjects ; but before I do that, I must shortly 
 describe the whole amount of legislation of this reign. 
 From this it will be seen that the energy of the king's 
 mind was as conspicuous in the line of law making as it 
 was in other directions. 
 
 The laws of King ^Ethels tan will be found set out at 
 full length (and this remark applies to the laws of all the 
 other Anglo-Saxon kings) in Thorpe's collection of the 
 laws and institutes of Anglo-Saxon England. They are 
 arranged under five heads. 
 
 The first comprises the laws that wei'e framed at the 
 Council of Greatanlea (probably, says Thorpe, Grately, 
 
 253
 
 254 &THELSTA&S LAWS. 
 
 near Andover) ; the second, those entitled Decretum 
 Cantianuni, or the Kentish ordinances ; the third, those 
 called Decretum Sapientmn Anglian, the ordinances of the 
 wise men of England ; the fourth relates to Forfang, i.e., 
 illegal seizing, to which is added the doom concerning hot 
 iron and water ; the fifth is entitled Judicia Civitatis 
 I Londinise, or dooms of the City of London.- 
 
 The laws of the Council of Greatanlea contain, in ad- 
 dition to Chapter I., twenty-six ordinances. In Chapter I. 
 the rendering of tithes, both of live stock and of the 
 year's fruits, is solemnly enjoined. 
 
 The twenty-six ordinances that follow are on the fol- 
 lowing subjects : (1) of thieves, (2) of lordless men, (3) 
 of denial of right, (4) of plottings against a lord, for 
 which the penalty was death, (5) of church breach, ((5) 
 of witchcrafts and of incendiaries, (7) of the single or- 
 deal, (8) of landless men, (9) of attacking cattle, (10) of 
 exchange and of wrongful testimony, (11) of him who 
 would pay off a criminal charge from one slain, (12) 
 against buying out of port, (13) of repairing " burhs " 
 (fortified places or strongholds), (14) of moneyers (or 
 licensed coiners), (15) of shieldwrights and of "having 
 to plough," (16) of well-horsed men, (17) of those who 
 take " meed-money " of a thief (i.e., bribe money, from 
 " med-sceat ") and suppi-ess another's right, (18) against 
 selling horses beyond seas, (19) of a " theowman" who is 
 guilty at the ordeal, (20) of him who fails to attend the 
 "gemot," (21) of him who compounds for an ordeal, 1 (22) 
 of him who receives another man's man, (23) of him who 
 
 1 On the ordeal, see Appendix, Note Q.
 
 ALTHELSTAWS LAWS. 255 
 
 gives " wed " (i.e. pledges) for an ordeal, (24) of him who 
 buys property, (25 and 26) of perjurers. 
 
 In the dooms or decrees of the wise men of England, 
 passed at the witenagemot at Exeter, there are seven 
 ordinances. 
 
 Besides these there are seven other laws, propounded 
 probably, says Thorpe, at Thundresfield, near Horley. It 
 was here that the law about tracing into another land 
 and the rules about forfang were enacted. 
 
 As to the matter of forfang, or illegal rescue, it Avas 
 declared thus : " Let forfang everywhere, be it in one 
 shire, be it in more, be fifteen pence, and for every one of 
 small degree always for each shilling a penny. Concern- 
 ing ' forfang,' the witan have held like judgment over 
 all England, i.e., for a man fifteen pence, and for a horse 
 as much, whether in one shire or in more." ' 
 
 Of the dooms of the City of London there are twelve 
 chapters. I now give some excerpts from these laws, ' 
 confining myself to those selected by Bishop Stubb.s ~ as 
 being sufficient for the general purpose I have in view. 
 
 (2) Of lordless men (at the Council of Greatanlea, A.D. 
 circa 930). And we have ordained respecting those lord- 
 less men, of whom no law can be got, that the kindred be 
 commanded that they domicile him to " folkright," and 
 find him a lord in the " folkmote," and if they cannot or 
 will not produce him at the term, then he be thenceforth 
 a " fly ma " (a runaway), and let him slay him for a thief 
 
 1 Forfang (from the Saxon words "fore" and " fang," a previous 
 taking) had two special significations : (1) a seizing or rescuing stolen 
 cattle, (2) the reward for such rescue. (See Fleta, lib. i. cap. 47 15.) 
 
 " " Documents Illustrative of English History," pp. 64-66.
 
 356 &THELSTAWS LAWS. 
 
 who can come at him, and whoever after that shall har- 
 bour him, let him pay for him according to his " wer " 
 (his pecuniary estimation), or by it clear himself. 
 
 (12) And we have ordained that no man buy any 
 property out of port over xx. pence. But let him buy 
 there within on the -witness of the "port reeve," or of 
 another unlying man ; or further, on the witness of the 
 <; reeves" at the "folkmote." 
 
 (20) If any one (when summoned) fail to attend the 
 " gemot " thrice, let him pay the king's " oferhyrnes " 
 (the penalty for contempt of jurisdiction), and let it be 
 announced seven days before the " gemot " is to be. But 
 if he will not do right, nor pay the " oferhyrnes," then 
 let all the chief men belonging to the "burh" ride to 
 him and take all that he has and put him in " borh " 
 (sui'ety). But if any one will not ride with his fellows, 
 let him pay the king's " oferhyrnes." 
 
 The laws or dooms of the Council of Kent are in Latin, 
 and the excerpts cited by Dr. Stubbs are given in that 
 language. I translate them. 
 
 Cap. 4. Let no one receive the man of another with- 
 out the license of him whom (the man) has previously fol- 
 lowed (folgavit), neither within the boundary of the mai-k 
 nor without its bounds. And let not a lord refuse to a free- 
 man his jurisdiction as a hlaford, or lord (hlafordsocna). 
 
 Cap. 7. That every man hold his OAvn men in his 
 own suretyship against all theft. Then if there be any 
 one having so many men as not to have sufficient means 
 to keep them all under control, let him place in each 
 one of his " vills " one "reeve" (pra?positum), who may 
 be trustworthy towards himself and who may give
 
 &THELSTAWS LAWS: 25? 
 
 trust for his men. And if the " reeve " dare not give 
 trust for any of his men, let him find twelve sureties 
 (plegios) of his own kin, who may stand to him in pledge. 
 And if the lord or the " reeve " or any man infringe this, 
 or depart thence, let him be amenable to all that was or* 
 dained at Greatley, unless some other doom is more satis- 
 factory to the king. 
 
 The Dooms of the Witan of Exetef. 
 
 Cap. I. And let there be named in every " reeve's 
 manung " (in every reeve's district) as many men as are 
 known to be unlying, that they may be for witness in 
 every suit (that is, let a kind of jury list of " good men 
 and true " be kept in each district). And be the oaths 
 of these unlying men according to the worth of the 
 property without election. 
 
 The Dooms of the City of London. 
 
 This is the ordinance which the bishops and reeves 
 belonging to London have ordained, and with " weds " 
 (pledges) confirmed among our " frith-gegildas " (our 
 frith gilds) as well " eorlish " as " ceorlish," in addition 
 to the dooms which were fixed at Greatanlea and at 
 Exeter and at Thunresfeld. 
 
 Cap. III. That we count always ten men together, and 
 the chief should direct the nine in each of those duties 
 which Ave have all ordained and (count) afterwards their 1 
 " hyndens " (i.e., their hundreds, so says Kemble, vol. i. 
 p. 244), and one " hynden man" (i.e., one hundred man 
 or centenarius), who shall admonish the x. for our com- 
 mon benefit, and let these xi. hold the money of the 
 A. L. s
 
 258 SETHELSTAWS LAWS. 
 
 "hynden" (i.e. of the hundred), and decide what they 
 shall disburse when aught is to pay, and what they shall 
 receive if money should arise to us at our common suit, 
 and let them also know that every contribution be forth* 
 coming which we have all ordained for our common 
 benefit after the rate of xxx. pence, or one ox ; so that all 
 be fulfilled which we have ordained in our ordinances and 
 which stands in our agreement. 
 
 Cap. VIII. (1) That we gather to us once in every 
 month, if we can and have leisure, the " liynden men " 
 and those who direct the tithings (i.e., the tenth man, or 
 decanus) as well w r ith " bytte-fylling," 1 as else it may 
 concern us, and know what of our agreement has been 
 executed, and let these xii. men have their refection to- 
 gether, and feed themselves according as they may deem 
 themselves worthy, and deal the remainder of the meal 
 for the love of God. (2) And if it then should happen 
 that any kin be so strong and so great within land or 
 without land, whether " xii. hynde " or tvvy hynde, 2 that 
 they refuse us our right, and stand tip in defence of a 
 thief ; that we all of us ride thereto with the reeve within 
 whose " manung" (district) it may be. 
 
 Eadmund (the first) is the next king whose laws present 
 
 themselves for notice. Toung as he was when he came 
 
 I to the throne, he had already given proofs of his valour 
 
 1 The filling of butts, referring probably to the festivities which 
 were usual at the councils or local assemblies of the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 " Twelve-hyude man was one whose wer-gild (money value) wag 
 twelve hundred shillings ; twy -hynde man one whose wer-gild was 
 two hundred shillings. " Hynden " and hundred, says Mr. Kemble 
 vol. i. p. 245), are in fact and were at first identical.
 
 EADMUND. 259 
 
 at the great battle of Brunanburh (fought, in ^Ethelstan's 
 reign, against the Danes). He, too, gave the Danes a 
 taste of his valour, and compelled them to submit to his 
 arms. Cumbria also was reduced to subjection by him. 
 
 But a reign that promised to be an eventful one for the 
 Saxon domination was brought to a close by the dagger of 
 an assassin only six years after his accession. 
 
 Lappenberg dismisses his legal enactments with a notice 
 too short and too unjust, 1 when he says that these enact- 
 ments, ecclesiastical and secular, present nothing whereby 
 greatly to interest the general reader. 
 
 He passes over what Eadmund effected in reforming an 
 evil that had pressed on the country for many years. I 
 mean the right of feud. 
 
 Some time back I dwelt upon this ancient custom at a 
 little length, and I showed how injurious it was to the 
 proper settlement of the social life of England, morally 
 as Avell as materially. 
 
 Two sentiments had been silently but gradually growing 
 up, which in Eadmund's time had become so far developed 
 as to present a strong and ameliorating opposition to the 
 rights of private vengeance which this notion of feud 
 sanctioned. 
 
 These sentiments were those which the higher moral 
 aspirations that Christianity stirred into life had intro- 
 duced, and those which the growing sense of a common 
 national life inspired. 
 
 The idea of the right of feud w r hich had rested on the 
 
 1 Lappenberg, " Anglo-Sason King*," vol. ii. ch. vii. p. 151 (Bohn's 
 Library Edition, 1884).
 
 260 EADMUND AND THE RIGHT OF FEUD. 
 
 family bond had been fostered by the notion that the 
 kinsfolk were bound together by ties of mutual responsi- 
 bility for vengeance and aid in self-defence. 
 
 But the continuing growth of society, and its more 
 complex divisions, worked a change in the aspect of this 
 theory, substituting for the earlier ties of blood the later 
 idea of the duty of the social group to exact redress for 
 wrongs inflicted on the community; whilst the teachings 
 of Christianity, insisting upon the importance of moral 
 duties, helped to weaken the bonds of kinship. 
 
 Eadmund, who " shared in the horror of the unrighteous 
 and manifold fightings," which Avas felt in his day, 1 
 attacked the custom of the feud by striving to lay on the 
 man-slayer himself the whole burden of his deed, and 
 thus, by freeing the kinsfolk from the obligation of bear- 
 ing the feud, and by protecting them from the vengeance 
 of the slain man's kin, struck a heavy blow at the old 
 notion of the kinship, with its responsibilities, and intro- 
 duced a reform of the most beneficial kind in the moral 
 tone and sentiment of England. 
 
 A successful attempt to mould the habits and manners 
 of a people into a more righteous and more gentle shape 
 than of old, marked such an era of impi'ovement in the 
 social life of England that not to record it, and to assign 
 the honour to him who not only thought of it but worked 
 it out with vigour, would be neither just nor in accordance 
 with the object I have in view. 
 
 It is to Eadmund's honour that he strove to reform and 
 
 1 Eadmund's secular laws, 1, Thorpe, i, 24G ; and Kemble'a 
 " Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. x. p. 274.
 
 EADMUND'S LAWS. 261 
 
 improve the social life of his countrymen, as well as to 
 purify their old customs by the infusion of moral notions 
 such as their forefathers had never thought of. 
 
 Of Eadmund's laws six are ecclesiastical framed at his 
 great witan of London, at which Archbishop Oda and 
 Archbishop Wulfstan were present and seven secular. 
 Seven more were enaoted at the Council of Culinton, 
 about A.D. 943. 
 
 Of the seven secular laws, six are directed against acts 
 of violence and robbery, and one, the first of the whole 
 collection, is that to which I have above alluded, respect- 
 ing faehde or feuds. It deserves to be recorded at length, 
 and runs thus : 
 
 " Eadmund the king makes known to all the people, old 
 and young, that are in his dominion, what I have deliber- 
 ated with the council of my witan, both ordained and 
 laic. First, how I might best promote Christianity. 
 There seemed to us first most needful that we should 
 most firmly preserve peace and harmony among ourselves \ 
 throughout all my dominion. Both I and all of us hold 
 in horror the unrighteous and manifold fightings that 
 exist among ourselves ; we have therefore decreed 
 
 " If any one slay another, let him bear the feud himself, 
 unless, by the assistance of his friends, and within twelve 
 months, he make amends with the full ' wer,' be he born 
 as he may. But if his kindred forsake him, and will not 
 pay for him, it is my will that all the kindred be ' unfah ' 
 (out of feud), except the actual perpetrator; provided 
 that they do not give him either food or protection. But 
 if afterwards any of the kindred harbour him, he shall be 
 liable in all that he possesses to the king and bear the feud
 
 262 EADMUND'S LAWS. 
 
 with the kindred, because they had previously forsaken 
 him. But if any of the other kindred take vengeance 
 upon any man save the actual perpetrator, let him be foe 
 to the king and all his friends, and forfeit all that he has." 
 
 The records of the " Concilium Culintonense," or 
 witenagemot of Culinton, are in the Latin language. 
 The laws there passed are seven in number. 
 
 The first relates to the oath of fidelity to King Ead- 
 mund; five others are enactments concerning theft and 
 other offences ; and one, comprising nine separate rules, 
 embraces the subject of betrothals of women. 
 
 I translate only two extracts from this set of laws 
 relating to the taking the oath of fidelity and the preser- 
 vation of the peace in the various districts of the country. 
 
 A.D. circ. 943. "This is the injunction which King 
 Eadmund and his bishops, together with his wise men (or 
 witan), have enacted at Culinton concerning the keeping 
 the peace and the oath-taking." 
 
 1. Concerning the taking the oath of fidelity to (ho 
 King Eadmund. 
 
 Imprimis, that (every man) do swear in the name of 
 God the Lord, who is all holiness, fidelity to Eadmund 
 the King, as (every) man ought to be faithful to his own 
 lord, renouncing all strife and sedition, in public or in. 
 private, in loving what the king shall love, in rejecting 
 what he shall reject, and first this oath shall be given 
 that no one shall conceal (the acts of) his brother or his 
 kinsman any more than he would (those of) a stranger. 
 
 7, That every (lord) make his own men trustworthy, 
 and concerning persons of ill-repute and persons who pay no 
 heed to these enactments,
 
 EDGAR. 263 
 
 And let every man (i.e., lord) make his own men trust*- 
 worthy, as well as all who are subject to his peace and in 
 his demesne. And let persons of ill-repnte, and all who 
 are well-known as being accused of misdoing, be heldnnder 
 pledges. And let the prefect (reeve), or thegn, or " comes " 
 (gesith), or villein (" ceorl ") who refuses to do this, or 
 neglects to do it, make reparation with cxx. shillings, and 
 let him be subject to all the above-stated provisions. 
 
 Of Edgar's reign (which lasted from A.D. 959 to 975), 
 as Mr. Green notes, there is little recorded of any value. 
 The chronicles wholly break down, and the materials that 
 they afford are meagre in the extreme. Bad as was Jris 
 moral charactei*, and evil as was his .life, .there was some- 
 thing in him that commended him to his subjects.. The 
 chronicle speaks of him, strangely enough, as a God-fear- 
 ing and pious man, and his reign was long looked back 
 upon with affection. The only vices that there are charged 
 against him are his too great inclination for foreign 
 manners and his love for heathen customs. Possibly the 
 monkish writers of his day, remembering his gifts to the 
 Church, 1 and his steady devotion to the covenants of the 
 wise, though somewhat crafty, Dunstan, drew the picture 
 of his rule in colours more favourable than his own. acts 
 deserved. In one respect he did show wisdom, and that 
 was (probably under the advice of Dnnstan) in recognising 
 the necessity of standing well with the great nobles of his 
 
 1 He founded and endowed with large grants the abbey and minster 
 of Peterborough, formerly known as Medhampstede, and largely 
 helped the Abbot Ethelwold in the making of the minster at Ely. 
 (See " Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," Doha's edition, pp. 381, 392 )
 
 264 EDGAR'S LAWS. 
 
 kingdom, and in abstaining from any such useless struggle 
 as wrecked England under ^Ethelred. 
 
 As a man he was as bad as man can be, but as a king 
 he possessed virtues that were of service in the cause of 
 ' social order and constitutional improvements. " He 
 journeyed," says Lappenberg, " through his states in 
 winter and summer, examining into the administration 
 of his ealdormen, and punishing their delinquencies with 
 a severity that showed the malefactors that their evil 
 deeds would not be passed over lightly; and so, as the 
 chronicle runs, the people prayed ' that God would grant 
 that the king's good deeds would be more availing than 
 his misdeeds for his soul's protection on the longsoine 
 course.' " l 
 
 His favourable inclinations to the Church were shown 
 not only by the endowments he made, but by the ecclesi- 
 astical enactments he sanctioned. The payment of tithes, 
 of church shot, and of hearth money on St. Peter's day 
 was insisted on with a rigour almost incredible ; and the 
 penitential of Theodore, or rather of his copier, Ecgberht, 
 was republished with excessive penalties for non-observ- 
 ance of the rules therein contained. 
 
 In his secular laws, Edgar insists vigorously on the 
 maintenance of the duties of the judge, on the holding 
 of the burh-mote twice, and of the shire-mote thrice a 
 year. He carefully defines the principles ^of the frith- 
 borh, or guarantee for peace ; he gives regulations for 
 the confirmation of sales and purchases by legal witnesses ; 
 / and he provides for a uniform monetary standard, and for 
 
 1 " Anglo-Saxon Chronicle " (Bolm's edition), p. 381, A. P. 953.
 
 EDGAtfS LAWS. 265 
 
 the general observance of the Winchester weights and 
 measures. 
 
 By these enactments, as well as by his own careful 
 personal attention to the proper administration of his 
 laws, the commercial interests of the country were largely 
 benefited, and the preservation of social order main- 
 tained. 
 
 But it is in respect of the organization of the country 
 in its hundreds that Edgar's reign is noteworthy ; and of 
 this part of his work I shall now speak before I give such 
 of the excerpts from his laws as appear to me most suit- 
 able for illustrating the character of Edgar as a legislator. 1 
 
 According to the tradition preserved by William of 
 Malmesbury, the institution of the shire, the hundred, and 
 the tithing is attributable to Alfred, and for this Bishop 
 Sfcnbbs assigns an apparent ground. 2 
 
 The West Saxon shires appear in history under their 
 present names, and with a shire organization much earlier 
 than those of Mercia and Northumberland, while Kent, 
 Essex, and East Ariglia had throughout an organization 
 derived from their old status as kingdoms. It is in 
 Wessox, further, that the hundredal division is supple- 
 mented by that of the tithing. 
 
 It may then be argued that the whole hundredal system 
 radiated from the West Saxon kingdom, and that the 
 variations mark the gradual extension of that power as it 
 
 1 Lappenberg, vol. ii. ch. ix. 
 
 2 " Constitutional History," vol. i. p. 112, cited by Mr. Green 1 , 
 " Conquest of England," ch. iv. p. 141. See Mr. Kemble's strong 
 criticism of and opposition to this proposition, " History of the 
 Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. p. 247.
 
 266 THE HUNDREDAL SYSTEM. 
 
 won its way to supremacy under Edgar or ^Ebhelwulf, 
 or recovered territory from the Danes under Alfred, 
 Eadward, ^Ethelstan, Eadmund, Edred. and Edgar. If 
 this be allowed, the claim of Alfred as founder, not of the 
 hundred land, but of the hundredal division, says Bishop 
 Stubbs, may rest on something firmer than legend. 
 
 Edgar deserves a special notice in connection with this 
 matter, because he was the first Saxon king who appreci- 
 ated at its pi'oper estimate the full value of this division, 
 and the first king who gave it a name and a place in the 
 local divisions of the country. 
 
 Now, as this arrangement of England into hundreds 
 played an important part in the history of the settlement 
 of England, affecting not only the localities so divided, 
 but the due administration of the law, and as the laws of 
 Edgar give us a good idea of the method of holding them, 
 and what came tinder their cognizance, I will set out first 
 his " ordinance how the hundred is to be held," and then 
 his general ordinances on other matters ; for these also 
 afford a fair insight into the social order and local 
 arrangements of the country. 
 
 EDGAR. A.D. 959-975. 
 This is the ordinance how the hundred shall be held : 
 
 (1) First, that they meet always within four weeks, 
 and that every man do justice to another. 
 
 (2) That a thief shall be pursued. ... If there 
 be present need, let it be made known to the hundred- 
 man, and let him make it known to the tithing-man 
 (the head of the tithing, the tithing being the union 
 of ten freemen for mutual security), and let all go forth
 
 EDGARS ORDINANCE. 267 
 
 to whei'e God may direct them to go. Let them do 
 justice on the thief, as it was formerly the enactment of 
 Eadmund ; and let the " ceapgild " (the market price) be 
 paid to him who owns the cattle, and the rest be divi- 
 ded into two, half to the hnndred, half to the lord, except, 
 ing men, and let the lord take possession of the men. 
 
 (3) And the man who neglects this, and denies the 
 doom of the hundred, and the same be afterwards proved 
 against him, let him pay to the hundred xxx. pence, and 
 for the second time Ix. pence, half to the hundred and 
 half to the lord. If he do so a third time, let him pay 
 half a pound. For the fourth time, let him forfeit all 
 that he owns, and be an outlaw, nnless the king allow 
 him to remain in the country. 
 
 (4) And we have ordained concerning unknown cattle, 
 that no one should possess it withont the testimonies 
 of the men of the hnndred, or of the tithing-mau, and he 
 be a well trusty man, and unless we have either of these, 
 let no vouching to warranty (team) be allowed him. 
 
 (5) We have also ordained if the hundred pursue 
 a track into another hundred, that notice be given to 
 the hundred-man, and that he then go with them. If 
 he neglects this, let him pay xxx. shillings to the king. 
 
 (6) If any one flinch from justice, and escape, let him 
 who held him, in answer for the offence, pay the " an- 
 gylde" (the legal value), and if any one accuse him 
 of having sent him away, let him clear himself, as is 
 established in the country. 
 
 (7) In the hnndred, as in any other " gemot " (meet- 
 ing), we ordain that folk-right be pronounced in every 
 suit, and that a term be fixed when it shall be fulfilled ;
 
 268 EDGAR'S ORDINANCE. 
 
 and he who shall break that term, unless it be by the 
 lord's decree, let him make "bot" (compensation) with 
 xxx. shillings, and on the day fixed fulfil that which he 
 ought to have done before. 
 
 (8) An ox's bell, and a dog's collar, and a blast-horn, 
 cither of these three shall be worth a shilling, and each 
 is reckoned an informer. 1 
 
 (9) Let the iron that is for the ordeal weigh iii. 
 pounds, and for the single one pound. 3 
 
 Edgar's general ordinances are as follows : - 
 This is the ordinance that King Edgar, with the 
 counsel of his witan, ordained in praise of God and in 
 honour to himself, and for the bahoof of all his people. 
 
 (1) These, then, are first : That God's churches are 
 entitled to every right, and that evoi'y tithe be rendered 
 to the old minster to which the district belongs, and 
 that it be then so paid both from a thegn's " inland " 
 (i.e., his own demesne), and from " geneat-land " (i.e., 
 land cultivated by geneats, or persons holding by ser- 
 vice), so as the plough traverses it (arable land). 
 
 Secular Ordinance. 
 
 Cap. 1. Now this is the secular ordinance which I 
 will that it be held. This, then, is first what I will : 
 That every man be worthy of folk right, as well poor 
 as rich, and that righteous dooms be judged to him ; 
 and lot there be such remission in the " bot " as may be 
 becoming before God and tolerable before the world. 
 
 1 See as to this, Note P in Appendix. 
 3 See as to the ordeal, Appendix, Note Q.
 
 EDGAR'S LAWS. 269 
 
 Cap. 2. And let no one apply to the king in any suit 
 unless he at home may not be worthy of law or cannot 
 obtain law. If the law be too heavy, let him seek a 
 mitigation of it from the king, and for any " bot- worthy " 
 crime, let no man forfeit more than his " wer " (the 
 pecuniary estimation of a man). 
 
 Cap. 5. And let the hundred gemot be attended as 
 it was before fixed, and thrice in the year let a burh- 
 geinot (meeting of the burghers in council), be held, 
 and twice a shire-gemot, and let there be present the 
 bishop of the shire and the ealdorman, and there both 
 expound as well the law of God as the secular law. 
 
 Cap. 6. And let every man so order that he have a 
 "borh" (a surety), and let the "borh" then bring and 
 hold him to every justice (i.e., to answer all suits and 
 prosecutions), and if any then do wrong and run away, 
 let the " borh " bear that which he ought to bear ; but 
 if it be a thief, and if he can get hold of him within 
 twelve months, let him deliver him up to justice, and 
 let be rendered to him what he before had paid. 
 
 Cap. 8. And let one money pass throughout the 
 king's dominion ; and that no man refuse, and let one 
 measure and one weight pass, such as is observed at 
 London and at Winchester. 
 
 Supplement. 
 
 Cap. 3. This, then, is what I will : That every man be 
 tinder "borh," both within the " burhs " (inclosed and 
 fortified places), and without the " burhs," and let wit- 
 ness be appointed to every " burh " and to every hundred. 
 
 Cap, 4. To every "burh" let there be chosen xxxiii.
 
 270 EDGA&S LAWS. 
 
 as witness (i.e. let a jury list of thirty-three be made 
 out). 
 
 Cap. 5. To small " burhs " and in every hundred xii., 
 unless ye desire more. 
 
 Cap. 6. And let every man with their witness buy 
 and sell every of the chattels that he may buy and .sell, 
 either in a u burh " or in a " vvapentake," and let every 
 of them, when he is first chosen as witness, give the oath 
 that he never, neither for money nor for love, nor for 
 fear, will deny any of those things of which he Avas 
 witness, nor declare any other thing in Avitness save that 
 alone Avhich he saw or heard, and of such sworn men 
 let there be at every bargain two or three as witness.
 
 LECTURE XVI. 
 THE AXGLO-SAXON LAWS. 
 
 The Reigu of Etkelred The Events of his Reign The Normans in 
 Englaml The Diminution of the Influence of the Ealdonnan 
 Class The Improvements in Legislation and Government 
 through Edric's Counsels Ethelred's Laws The Ordinance of 
 Woodstock "Borhs": A "Frith-breach" Man-Selling and 
 Severity of Punishment Denounced The Reign of Knut (or 
 Canute) His Character Influence of his Reign on the Social 
 and Political Life of England The Feudal Tendencies of hia 
 Ru!e and Legislation The Normans and Duke Robert Knut's 
 Laws Godwine Laws of Edward the Confessor The Ordeal 
 The Shire Divisions Frithborgs Sache, Soche, Tol, Theam, 
 and Ingfangthef Close of Anglo-Saxon History. 
 
 OF Ethelred's reign I need not say much. It is not 
 a period of time that presents any pleasant features. 
 Nor was the character and disposition of the king such 
 as would raise the sinking fortunes of the dynasty of 
 Alfred. 1 
 
 At times sunk in pleasure, he abandoned himself to 
 a vicious course of ease. At times exhibiting activity, 
 he strove with but little success to stem the torrent of 
 the Danish attacks. Impolitic in his war with Nor- 
 
 1 " Imbellis," writes the monkish scribe of him, " quia imbecillis 
 monachum potius quam militem actioue practendebat." Osberni 
 Vita.
 
 272 ETHELRED. 
 
 mandy, he was only able to stave oif the Norman 
 invaders by a treaty resulting in a marriage with the 
 sister of the Norman Duke, thereby preparing the way 
 for the introduction of Norman settlers in the kingdom. 
 Savage in his attempt at revenging himself on his 
 Danish opponents by the massaci^e of Saint Brice's Day, 
 he brought upon himself a defeat at their hands which 
 eventually ended in a separation of a part of England 
 (Northumbria and Mercia) from the sovereignty of his 
 son and successor, Edmund, leading to the ultimate 
 triumph of Knufc; and, careless of the best interests 
 of his country, he allowed robbery and murder to go 
 unchecked and unpunished. 
 
 Three events, however, mark his reign with some 
 significance. The first was that which I have already 
 noticed the introduction of the Normans to England 
 through his marriage with Emma, whose second marriage 
 on his death to Knut connected that king with the 
 old history of the country. The second event was the 
 steadily diminishing number of the great ealdormen, and 
 their influence at Court. Consequent on this was the 
 rise to power of a new race of men, Avho, though not 
 of noble blood, yet showed so remarkable an aptitude 
 for administrative qualities, that even under the Norman 
 kings they were called to the Council board. 
 
 The third event, and this was owing to one of these 
 low-born ceorls, Edric, to whom Ethelred had given a 
 daughter in marriage, was that regulations in respect 
 of political and military organization were decreed, a 
 promise of just laws and mild government Avas given, 
 and improvements in the revenue (among them the
 
 ETHELRED. 273 
 
 ship geld), afterwards recognised by Knut as worthy 
 of adoption and extension, were framed into law. 
 
 From Ethelred's laws I give the following excerpts 1 : 
 
 ETHELRED I. A.D. 978-1016. 
 
 This is the ordinance which King Ethelred and his 
 witan ordained as frith-bot (as security for the mainten- 
 ance of peace) for the whole nation, at Woodstock, in the 
 land of the Mercians, according to the law of the English. 
 
 I. Cap. 1. Of Borhs. That is, that every freeman 
 have a true " borh " (a surety), that the "borh" may 
 present him to every justice, if he should be accused. 
 But if he be "tythbysig" (of bad repute), let him go 
 to the threefold ordeal. If his lord say that he has 
 failed neither in oath nor ordeal since the " gemot " 
 was at Bromdun, let the lord take with him two true 
 " thegns " within the hundred, and swear that never 
 had oath failed him, nor had he paid " theof-gyld " 
 (money paid in compensation for robbery), unless he 
 have the reeve who is competent to do that. If then 
 the oath succeed, let the man then who is there accused 
 choose which ever he will, either single ordeal, 2 or a 
 pound-worth oath, within the three hundreds, for above 
 thirty pence. If they dare not take the oath, let him 
 go to the triple ordeal. . . . And let every lord have 
 his household in his own " borh " (that is, let the lord 
 himself be bail for his own household). 
 
 1 See " Documents Illustrative of English History," p. 71, by W. 
 Stubbs, M.A. 
 
 2 See Appendix, Note Q. 
 
 A. L. T
 
 274 ETHELRBffS LAWS. 
 
 II. Cap. 6. If the frith-breach (the payment to atone 
 for breach of peace) be committed within a " burh " 
 (a fortified place), let the inhabitants of the "burh" 
 themselves go and get the murderers, living or dead, or 
 their nearest kindred, head for head. If-they will not, 
 let the ealdorman go ; if he will not, let the king go ; 
 if he will not, let the ealdorman lie in " unfrith " (that 
 is, in the condition of being out of the king's peace). 
 
 III. Cap. 3. And that a "gemot" be held in every 
 " wapentake," and let the xii. senior " thegns " go out, 
 and the " reove " with them, and swear on the relic that 
 is given them in hand, that they will accuse no innocent 
 man, nor conceal any guilty one. . . . 
 
 V. Cap. 2. And the ordinance of our lord and of 
 his witan is, that Christian men and uncondemned bo 
 not sold out of the country, especially into a heathen 
 nation; and be it jealously guarded against that those 
 
 ' souls perish not that Christ bought with His own life. 
 
 Cap. 3. And the ordinance of our lord and of his 
 witan is, that Christian men for all too little be not 
 
 ^condemned to death ; but in general let mild punishments 
 be decreed for the people's need, and let not, for a little, 
 God's handiwork and His own purchase be desti-oyed, 
 which He dearly bought. 
 
 Cap. 26. But let God's law be henceforth zealously 
 loved, by word and deed, then will God soon be merciful 
 to this nation; and let " f rithes-bot " and " feos-bot " 
 (sureties for the peace and against bad coining), every- 
 where in the country, and " burh-bot " (security for the 
 repair of the local defences), on every side, and " bric- 
 bot " (security for the repair of bridges), and the arma-
 
 KNUT OR CANUTE: HIS CHARACTER.. 275 
 
 merits (fyrdung) also be diligently attended to, according 
 to what is always prescribed when there is need. 
 
 Cap. 28. And if any one without leave return from 
 the "fyrd" (from the call to arms), in which the king 
 himself is, let it bo at the peril of himself and all his. 
 estate; and he who else returns from the "fyrd," let 
 him be liable in cxx. shillings. 
 
 Mr. Pearson has dealt with the character of Knut or 
 Canute in hard terms. It is true he does point out some of 
 the benefits conferred by this monarch upon Saxon Eng- 
 land, but I think he hardly does justice to his later efforts 
 to make himself a sovereign acceptable to the English 
 people, and ever mindful of their good government. 
 
 In estimating his character, we must remember the 
 times in which he lived, and the difficulties that beset him 
 ere he succeeded to the half of the kingdom which on 
 Edward's death he was able to weld into one solid and 
 settled unity. 
 
 If, as Mr. Pearson says, he had the cunning of a fox, 
 the passions of a child, and the vindictive memory of a 
 savage, yet it must not be forgotten that under his sway 
 England enjoyed a period of peace that she kad not 
 known since Alfred's reign; that commerce was enlarged; 
 that the revenue was increased and provided without 
 demur ; that towns like Oxford, Chester, Bristol, Notting- 
 ham, York, and others, grew in strength and wealth ; that 
 the seaport towns were settled and improved ; and that 
 above all London attained to a vigorous prosperity larger 
 than had been its lot under Knut's predecessors, and 
 developed a form of municipal government which future 
 ages long looked on with respect and admiration.
 
 3?6 THE INFLUENCE OF KNUT'S REIGN. 
 
 It is not my purpose, as I have said before, to dwell 
 minutely upon the history of the times I am describing. 
 I must refer to other authorities for their record should 
 you wish to inform yourselves about them at the full 
 extent they deserve. For full information on the events 
 of this portion of our Anglo-Saxon country, reference 
 may be made to Mr. Green's ninth chapter of the Con- 
 quest of England, and to Professor Freeman's " History 
 of the Norman Conquest," vol. i. ch. vi. pp. 402-479 (3rd 
 edition, revised 1877). The reader will be well repaid by 
 the perusal of each of these works. 
 
 But of the influence of his reign upon the social and 
 political life of England I have somewhat to say. And 
 iirst and foremost the complete settlement of the country, 
 and the happy fusion consequent thereon of Dane with 
 Saxon, is a striking feature. 
 
 One result of this was peace and prosperity ; another 
 
 the stirring energy given to trade, especially in London 
 
 consequent on the settlement of the Dane there ; a third 
 
 was the increase of material wealth, a necessary accom- 
 
 " paniment of the rapid development of trade. 
 
 Next in importance was the king's complete identifica- 
 tion of himself with the English people. An English 
 king, not a foreign master, he pledged himself, and firmly 
 kept his vow, to be true to the traditional constitution and 
 usages of the realm. 
 
 As an instance of this I can cite his selection of a West 
 Saxon thegn, although a man of unknown birth and 
 obscure origin, to be the Earl of Wessex. Further, he re- 
 enacted the laws of his predecessors, holding unchanged 
 the form of government the control of the witan, the rule
 
 KNUTS CONCEPTION OF KINGSHIP. 277 
 
 of ealdormen and bishop, and the jurisdiction of the 
 shire, the hundred-moot and the town-moot. 
 
 His wise selection of king's chaplains marks his poli- 
 tical acumen ; for the result of this was the presence of a 
 body of selected and trusted administrators constantly at 
 work, and at the disposal of the crown for fiscal, political, 
 or judiciary purposes. 
 
 Nor should his fiscal reforms be forgotten. By the 
 imposition of a land tax on all, he created a source of 
 revenue at once valuable to the crown, and through its 
 levy over every hide in the kingdom, a foundation of 
 national strength and even of national feelings. 
 
 Of his temper and resolute disposition to rule rightly, 
 the letter which he addressed to his English people from 
 a foreign land, where he then was on pilgrimage, after 
 ten years of rule, shows him in the character of an 
 English king, and exhibits " the simple grandeur of his 
 character, and the noble conception he had formed of 
 kingship." * 
 
 " I have vowed to God," he writes, " to lead a right life 
 in all things, to rule justly and piously my realm and 
 subjects, and to administer just judgment to all. If here- 
 tofore I have done aught beyond what was just, through 
 fearlessness or negligence of youth, I am ready with 
 God's help to amend it utterly. No royal officer, either 
 for fear of the king or for favour to any, is to consent to 
 injustice. None is to do wrong to rich or poor, as they 
 prize my friendship or their own welfare. I have no 
 need that money be heaped on me by unjust demands. 
 
 1 Green' o " Conquest of England," cli. ix, p. 433.
 
 278 KNUT AS A FEUDAL SOVEREIGN. 
 
 This letter I have sent before me, that all the people may 
 rejoice in my well doing ; for as you yourselves know, 
 never have I spared, nor will I spare, to spend myself 
 and my toil in what is needful and good for my people." 
 
 Of the material advantage derived from his wise rule, 
 and from his careful provision for his country's welfare, 
 the rapid development of English trade and commerce is 
 a convincing proof. 
 
 This is visible as I have said in the creation of sea- 
 ports, in the rise to wealth and importance of great towns 
 such as Oxford, Nottingham, Chester, Bristol, York, and 
 above all London, in which latter city such a stimulant 
 was given to foreign trade, and to the firm establishment 
 of municipal institutions, as was never lost. 
 
 That his civil government was that of a feudal sovereign 
 is no doubt true, and in his enactments we come across 
 purveyance, heriots, and the rights of succession and 
 wardship, so that we seem to be reading the record of 
 Norman times. This is scarcely to be wondered at 
 when we remember what I have elseAvhere adverted to, 
 that the tendency of the times was steadily settling to- 
 wards feudalism. 
 
 I do not want to go over the gi^onnd I have already tra- 
 versed in former lectures about feudalism, and the reasons 
 for its successful conquest of Europe. It is sufficient to 
 suy that some of the causes for that success, which, as I 
 pointed out in that part of my lectures, were at work 
 On the other side of the Channel, were not wanting in 
 England. Among them especially was the need that the 
 weak proprietor experienced of protection, and his con- 
 sequent allegiance to a superior lord.
 
 KNUT AS A FEUDAL SOVEREIGN. 279 
 
 After all, as I have previously shown, -with all its draw- 
 backs, feudalism was not devoid of some grand qualities ; 
 and whilst on the one hand its aristocratic and exclusive 
 principles commended it to the noble class, its value as 
 an element of discipline and as evoking sentiments of 
 loyalty equally commended it to the crown; moreover, 
 its tendency to exalt the profession of arms was in those 
 insecure and dangerous times not without advantage to 
 the community itself. 
 
 Knut then ruled as a feudal sovereign. The treason 
 of a vassal to his lord was made an offence punishable 
 with the loss of life and property ; but then, as a counter- 
 weight, heavy penalties Avere denounced against the lord 
 who aided his followers to escape public justice. 
 
 The duel was now first legalized as a form of process 
 for Danes settled in England. 1 The system of the "mur- 
 drum " was introduced. This was an extension of the 
 frank pledge from pi'operty to life, and by it the district 
 was made responsible for the " wer" of lives lost within 
 it if it could not give up the offender. Its object Avas to 
 provide security for the Danes on the departure of their 
 army from England. 
 
 The first codification of stringent forest laAvs for 
 estates everywhere, but especially for the royal private 
 parks, is also due to Knut. Four thanes Avere appointed 
 in every province to control the jurisdiction of " vert and 
 venison." 
 
 A " witherlay's ret " (a court or guild-laAv) was framed 
 for the king's standing army as AA-ell as for the body- 
 
 1 See as to the Duel and the Ordeal, Appendix, Note Q.
 
 280 KNUT AS A FEUDAL SOVEREIGN. 
 
 guard of his jarls. 1 A not unimportant measure at a time 
 when the strictest discipline was necessary for the mer- 
 cenaries who, to the number of from three to six thousand, 
 were gathered under the king's banner, and who were 
 composed of various nations. 
 
 But with all these feudal tendencies, the nation was 
 not dissatisfied with Knut's government. Most of its old 
 Saxon laws wer-e preserved, the greater part of the 
 ' ancient Anglo-Saxon customs obtained recognition. The 
 ' country had peace and prosperity. The king's subjects 
 saw the administration of the laws carefully provided 
 for by enactment, and by royal supervision, and they saw 
 the king himself " more assueto regni fines peragrantem," 
 journeying through the English states from one shire to 
 another, attended by his counsellors and scribes, earnest 
 to secure order and respect for law everywhere and 
 among all classes. 
 
 So now I have prepared the way for such excerpts of 
 Knut's laws as will illustrate the legislative skill and 
 administrative capacity of the king. 
 
 But before I give them I will conclude this notice of 
 
 1 These were originally the Danish soldiers (called by the English 
 " 1ms- carles"). These hus-carles "were the germ of a standing 
 army, and an anticipation of the system of fighting by mercenaries 
 which was adopted by \Yilliam the Conqueror and the Norman kings 
 on account of the insufficiency of the feudal levies " (see " Docu- 
 ments Illustrative of English History," by W. Stubbs. Part xv. p. 
 146). This body of men, and that of the feudal levies, are entirely 
 distinct from the ancient national militia, which was the armed 
 English people, as old as the county court and the hundred court, 
 and was in the reign of Henry the Second re-armed and re-created by 
 the Assize of Arm", A D. 1181.
 
 KNUT AND THE NORMANS. 281 
 
 Knut and his times with a reference to the cloud that 
 was gathering over England towards the end of his reign. 
 
 Among all the foes that England might have to meet, 
 there Avere none whose skill and prowess rendered them 
 more formidable than the Normans. There were none 
 whom Knnt watched with more jealousy, and none against 
 whose attacks he strove to guard himself more assidu- 
 ously. 
 
 Knut was at the height of his power when Robert 
 (Robert the Devil as he was called), who had become 
 Dnke of Normandy in A.D. 1028, set sail with the ^thel- 
 ing Alfred, one of the sons of Eadmund Ironside, for 
 England, in order to restore the Saxon rule. 
 
 Fortune helped Knut, for a storm carried the Norman 
 fleet down the Channel, and cast it wrecked on the coast 
 of Jersey. The project of an invasion was given np, and 
 Robert resolved to make the pilgrimage to the Holy 
 Land. A few months after his departure he died at 
 Xicaoa (July, A.D. 1035), and so all danger from Norman 
 attack was ended. 
 
 When Knut died four months afterwards (November, 
 A.D. 1035), no Englishman believed there was cause of 
 fear in the future, for Robert's successor was a boy, eight 
 years of age, despised for his youth and scorned for his 
 birth. 
 
 But such is the irony of fate thirty years later the 
 "boy Duke," the bastard son of Robert, carried the 
 banners of Normandy to victory at Senlac, and Saxon 
 England had to submit to the yoke of a Norman king, 
 and to acknowledge the power and supremacy of William 
 the Conqueror.
 
 282 A'NUT'S LAWS. 
 
 I now give the excerpts from Knut's laws : 
 
 Secular Dooms. A.D. 1016-1035. 
 
 Cap. 17. And let no one apply to the king unless he 
 may not be entitled to any justice within his hundred ; and 
 let the " hundred-gemot " be applied to under penalty of 
 the " wite " (fine or mulct), so as it is right to apply to it. 
 
 Cap. 18. And thrice a year let there be a " burli- 
 gemot " (a meeting of burghers in council), and twice a 
 " shire-gemot " (a meeting of the shire in council, of the 
 comitatus), under penalty of the "wite" as is right, 
 unless there be need oftener ; and let there be present 
 the bishop of the shire and the ealdorman, and there let 
 both expound as well the law of God as the secular law. 
 
 Cap. 19. And let no man take any distress either in 
 the shire or out of the shire, before he has twice demanded 
 his right in the hundred. If at the third time he have no 
 justice, then let him go at the fourth time to the "shire- 
 gemot," and let the shire appoint him a fourth term. If 
 that then fail, let him take or leave either from hence or 
 thence, that he may seize his own. 
 
 Cap. 20. And we will that every freeman be brought 
 into a hundred and into a tithing. . . . And that 
 every one be brought into a hundred and in " borh," and 
 let the " borh " hold and lead him to every plea. 
 
 "Cap. 21. And we will that every hian above xx. years 
 make oath that he will neither be a thief, nor cognizant 
 of theft. 
 
 . Cap. 70. This then is the alleviation which it is my 
 will to secure to all the people of that which they before 
 this were too much oppressed with. That then is first';
 
 KNUTS LAWS. 283 
 
 that I command all my " reeves " that they justly provide 
 on my own, and maintain me therewith ; and that no 
 man need give them anything as " feorm-fultum " (rent 
 issuing out of the royal demesne or public land, and pay- 
 able in kind) unless he himself be willing; and if any 
 one after that demand a " wite," let him be liable in his 
 ' wcr " (i.e., to the extent of his own pecuniary value) to 
 the king. 
 
 Cap. 71. And if any one depart this life intestate, be it 
 through his neglect, be it through sudden death, then let 
 not the lord draw more from his property than his lawful 
 " heriot " (i.e., the military equipment of a vassal) ; and 
 according to his (that is the lord's) direction, let the 
 property be distributed very justly to the wife and chil- 
 dren and relations to every one according to the degree 
 that belongs to him. 
 
 Cap. 72. And let the " heriots " be as it is fitting to 
 the degree. An eorl's such as thereto belongs ; that is, 
 eight horses, four saddled and four unsaddled, and four 
 helmets and four coats of mail, and eight spears, and as 
 many shields, and four swords and two hundred mancuses 
 of gold. And after that, a " king's thegn's," of those 
 who are nearest to him, four horses, two saddled and two 
 unsaddled, and two swords and four spears, and as many 
 shields, and a helmet and a coat of mail, and fifty man- 
 cuses of gold ; and of the medial thegns, 1 a horse and his 
 trappings, and his arms, or his " healsfang " (the sum 
 which a man, sentenced to the pillory, would haA'e to pay 
 
 1 From mcjiattis, mcsne : thegns holding c-f auother or superior 
 tliegu.
 
 284 KXUT'S LAWS. 
 
 to save him tlierefrom) in Wessex; and in Mercia, two 
 pounds ; and in East Anglia, two pounds ; and the heriot 
 of a king's thegn among the Danes, who has his "soken" 
 (or grant of franchise from the king), four pounds ; and 
 if he have further relation to the king, two horses, one 
 saddled and the other unsaddled, and one sword and two 
 spears and two shields, and fifty mancuses of gold ; and 
 he who is of less means, two pounds. 
 
 Cap. 81. And I will that every man be entitled to his 
 hunting in wood and in field on his own possession ; and 
 that every one forego my hunting, take notice where I 
 will have it untrespassed on, under penalty of the full 
 " wite." 
 
 Cap. 83. And I will that eveiy man be entitled to 
 " grith " (immunity from molestation) to the " gemot " 
 and from the " gemot," except he be a notorious thief. 
 
 With the death of Knut, the old order of things was 
 coming to an end. Saxon and Dane were to disappear, 
 and a new power, a foreign people, and a new set of ideas 
 were to be introduced into England and grafted on to the 
 old Saxon stock. 
 
 For a little while the genius of God wine, Earl of Wessex, 
 was able to retain a show of authority for the sons of 
 Knut, Harthacnute and Harold Harefoot, but the Norman 
 influence to which, early in his life, Edward the Con- 
 fessor submitted, was too strong for Godwine to fight 
 against, and when, on the death of Harold, Edward be- 
 came King, Saxon though he was by birth, his Norman 
 education and his Norman sympathies prepared the Avay 
 for the eventual settlement of England by Duke William. 
 
 Yet Godwine's term of office must not be passed over
 
 GODIVINE. 285 
 
 without notice in this review of the advancement of social 
 and political life in England, for much of Knut's success 
 in the administration of the English kingdom was due to . 
 Godwine's ability, and to the aid the king received from 
 Godwine in working out his plans for the good govern- 
 ment of the land. 
 
 Certainly God \vine is a remarkable instance of the 
 proper influence of a vigorous intellect and well-trained 
 judgment upon the destinies of a country. 
 
 English by blood, though of obscure origin, he had 
 from the outset of Knnt's reign recommended himself, 
 not without fair and just reason, to that monarch's 
 favour. His marriage with Gytha, the sister of the Jarl 
 Ulf, Knut's brother-in-law, brought him still nearer to 
 the king's notice ; and so, from one honour to another, by 
 ability at the council board, by ready speech, and by 
 pleasant temper, at last he attained to the high rank of 
 Chief Counsellor, Head Thegn, or, to give him the title 
 which Knut, for the first time, created in his favour, 
 " Secundarius Regis," an office which continued to the 
 close of the Angevin dynasty. 
 
 I will not pursue the history of Godwine's life further. 
 It is enough to say that to Godwine was largely owing the 
 full development of the administrative machinery, the 
 military organization, the judicial process of the country. 1 
 
 All these survived the days of Knut and Godwine, 
 and lasted till the time of the Norman Conquest. Thus 
 
 1 See as to Godwine, Freeman's "History of the Norman Conquest," 
 vol. i. ch. vi. pp. 422-426, 493-501, and Notes ZZ, EEE and YVV 
 (3rd edition, revised 1877).
 
 286 LAWS OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 
 
 the Conqueror and his successors found a system at work 
 on which their efforts were bestowed in the way of ex- 
 tension and improvement. And what that system was 
 the following excerpts from the laws of Edward the Con- 
 fessor will make clear. I shall translate them from the 
 Latin tongue, in which they were edited by Glanvil in 
 the century following that of their recordation by the 
 wise men of the shires, under William the Conqueror. 
 They are worthy of perusal for two reasons : 1. Because 
 in the Intimatio of "William, published soon after his 
 election to the throne of England, he declares that the 
 law of King Edward is to be upheld and observed 
 throughout the realm. 2. Because the Saxon population 
 in country and town was guaranteed in the possession of 
 their old customs and special institutions. 
 
 These are the excerpts, 1 and thus they run : 
 
 Laics of Edicard the Confessor. A.D. 1043 -1 
 
 Ch. ix. (Concerning those iclio appeal to the ordeal of 
 icater or of hot iron.)' At the ordeal let the bishop's 
 official be present, together with his clerks, as also the 
 king's justiciary with the lawful men of his province, to 
 see and hear that all things be fittingly performed ; and 
 let those whom God shall save through His mercy and 
 by the justice of the court, be quit and go free; and as 
 to those whom their own wickedness and lawlessness have 
 condemned, let the king's justiciary do justice on them ; 
 but let those barons who have courts of their own over 
 
 1 They are taken from " Documents Illustrative of English His- 
 tory," by W. Stnbbs, at page 74, where they appear in their Latin form. 
 On the Ordeal, see Appendix, Nota Q.
 
 LAWS OF EDIVARD THE CONFESSOR. 287 
 
 their own men, see to it that they so act as not to incur 
 accusation at God's hands, nor to offend the king, and 
 where a suit arises in their courts concerning the men 
 belonging to other barons, let the matter go before the 
 king's justiciary, inasmuch as it is one that appertains to 
 him only; and should there be barons who possess no courts 
 of their own in the hundred where the particular pro- 
 ceeding arises, it is to be heard and settled at the nearest 
 ecclesiastical district where there shall be the king's 
 ordeal, saving always the rights of these barons them- 
 selves. 
 
 The Divisions of Shires anl Hundreds. 1 
 Cap. 13. The divisions of the shires properly form part 
 of the king's jurisdiction, and attached to them is the 
 king's highways.' 2 The divisions of the hundreds and 
 wapentakes belong to the earls and the viscounts (the 
 sheriffs) assisted by the County Court. 
 
 Concerning u friikbarg*" i.e., the security for keeping the 
 peace. 
 
 Cap. 20. There is another mode of protection ("pax") of 
 the most important nature, that by which all persons are 
 more firmly assured of their personal safety, to wit, by that 
 form of safety and security which the English call " frith- 
 borgs," all save the Yorkshire folk, whose (equivalent) 
 
 1 It should be remembered that thesa continued to form the divi- 
 sions upon and after the Conquest. 
 
 - Under this was included the safety of travellers on these high- 
 ways, the proper condition of the roads and the carrying out the 
 repairs of the ways and bridges over and connected with them. All 
 these were part of the king's imperiiim, and were under the super- 
 intendence and care of the king's reeve.
 
 288 LAWS OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 
 
 term is " tenmanne-tale," because of the number of the 
 body ten. And what it is is this. Throughout all the 
 towns of the whole kingdom, associated under the ten- 
 men system, all persons are bound to be under the tithing 
 pledge ; so that if one of the ten transgresses, the other 
 nine have him to law (for the purpose of standing his 
 trial). Should he escape, and they make return that they 
 cannot have him to law, a term of not more than twenty 
 days and one over is given them by the king's justiciary. 
 Then, if they can find him, they must bring him before 
 a justice. The offender must make good out of his own 
 effects all the damage he has done, and even with his own 
 body, should this be the penalty imposed. 
 
 If, however, he cannot be found within the above- 
 mentioned district, inasmuch as there is in every " frith- 
 borg " one headman, whom they call " frithborge-heved," 
 that headman must take two of the better men in his 
 own frithborg, and, from the three frithborgs nearest his 
 own boundaries, the headman of each, and also from 
 each of these two of the better men, if he can get them ; 
 and with the aid of these eleven, himself being the 
 twelfth man, let him purge himself and his " frithborg," 
 if he can, from the offence and from the escape of the 
 aforementioned malefactors. If he cannot, he must make 
 good the damage, as though it came of his own doing, 
 out of the property of the malefactor as far as it will 
 go, and then out of his own; and all the twelve must 
 make reparation before the justice to whatever extent 
 the lawful order of the justice goes. And should they 
 not be able to make up the jurors from the neighbour- 
 hood out of their own district, they must swear nine,
 
 LAWS OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 289 
 
 and by their oaths free themselves. Should they be able 
 to lay hands on the wrongdoer, let them bring him before 
 the justice if they can; if not, let them tell the justice 
 where he is. 
 
 The Description of the different Liberties. 
 
 Cap 21. Archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, and knights 
 used to have, under their own frithborg their own men 
 and their own special servants, to wit their stewards, 
 cupbearers, chamberlains, cooks, bakers. Also they had 
 under their own frithborg their esquires, or other their 
 servants ; so that if these committed trespasses, and in 
 consequence the complaint of the neighbourhood arose 
 against them, their masters had them to right in their 
 own court, supposing they had sache and soche, tol and 
 theam, and ingfangenthef. 
 
 What Sache, Soche, Tol, Theam, and Ingfangenthef mean. 
 
 Cap. 22. Soche is as follows : where a person inquires 
 judicially into some matter on his own land, even if that 
 matter be theft, the question of guilty or not guilty 
 is within his own jurisdiction. Sache is this : where 
 one person sues another person in a claim as to which 
 there is no suspicion of deliberate falsehood or chicanery, 
 and his opponent denies or objects to the claim, the 
 remedy for damages and costs, or for the costs, is within 
 the jurisdiction of the lord. Tol, which we call "the- 
 loneum," is the same as the privilege of buying and 
 selling within the limits of the lord's lands. Theam is 
 this : where one person demanded warranty of another, 
 in whose hands stolen property was found, and this per- 
 A. L. u
 
 290 LAWS OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 
 
 son was not able to give his warranty, the thing in dispute 
 was retained under temporary forfeiture, and the privilege 
 of inquiring into the dispute, and awarding against the 
 claimant, if he failed, attached to the lord's district. 
 Concerning Ingfangenthef, the privilege of inquiry into 
 charges of larceny against a man of his own, supposing 
 he was captured within his lord's lands, belongs to that 
 lord. 
 
 As to all others, who do not possess the above-named 
 privileges, they must resort to the king's justiciary, 
 whether in hundred, or wapentake, or shire. 
 
 Why the frithborg ivas established. 
 
 Cap. 28. Forasmuch as folk saw that some foolish per- 
 sons wilfully did wrong to their neighbour, the wiser ones 
 took counsel together how to restrain them ; and so they 
 have appointed justices over every ten frithborgs, whom 
 we may call the ten-men, Anglice tyenthe-heved, that 
 is, ten heads. Now these, in the towns (" villas ") and 
 throughout the neighbourhoods, dealt with the matters 
 brought before them ; and as breaches of law arose, im- 
 posed penalties and made regulations, to wit for pastures, 
 meadows, harvestings, for disputes between neighbours, 
 and for many other such matters as frequently arise. 
 
 Cap. 29. When cases of a larger nature arose, they 
 referred those to the other more important justices, whom 
 the aforementioned wise men of the place appointed over 
 them, to wit, the ten " ten-men." These we call hundred- 
 men, because their jurisdiction is over the hundred frith- 
 borgs. 
 
 During the few years of the reign of Edward the Con- 
 fessor, England, though nominally Saxon, was (under the
 
 EDWARD'S NORMAN PROCLIVITIES. 291 
 
 influence of his Norman counsellors, and by his own 
 Norman sympathies) steadily progressing towards a 
 change of dynasty and towards the new habits of cus- 
 tomary and social life which the victory of William the 
 Conqueror imposed upon her. 
 
 Here the curtain falls on England Saxon and Danish, 
 to rise again upon new ideas and a new life, when, as 
 Wamba said, the old proverb was made true, 
 
 " Norman saw on English oak, 
 On English neck a Norman yoke, 
 Norman spoon in English dish, 
 And England ruled as Normans wish." 
 
 Yet was the change, however galling and bitter to the 
 conquered during many long years of the occupation, 
 not without benefit in the long run, both to the tempera- 
 ment, the character, the genius, and to the political and 
 social life of Englishmen, as will, I hope, hereafter be 
 shown.
 
 LECTURE XVII. 
 
 NOXMAN ENGLAND. 
 
 The Norman Invasion Causes of its Success Harold and William 
 
 Their Characters King Edward's Promise to \Yilliam 
 Harold's Promise to William Harold HarJrada's Invasion 
 Difficulties of Harold of England The Immediate Consequences 
 of the Norman Invasion Social gains to England from the 
 Conquest General gains therefrom Chivalry and the Normans 
 
 Chivalry and Feudalism Chivalry: its Characteristics 
 Influence of Chivalry on Social Life Chivalry: its Faults 
 Hallam's Eulogium on Chivalry. 
 
 I HATE thus brought my inquiry into the history of 
 social and political life in Britain down to the period of 
 the Norman invasion, and I shall now devote my remarks 
 to the consideration of the Norman Conquest, and its 
 influence upon the life and constitution of England. But 
 before I proceed to examine this subject, a query, and not 
 an unnatural one, presents itself. 
 
 It is this: How came it about that the conquest of 
 England could have been achieved in the complete and 
 successful manner which history shows us did follow the 
 bold and hazardous attempt of the Norman king to plant 
 his banners on a hostile shore, separated by the sea from 
 his own country, and in the face of an opposition which 
 the warlike character of the Saxon race, and the resources 
 at the command of their King Harold, promised to be of 
 
 M
 
 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 293 
 
 the most severe and exhausting character, and that, too, 
 in an enemy's country where every inch of ground might 
 be made available for a long and protracted defensive war ? 
 
 The causes that led to the complete success of the 
 Norman and to the utter discomfiture of the Saxon may 
 be looked at from two points of view the moral and the 
 material aspect. 
 
 In the moral aspect two facts present themselves to 
 notice. The one is the mind arid genius of the two op- 
 posing leaders ; the other is the position of each of them 
 in regard to their respective claims to the crown on the 
 death of Edward the Confessor. 
 
 That each was a bold and successful warrior, as shown 
 in many a stout and hard-fought battle, each pre-eminent 
 over every other general of the day, the record of the 
 times establishes beyond all doubt. 
 
 But to courage in the field and skill in generalship, 
 William added the art of reaping the fruit of his victories, 
 and of consolidating his power by wise administration, 
 and by a careful selection of men of ability to assist him 
 in his work of government. 
 
 As compared with William, Harold was a wairior, but 
 he was very little more than that. 
 
 What William was is so well described by Professor 
 Freeman in his recent little monogram on William the 
 Conqueror, 1 that I must refer you to that learned author's 
 own words. 
 
 1 See " William the Conqueror," by E. A. Freeman, D.C.L., LL.D. 
 The Twelve English Statesmen series by Macmillan & Co., 1888, at 
 pp. i and 18.
 
 294 CHARACTERS OF HAROLD AND WILLIAM. 
 
 Whether Harold would have made a wise as well as 
 a good king had there been no invasion, or had he been 
 able to defeat the force that William brought against 
 him, is somewhat doubtful. 
 
 Mr. Pearson's criticism of his character is not a very 
 favourable one. 1 One thing is plain from a comparison 
 of the two men, that Harold was as far below William 
 in statesmanship as he was in consistency of conduct. 
 He offered Tostig when Tostig was powerful the earldom 
 taken from him when he was weak, and he wavered the 
 day before he died on the question whether he should not 
 dismember England by signing a treaty with the invader. 
 
 But there was another moral influence in William's 
 favour which the circumstances of the times and his own 
 ability enabled him to work upon with considerable force. 
 
 That influence was derived from a promise which, on 
 William's visit to England in A.D. 1051-52, Edward had 
 made him, that on the latter's death the Duke of the 
 Normans should be his successor to the throne of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 In what form it was made is not clear, but that some 
 such promise was made, Professor Freeman thinks is true ; 
 and that William's homage to Edward was done in the 
 character of a destined successor to the English crown is 
 equally clear. 3 
 
 No doubt the Saxon king did not look upon his promise 
 as one very binding on his conscience, for on his death- 
 bed he made a recommendation to his witan not in favour 
 
 1 "History of England," vol. i. cb. xxi. pp. 316 and 347. 
 
 2 " William the Conqueror," cb. iii. pp. 27 and 29.
 
 HAROLD'S PROMISE TO WILLIAM. 295 
 
 of William, and acting on this recommendation the witan 
 elected Harold as his successor. 
 
 But William had another promise in his own favour, 
 and that was one made by Harold himself, for about this 
 fact there seems to be no question. The story runs that, 
 on the occasion of a second visit to Gaul, Harold fell acci- 
 dentally into the clutches of Count Guy of Ponthieu, 
 and was rescued from him at some cost in ransom and 
 grants of land by Guy's overlord, Duke William. 
 
 In return for the favour thus bestowed upon him, 
 Harold, in some solemn form, swore, first, to become the 
 man of William, much as William had become the man 
 of Edward ; and second, to marry a daughter of William, 
 promising at the same time to secure the kingdom of 
 England for William at his death. It is true that he 
 might plead, in answer to the demand of William for 
 compliance, the fact that an oath thus extracted from him 
 was not a binding one, and he might set up against Wil- 
 liam's claim to the throne the declaration of Edward, and 
 the election of the witan in his favour. 
 
 But one important result was that William was able 
 to appeal, and did appeal vigorously, to emperor, kings, 
 princes, Christian men in every Christian land. More- 
 ever, he appealed to the head of Christendom, the Bishop 
 of Rome, and, as Professor Freeman says, "that appeal 
 was strangely successful." 1 Thus William set out on 
 his enterprise with all Europe and the pope in his favour, 
 
 1 See "William the Conqueror" (Freeman), cb. vii. pp. 63-77; 
 and also Thierry's " History of the Norman Conquest " (Bogue's 
 edition), vol. i. book iii. pp. 146-150.
 
 296 SUCCESS OF WILLIAM. 
 
 convinced of the righteousness of his cause, and able to 
 point to his adversary as a faithless and perjured in- 
 dividual. 
 
 And so, with the pope's blessing, and in a war that was 
 now a holy one, adventurers from most French-speaking 
 lands flocked to his standard, eager to take part in an 
 expedition that promised rich rewards in plunder, and 
 confident in the skill and energy of a captain whose valour 
 and wisdom had gained for him a renown unequalled by 
 any other leader of the day. 
 
 If, then, the moral influences were largely on William's 
 side, the material ones were not less so. At no more 
 propitious time for William's fortunes could the passage 
 of his ship and the transport of his men have taken place 
 than the exact time of their departure. At no more 
 untoward one for the English nation. 
 
 The stars in their courses fought against Harold. For 
 in the very month of September the wind, hitherto ad- 
 verse to William's sailing, had changed, and so lie was 
 able to transport his fleet across the channel and land 
 his troops at Pevensey. 
 
 In the meantime a formidable invasion of England had 
 taken place in another and distant quarter of the island. 
 Harold, the King of England, had to hasten by forced 
 marches to meet Harold Hardrada (Harold of Norway) 
 on the Yorkshire coast. At Stamfordbridge (September 
 25th, A.D. 1066) the two armies came together. There 
 Hardrada was defeated, and Tostig (the Saxon) was slain. 
 
 But three days later (September 28th) William landed, 
 and Harold, the king, had again to hurry from north to 
 south to encounter a new and more formidable opponent.
 
 HAROLDS DIFFICULTIES. 297 
 
 Two difficulties weakened Harold's chances of success. 
 They were these : One was the necessity he was under 
 of suddenly filling up the gap which the fierce fight at 
 Stamfordbridge had made in the ranks of his army. All 
 that he could do was to get together such men as could 
 be found, in order to supply the place of the picked sol- 
 diers who had fallen on the field of battle. But such 
 recruits as he was able to obtain were men of an inferior 
 quality, and utterly lacking in the discipline required for 
 the emergency which now presented itself. 
 
 This seems to have been a real cause of the defeat at 
 Senlac. For when at the crisis of the fight, after an ob- 
 stinate resistance, in which the fortune of the clay inclined 
 strongly to the English side, these inferior troops were 
 tempted to rush down the hill away from their entrenched 
 and safe position, in order to chase the Bretons whom 
 they had driven back ; then the line of defence was 
 broken, and the advantage of the gi-ound selected by the 
 Saxon king was lost. Thus the great battle was gained 
 by William, and England was left without leaders, for 
 Harold and his brothers wei-e slain. 
 
 The other difficulty to which I have alluded arose ouc 
 of the treachery of the two earls, Edwin and Morkere. 1 
 They had been ordered to follow Harold with the full 
 force of their earldoms. This they took care not to do. 
 
 Thus did the marvellous fortune which had steadily 
 befriended the Norman king show itself all along the line 
 of his adventure. 
 
 1 See as to this, Freeman's " William the Conqueror," ch. vii. p. 88. 
 Thierry omits to draw attention to the misconduct of these two earls. .
 
 298 WILLIAM'S SUPERIOR MENTAL QUALITIES. 
 
 The promise, or alleged promise, of the succession to 
 the English crown by Edward ; the pi-omise and oath in 
 confirmation of it by Harold to William ; the intense 
 interest shown in the Norman's cause by the European 
 princes and powers ; the favourable winds ; the Nor- 
 wegian invasion at the very time when those winds were 
 bringing the Norman ships to England; the desperate 
 fight in Yorkshh'e ; the loss of tried and hardy warriors 
 in Harold's army, and the treachery of the Saxon earls, 
 were incidents that marked in the strongest light the 
 " wonderful luck of William," and helped him to achieve 
 so easily and so completely as he did the conquest of 
 Saxon England. 
 
 His own skill, his own superior energy, and his states- 
 manlike qualities of mind enabled him to gain a second 
 triumph greater than his first, to wit, the consolidation 
 of his Norman dominions. The conquest and retention of 
 England throws that into the shade, and marks William 
 as one of the great makers of history. 
 
 On the course of events that followed the battle of 
 Senlac (or as it is more generally known, of Hastings), 
 I do not purpose to dwell. As I have stated above more 
 than once, I am not dealing with a history of the events 
 that have presented themselves for notice ; but with the 
 progress of social and political life in that part of Europe 
 that has acted upon English, social, and political life. 
 
 Looking at the immediate consequences of the Norman 
 Conquest, so far as England is concerned, there is no 
 doubt that they were most disastrous to the conquered 
 race. 
 
 A host of adventurers settled in all directions. The
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE NORMAN INVASION. 299 
 
 rapacity and brutality of these new comers, ecclesiastical 
 as well as lay, for a long period vexed the land, produced 
 widespread misery, and impressed on the English portion 
 of the community a feeling of hatred as intense as it was 
 lasting. 
 
 Yet from a social as well as from a political point of 
 view, there are features in the conquest not only of a 
 compensating character, but, as a matter of fact, of a 
 beneficial one in the long run. 
 
 One point above all should be carefully borne in mind 
 in reviewing the positive results of the Conquest, a point 
 insisted on by Professor Freeman, and before him by 
 the learned Frenchman, Thierry. 1 What did follow Wil- 
 liam's victory was not a mere change of government, 
 but the intrusion of a whole people into the bosom of : 
 another people broken up by the former ; an immigration 
 on a wholesale scale of one set into the land of another 
 set ; breaking up the component parts of this latter set 
 into scattered fragments which were only admitted into 
 the new social order as personal property, as " clothing 
 of the earth" (vestura, fructus quilibet agro hserens). 
 
 What we find is two nations : the English by origin 
 and the English by invasion, conquest, and immigration ; 
 at first divided on the face of the country, living under 
 different conditions for a time. The one set rich and free 
 from taxes, the other poor, depressed, overwhelmed with 
 burdens ; and yet (as will be shown by-and-by) both so 
 
 1 See Freeman's " Norman Conquest," vol. i. ch. i., Introduction 
 (3rd edition, revised, 1877) ; and Thierry's " History of the Norman 
 Conquest," vol. i. book vi. (at pp. 323, 324, in Bolm's European 
 Library edition).
 
 300 SOCIAL GAINS. 
 
 much thrown together and intertwined one in the other, 
 as eventually to unite in one body, wherein the sterling 
 qualities of each set, acting and reacting one on the other, 
 produced socially and politically results of the most 
 beneficial kind to the country. 
 
 From a social point of view, Saxon England gained 
 much by the advent of its Norman settlers, who, in their 
 turn, learned something from the despised Saxons. 
 
 In the domain of letters, England was benefited by the 
 introduction to its shores of scholars like Lanfranc and 
 Anselm, whose zeal for the promotion of learning had 
 been exhibited in Normandy, where they had founded 
 a school unrivalled in its own days. 
 
 In the matter of legislation and law-making, the Nor- 
 man lawyer saw charters and codes of law in Saxon 
 England unmatched by anything that his own country 
 could show. 
 
 A Again, the Norman mechanic found in England work- 
 men whose perfection in mechanical arts and in em- 
 broidery was renowned throughout Europe. 
 
 Whilst England learnt from her conquering neighbour 
 the splendour and glory to which the science of architec- 
 ture might be brought in the cathedrals and castles that 
 * their Norman settlers scattered over the land. 
 
 In the habits of life, too, as well as in the cultivation 
 of domestic comforts, England was a gainer from the 
 introduction of a more cleanly style of living and more 
 courtly manners. 
 
 With all his sturdiness of charcter, the Saxon was 
 wanting in that which the Norman undoiibtedly pos- 
 sessed the virtues of gentleness and of large-handedness.
 
 THE GENERAL GAINS. 301 
 
 Moreover, that love of adventure and that inclination 
 to chivalry which, as I have already pointed oat, were 
 among the characteristics of the Norman incomers, must 
 have had a wonderful influence for good on the country 
 of their adoption. 
 
 "To sum up all," and I use Mr. Pearson's words, "Eng- 
 land without the Normans would have been mechanical 
 not artistic, brave not chivalrous, a state governed by its 
 priests instead of a state controlling its Church. It had 
 lost the tradition of Roman culture, and during half a 
 century of peace had remained barren of poets, legists, 
 and thinkers. We owe to Normandy the builder, the 
 knight, the schoolman, and the statesman." 1 
 
 I have just referred to the love of adventure and the 
 inclination to chivalry which were specially noticeable 
 among the characteristics of the Norman invasion. I 
 therefore take this opportunity now of saying something 
 on the subject of chivalry, a sentiment of very ancient 
 origin, but largely developed in England after the Norman 
 invasion. Connected with the feudal notions so deeply 
 impressed upon us by our Norman neighbours, was one 
 institution which materially influenced the manners and 
 habits of the people whenever its aspirations and its 
 sentiments made their appearance. I allude to that to 
 which I have just before referred as a benefit conferred 
 on the Anglo-Saxon turn of mind ; viz., chivalry. M. 
 Guizot has written upon this subject with his accustomed 
 eloquence and with all that acquaintance with its history 
 that warrants us as looking upon him as a trustworthy 
 
 1 Pearson's " History of England," vol. i ch. i. p. 402.
 
 302 CHIVALRY AND THE NORMANS. 
 
 authority. In the third volume of his " History of 
 Civilization in France," 1 he has devoted a chapter to 
 the subject that is well worthy of a cai'eful perusal. I 
 shall content myself with extracting from that chapter 
 a few passages. 
 
 And first he shows us that chivalry at the middle of 
 the eleventh century was by no means an innovation, or 
 an institution brought to life by some special necessity, 
 and fashioned into form with the design of meeting and 
 complying with that necessity. It was framed much 
 more simply, much more naturally, much more obscurely 
 
 It was the progressive development of ancient facts, 
 the spontaneous emergence into life and light of Ger- 
 manic manners and feudal relations. 
 
 It took its rise in the interior of castles. 
 
 In its elaborate ceremonialism, in its moral develop- 
 ment, in its fantastic language, and in the peculiar devo- 
 tion to woman which were some among the more remark- 
 able features of chivalry as exhibited at the period of the 
 Norman Conquest, and for two centuries later, there is 
 nothing to be found in Anglo-Saxon society that resem- 
 bles it. 
 
 Still, beyond all doubt the influence of the Church had 
 made itself felt not only in the matter of private feud 
 but in that of public warfare, in the efforts made by the 
 clergy to introduce an improved morality, and to infuse 
 a holier element into the profession of arms than had 
 hitherto been thought of. 
 
 " The Danish invasion had made a war a duty to the 
 
 1 See Sixth Lecture, pp. 104-118 (Bolin's edition).
 
 CHIVALRY AND THE CHURCH. 303 
 
 mass of men who were not prepared for martyrdom, and 
 who could ^only defend their faith, let alone their wives 
 and children, by taking up arms against the heathen. 
 All England became warlike to resist the Danes. The 
 strife was a crusade, and the clergy, who followed its 
 progress with their prayers, at last learned to baptize the 
 warfare on the success of which society depended, and 
 the knight was initiated with a solemn ritual to service 
 in the field. 1 
 
 Whether in this we can trace anything like an idea of 
 chivalry may or may not be the case. But beyond this 
 there is nothing to prove that knighthood and the love 
 of Avar, tempered by moral teaching and softened by 
 devotion to woman, which is the characteristic of chivalry, 
 ever showed itself in Britain. 
 
 One reason may be assigned for this, that feudalist, 
 the forms of feudal life, and the fashions of feudal society 
 had never gained a firm footing in this country. 
 
 Between feudalism and chivalry there was so close a 
 connection that one grew out of the other and served to 
 transfuse as well as add lustre to it, for when once the 
 feudal society had acquired some fixity, some confidence 
 in itself, in the customs, feelings, facts of all kinds that 
 accompanied the admission of the young men to the rank 
 of vassal warriors, it fell under the empii-e of influences, 
 which were not long in imprinting on feudalism in its 
 social aspect a new turn and another character. Re- 
 ligion and imagination, the Church and poetry, took pos- 
 session of chivalry and made it a powerful means of 
 
 1 Pearson's " History of England, vol. i. cb. xx. p. 320.
 
 304 CHIVALRY AND FEUDALISM. 
 
 attaining the ends which they evoked, of fulfilling the 
 moral needs which it was their mission to satisfy. 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable feature in the develop- 
 ment of the chivalrous feeling I am speaking of was the 
 power and influence acquired by the Church in this part 
 ' of feudal life. 
 
 Next to that, if not consequent upon it, was the lofty, 
 moral sentiment which, though not sincerely accepted, 
 yet was in word at least insisted upon, and impressed on 
 - the aspirant to knighthood at the time of his reception. 
 
 In the ceremony of admission the ecclesiastical in- 
 fluence is visible in full detail. By the bath and the 
 white tunic the aspirant was reminded of the necessity of 
 purity ; by the red robe he was taught to remember that 
 his blood was to be shed in the service of his faith ; and 
 by the " saga," or close black coat, death, which awaited 
 him as well as all men, was symbolised. Then followed 
 fasting, a night of prayer, confession to the priest, ad- 
 ministration of the communion, the mass 'of the Holy 
 Ghost, and a sermon, in which the duties of knights and 
 the new life he was to enter were preached. 
 
 His sword was blessed by the priest, and so with this 
 sword hung round his neck, after making his vow to his 
 lord to acquit himself well of his duties as a knight, his 
 request to enter into the order of knighthood was granted 
 by his lord, after which followed his equipment in his new 
 armour by knights or sometimes ladies. 
 
 The intervention of the ecclesiastical influence proves 
 the anxiety of the Church to associate religion with all 
 the phases of an event so solemn in the life of warriors. 
 
 With equal force is this influence marked in the moral
 
 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHIVALRY. 305 
 
 character and the moral sentiments that were stamped 
 upon knighthood. As an example of this I will give first 
 three or four extracts from the oaths that the recipients 
 swore on their admission. 
 
 They are as follows : " To fear, revere, and serve God 
 religiously, to fight for the faith with all their strength, 
 and to die a thousand deaths rather than renounce Chris- 
 tianity. To maintain the just right of the weak, such 
 as widows, orphans, and maidens ; on a good quarrel to 
 expose themselves for them according as necessity re- 
 quires, provided that it be not against their own honour 
 or against their king or natural ally. That they would 
 never offend any one maliciously nor usurp the possession 
 of another, and rather that they would fight against those 
 who did so. That avarice, recompense, gain, or profit 
 should never oblige them to do any action, but only glory 
 or virtue. Above all things, that they would be faithful, 
 coui'teous, humble, and would never fail in their word, 
 for fear any ill or loss that might thence happen to them." 
 
 Then I will give an extract from an old ballad taken 
 out of the manuscript poems of Eustace Deschamps. 1 
 
 "You who would enter the orders of chivalry, befits 
 you to lead a new life ; devoutly to watch and pray ; to 
 fly sin or pride and all villany ; you must defend the 
 Church, and take under your charge the widow and the 
 orphan; you must be valiant and defend the weak, 
 upright, loyal ; taking nothing of other men's. By this 
 rule must the knight govern himself. 
 
 1 Quoted by Saint Palaye : " Memoires sur la Chevalerie," t. i. 
 p. 144. 
 
 A. L. X
 
 3o6 THE "MORTE & ARTHUR." 
 
 " Let your heart be humble ; ever labour and pursue 
 deeds of chivalry ; be your Avarfare loyal ; travel far and 
 near ; seek tourney and joust for your mistress's honour ; 
 a true knight must in all things pursue honour, so that 
 no blame may befall him, nor cowardice be found in his 
 life ; let him ever esteem himself least of all. By this rule 
 ' must a knight govern himself. 
 
 " He must love his seigneur truly and fully, and above 
 all things guard his seigneur ; he must be liberal and a 
 true lover of justice; he must seek the company of 
 upright men, hear their sayings and pi-ofit by them ; he 
 must study the prowess of valiant warriors, that he 
 himself may achieve great deeds after the example of 
 King Alexander. By this rule must the knight govern 
 himself." 
 
 In the "Morte d'Ai-thur," you will see the excellence 
 of the true knight well described. 
 
 Sir Ectoi', in his eulogy over the body of Sir Launcelot 
 du Lac, thus bewails him : 
 
 " Ah, Sir Lancelot, thou wert head of all Christian 
 knights, now there thou liest; thou wert never matched 
 of more earthly knight's hands. And thou wert the 
 curtiest knight that ever bare shield. And thou wert 
 the truest friend to thy lover that ever bestrode horse. 
 And thou wert the truest lover of a sinful man that ever 
 loved woman. And thou wert the kindest man that ever 
 struck with sword. And thou wert the goodliest person 
 that ever came among a press of knights. And thou wert 
 the meekest man and the gentlest man that ever eat in 
 hall among ladies. And thou wert the sternest foe to thy 
 mortal foe that ever set spear in rest."
 
 INFLUENCE OF CHIVALRY ON SOCIAL LIFE. 307 
 
 That the introduction of chivalry into England must 
 have had an important influence on social life I think 
 may be conceded. 
 
 As Mr. Pearson well points oat : l " The secret of its 
 strength lay in its human elements, its regard for life 
 and its infinite tenderness. With sympathies so wide it 
 could not restrict itself to the narrow circle of caste. 
 Throughout English history, the man who had won his 
 spurs by fair conduct in the field might wear them. 
 The gentleman without fortune might command barons 
 in svar and be called brother by his king. To be brave, 
 loyal, and generous established a claim to the title-deeds 
 which were good throughout Europe. The universal 
 Church, with its one tongue and democratic hierarchy, 
 did much for society ; but it formed a world by itself. 
 Chivalry invaded the very strongholds of rank and clung 
 like ivy round the grey battlements of feudalism, at once 
 beautifying and destroying it." 
 
 Loyalty, courtesy, liberality, and justice were the 
 virtues essential in the estimation of mankind to the 
 character of a knight. 
 
 The attestation to their importance, and even the mere 
 attempt to insist upon and to cultivate them, must have 
 had a purifying effect upon the coarseness, the rudeness, 
 and the injustice of the older forms of life that had per- 
 vaded the ranks of society in this country^ 
 
 Xo doubt there were, as is the case with every human 
 institution, evils produced by the spirit of chivalry to 
 which one cannot shut_one's eyes. 
 
 1 " History of England," vol. i. cli. xxxiv. p. 603 et seq.
 
 3o8 CHIVALRY: ITS FAULTS. 
 
 With the most fanciful refinements of passion, the 
 poetic writers of its times in their amatory strains 
 mingled the grossest immorality. 
 
 An undue thirst for military renown was another fault 
 that chivalry nourished; " and the love of Avar," as Mr. 
 Hallam tells us, " sufficiently pernicious in any shape, 
 was more founded on personal feelings of honour and less 
 on public spirit than among the citizens of free States." 
 Moreover, the character of knighthood widened the 
 separation between the different classes of society, and 
 confirmed that aristocratical spirit of high birth by which 
 the large masses of mankind Avere kept in unjust degra- 
 dation. 
 
 But in spite of these deteriorating elements in the 
 composition of the chivalrous sentiment, the spirit of 
 chivalry has touched our old English life with a bene- 
 ficial, nay, I think I may say an ennobling, influence. 
 
 "It has left," says Mr. Hallam, "behind it a valuable 
 succession. The character of knight gradually subsided 
 in that of gentleman ; and the one distinguished Euro- 
 pean society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
 much as the other did in the preceding age. 
 
 " A jealous sense of honour, less romantic but equally 
 elevated, a ceremonious gallantry and politeness, a strict- 
 ness in devotional observances, a high pride of birth and 
 feeling of non-dependence upon any sovereignty for the 
 dignity it gave, a sympathy for martial honour, though 
 more subdued by civil habits, are the lineaments which 
 prove an indisputable descent. The cavaliers of Charles 
 the First were genuine successors of Edward's knights, 
 and the resemblance is the more striking if we ascend
 
 CHIVALRY: 17 S GOOD QUALITIES. 309 
 
 to the civil wars of the League. Time has effaced much 
 also of this gentlemanly as it did before of the chivalrous 
 character. From the latter part of the seventeenth 
 century its vigour and purity have undergone a tacit 
 decay, and yielded perhaps in every country to increasing 
 commercial wealth, more diffused instruction, the spirit 
 of liberty in some and of servile obsequiousness in others, 
 the modes of life in great cities, and the levelling customs 
 of social intercourse." 1 
 
 1 Hallam's "Europo During the MidJlc Ag33," vol. iii. ch. ix. 
 part ii. p. -111.
 
 LECTURE XVIII. 
 NORMAN ENGLAND. 
 
 Political Aspect of the Norman Invasion Bishop Stubbs on the 
 Norman Conquest The Early Chroniclers Translations of 
 Excerpts from their Works The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and 
 the Historia Novorurn of Eadmer The Laws of King William 
 His Ordinance as to the Spiritual and Temporal Courts Guizot 
 on the Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest Compared 
 with the Barbarian Invasion of Europe-^Norman Social Life 
 Compared \vith that of the Anglo-Saxons Opposite Views of 
 Earlier English Writers on the Anglo-Saxon Institutions, 
 
 FROM the social aspect of the Norman invasion, and its 
 consequences on the conquered population, I turn to the 
 political aspect. Here, too, we possess a fund of informa- 
 tion in the works of the able and learned writers whose 
 research and learning have illustrated and adorned this 
 period of English history. Thierry, Lappenberg, Hallam, 
 Palgrave, Freeman, Pearson, have all laboured with 
 success. 1 The treatises of all are well deserving of careful 
 
 1 I need hardly say, that of all the writers here enumerated, Pro- 
 fessor Freeman is the one who stands out pre-eminently as an 
 authority on the history and characteristic features cf the Norman 
 Conquest. The profound learning and deep research, the acute 
 criticism, and the solid nature of the information displayed and 
 conveyed in the " History of the Norman Conquest," make it not 
 only a classical treatise on the incidents of that event, but a mine 
 
 810
 
 BISHOP STUBBS ON THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 311 
 
 study, and there is so much of interest in the pages of 
 all, that one is tempted to cite profusely from their 
 volumes. But the very profusion of matter they present 
 for notice is a source of embarassment. 
 
 There are, however, two writers not included in the 
 list of names above-mentioned, to Avhose works I can 
 refer, for this reason, that the extracts from the early 
 chroniclers, the Norman charters, and from Domesday 
 book, to be found in one of them, afford an excellent 
 illustration of the character of the events now under 
 review ; and in the essays of the other on the early 
 history of Fi-ance we have a valuable account of the 
 Anglo-Norman constitution, and its influence on later 
 English history. 
 
 The authors I am speaking of are the Bishop of Oxford 
 (Dr. Stubbs) and the French statesman and historian, 
 M. Guizot. 
 
 Bishop Stubbs has prefaced the extracts from the 
 original documents and public records selected by him 
 with a short notice of the leading features of William's 
 reign. He draws attention to the king's professed inten- 
 tion to rule as the West Saxon kings before him had 
 ruled ; to the resistance of the Saxon people caused by 
 the tyranny of the " king's justices regent," and to the 
 resulting forfeiture of lands inflicted on the Saxon land- 
 owners. He notices, as a consequence of this, the change 
 in the institutions of the country to the Norman feudal 
 
 of wealth on the various topics in direct connection with it or col- 
 laterally related to it. The admirable index appended to the five 
 volumes of the history is an immense assistance to the student of 
 the early story of our English Constitution.
 
 312 THE EARLY CHRONICLERS. 
 
 type, and the rise of a feudal nobility likely to be antago- 
 nistic to the king's power, side by side with the system 
 of self-government still subsisting among the people. 
 Then he adverts to the struggles that followed between 
 the Crown and the barons, ending in the almost complete 
 extinction of the nobility of the Conquest. Further, 
 he notes the beginning of a set of events " which com- 
 pelled the king to foster every remnant of political in- 
 dependence among the English as a check on the rebellious 
 and tyrannical policy of the great feudatories. Lastly, 
 he specifies as the prominent result of the Conquest, 
 regarded in its constitutional aspect, the continuing 
 assimilation of the government to the feudal model." l 
 
 Of the early chroniclers from whom excerpts are given 
 in the original Latin language by Bishop Stubbs, I 
 must content myself with abbreviated notices. Of those 
 chroniclers indeed, of all the old writers who throw the 
 light of ancient narrative upon Anglo-Saxon history, as 
 well as upon that of the Norman period very useful 
 information will be found in the " Literary Introduction " 
 to Dr. Lappenberg's " History of England under the 
 Anglo-Saxon Kings " (see Bonn's edition, 1884, vol. i.). 
 The aim and object of each chronicler, the dates of their 
 works, the editions that have appeared, and the leading 
 characteristics of the works themselves, are set out in 
 detail. 
 
 Bishop Stubbs' first excerpt is from the " Gesta Guli- 
 elmi," by William of Poitiers, at page 145 of the edition 
 by Baron Maseres. 
 
 1 " Documents Illustrative of English History," part iii. p. 76 
 (edition 1870).
 
 THE EARLY CHRONICLERS. 313 
 
 The author describes the solemn appeal of the Arch- 
 bishop of York to the English to accept William as their 
 crowned lord ; of the joyful and unanimous assent thereto 
 made by the English as well as Norman subjects ; and of 
 the coronation and enthronization of the king. 
 
 The next excerpt is from Florence of Worcester, the 
 Latin translator of the Saxon Chronicle, He notices 
 shortly the coronation of the king with all ceremony 
 before the altar of Saint Peter, in the presence of the 
 clergy and the people ; the king's oath to defend the 
 churches of God and their rulers, to mete out justice to 
 all the people, to enact and uphold good laws, and to put 
 down robbery and forbid nnjust dooms. 
 
 Then from the " Gesta Kegum," iii. 279, of William 
 of Malmesbury, we get the account of the sumptuous 
 and magnificent banquetings at the festal tide of Christ- 
 mas, Easter, and Pentecost, holdcn respectively at Glou- , 
 cester, Winchester, and Westminster, when, in obedience 
 to the royal summons, came all the magnates of the land, 
 and they, with the ambassadors from foreign countries, 
 witnessed the crowds of guests and the splendour of the 
 show. " To this festive custom," says the writer, " Wil- 
 liam's immediate successor steadily adhered, but the king 
 who followed him omitted it." 
 
 In the excerpt from Roger Hoveden's . " Chronica," ii. 
 218, we are told of the summons by William, in the 
 fourth year of his reign (A.D. 1070), to the English 
 nobles and wisemen of every county, to hear from the 
 lawyers of the land what were the laws and customs in 
 force ; and further, to see that in every county twelve 
 men should be chosen, and bound by oath _to declare and
 
 314 THE EARLY CHRONICLERS. 
 
 carry out all the customary rules and solemn decrees of 
 the land, without omission or addition or prevarication. 
 
 In two other excerpts from Florence of Worcester, 
 referring to the years 1084 and 1086, we learn that Wil- 
 liam took from every hide of land throughout England 
 six shillings ; that he caused the great survey over all 
 England to be made, " whence arose much bloodshed, 
 vexing the country side;" that he conferred the honour of 
 knighthood on his son Henry at Westminster; and that 
 he summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, counts 
 (or gesiths), barons, and viscounts (or sheriffs), with their 
 armed array, to meet him at Salisbury. " There they 
 came, and there he forced their armed followers to swear 
 fealty to him against all men." 
 
 In the passage from Ordericus Vitalis (lib. iv. c. 7), 
 the chronicler informs us of the king's revenue, one thou- 
 sand and sixty pounds a day, besides redemption moneys 
 for taking up honoui's, and payments for holding royal 
 offices ; of the king's careful and personal inquiry into 
 the affairs of his kingdom, and the accounts of his trea- 
 sury ; above all, of his distribution of lands among liis 
 military followers, whereby he was enabled to gather 
 under his standard an array of sixty thousand troops as 
 promptly and continuously as his will might decree or 
 the state of affairs might require. 
 
 I cite two extracts somewhat more in extenso : one is 
 from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the other is from the 
 " Historia Nbvorum " of Eadmer x the monk, the pupil, 
 friend, and biographer of Anselm. 
 
 1 The reader will find a very good criticism on Eadmer as a writer
 
 THE EARLY CHRONICLERS. 315 
 
 In the former of these we have the Saxon writer's 
 pathetic notice of the great Domesday survey. In the 
 latter one we have a monkish chronicler's account of 
 the attitude of the king towards the pontiff of Rome and 
 the ecclesiastical dignitaries of England. 
 
 This is what the Saxon writer says. 1 At mid-winter 
 the king was at Gloucester, and held his coui't there 
 five days. (There a synod of the clergy was held for 
 three days.) " After this the king made a great conn- 
 cil, and spoke very deeply with his witan concerning 
 this land, how it was held, and what were its holders. 
 He then sent his men over all England into every shire, 
 and caused them to ascertain how many hundred hides 
 of land it contained, and what lands the king possessed 
 therein ; what cattle there were in the several counties, 
 and how much revenue he ought to receive yearly from 
 each. He also caused them to write down how much 
 land belonged to his archbishops, to his bishops, his 
 abbots, and his earls, and that I may be brief, what 
 property every dweller in all England possessed in land 
 or in cattle, and how much money this was worth. So 
 very closely did he cause the survey to be made, that 
 there was not a single hide, nor a rood of land, nor it is 
 shameful to relate that which he thought no shame to 
 do was there an ox, or a cow, or a pig passed by, and 
 that was not set down in the account, and then all these 
 
 on the events of his time in Berington's "Literary History of the 
 Middle Ages," book iv. pp. 175, 176 (Bonn's European Library). 
 
 1 See the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 1085, at p. 458 (Bobn's 
 edition).
 
 316 THE EARL\ CHRONICLERS. 
 
 writings were brought to him." A.D. 1086. In this year 
 he wore his crown, and held his court at Winchester at 
 Easter, journeying on to Westminster, where he stayed 
 during Pentecost. " Afterwards he travelled about, so 
 that he came at Lammas to Salisbury, and there came 
 to him his witan and all the land-sitting men that were 
 over all England ; and there, too, came their man's men 
 (or vassals), and all submitted themselves to him and 
 were his men, and to him they swore the oaths that they 
 Avould become to him faithful against all other men." 
 This was the year in which the king crossed over to 
 Normandy. It was a year of pestilence and storm, of 
 bad harvests and of death, so that things ever grew 
 worse and worse with the people. May almighty God 
 mend them when such is His will." 
 
 The following extract from Eadmer, " Historia Novo- 
 rum," i. page 6, is valuable for the proof it gives of the 
 king's resolute determination to allow of no interference 
 with his claim to absolute rule. 
 
 "Some of the matters, the observance of which William 
 has recently insisted on, I will narrate: 
 
 1. " He will not permit any one to receive an Apostolic 
 Legate from the pontiff of Rome within his domains 
 
 ' save by his own authority ; nor will he allow such an 
 one, under any pretext, to take up his mission unless his 
 letters of appointment are first submitted to him. 
 
 2. " Again (the king) did not allow the Primate of 
 ...England I mean the Archbishop of Canterbury or 
 
 Dover even though ho was acting as president of a 
 general synod of the bishops, to make any decree or
 
 THE LAWS OF KING WILLIAM. 317 
 
 prohibition unless the matter thereby provided for was 
 in accord with his own "will, and was previously sanc- 
 tioned by him. 
 
 3. " Still less would he permit any of his bishops to 
 think of directing against any of his barons or officials 
 charged with the crime of incest, or adultery, or any 
 capital crime, any public prosecution save under and by 
 virtue of his own precept, or any excommunication or 
 infliction of any ecclesiastical pains and penalties." 
 
 Such are some of the notices of William the Conqueror, 
 of the events of his reign, and of his personal character, 
 as recorded in the pages of the old chroniclers. I now 
 give, in an English version, the statutes of the king cited 
 by Bishop Stubbs, from the " Textus Roffensis " : " They 
 are," says that writer, " probably the sum and substance 
 of all the legal enactments actually made by the Con- 
 queror, independent of his confirmations of the earlier 
 (Saxon) laws." 1 
 
 This is the Intimation ichich William, King of the English, 
 ivith his chief men, published after the conquest of Eng- 
 land : 
 
 1. "Imprimis that he (the king) wills that the one God 
 be worshipped throughout all his realm, and that the one 
 belief in Christ be kept ever inviolate, that peace and 
 security be preserved among the English and the Nor- 
 mans. 
 
 1 As to William's legislation, see Freeman's " Norman Conquest," 
 vol. iv. ch. xix. pp. 325, 326 ; and as to the legislation under the 
 Norman kings, see vol. v. pp. 395-404, and note 4.
 
 3i8 THE LAWS OF KING WILLIAM. 
 
 2. " Also Ave enjoin that every freeman affirm by fealty 
 and oath that, within and without England, they will be 
 faithful to King William, AY ill aid him in all faithfulness 
 to preserve his lands and honour, and, above all, wel 
 defend him against all his enemies. 
 
 3. " Now I will that all the men whom I have brought 
 with me, or who have come after me, be in my peace and 
 rest. And if any one of them shall be killed, let his 
 lord have Avithin five days his slayer, if he can ; but if 
 he cannot, let him thereupon pay me forty-six marks 
 of silver out of the full value of the goods and effects of 
 that lord. Should his goods and effects not be sufficient, 
 let the Avhole ,' hundred ' Avhere the killing took place 
 make up and share the balance among them. 
 
 4. " And let e\ T ery Frenchman who in the time of my 
 kinsman King Edward Avas (living) in England, and 
 participating in the English customary charges, called 
 ' onhlote and anscote' (poll tax and general tax), still 
 pay them in accordance Avith the law of the English. 
 
 5. "Further, AVC forbid the sale or purchase of any live 
 stock (viva pecunia) except Avithin civic bounds, and this 
 in the presence of three trustAvorthy Avitnesses, also of 
 any property of ancient title Avithout surety and warrant. 
 If (sale or purchase) be made otherwise than as ordered, 
 then let payment and fine be exacted, and if persisted in, 
 forfeiture. 
 
 6. " It was also decreed that if a Frenchman shall 
 appeal an Englishman for perjury, or killing, theft, homi- 
 cide, ' ran ' (the English term for open robbery, Avhich 
 cannot be denied), let the Englishman defend himself by 
 the ordeal of iron or by the duel, whichever he may
 
 THE LAWS OF KING WILLIAM. 3 '9 
 
 prefer. 1 But if the Englishman be infirm, let him find 
 another man to take his place. Whichever of them is 
 defeated, let him pay forty shillings to the king. If an 
 Englishman appeals a Frenchman, and refuses to prove 
 the charge by the ordeal or the duel, still I will that the 
 Frenchman purge himself of the charge with an unbroken 
 oath. 
 
 7. " This, too, I enjoin and will, that all persons have 
 and hold the law of King Edward in all places and in all 
 matters, in addition to those (rules) which I have made 
 for the good of the English community. 
 
 8. " Let every man who is willing to be bound for a 
 freeman be held to bail, so that his surety may have and 
 hold him to justice, if he offends in any way. And if 
 any one thus under bail escape, let the sureties see to the 
 honest payment of the amount that may be truthfully 
 claimed, and free themselves from the charge of fraudu- 
 lent complicity with the escaped offender. Let requisition 
 be made on the hundred and the county, as our prede- 
 cessors on the throne have enjoined. And let those who 
 ought in justice to appear, and refuse to appear, be sum- 
 moned once; then if they refuse to appear a second time, 
 let one ox be seized, and let them be summoned a third 
 time. Should they not come a third time, let another ox 
 be seized. If they do not come on a fourth summons, 
 let a return be made as against the goods of the recusant, 
 that the claim is a good one : this is called ' ceapgeld.' 
 Then let forfeiture to the king follow. 
 
 9. " I prohibit every one from selling a man out of the / 
 
 1 See as to the Duel and the Ordeal, Note Q in Appendix.
 
 320 ORDINANCE OF KING WILLIAM AS TO 
 
 country on pain of forfeiture to nie of all his belong- 
 
 ' in S s - 
 
 10. " I forbid the killing or hanging of any person for 
 
 any offence, but let the (offender's) eyes be put out, and 
 let him be mutilated. Let not this injunction be violated 
 under pain of forfeiture of everything to me." 
 
 The ordinance of William the Conqueror, separating 
 the spiritual and the temporal courts, marks a very im- 
 portant revolution which the laws of England underwent 
 at the Conquest. Prior to William's reign that is, in 
 Saxon times the bishop and the sheriff had exercised a 
 joint jurisdiction throughout the country. This was now 
 changed, and the bishop, as the ordinance shows, was 
 thenceforth to hold his court separate from that of the 
 sheriff. This ordinance is noteworthy for three reasons. 
 In the first place, by the separation a new court was 
 established in England, distinct from that of the sheriff, 
 taking cognizance of ecclesiastical matters only, and in- 
 dependent of any lay control. In the second place, by the 
 establishment of the bishop's court, the format adminis- 
 tration in the country was established and sanctioned of 
 another body of law hitherto unknown, called Canon Law, 
 whose representative, down to comparatively recent times, 
 was the ecclesiastical court once held in Doctors Commons. 
 In the third place, we owe to this ordinance the intro- 
 
 " duction of the Roman Civil Law, to which the Canon 
 Law of the ecclesiastics had always been under no small 
 obligation, and of which our Saxon legislators had no 
 
 ' knowledge. 1 
 
 1 Reeve's " History of the English Law," vol. i. ch. ii. . 68-75.
 
 SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL COURTS. 321 
 
 Under the shelter of this ordinance of William's, ex- 
 travagant claims to jurisdiction wei*e in early days made 
 by the Church. 
 
 This led to a conflict between the Crown and the 
 Church which, as a matter of history, involved in its 
 progress events and results of no little interest, as well 
 as value, from a constitutional point of view; a conflict 
 that in the reign of Henry the Second was fiercely 
 fought, ending in the Constitutions of Clarendon (A.D. 
 1164), whereby an attempt was made, and not without 
 success, to give a rational limitation to the secular and 
 religious jurisdictions, and to furnish a basis on which 
 they might carry out their respective work in more har- 
 mony than had been the case prior to Henry's reign. 
 
 The ordinance runs thus : l " William, by the grace of 
 God king of the English, to B. Barnard and G. de Mag- 
 naville, and P. de Valoines, and the rest of my ' fideles ' 
 of Essex, and of Hertfordshire, and of Middlesex. Greet- 
 ing. 
 
 " Know all of you, and the rest of my ' fideles ' who 
 are in England, that the episcopal laws, which down to 
 my time have not been well observed, or in accordance 
 with the precepts of the sacred canons in the kingdom 
 of the English, I, by the common council and consent of 
 the archbishops, bishops, abbots, and all the chiefs of my 
 kingdom, have adjudged to be amended. Therefore I 
 order, and by my royal authority enjoin, that no bishop 
 or archdeacon may any more hold pleas of episcopal laws 
 
 1 For the original text, see Thorpe's " Ancient Laws and Insti- 
 tutes," p. 213. 
 
 A. L. V
 
 322 THE BARBARIAN INVASION OF EUROPE 
 
 in the hundred court, nor submit to the judgment of 
 secular persons any cause which relates to the cure of 
 souls ; but that whosoever has been proceeded against for 
 any cause or offence, according to the episcopal laws, 
 must resort to some place which the bishop has appointed 
 or named, and there answer for the cause or the offence, 
 and do what is right towards God and his bishops, not 
 according to the law used in the hundreds, but according 
 to the Canons and episcopal laws. Now, if any one 
 through over pride has despised the summons to the 
 bishop's jurisdiction, or has refused to obey it, let him 
 be cited three times. If then he shall not come to clear 
 himself, let him be excommunicated ; and if need be, for 
 the purpose of carrying out this summons, let the strong 
 arm and justice of the king or the vice-comes (the 
 sheriff) be called in aid, and he who, Avhen summoned 
 to the bishop's court, has refused to come, shall make 
 amends for each separate summons. This also I charge, 
 and by my authority order, that no sheriff, prefect, or 
 officer of the king, nor any layman whatever, intrude 
 himself in any way into the administration of law that 
 belongs to the bishop ; and that no layman submit any 
 other man to judgment without the legal authority of 
 the bishop. Moreover, let no judgment be given in any 
 place save that of the bishop's jurisdiction, or that one 
 which the bishop has fixed on as the proper one." 
 
 It is to the Norman Conquest that England owes the 
 true commencement of her liberties. 1 
 
 1 This, and what follows, is taken from " Les Essais sur 1'Histoire 
 de France," par M, Guizot, vi c essai, chapitre premier.
 
 CONTRASTED WITH THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 323 
 
 In the history of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, 
 as I have shown in my former lectures, the consequences 
 of the invasion of Spain by the Goths, of Gaul by the 
 the Franks, and of Italy by the Lombards, were most 
 disastrous to the inhabitants of the conquered countries. 
 
 Anarchy and slavery followed the footsteps of the con- 
 querors. The tribes of wandering barbarians spread 
 themselves among the miserable people whose lands they 
 seized. On the one hand, the new comers brought with 
 them no social life, no fixed principles of government, 
 nor any notion of national independence. On the other 
 hand, the natives, the conquered races, witnessed the 
 dissolution of their old political ties and of their old 
 institutions. 
 
 They saw their rulers abandon their states in order to 
 avoid the necessity of defending them, whilst they them- 
 selves were reduced to the position of inferiors and were 
 rendered incapable of taking part, as of old, in the man- 
 agement of their own affairs. The lower classes were 
 brutalized, the middle classes were ruined, the higher 
 classes were utterly demoralised, public spirit vanished, 
 the magistrates and citizens ceased to exist. 
 
 Among the barbarian immigrants social life had as yet 
 no existence ; among the Roman subjects it disappeared. ' 
 
 Wandering bands, strangers to civil life, established 
 themselves on a soil covered with a multitude of miserable 
 and disorganised beings, no longer showing the semblance 
 of a people. 
 
 The Christian clei-gy alone survived the shock. They 
 alone offered to the old inhabitants of the land some 
 support and some encouragement. But they had also to
 
 324 NORMAN SOCIAL LIFE COMPARED 
 
 marshal their strength for a contest, out of which it be- 
 hoved them to come as victors. That fight and that 
 victory were with and over the conquerors of the land. 
 
 This was a pressing necessity, one, too, whose realiza- 
 tion in its turn worked mischief to the clergy, through the 
 corrupting influences arising out of the very success which 
 they had achieved. 
 
 None of these elements of destruction existed in Eng- 
 ; land at the time of the establishment by William of his 
 power in the eleventh century. 
 
 A barbarian race conquered a barbarian race. The 
 Normans had been established for nearly two hundred 
 years in Normandy. For more than five hundred years 
 the Anglo-Saxons had occupied Great Britain. Among 
 each of them social life, coarse and ill-regulated as it was, 
 had existed for a long period. Neither of them had lost 
 the spirit and the customs of their own ancient liberty. 
 
 The primitive origin of each was the same ; institutions, 
 if not exactly similar, at least analogous, had regulated 
 them ; and among each set of people these institutions 
 were of the same character and of the same spirit. 
 
 There was no religious conversion necessary, for both 
 of them professed the same faith. There was no funda- 
 mental opposition in their manners and style of life. 
 
 The great Saxons resided in their domains enjoying 
 their ease. Hunters, surrounded by their " fideles," their 
 habits of life were not unsimilar to those of the Norman 
 barons. 
 
 It was not a case of barbarism issuing from the forests 
 with civilization in ruins that the Normans were to 
 encounter.
 
 WITH THAT OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 325 
 
 T\vo nations of Avarriors, fierce and ignorant, and more- 
 over firmly established, found themselves face to face. 
 
 If there was any degree of social superiority visible, it 
 was on the side of the conquerors. But the conquered 
 race was not disposed to allow itself to be enslaved, nor 
 to be entirely deprived of the means of resistance. 
 
 The conquest might entail much cruel wrong and a 
 long oppression, but it could produce neither the break- 
 ing up of the two races into scattered bands or families, 
 nor the permanent and almost voluntary degradation of 
 one of them under the yoke of the other. 
 
 In the compulsory attraction of the two confronting 
 bodies there were at once the means of resistance and the 
 cause of fusion. This, in M. Guizot's opinion, was a de- 
 cisive fact, and one which, up to his time, had been 
 misunderstood by English historians and publicists. 
 
 A nation is unwilling to admit any debt to that one 
 which is the cause, for a long period, of its own humilia- 
 tion and misery. 
 
 Although the Norman yoke has long ceased to exist, 
 although for many a century past the separate existence 
 of Xorman and Saxon has disappeared, yet the recollec- 
 tions of the twelfth century still remained and reappeared 
 in the conflict of party warfare. 
 
 One set of English writers of M. Gnizot's time troubled 
 themselves little with Anglo-Saxon institutions. Another 
 set, on the other hand, attributed a great importance to 
 them, and ascribed to them the origin of all the country's 
 liberties. 
 
 They noticed the fact that on the Continent the Con- 
 quest and the feudal forms resulting from it were not
 
 326 OPPOSITE VIEWS OF ENGLISH WRITERS. 
 
 able to produce anything in the shape of free government. 
 They ascribed to the Normans that portion of despotism 
 and feudalism that was visible in their own institution. 
 They assigned to the Saxons all their own rights and 
 guarantees of freedom. 
 
 Such a view is neither exact nor in conformity with the 
 events. These Saxon forms, no doubt, have been the 
 cradle of English liberty ; but one may fairly doubt 
 whether they would, without the Conquest, and of their 
 own special force, have laid the foundations in England 
 of a free government. 
 
 It was the Conquest which impressed upon English 
 liberty a new force. Political liberty in England owes 
 its birth to the position in which the two sets of people 
 and their laws are found face to face. 
 
 In considering these Anglo-Saxon institutions and the 
 results that flowed from them towards the end of the 
 eleventh century, we shall find nothing, or almost nothing, 
 that is analogous to what took place in other parts of the 
 European world. 
 
 Between the fifth and eleventh centuries (as I have 
 shown in a former lecture) free institutions, aristocratic 
 institutions, and monarchical institutions were in conflict 
 not only in Gaul but in Great Britain. 
 
 There is nothing to indicate the fact that towards the 
 end of that period the system of free institutions was 
 ready to triumph. On the contrary, everything tends to 
 the belief that they Avere weakened and in decay in Eng- 
 land as on the Continent. 
 
 The local institutions of the Anglo-Saxon were very 
 little different from those that existed among the Franks.
 
 PRANKISH AND ANGLO-SAXON INSTITUTIONS. 327 
 
 The " thegns " or free proprietors met together in the 
 courts of the decurise, of the centuries, of the county, 
 under the presidency of the tything-man or tenth man, 
 of the hundred men, and of the count (the earl) or his 
 lieutenant (the sheriff). 
 
 In those courts justice was administered. There the 
 greater part of the civil business of the locality was trans- 
 acted. There, in short, all matters took place which 
 interested the neighbouring region. 
 
 These assemblies, which at first were frequent, soon 
 became less often resorted to. Soon the jurisdiction of 
 the " tything-man," if it ever was a real one, disappeared. 
 The court of the hundred became of less importance. The 
 county court was rarely summoned more than twice in 
 the year. The proprietors were enjoined to come in under 
 penalty of fine. But this very penalty, and the incessant 
 injunctions respecting it, visible in the Anglo-Saxon laws, 
 prove clearly the negligent attendance of the proprietors. 
 
 In spite of the established regulations adopted by each 
 neighbouring society to provide against the committal of 
 offences, and to maintain the rights of property in each 
 particular locality, it is clear that the principle of free 
 institutions (that is to say, the open deliberations of the 
 freemen in common) no longer preserved its old vigour. 
 
 Nor were these free institutions exposed to less danger 
 in England than in France, under the antagonistic influ- 
 ence of aristocratic institutions, carrying with them the 
 subordination of man to man.
 
 LECTURE XIX. 
 NORMAN ENGLAND. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon England and Feudalism The Witenagemot England 
 and Prankish Gaul Contrasted The Anglo-Norman Kings and 
 the Saxon Population The Great Council Knight Service^ 
 The General Council of the Barons. 
 
 AMOXG English publicists the question whether feudal 
 tenures existed in England before the Norman conquest 
 has been largely discussed. The opinion of those who 
 hold that they were not unknown in England has much 
 to support it. 1 
 
 Be this as it may, if there is any reason for doubt, it is 
 solely in reference to territorial relations. 
 
 No one disputes the fact that before the Conquest a large 
 number of freemen lived under the patronage of a lord, 
 and that jurisdiction was often attached to the demesne. 
 
 This patronage, then, this jurisdiction, as we have seen, 
 has often been everywhere the primary principle of the 
 classification of individuals, and of individual dependen- 
 cies, that is to say, of feudalism. 
 
 Its germ existed among the Anglo-Saxons as among 
 the Franks, and among the former also, the general course 
 
 1 At all events, the elements of feudalism were there, though not 
 worked into systematic shap, e.g., homage, that is, the relation of 
 every man to his lord; military tenure ; heriots,and other incidents. 
 
 33Q 
 ~O
 
 ROYALTY UNDER EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 329 
 
 of events favoured its development at the expense of free 
 institutions. 
 
 In centralizing systems of government we meet with the 
 same tendencies and the same phenomena. 
 
 Undoubtedly royalty was very much weakened under 
 Edward the Confessor, and that from the same causes ' 
 which rendered it powerless in France under the Carlo- 
 vingians. EarVGodwine, Siward, lord of Northumberland . 
 Leofric, lord of Mercia, and many others, appear as great 
 vassals but dangerous rivals of the king ; independent in 
 consequence of their own might, and ever ready to change 
 that might into right, and to establish themselves as 
 sovereigns in their own domain, in their lordships and in 
 their counties. Harold, usurping the crown over Edgar 
 Atheling, the legitimate heir, has a strong resemblance to 
 Hugh Capet. 
 
 Evidently the tendency of sovereignty was to dismem- 
 berment. Monarchical unity was imperilled. National 
 unity as yet was not compromised. 
 
 Originally it resided in the Witenagemot, or the Anglo- 
 Saxon form of the Frankish Champ de Mars. Like the 
 Champ de Mars, the witenagemot at first was the general 
 assembly of the freemen, of the warriors. 
 
 Soon the consequences of the new element viz., terri- 
 torial property that was introduced into the social state 
 were manifested. The presence of a numerous class of 
 freemen (no doubt the most numerous), that of the 
 " ceorls," appears collected round the chiefs whose do- 
 mains they inhabited or cultivated. The witenagemot 
 ceases to be the general assembly of the thanes, that is, 
 of the proprietors ; the propi-ietors are themselves divided.
 
 330 THE WITENAGEMOT. 
 
 Some of them, -whether owing to their importance or to 
 the extent of their possessions, or whether owing to the 
 fact that they were companions and vassals of the king, 
 form a distinct class under the name of " great thanes," 
 or "royal thanes"; others are called " inferior thanes." 
 The witenagemot becomes nothing more than the 
 assembly of royal thanes or great proprietors. 
 
 At length even these individuals frequently neglect the 
 duty of attending the meeting, remain isolated in their 
 domains, trust to their own power and strength, refuse to 
 submit to any public restraint, and exei'cise almost all the 
 rights of sovereignty. 
 
 From the middle of the eleventh century the witen- 
 agemot, in spite of its successive changes, disappears 
 almost entirely from Anglo-Saxon history. 
 
 And here we find a close resemblance between Saxon 
 England and the country of the Franks. 
 
 Now, supposing that the Norman Conquest had not 
 taken place, and supposing that Anglo-Saxon society had 
 remained undisturbed by the immigi-ation of the new 
 comers, and had been left to work out its own destiny, 
 what would have happened ? 
 
 This is a mere matter of speculation. What would have 
 taken place it is impossible to say apart from conjecture. 
 
 Yet, in spite of the general similarity of events that 
 have been noted, there were some important differences 
 between Great Britain and the Continent which must 
 have produced different results. 
 
 In the English population there was more unity than 
 * was to be found in that of Gaul. 
 
 The old British people had been, if not completely
 
 ENGLAND AND PRANKISH GAUL CONTRASTED. 331 
 
 driven out or destroyed, at least reduced to such a con- 
 dition that they had ceased to be of any importance. 
 
 A territory of much more circumscribed extent in 
 England than in Gaul rendered the absolute destruction 
 of central institutions and the dismemberment of the 
 sovereignty and of the nation more difficult. 
 
 Notwithstanding their weakness, free institutions, such 
 as those of the county courts, the corporations, and others, 
 preserved more reality and energy in the provinces. 
 
 In the middle of the eleventh century, moreover, the 
 feudal system was much less advanced and less compact 
 in England than on the Continent. 
 
 These differences have operated more tardily on the 
 political destinies of England. Still, it is doubtful 
 whether they would have been sufficient to overcome the 
 causes which were already exhibiting themselves in the 
 empire, and which, there as elsewhere, were tending to 
 work the ruin of national and free institutions, and to 
 destroy the political life of the country, first throwing 
 it into anarchy and then subjecting it to the yoke of an 
 aristocratic hierarchy more or less like the Frankish land 
 proprietors. But the Norman Conquest came in time to 
 arrest this tendency, and to introduce among the Saxons, 
 together with the evils of the feudal system and a foreign 
 yoke, the renascence of national and free institutions, the 
 preservation of which was then the sole chance of pro- 
 tection for the conquered against the conquerors. 
 
 Now this is a feature of the new era which deserves a 
 little closer investigation. The first point to notice is that 
 what happened in England after the Norman invasion was 
 social oppression, not social dissolution.
 
 332 NATIONAL AND FREE INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Before that event the new comers had established 
 among themselves a social organisation, coarse, no doubt, 
 but still a regulated one. The organisation of the feudal 
 system had become strong and complete in Normandy. 
 
 The relations of the duke with his vassals, the general 
 council of the barons, the seigniorial justices, the superior 
 court of the duke, all the elements, all the means, of feudal 
 action were fixed and strong. 
 
 In a great and powerful state this system is impractic- 
 able. It carries with it necessarily the dislocation of the 
 people and of power. 
 
 In a limited state like that of Normandy, and in the 
 midst of semi-barbarous customs, it might exist without 
 absolutely destroying order and unity. 
 
 In spite of the wars of the Dukes of Normandy with 
 some of their vassals, William was in reality the powerful 
 chief of the Norman aristocracy. The very enterprise in 
 which he led them on proves this. 
 
 It was not the effacement of a people, or a mere immi- 
 gration of barbarians, but an actual conquest accomplished 
 by a sovereign at the head of the knights of his nation 
 without renouncing his own established dukedom. 
 
 No expedition, except perhaps those of Charlemagne, 
 had been carried out with such completeness. After the 
 conquest and the settlement of the incomers, the bonds 
 of the Norman feudal aristocracy could not fail to be 
 tightened. 
 
 Encamped in the midst of a hostile population, jealous 
 of its own independence and capable of offering a strong 
 resistance to attacks upon it, the Norman aristocracy was 
 . compelled to hold together in firm union.
 
 CONTRAST BETWEEN GAUL AND ENGLAND. 333 
 
 In Gaul the Franks were able to spread over the 
 country in small bands, isolated from one another and 
 from their king. On the Continent we scarcely ever come 
 across any insurrection of the old inhabitants against 
 their new masters. The warfare and fighting are almost 
 always between the conquerors themselves. 
 
 In England they were between the conquerors and the 
 conquered. In spite of war, defections, and some scattered 
 revolts, the Norman barons and their king work together, 
 support one another, and march together with one common 
 object. The cohesion of the feudal confederation and the 
 vigour of the central power were matters of actual neces- 
 sity for them. 
 
 Thus everything went on, either among themselves or 
 in their strife Avith the conquered people, with a system 
 and a regularity hitherto unknown. 
 
 The spoliation of the Saxon proprietors was not, as 
 has been sometimes assumed, either systematic or univer- 
 sal. It took place gradually and unequally, in proportion 
 to the cause or pretext for confiscation for which the 
 revolt offered opportunity. 
 
 But the partition of the lands among the conquerors, 
 and the distribution of the royal domains under the title 
 of " fiefs," was not the consequence of individual or 
 chance acts of violence, nor the result of a long state 
 of anarchy. 
 
 William proceeded in his work by general measures, 
 with skill, and in a manner that produced the assurance 
 of the empire of the Normans over the Saxons, and of 
 the royal power over the Normans. 
 
 Nearly six hundred immediate vassals swore fidelity
 
 334 CONTRAS7 BETWEEN GAUL AND ENGLAND. 
 
 and homage to him, and, in order to prevent any inde- 
 pendence on the part of those whom he most enriched, 
 he took care to disperse them in their domains throughout 
 the different counties of the kingdom. 
 
 The territory was divided into sixty thousand one 
 hundred and fifteen knight's fees, whose owners swore, 
 all of them, fealty to the king. 
 
 Finally, the Domesday book, that true statistical ac- 
 count of the fiefs and their possessors, which was com- 
 menced by William's orders in A.D. 1081, and completed 
 in A.D. 1086, attests, even to the present day, the regularity 
 and cohesion with which the Norman aristocracy was 
 established in England twenty years after its first 
 settlement. 
 
 The same causes and the same necessity must have 
 produced analogous effects among the Saxons. The spirit 
 of nationality, which w r as lost for a time in the anarchy 
 that prevailed prior to the Conquest, was stirred again 
 into life in consequence of the force exerted by the weight 
 of the foreign oppression. It gave the whole people one 
 common interest, one common sentiment, and one common 
 ' design. 
 
 Nothing like this could possibly have happened in 
 Gaul, for there all moral life was extinguished among 
 the different sets of people, and the state of disorder was 
 too great. 
 
 In England the state of disorder was less ; the popu- 
 lation was strong and fierce. The Normans had found 
 in the feudal organization established in Normandy their 
 means of rallying together. The Saxons looked for those 
 1 means in their ancient institutions and their old lr,ws.
 
 NORMAN KINGS AND SAXON POPULA TIONS. 335 
 
 William's firm settlement in his new acquisition was 
 not (in form at least) entirely the result of force. After 
 the battle of Hastings the throne was offered to him in 
 the name of the Saxons, and immediately on his coro- 
 nation at Westminster he took the oath to govern the 
 two sets of people under equal laws. 
 
 From that time we see the Saxons incessantly claiming 
 as their special right that which was necessarily dear to 
 them, viz., the Saxon laws, the laws of Edward the Con- 1 
 fessor. This right they obtained by frequent insistence 
 from the Norman kings. 
 
 When they were sufficiently strong to extract from 
 these kings promises and guarantees, they defended or 
 renewed their rights by virtue of titles anterior to the 
 Conquest, and these titles were recognised. 
 
 Thus, whilst on the Continent conquest had dissolved 
 the two sets of people, in England it stirred them up into 
 opposition each against the other, leaving their ultimate 
 amalgamation to be the work of time. 
 
 On the Continent the political system and the laws of - 
 the conquered had perished. In England the political 
 institutions of the conquered were reanimated, and be- 
 came dearer than ever to them. 
 
 On the Continent every interest, every kind of force, 
 and every design had become little else than individual 
 In England, among both sets, force, design, and interest 
 were all national. 
 
 On the Continent the feudal regulations sprung out of 
 the ruins of central power, of political unity. In Eng- 
 land, on the contrary, feudal rule served to maintain both 
 power and unity.
 
 336 THE GREA7 COUNCIL. 
 
 The Saxons continued to subsist as a national body, 
 claiming or defending their liberties under the shelter 
 and protection of their old laws. 
 
 Finally, in England the Conquest, instead of scattering 
 everything, or of confounding everything, brought two 
 great bodies face to face, resolute up to a certain point, 
 and determined (at least at the commencement of the 
 period) the one to assert their rule, the other to resist 
 it. For botli of them common deliberation and common 
 action were a necessity. 
 
 Under these conditions, then, the principle of free 
 government was started into life. 
 
 How it attained a larger growth, in spite of the miser- 
 able disorders and evils of the times, is another interesting 
 question. 
 
 The investigation of this problem leads us to the con- 
 sideration of two political and constitutional institutions. 
 One of these is the Great Council (whose history extends 
 from the time of William the Conqueror to that of King 
 John, i.e., from A.D. 1066 to A.D. 1190) ; the other is that 
 of the Anglo-Norman royalty. 
 
 In examining into the history of the Great National 
 Council of the early Norman period, so far as the pages 
 of the chroniclers and the documentary records of the 
 period are concerned, we come across a number of terms, 
 which apparently refer to the assembly that after the 
 Conquest took part in the government of the nation. 
 These terms are as follows : " curia de more," or custom- 
 ary court; "curia regis," "concilium," "magnum con- 
 cilium regni." 
 
 The terms themselves are somewhat vague, and throw
 
 THE GREAT COUNCIL. 337 
 
 little light on the origin, the nature, and the powers of 
 the assembly which they designate ; and so they have 
 served as texts for surmise and hypothesis of varying 
 character, and have been appealed to in support of their 
 several views by the different writers who have attempted 
 to construct a theory from them. 
 
 Hale sees in them " a parliament as complete and real 
 as has ever been held in England." l Carte and Brady, 
 on the other hand, recognise them only as indicating 
 tribunals, private councils, dependent on the King, or 
 pompous assemblies convoked solely on the occasion of 
 certain solemnities. 
 
 According to Tory writers (says Guizot), and specially 
 according to " a report from the Lords Committee ap- 
 pointed to search the Journals of the House, Rolls of 
 Parliament, and other Records and Documents for all 
 matters touching the dignity of a peer of the realm," 2 the 
 terms "curia de more," "curia regis," and "concilium" 
 on the one hand, and the terms " magnum " or " com- 
 mune concilium " on the other, designate different kinds 
 of assemblies. 
 
 The last two terms, it is said, may be applied to assem- 
 blies of a large and solemn character. But the term 
 concilium is to be restricted to a private council composed 
 of men selected by the king to assist him in the govern- 
 ment. This council, it is added, was at the same time 
 a " curia regis," that is, a tribunal deciding judicially 
 
 1 "History of the Common Law of England," by Sir M. Hale 
 (edition 1820), p. 135. 
 
 2 At page 20. 
 
 A. L. Z
 
 338 THE GREAT COUNCIL. 
 
 in all questions referred to the Crown, and presided over 
 by the king, or, in his absence, the great justiciary. It 
 was also called " curia de more " because it was sum- 
 moned, according to ancient custom, three times a year, 
 at the feasts of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas. It 
 was regularly adjourned from each one of these periods 
 to the other. 
 
 According to Whig writers, these terms marked origin- 
 ally, and up to the time of Henry II., the general assembly 
 of the great men of the kingdom, which was necessarily 
 assembled near the king to judge, to enact laws, and to 
 assist in the government of the country. 
 
 The first view (that of the Lords Committee), in M. 
 Guizot's opinion, places too narrow a construction on these 
 terms. The second attributes to isolated facts too exten- 
 sive and too important a meaning. 
 
 " When the king was in England," says the old Saxon 
 Chronicle, " he wore his Crown three times a year ; for 
 the feast of Easter, at Winchester ; for that of Whitsun- 
 suntide, at Westminster; and for that of Christmas, at 
 Gloucester. There Avere with him all the great men of 
 England, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and earls, thanes 
 and knights." l " By the royal edict," says William of 
 Malmesbury, " there Avere convoked to the ' curia de 
 more ' all the great men of whatever condition, in order 
 that the envoys from foreign countries might admire the 
 splendours of that assembled throng, and the pomp of 
 its feasts." 2 
 
 1 "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (Bonn's edition), p. 461, Anno 
 1087. 
 
 2 William of Malmesbury, " Gesta Eeguni," iii. 279.
 
 339 
 
 A crowd of texts show that the term " curia regis," 
 which was at first employed to designate the place of the 
 royal residence, was then extended to mean the assemblies 
 of a special solemnity, and of a specially large character, 
 not mere private councils, nor tribunals composed only 
 of royal officials. 
 
 They were public assemblies, to which the great men 
 of the kingdom came for the purpose of marking more 
 emphatically the splendour of the royal State, of dis- 
 cussing national affairs, and of administering justice in 
 concert with the king. 
 
 But then comes the question, Who Avere these great 
 men ? "Who were the personages to whom was conceded 
 the right of attending these gatherings ? 
 
 It is difficult to find any clear and precise information 
 on this point in the language of the historians or in the 
 charters. There are so many expressions employed, and 
 such varying ones, in relation to them ; for instance, 
 these, "magnates," "proceres," "barones," " milites ser- 
 vientes," " liberi homines," etc. 
 
 The best solution of the question must be sought in the 
 feudal principle ; that is to say, we must understand the 
 term " great men " thus summoned to these solemn as- 
 semblies to mean all the immediate vassals of the king 
 who owed him rent and service at his court as well as 
 in war. 
 
 Yet when we remember the fact that this class of vas- 
 sals numbered more than six hundred, it is somewhat 
 puzzling to understand how so large a body could have 
 met together on all occasions. 
 
 But here we must bear in mind that a large number
 
 340 THE GREAT COUNCIL. 
 
 of them would be much more inclined to remain in thc-ir 
 own domains, where their constant presence was demanded 
 owing to the troubles of the times, than to busy them- 
 selves about State affairs. 
 
 To leave home three times a year for the general 
 national council would be looked upon as a very annoying 
 duty, quite outbalancing the privilege of being present 
 at the great council. Doubtless, therefore, a large num- 
 ber never troubled themselves to attend. 
 
 Now those who did obey the summons and take part in 
 the government of the country are generally described by 
 the title " Barons." Probably this name was originally 
 common to all the immediate vassals of the Crown who 
 were in allegiance to the king per " servitium militare," 
 i.e., by knight service. 
 
 By degrees this knight service became restricted in its 
 extent, and was applied almost exclusively to the vassals 
 of the Crown who were sufficiently powerful and suffi- 
 ciently rich to obtain the privilege of a court of justice on 
 their own manors or on their own baronies. 
 
 There are clear indications that knight service became 
 still more restricted, and ceased to belong to any but such 
 immediate vassals as the king believed he was bound to 
 summon personally to the general assembly. It will be 
 seen that such was in effect the meaning of the term 
 baron at the period of the concession of the Great 
 Charter. 
 
 No fixed or positive rule distinguished these barons at 
 first from the other immediate vassals. Their pre-emi- 
 nence, and the consequences resulting from it, were of a 
 s.pecial and variable nature for a very long time prior to
 
 THE GKEA1 COUNCIL. 341 
 
 their formatioii into a class distinguished by permanency 
 of title and of right. 
 
 The bishops and a large number of the priors and 
 abbots attended the general assembly, either as the chief 
 personages in the clerical body, or as immediate vassals 
 of the king or of the barons. 
 
 There is no trace of election or of deputation even on 
 the part of those of the immediate vassals who preferred 
 to remain on their own estates, or on the part of the 
 towns and boroughs. 
 
 As for the exact range and object of these assemblies, 
 it is useless to look for information. What, if any, were 
 their separate duties, or what the limits within which they 
 were fixed, is a matter not easy, if possible, to decide. 
 
 Methodized arrangement of this kind is the creation 
 of modern times. In those early days division of work 
 and methodized arrangements were unknown. Urgency, 
 pressure of fact, or necessity were the reasons for delibe- 
 ration or action. 
 
 The "General Council of the Barons" was engaged on 
 whatever work came to hand at the time, or whatever 
 matter required immediate settlement. Legislation, 
 ecclesiastical affaii\s, questions of peace and war, nomina- 
 tion to great public offices, extraordinary taxes, succes- 
 sion to the Crown, the administration of justice, the 
 domestic affairs of the king, his marriage or that of his 
 children, the dissensions in the royal family, in a word, 
 all the interests of the State on those occasions when the 
 king did not believe himself to be strong enough to regu- 
 late affairs without the advice of his principal subjects, 
 or when his conduct stirred complaints sufficiently strong
 
 342 THE GREAT COUNCIL. 
 
 and sufficiently general to force him to take notice of 
 them, were discussed and arranged. 
 
 Nor were the sessions of these great councils more 
 regular than their influence. One set of English writers 
 has maintained that these assemblies were very rare, for 
 they were averse to the notion that the " curia de more " 
 and the " curia regis " should be looked upon as indepen- 
 dent political assemblies. Here they are wrong, for from 
 the Conquest down to the reign of John we meet with 
 frequent instances of them in every reign. 
 
 In opposition to that contention, another set of writers 
 has laid too much store by, and dwelt with too much 
 pride on, the three annual periods of assembly. 
 
 According to this class it would appear that the great 
 men of the kingdom were assembled three times a year 
 to exercise control over and to direct the king's govern- 
 ment. 
 
 But as a fact the progress of public liberty at this time 
 was neither so vigorous nor so advanced as to warrant 
 the belief that such control or such direction could be 
 claimed or would be conceded. 
 
 The greater part of these assemblies were either small 
 in number, or simply devoted to festivity, for the purpose 
 of adding splendour to the throne, as William of Malmes- 
 bury points out. 1 
 
 To be seen in the midst of a crowd of vassals enhanced 
 the dignity and power of the king, as it did that of every 
 baron in his own domains. 
 
 Frequently too, in obedience to the royal summons, the 
 
 1 ee the passage above noted.
 
 THE GREA7 COUNCIL. 343 
 
 attendance of the vassals was given, not so much for the 
 purpose of carrying out some political object, or of taking 
 part in some common discussion on the affairs of the State, 
 as for the gratification of a desire for social amusement 
 and indulgence in the pleasures of a brilliant courtly 
 display.
 
 LECTURE XX. 
 
 NORMAN ENGLAND. 
 
 Anglo-Norman Royalty Different Condition of Anglo-Norman and 
 French Royalty Position and Power of William the Conqueror 
 Anglo-Norman Feudalism aud French Feudalism Contrasted 
 The Anglo-Norman Barons William's Oath of Fealty His 
 Domesday Survey The Oath of Fealty Meaning of the Term 
 "Fidelis" Oaths of Homage and Fealty from Littleton The 
 Domesday Survey Characterized by Professor Freeman and by 
 the Author of the " Dialogus de Scaccario " Some of its 
 Special Features English Agriculture at the time of the 
 Survey. 
 
 The Anglo-Norman Royalty. 
 
 IN one of my former lectures I gave an account of the 
 position of royalty in France during the barbarian period. 
 I showed how that state of royalty was replaced on the 
 fall of the Carlovingians by feudal royalty, and that this 
 was at first a mere title, requiring the work of centuries 
 ere it was fashioned into substantial power. 
 
 Feudalism, that ill-regulated and disunited confedera- 
 tion of isolated and independent sovereigns, was moulded 
 into shape by itself, and was in full existence when a 
 royal head of its own quality came to be placed above it. 
 
 In England the order of things was entirely different. 
 There feudalism and royalty were brought into life toge- 
 ther, each contemporaneous with and necessary to the 
 other. 
 
 311
 
 ANGLO-NORMAN ROYALTY. 345 
 
 It may be asserted that in England feudal royalty 
 was in full strength at its very birth, and there \vas no 
 need for either feudalism or the crown to strive for the 
 conquest of one over the other, as had been the case on 
 the Continent. 
 
 Almost ere he was crowned, William was what the 
 kings of France had become only after long efforts, a real 
 king, recognised as such by all his barons, and much 
 more powerful than any of them. 
 
 He obtained for himself, and it may be presumed 
 without trouble, a large share of the profits of the Con- 
 quest. His domains comprised fourteen hundred and 
 sixty-two estates in land or manors, as well as the 
 principal towns of the kingdom. The impositions ex- 
 acted from the Saxon rebels constantly swelled these 
 possessions. Throughout the length and breadth of them 
 he imposed taxes at his will, and by the same arbitrary 
 means established custom dues on the importation and 
 exportation of merchandise. Fines, penalties for crimes, 
 the sale of public offices, as well as of the royal protection 
 and justice, were the source of considerable revenue, 
 whereby an extraordinary and independent power was 
 assured to the king. 1 
 
 His relations with his vassals were regulated from the 
 very outset in methods more general and by plans more 
 direct than had been known or heard of in any other 
 quarter. 
 
 They owed him military service for forty days should 
 , he so will it. They were also liable to pecuniary aid 
 
 1 See " Ordericus Vitalis," lib. ir. c. 7.
 
 346 ANGLO-NORMAN ROYALTY.- 
 
 in three cases : first, for his ransom if he were made 
 a prisoner ; secondly, for the marriage of his eldest 
 daughter ; and thirdly, for the arming of his eldest son 
 when knighted. 
 
 The specific amount of these aids was not fixed by law 
 until the reign of Edward I. 
 
 Moreover, the king claimed to exercise over his vassals 
 the rights of (1) relief, to be paid by the heir on attaining 
 his majority, in return for the privilege conceded to each 
 baron of possession of his fief ; (2) of wardship, that is, the 
 heir's right to enjoy the fief daring his minority; (3) of 
 marriage, that is, the right of selling in some sort of form 
 to the very best bidder the hand of the female heir of a 
 fief of whom the king wtfs the guardian. 
 
 All these rights, and others less important, were unde- 
 fined ; they depended on the will of the stronger. They 
 afforded opportunities for force to assert its power, and in 
 the event of contest or suit between the Norman kings 
 and their vassals, there was very little doubt as to which 
 side would be the winner. The vassals power of resist- 
 ance for any length of time was a very slight one. 
 
 Hence it happened that in their claim to these rights, 
 William and his successors wei*e perfectly able to enforce 
 obedience against all their vassals. They continued, too, 
 to levy at their will those charges on all imports that had 
 been levied of old by the Saxon kings, among them being 
 the Danegelt, a tax that lasted even to the reign of 
 Henry II. 1 
 
 1 First imposed in Ethelred's time, between A.D. 988 and 1007. 
 Whether it was imposed immediately after the treaty of peace be-
 
 ANGLO-NORMAN ROYALTY. 347 
 
 In due course of time another source of revenue was 
 found, in what was known as escuage, or a payment 
 imposed on all who wished to escape from military 
 service. 
 
 This tax, which was looked upon as a compensation 
 due to the king, was also an arbitrary one, and was 
 regarded as a revenue to which the king had an un- 
 doubted right. 
 
 By means of these sources of income, and these arbi- 
 trary taxes, the Norman kings were able to keep up a 
 permanent body of mercenaries, aud that long before 
 their brother kings on the Continent had been able to 
 establish a similar force. 
 
 Here then we find the existence of a feudal society 
 entirely different from anything in France. 
 
 In every country the primary interest, an instinct as it 
 were, is that of self-preservation and common defence. 
 
 But this interest is necessarily at variance with any 
 condition of isolation and individual independence on the 
 part of the king's vassals. 
 
 In England this instinctive feeling of common interest 
 was never lost sight of ; nay, was always present. Hence 
 we see a reason why these vassals so frequently obeyed 
 
 tween the Saxon king and the three Norwegian leaders, Anlaf, Olaf, 
 and Guthmund, consequent on the battle of Maldon, is not quite 
 clear. See Lappenberg, vol. ii. ch. x. p. 191 (Bonn's edition). " The 
 ship levy and the danegelt," says Green, " were the first beginnings 
 of taxation " (Green's " Conquest of England," p. 405) ; as to the 
 dauegelt, see " The Dialogus de Scaccario," I. part iv. xi. ; " Docu- 
 ments Illustrative of English History," W. Stubbs, M.A., pp. 191- 
 198.
 
 348 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BARONS. 
 
 the king's summons, and hence too we can understand 
 how it is that in England the central power, which across 
 the Channel was almost extinguished, continued to be a 
 real force, exerting its influence through the king and the 
 general assembly of the barons working together in 
 united action. 
 
 An examination into the history of the times under 
 review shows us, as I have before noticed, the part which 
 this assembly played in the administration of public 
 affairs. 
 
 As I have pointed out, it met and fulfilled its duties, 
 not by virtue of any special delegation of separate and 
 distinct lines of work, nor with the view of exercising 
 any particular or special office, such as the enactment of 
 laws or the voting of supplies, bat simply for the purpose 
 of discussing and providing for any measures or subjects 
 that from time to time were urgent. 
 
 In fact its business was that of assisting in the govern- 
 ment of the country. The laws, foreign affairs, peace 
 and war, ecclesiastical matters, judgments in great 
 causes, nomination to great public offices, all were within 
 its scope ; nothing was outside its deliberations ; every- 
 thing was remitted to its order ; no right or rights were 
 withdrawn from its review and decision. Its surveillance 
 over the whole administration of the State was direct and 
 general, its action was decisive. 
 
 On the other hand, if we turn our attention from the 
 assembly or council to look at the crown, standing by 
 itself, apart from any controlling influence, we find it 
 possessed of sufficient strength to exert its power on a 
 thousand occasions in a manner as arbitrary and as abso-
 
 ANGLO-NORMAN AND FRENCH FEUDALISM. 349 
 
 lute as though no political assembly had ever existed, or 
 any politically constituted nation had ever intervened in 
 the government of the country. 
 
 The king was himself richer and more powerful than 
 any of his vassals. He could of his own will make laws, 
 levy taxes, dispossess proprietors, condemn or banish un- 
 fortunate men, exercise, in short, on many occasions all 
 the rights of an unlimited sovereignty. 
 
 This sovereignty appears to reside sometimes in the 
 hands of the national assembly in union with its chief, 
 sometimes in those of the chief himself. 
 
 In feudal France no assembly of vassals of the crown 
 acquired so real and so frequent a share in the affairs of 
 the State. But then in France the power of the kings 
 throughout the length and breadth of the kingdom never 
 had the opportunity or means of becoming so tyrannical 
 or so dreaded. 
 
 One result of this state of things was the existence in 
 England of two social agencies, two public powers, which 
 at the same period of time are nowhere noticeable in 
 France. I mean, an aristocracy and a king ; agencies or 
 forces too rough and unpolished, and too much subject to 
 the sway of individual purposes and personal interests, to 
 allow of their co-existence without producing alternatives 
 of despotism and free government. Yet it fell out that 
 each of them was necessary to the other, and both of 
 them were often forced into common action. 
 
 The sway of Hugh Capet, Henry I., Philip I., was 
 limited to their own domains. Every lord of less exalted 
 station was in his own domains almost as powerful and 
 almost as isolated as the king.
 
 350 THE BARONS AND THE CROWN. 
 
 But the Norman barons formed a compact body. The 
 Norman kings were really the chiefs of this body, and 
 thereby the rulers of the country. 
 
 It was the necessity under which they lay of defending 1 
 themselves in common against a people capable of offer- 
 ing resistance to them that brought about this double 
 result. 
 
 When this necessity became less pressing, and when 
 the conquest was somewhat settled, the ambition of indi- 
 viduals began to exhibit itself, and then the true nature 
 of feudalism allowed itself to be seen. 
 
 Every possessor of a fief wished to live a life of isola- 
 tion in his o\vn territory, to enlarge his holdings by 
 violence, and to enrich himself by brigandage. 
 
 The kings took advantage of this commencement of 
 dissolution in order to exercise their power. Invested 
 with strength superior to any other individual, and 
 called by their very title and by the eminence of their 
 position to look to the preservation of public order, like 
 the continental kings they soon came into conflict with 
 their barons, at first gaining great advantage. 
 
 If Henry I. and Henry II. cannot be called absolute 
 sovereigns, yet they exercised an authority more general 
 and more indisputable than any other contemporary king. 
 
 But the causes of this extension of authority were 
 transient. The barons, less alarmed at the perils to 
 which the revolts of the Saxon population might expose 
 them, being in a more assured possession of their share 
 of the Conquest, were not so vividly impressed with the 
 necessity of rallying round the king. 
 
 Their intervention in the central government perforce
 
 THE BARONS AND THE CROWN. 351 
 
 became less active, and the summons of these assemblies 
 less frequent. Still they had not lost either the memory 
 or the habit of these assemblies. 
 
 When after their separation from the royal power 
 they saw themselves attacked by it, when they recog- 
 nised the fact that they were unable to offer any indi- 
 vidual resistance to it, the spirit of combination recovered 
 strength, and instead of living apart in a feudal hier- 
 archy, in order to offer a successful defence they formed 
 coalitions that were in truth and in fact aristocratic. 
 
 General circumstances favoured this new development. 
 Three usurpers in less than fifty years William. Rufus, 
 Henry I., and Stephen owed the recognition of their 
 claim to the crown to the body of the barons, and were 
 obliged to obtain their goodwill by general promises in 
 favour of their protection and liberty. 
 
 On his departure for the crusades, Richard Coeur de 
 Lion entrusted the government to Hugh, Bishop of 
 Durham, and William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely. 
 
 Longchamp's tyrannical administration provoked such 
 disturbances that the king was compelled to associate 
 with Longchamp, the Archbishop of Rouen, and four 
 barons. 
 
 Owing to this, and to the efforts of Prince John to 
 seduce the people from their allegiance to Richard 
 factions of various kinds were formed. 
 
 In the midst of these disorders, increased by the 
 enforced absence of the king, the government of the 
 country fell into the hands of a council of barons, that 
 is to say, of a portion of the aristocracy. 
 
 One set assumed the right of acting as governors of
 
 352 THE BARONS AND THE CROWN. 
 
 the country. Another set formed an opposition to a 
 government which was and were only one of their own 
 peers. 
 
 And so, when John mounted the throne in A.D. 1199, 
 a change had come over everything. The strife was no 
 longer one between Normans and Saxons. The amalga- 
 mation of the two sets of people had as yet not been 
 completed. Still, it had begun. 
 
 The resistance of the barons to the king was no longer 
 of an individual character affected by feudal isolation. 
 Royalty and aristocracy were at issue : the former 
 striving to retain that absolute power which it had 
 reached for a short time under cover of the original 
 disorders of feudalism ; the members of the latter rally- 
 ing together for the purpose of obtaining a recognition of 
 their rights and the assurance of their guarantees. 
 
 Some barons adhered to the side of the king ; for with- 
 out their help the contest would have been a useless one. 
 
 Still, the strife had commenced, and ceased to be what 
 it was on the Continent, a series of combats between indi- 
 vidual interests. It was a contest of a truly public 
 character, between two bodies independent and capable 
 of imposing each on the other the necessity of examining 
 into and settling the matters in dispute between them. 
 
 Two very important consequences on the condition 
 of English life directly attributable to the Norman Con- 
 quest remain to be told. 
 
 The one is the introduction of the oath of fealty im- 
 posed by the conqueror on all his subjects; the other is 
 the great survey of the country, commonly known as the 
 Domesday survey.
 
 THE CATH OF FEALTY. 353 
 
 By the first the whole system of territorial proprietor- 
 ship was revolutionised. The land, which was practically 
 the land of King Edward, became terra regis, the land 
 of King William. 1 The old Saxon institution, folc-land, 
 falling into disuse, gave place to the principle as well 
 as the name, terra regis, or crown land ; and, eventually, 
 instead of absolute ownership of land, the doctrine of 
 tenure was introduced. 
 
 Moreover, through fealty, a strong step was made 
 towards feudalism, and with feudalism all its burdens in 
 time became forced on the inhabitants of England. 
 
 It is true, as Professor Freeman has pointed out, 2 that 
 this introduction of feudalism into England is not due to 
 any direct legislation or authoritative ordinance on the 
 part of William. Still, it is from William that feudal 
 ideas received a strong impulse. " Under William they 
 were in the germ, as they had been long before him, and 
 in the next reign they were stiffened into established 
 custom." But William took care that the king of Eng- 
 land should be something more than a mere feudal lord. 
 He saw to it that his own vassals, and the vassals of his 
 vassals, should be his subjects also." 
 
 " The oath," says the learned author above referred 
 to, " which all his men took at the great gemot at Salis- 
 
 1 It seems to be a necessary inference from the evidence of 
 Domesday book, that all England had been converted into " boc- 
 land " before the Conquest, with the exception of the terra regis 
 (" William the Conqueror," by E. A. Freeman, D.C.L. LLD., Kegius 
 Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford, Mac- 
 millaii & Co., 1888, ch. is. p. 132). 
 
 - '-William the Conqueror," ch. ix. pp. 132, 133. 
 
 A. L. A A
 
 354 THE OATH OF FEALTY. 
 
 bury saved us from the worst evils of feudalism as they 
 showed themselves in other lands." 
 
 His was no chieftainship over a weak central govern- 
 ment striving to maintain authority in a divided land. 
 He ruled as the absolute head of a strong central 
 government, and the realm that owned his sway was 
 an united one. 
 
 The way in which the revolution in the matter of 
 anded property was worked deserves explanation. 
 
 It turned upon the introduction of one word in the 
 oath of submission and loyalty imposed by William and 
 accepted by his subjects. That word is " fidelis." 
 
 The second paragraph of the Intimatio runs thus in 
 the original Latin : " Statuimus ut omnis liber homo 
 f oedere 1 et sacramento affirmet quod infra et extra Ang- 
 liam Willelmo regi fideles esse volunt terras et honorem 
 illius omni fidelitate cum eo servare et ante eum contra 
 inimicos defendere." " We enact that every freeman by 
 compact and oath affirm that he is willing to be fidelis to 
 King William (and so) preserve his lands and honour 
 (i.e., all his rights and claims), and especially to defend 
 him against his enemies." 
 
 As to this injunction of being fidelis to the king, there 
 are three things to be noted : (1) This is not an ordinary 
 declaration of faith and allegiance. (2) The important 
 word fidelis is not one that had been in use in Saxon 
 times ; it was introduced from the Continental feudal 
 
 1 Wright, in his book on tenures, comments thus on this word 
 "fcedere": "That homage was the frcdus (V alliance) is probable 
 from its ancient form in the Coutumes de Normandie, " Je deveigne 
 votre home."
 
 THE WORD "FIDELIS." 355 
 
 terminology. (3) The enactment itself is not a mere 
 confirmation to the king of his own lands and rights. 
 
 In all probability the Saxon portion of the king's 
 subjects thought that by complying with the enactment 
 and taking the oath prescribed, they were doing no more 
 than swearing to submit and be faithful to William as 
 their lord and king ; but those who penned the law, and 
 the king himself, had deeper views. 1 
 
 Fidelis, at the time of the Conquest, was a well-known 
 word of art among the feudists, and carried with it a 
 much more extended signification than the Roman 
 equivalent, faithful. 
 
 A " fidelis " was a subject, a vassal bound by oath to 
 his lord, and in this sense it is frequently to be found 
 in the old Lombard and Prankish laws. As Craig (in 
 his treatise " De Jure Feudorum ") points out, the word 
 in its feudal bearing is not restricted to the meaning of 
 a man whose faith is good and undoubted, but it is used 
 to define vassals who possess fiefs in any particular 
 territory or jurisdiction. 
 
 Therefore, by taking the oath of fealty first, the men 
 of England became King William's men ; and, secondly, 
 by this change the character of landed property was 
 at once altered. All the land was converted into the 
 king's land, and all the old owners ceased to be Saxon 
 proprietors. They became feudal vassals and tenants, that 
 is, holders of the land. Thus the idea of tenure was 
 introduced, and with it in time followed the variations 
 that formed so complicated a part of the English laws 
 
 1 See Keeve's " History of the English Law," vol. i. ch. ii. p. 35.
 
 356 THE OATHS OF HOMAGE AND FEALTY. 
 
 as exhibited in the pages of Bracton, Brittan, Fleta, and 
 Littleton. 
 
 Moreover, consequent npon the notion of tenure, and 
 the form of the oath of fealty, came the doctrine of 
 services, among them knight's service and tenure in 
 socage; but these were the results of later legislation 
 than that of William's time. 
 
 As the oaths of homage and fealty are somewhat 
 remarkable, I give them out of Littleton's treatise. 
 They had been handed down to his time from a much 
 earlier date. Probably that of homage differed very 
 little from that in use in William's reign, in essence, 
 at all events, though perhaps the form was polished by 
 some later jurist, such as Glanvil, for example. 
 
 Littleton, who wrote in the reign of Henry VI. or 
 Edward IV., gives us the following : 
 
 ' The way in which homage was done was this. When 
 the tenant shall make homage to his lord, he shall be uri- 
 girt and his head uncovered ; and his lord shall sit, and 
 the tenant shall kneel before him on both his knees, and 
 hold his hands jointly together between the hands of his 
 lord, and shall say thus : ' I become your man from this 
 day forwai'd, of life and limb, and of earthly worship ; 
 and unto you shall be true and faithful, and beare to you 
 faith for the tenements that I claim to hold of you.' " 
 
 In a note upon this section of Littleton's handbook, 
 Hale says, " that in ancient times that is, those long 
 prior to Littleton's day by hommes, or men ' homagers,' 
 whom we now call freeholders were intended." 
 
 From this, as well as from the use of the word free- 
 holder by Littleton himself in the following description
 
 THE OATH OF FEALTY. 357 
 
 of the oath of fealty, one may draw the conclusion that 
 tins form of oath was of later date than the so-called oath 
 of fealty of William's time, which was in effect an oath 
 of homage ; first, because ifc was one that every liber homo 
 had to take, who then became the king's man and fidelis 
 to him ; and next, because the term freeholder was not 
 known at that date. 
 
 I give the oath of fealty as it is recorded in Littleton's 
 treatise : 
 
 ' When a freeholder doth fealty to his lord, he shall 
 hold his right hand upon a boke, and shall thus say : 
 ' Know ye this, my lord, that I shall be faithful and true 
 unto you, and faith to you shall beare for the lands which 
 I claim to hold of you ; and that I shall lawfully do to 
 you the customes and services which I ought to do at the 
 terms assigned, so help me God and his saints.' And he 
 shall kiss the boke ; but he shall not kneel when he 
 maketh his fealty, nor shall make such humble reverence 
 as aforesaid in homage." * 
 
 Domesday survey, of which I am now about to speak, 
 marks more emphatically than any other act or deed of 
 this period the character of the man by whom it was de- 
 vised and under whose orders it was carried out. 
 
 The nature and plan of the work, its design and ex- 
 tent, the immediate results consequent upon it, its ulti- 
 mate effect upon the country, and the impress of 
 William's genius visible throughout it, have been de- 
 scribed and noted in the ablest manner by those English 
 authors who have devoted their time and labour in the 
 
 1 "Littleton's Tenures," book ii. chs. i. and ii.
 
 358 THE DOMESDA Y SUR VE Y. 
 
 most beneficial manner to the history of England at the 
 date of the Conquest. 
 
 In Ellis's " Introduction to Domesday," in Hallam's 
 " History of the Middle Ages," in Palgrave's " History of 
 the Commonwealth," in Freeman's " History of the Nor- 
 man Conquest," in Stubbs' "History of the Constitution," 
 and in Pearson's " History of England," the student will 
 find a large amount of information on the Domesday 
 survey and on Domesday book that will well repay any 
 amount of time and labour he may give to their pages. 
 
 The subject is one that deserves his careful attention 
 and careful study ; for in Domesday he will find ample 
 information respecting the Anglo-Saxon and Norman 
 Constitution. 
 
 There he will read of the rights and services of the 
 kings, their subjects, and their vassals. There he will 
 find notices of families and of the landed members of 
 the country. There he will see the condition of many 
 parts of England at the time of the survey. There he 
 will see how the king's revenue was to be secured, and 
 how justice was to be administered. 
 
 In short, he will obtain from Domesday an accurate 
 account of every portion of the Conqueror's dominion. 
 
 "Never," says Professor Freeman, " was there a dry 
 record so full of human interest of every kind as in the 
 great survey of England. Every human relation, every 
 portion of life, every circumstance which could call_forth 
 joy or sorrow, the wail of the distressed, the overbear- 
 ing greed of the intruder, the domestic details of court- 
 ship, marriage, dowry, inheritance, bequest, and burial, 
 are all there.
 
 THE DOMESDAV SURVEY. 359 
 
 " Quidquid agunt homines, votum, tirnor, ira voloptas, 
 Gaudia, discursus, nostri est farrago libelli." 
 
 One hundred years or thereabouts after the survey, the 
 istorian of the Exchequer, Richard, Bishop of London, 
 writes thus about it 3 : 
 
 " When that great conqueror 3 of England, King 
 William, extended his power to the farthest limits of 
 the island, and tamed the inclinations of any rebellious 
 member thereof by terrible punishments, he gave his 
 subjects (the advantage) of positive jurisprudence and 
 written law. Then he sent his own officials, the most 
 discreet men of the country, throughout the circuit of 
 the realm. By them was made a careful description of 
 all the land in every part of it, woods, pastures, and 
 meadows. They noticed also its agricultural condition ; 
 and what they saw they reduced to writing and recorded, 
 the object intended being that every one should know 
 what his own rights were, and should not be allowed to 
 interfere with those of his neighbour. Then, too, was 
 made an accurate survey through the counties, the 
 hundreds, and the hides. All this was noted as being 
 done in the king's name, and then were appended the 
 names of the king's tenants in capite, in their proper 
 order and quality. Further, all that was recorded was 
 numbered in due sequence, for the purpose of readier 
 reference. The book itself is called ' Domesdei,' by way 
 
 1 Freeman's " History of the Norman Conquest," vol. v. ch. xxii. 
 p. 44. 
 
 2 " Dialogus de Scaccario," lib. i. ch. xvi. 
 
 3 Sitbactor is the term used.
 
 36o THE DOMESDAY SURVEY. 
 
 of metaphor as it were ; that is to say, as from the judg- 
 ment on that last and terrible day there can be no escape 
 by fraud or cunning, so here, should any dispute arise 
 in respect of the matters contained in the book, appeal 
 thereto must be final and indisputable. For this reason 
 we have named it the book of dooms (judgments), not 
 because upon every doubtful question that may arise a 
 decision is to be found in it, but because that which is 
 recorded in it is final and irreversible." 
 
 Domesday book professes to give an accurate account 
 of all portions of the realm, yet the northern counties 
 Northumberland, Lancaster, Cumberland, Westmoreland, 
 and Durham are not included in its pages, possibly by 
 reason of their desolate condition. 1 Nor are London, 
 Winchester, and some other cities of importance, to be 
 found in it, probably because full information regarding 
 them, so far as the interests of the king are concerned, 
 was already to hand for the king's use in the royal 
 chancery or treasury. 
 
 To the above account of the Domesday book I add 
 some few words upon the method of procedure by which 
 it was effected. 
 
 That was as follows. Commissioners were appointed 
 to make a census of population and property. They were 
 directed to summon before them the sheriffs, the lords of 
 manors, the pai-ish priests, the hundred reeves, the bailiffs, 
 and six villeins out of every hamlet. 
 
 These men had to state on oath what amount of land 
 
 1 Some of the southern tracts of these counties are included in 
 Cheshire and Yorkshire.
 
 THE DOMESDAY SURVEY. 361 
 
 there was in the district, whether it was wood, meadon r , 
 or pasture; what was its value; what services were due 
 from its owners ; and generally the number of free and 
 bond on the estate. 
 
 In some instances other particulai-s were inserted, such 
 as the amount of live stock. As to this, the transcribers 
 exercised their own discretion about the insertion or 
 omission of the details. 
 
 One special purpose did the Domesday book serve. It 
 gave the king a new military organization; it enabled him 
 to collect a revenue by means of taxation and fines; and it 
 presented a residing and constant basis for such taxation. 
 
 Another feature of peculiar interest, as exhibited in 
 Domesday, deserves a somewhat extended notice. We 
 gain from it something like an approximation to accuracy 
 regarding the numbers of the population of England at 
 the date in question viz., A.D. 1086 and we see how the 
 different classes of society of that population were dis- 
 tributed. 
 
 As to these t\vo heads of statistical information about 
 England of A.D. 108G, I would say a few words. 
 
 Allowing for deductions consequent on the exclusion 
 of the counties and cities I have above mentioned, and 
 allowing also for all omissions, the actual population of 
 the counties may be placed at one million eight hundred 
 thousand. 
 
 What is remarkable, when we think of our present 
 numbers and the enormous increase to our population 
 during the last eighty or one hundred years, is this, 
 that these figures above stated were not doubled till the 
 reign of Charles II.. six hundred years later.
 
 362 THE DOMESDA Y SUR VE Y. 
 
 Now of this population of the year A.D. 1086 we find 
 about two thousand persons who held immediately of the 
 king, or who were attached to the king's person, or who 
 had no holding, but were free to serve as they would. 
 
 Of the second class, the free upon bond land, there were 
 more than fifty thousand under tenants, or vavassors, 
 burghers, soc-men, freemen, holding by military service, 
 or degraded into tenants for the purpose of obtaining 
 protection ; and ecclesiastics. 
 
 The third class, or semi-servile, numbered about two 
 ' hundred thousand in all villeins, bordars, or cottiers. 
 
 They were bond upon bond-land; that is, their land 
 owed a certain tribute to its owner, and they themselves 
 owed certain services to the land. They could not quit it 
 without permission from their lord, but they were not 
 mere property; they could not be sold off the soil into 
 the service of a different kind, as could the fourth class, 
 or slaves, whose number, roughly estimated, stands at 
 about twenty- five thousand. 
 
 Mr. Pearson, whose figures I have been quoting, 1 notes 
 an inference that in his opinion may fairly be drawn 
 from the large number of the middle-class and the 
 small number of slaves exhibited in this survey. It 
 is this, that the Conquest did not introduce any new 
 refinement into servitude. On the contrary, we may well 
 believe that in the matter of freedom it was a gain to all 
 classes below the highest. 
 
 As he points out, in Essex the number of freemen 
 
 1 " History of England," vol. i. ch. xxiii. pp. 37G-378 ; and see the 
 authorities referred to by him iii the notes.
 
 DOMESDAY AND ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 363 
 
 positively increased, a change probably to be ascribed to 
 the growing wool trade in Flanders, for we find sheep 
 multiplying on the great estates, and with the change 
 from arable to pasture land few labourers (i.e. few bond- 
 men) would be required. 1 
 
 One thing Domesday book exhibits so far as the countiy 
 districts of England are concerned, and that is the low 
 condition of English agriculture in the eleventh century. 
 
 I quote from Hallam's " Middle Ages " : " Though 
 almost all England had been partially cultivated, and we 
 find nearly the same manors, except in the north, which 
 exist at present, yet the value and extent of cultivated 
 ground are inconceivably small. 
 
 " "W ith every allowance for the inaccuracies and parti- 
 alities of those by whom that famous work was completed, 
 we arc lost in amazement at the constant recurrence of 
 two or three carrucates in demesne, with other lands 
 occupied by ten or a dozen villeins, valued altogether at 
 forty shillings, as the return of a manor which would 
 now yield a competent income to a gentleman. 
 
 "If Domesday book can be considered as even approach- 
 ing to accuracy in respect of these estimates, agriculture 
 must certainly have made a very material progress in 
 the four succeeding centuries. 
 
 " Higden, a writer (temp. Richard II.), says in refer- 
 ence to the number of hides and vills in England at the 
 Conquest, that by clearing of woods and ploughing up 
 
 'Pearson's "History of England," ch. xxiii. pp. 378, 379. See 
 also as to the social gains in England from William's legislation, 
 Freeman's " Norman Conquest," vol. iv. ch. xix. pp. 325, 326, and pp. 
 395-101.
 
 364 THE DOMESDA Y SURVE Y. 
 
 wastes there were many more of each in his age than 
 formerly." 
 
 One great and lasting benefit resulted from the Domes- 
 day survey, to wit, that much lawless aggression of the 
 Normans was undone, and a good deal of property reverted 
 to its original owners. 
 
 The great bulk of the tenants-in-chief who acquiesced, 
 however unwillingly, in their new settlement, renewed 
 their oaths of homage to the king at Salisbury (August 
 1, 1086); and so from that day forward Domesday book 
 was the recoi'd and voucher of titles throughout England. 
 "Without parallel," says Mr. Pearson, "as without pre- 
 cedent, it has no doubt exercised a silent influence over 
 our constitutional progress by the character of per- 
 manency it impressed upon all property and tenures." 1 
 
 1 " Europe During the Middle Ages," vol. iii. ch. ix. part ii. p. 3G1. 
 Tenth edition, 1853. 
 
 : See as to Domesday book, its characteristic features and its true 
 value upon this period of English History, Sir F. Palgrave's " History 
 of the English Commonwealth," and Freeman's " Norman Con- 
 quest," vol. v. ch. xxii.
 
 LECTURE XXI. 
 EXTRACTS FROM DOMESDAY. 
 
 The Inquest of Ely The Customs of Chester The Customs of Lin- 
 colnThe Customs of Oxford and Oxfordshire The Customs of 
 Berkshire The Changes in the Institutions of England after the 
 Conquest. 
 
 Ix my last lecture I gave an account of the Domesday 
 survey, and I endeavoured to lay before you its char- 
 acteristic features, the immediate consequences that 
 resulted from it, and the ultimate effect it had upon the 
 social and political life of England. 
 
 I think you will understand the real nature of this 
 great undertaking better if I give some specimens of 
 the work itself, bearing in mind that " next to the laws 
 and charters of the early kings, the record of local 
 customs in Domesday book is the source of the most 
 certain information as to the common law of England 
 before the Conquest." l 
 
 I shall confine myself to the extracts set out by the 
 learned author just referred to in the treatise from which 
 I was quoting, and that for the special reasons he has 
 there given. 
 
 1 " Documents Illustrative of English History," by W. Stubbs, 
 M.A., part iii. p. 82.
 
 366 THE INQUEST OF ELY. 
 
 As Bishop Stubbs points out, these extracts show the 
 aristocratic character of the municipal government in 
 the towns ; the financial system of the counties previous 
 to its organization under the Court of Exchequer; the 
 financial and legal customary settlement ("consuetu- 
 dines "), whose conservation or amendment was the object 
 of the municipal charters of the next century; and the 
 mode of raising and supporting the customary military 
 force for the " fyrd." 
 
 These extracts, which I purpose to translate, exhibit 
 the customs of Chester, Lincoln, Oxford, and Oxfordshire 
 and Berkshire, preceded by the title of the Domesday 
 Inquest for Ely, wherein " the early application of the 
 method of inquest by jury for the ascertaining the legal 
 and financial ' consuetudines ' is exemplified." l 
 
 This Ely title, moreover, illustrates what I have 
 already adverted to viz., the sweeping nature of the 
 inquiry ; the quality and character of the inquisitors 
 or surveyors ; the local knowledge that was imported 
 into the inquest, and the solemnity attending the in- 
 quisition itself. 
 
 I shall premise the translation of these extracts with 
 a short account of the leading features in the history 
 of the counties to which these extracts belong, and I 
 shall relegate to a note in the Appendix some terms and 
 matters connected with these extracts, or occurring in 
 the text of them. 
 
 I begin with " the Title of the Domesday Inquest for 
 Ely." 
 
 1 " Documents Illustrative of English History," part iii. pp. 82, 83.
 
 THE INQUEST OF ELY. 367 
 
 It runs thus : " Here is underwritten the inquisition 
 of the lands in what manner the king's barons inquire, 
 to wit, by the oath of the viscount (sheriff) of the shire, 
 and of all the barons and their frenchmen, and of the 
 whole hundred, of the presbyter (the parish priest), of 
 the pnepositus (the reeve), and of the six villeins of 
 every town (or vill). Then how each mansio (dwelling- 
 house) is styled; who held it in the time of King 
 Edward, who holds it now. How many hides there are, 
 how many carrucates l (i.e. plough-lands freed from 
 liability to "geld") in the demesne. How many men 
 there are in all ; how many are villeins, how many cotters, 
 how many serfs, how many freemen, how many soc-men. 2 
 How much woodland there is, how much meadow laud, 
 how many pastures there are ; how many mills, how 
 many fishstews. How much has been added or subtracted. 
 How much the total value of the whole came to before 
 this inquisition ; how much it is now. How much every 
 freeman or soc-man held and holds. 
 
 " And this inquisition is to be directed to three periods, 
 to wit, the time of King Edward, the time when King 
 William came to the throne, and to the present time. 
 Also whether more can be had than is now had." 3 
 
 From this extract out of the Ely survey, I go on 
 to the customs of Chester. 
 
 1 See as to this word, Appendix, Note R. 
 
 2 That was done in order to discriminate the three classes of the 
 less free, viz. , villeins, or churls, cotters and serfs, and to keep them 
 separate from the two classes of the more free, viz., the livri 
 homiue?, and his soc-men. 
 
 3 " Inquisitio Elieusis Domesday," iii. 497.
 
 368 CHESTER, ITS HISTORY. 
 
 In the seventh century Chester was a place of no 
 small importance. In his campaign against the Deirans, 
 Ethelfrith (circa A.D. 613) fought a battle and captured 
 the town. Thereby he was enabled to strengthen his 
 position in his contest with the Welsh. 
 
 But long before Ethelfrith's reign its natural ad- 
 vantages marked it out, from a military point of view, 
 as a strong vantage ground of defence. 
 
 Under the Roman occupation it served as a station 
 for a legion to watch the wild tribes of what is now the 
 district of North Wales. 
 
 At the spot where the river Dee bends westward, and 
 flows to the estuary in the Irish Sea, a site for a town 
 was afforded, and there a Roman camp was formed, 
 round which grew up buildings dignified in time with 
 the name of the City of Deva, and later on Chester, a 
 title derived from the Roman designation, " Castrum 
 legionum." 
 
 " So important a post was naturally guarded by forti- 
 fications of no common order. The river furnished a 
 natural line of defence on the south and west of the 
 town, a broad morass now represented by the meadows 
 of the Rood Eye, stretching in a wide sweep westwards. 
 
 " On the east the site of the town was cut off from 
 the general level of the sandstone rise by a trench hewn 
 deeply in the soft red rock, over which still tower the 
 massive walls, which, patched and changed as they have 
 been in later days, are mainly the work of Rome." l 
 
 Green's " Making of England," cb. v. pp. 240, 241,
 
 CHESTER, ITS HISTORY. 369 
 
 After Ethelfritli's capture of the city, it grew iu 
 size and importance, an importance increased doubt- 
 less by the fact that it was a border town, looking upon 
 and guarding the northern limit of the Welsh territory. 
 Hence, in the year A.D. 1070, William the Conqueror 
 found it necessary to reduce it to submission. 
 
 It was the one great city of England that for many 
 a long day had not heard the tramp of a foreigner's 
 horse. The stories told of the ruggedness of the country 
 and the ferocity of its inhabitants inspired so much fear 
 in the minds of William's soldiery, that the king resolved 
 to lead this his last expedition in person. 
 
 Traversing roads till then deemed impracticable for 
 cavalry, and passing over the chain of mountains which 
 extend north and south in that part of our island, 
 William brought his forces up to the city. 
 
 After its capture he erected a fortress, and settled 
 a force in it strong enough to maintain his hold of the 
 territory near it. The command of that force was 
 entrusted to Hugh D'Avranches, surnamed Hugh le 
 Loup. 
 
 And so " at Chester, the one remaining fragment of 
 free England, the unconquered land of Chester," says 
 Professor Freeman, " the work was ended which Wil- 
 liam had begun at Pevensey, and the Conqueror became 
 king over all England." * 
 
 Apart, then, from its ancient origin and its special 
 importance in the history of Saxon England, its position 
 as a march town, so to speak, a fortified town on the 
 
 1 " William the Conqueror," ch. viii. p. 120. 
 A. L. B B
 
 370 THE CUSTOMS OF CHESTER. 
 
 border, overlooking and overawing a fierce and turbulent 
 enemy, gave it a distinct value among the towns of 
 Norman England. In addition to all this, it contained 
 within its walls a warlike and rugged population, half 
 soldier, half freebooter, whose rough and untamed 
 temper would be reflected in the customs of the locality, 
 and in its municipal government would be found the 
 characteristic of an aristocratic form stamped upon it 
 from the earliest times. 
 
 I therefore now give a translation of 
 
 The Customs of Chester as recorded in Domesday. 
 
 The city of Chester in the time of King Edward was 
 assessed to Danegeld for fifty hides of land. Three hides 
 and a half are outside the city itself ; that is to say, one 
 hide and a half is beyond the bridge, and two hides are 
 in Newton and Redcliffe, and in the bishop's burg. These 
 paid tax with the city. 1 
 
 In the time of King Edward there were in the city 
 itself four hundred and thirty-one geldable houses 
 (domus) ; and besides these the bishop had fifty-six 
 houses also geldable. At that time this city rendered 
 as its yearly " ferme " ten and a half marks of silver. 2 
 
 1 The assessment here spoken of is the old Danegeld, one portion 
 of the national taxation, levied formerly by the witan of England, 
 passed into the hands of the king, and made in the shires by the 
 royal reeve, in the burghs by the tun-reeve. See, in addition to 
 Green's " Conquest of England," a learned paper on the subject of 
 the Danegeld and the Finance of Domesday, by Horace J. Bound, 
 M.A., in " Domesday Studies," vol. i., 1888. 
 
 2 These marks were not actual coins, but money of account. See 
 Appendix, Note B.
 
 THE CUSTOMS OF CHESTER. 371 
 
 Two parts of this belonged to the king, and the remaining 
 third to the comes or earl. 
 
 If the king's peace, 1 whether given by his hand or under 
 his own writ or through his special commissioner, was 
 broken by any one, the king had for such infraction one 
 hundred shillings (solidos) ; but if the king's peace had 
 been given by the gesith or earl (comes) at the king's 
 order, for its infraction the earl had a third penny out of 
 the one hundred shillings. Also, if the king's peace had 
 been given by the king's reeve (praeposito regis) or the 
 carl's officer, for its infraction the penalty was forty 
 shillings, out of which the earl had a third penny. 
 
 If any freeman broke the king's peace and slew a man, 
 all his land and money were the king's, and he was made 
 outlaw (ntlagh) ; but where the offender was the earl's 
 own man, and so subjected to the forfeit, that the earl 
 had. Moreover, no person could offer protection to any 
 outlaw save through the kins:. 
 
 1 The king's peace (pax regis) was an old Saxon regulation, and is 
 spoken of in the laws of Edward the Confessor (ob. xii.). 
 
 Its various forms are as follows : 
 
 (1) Given by the king's own hand ; (2) Given by his writ (breve) 
 or by bis writing, under seal and directed to the sheriff. By this 
 form of pax a royal protection might be created in favour of an in* 
 dividual or of a corporation ; (3) Given on the coronation day, in 
 which event it was continuous, or on special holidays, and tben it 
 lasted for a period of eight days ; (4) Given for the king's four high- 
 ways ; and (5) for the greater that is, navigable rivers. Each of 
 these forms of pax was granted at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, 
 and each lasted eight days. By them the king's highways and the 
 great rivers were placed under the king's protection. An offence 
 against the pacem regis was an offence against the king, his crown < 
 and dignity.
 
 372 THE CUSTOMS OF CHESTER. 
 
 Whoever shed blood between the morning of the 
 second fair and the noonday of the sabbath made com- 
 pensation by a payment of ten shillings; and between 
 the noon of the sabbath and the morning of the second 
 fair, for blood shed the fine was ten shillings. 
 
 Likewise a payment of twenty shillings was imposed 
 on those who did this (i.e., shed blood) on the day of the 
 Purification of St. Mary, on the first day of Easter, on 
 the first day of Pentecost, on Ascension Day, and 011 the 
 Assumption or the Nativity of St. Mary, and on the feast 
 day of All Saints. 
 
 Whoever slew a man on these holy days made com- 
 pensation by payment of four pounds ; if he did it on 
 other days, forty shillings. 
 
 Likewise for forcible entry into a dwelling, in breach of 
 peace (heinfar), and for assault (forestel), on these feast 
 days and on Sunday, the offender paid four pounds ; on 
 other days forty shillings. . 
 
 For hangewithan (i.e., hanging a thief without pro- 
 cess of law) within the city bounds, the payment was ten 
 shillings ; but if the person committing this offence was 
 the king's reeve or the earl's reeve, he made compensa- 
 tion to the amount of twenty shillings. 
 
 Whoever committed revelach (robbery) or latrocinium 
 (larceny), or offered violence to a female in a house, 
 was liable to make compensation for each offence to the 
 amount of forty shillings. 
 
 If a widow lived with a man not in marriage, she had 
 to pay twenty shillings ; for a similar offence an un- 
 married girl paid ten shillings. 
 
 If a person within the city bounds seized the land of
 
 THE CUSTOMS GF CHESTER. 373 
 
 another, and could not show good reason therefor, he 
 made compensation in forty shillings ; so too did he who 
 made claim thereto, if he could not prove that the land 
 ought to be his. 
 
 He who wished to take up any inheritance (relevare) 
 by payment of a relief, paid ten shillings. 1 If he neither 
 could nor would pay, the reeve took his land into the 
 king's hand. 3 
 
 He who did not pay the gablum, or demesne rent, at 
 the time it was due was fined ten shillings. 
 
 When a fire broke out in the city, and did damage, ho 
 in whose house it broke out had to pay a fine of three 
 ounces of pennies (i.e., five shillings), and to give his 
 next-door neighbour two shillings. 
 
 Two parts of all these penalties belonged to the king, 
 and the third to the earl. 
 
 If any ships came to the city port, or went out thence, 
 without the king's license, the king and earl had forty 
 shillings from every man who was in the ship. 
 
 If a ship came there against the king's peace, and in 
 defiance of his prohibition, the king and earl had both 
 
 1 The payment for every relief was ten shillings. As regards the 
 value of the shilling, that money, which apparently was only money 
 of account, and not coin in circulation both in Saxon times and at the 
 Domesday period, was by Norman calculation the twentieth part of 
 a pound, and consisted of twelve pence. What its actual value was 
 in Saxon times is not free from doubt. Apparently it was reckoned 
 at five pennies and was the forty-eighth part of a pound. The pound, 
 libra, spoken of in these and other parts of Domesday, was a pound 
 weight of denarii (pennies), and the testing weight was the ora. See 
 Appendix, Note K. 
 
 2 And so it was converted into terra regis.
 
 374 THE CUSTOMS OF CHESTER. 
 
 the ship and crew, together with everything in it. But 
 if it came with the king's peace and license, those who 
 were in it sold quietly all they had ; but, on leaving, 
 the king and earl had (from them) four pennies for 
 every lesth (i.e., lading). 
 
 Where the cargo was marten skins, if the king's reeve 
 ordered the owners not to sell to any one before view and 
 inspection, the penalty for disobedience to the order was 
 forty shillings. 
 
 When a man or woman used false measure within the 
 city, on conviction the penalty was four shillings. Like- 
 wise for brewing bad beer, the offender was either placed 
 in the stocks (in cathedra stercoris) or paid four shillings 
 to the reeves. This forfeit was taken by the officer of the 
 king or earl in the city, no matter on whose land it was, 
 whether the bishop's or any other man's. 
 
 Also every importer of wines paid duty on import (the- 
 loneum) of forty shillings, if he kept his wares more than 
 three nights. 1 
 
 In the time of King Edward there were in this city 
 six moneyers, 2 who besides a fixed payment gave seven 
 pounds to the king and the earl when the money was re- 
 coined. 
 
 There wore then twelve city magistrates (judices 
 civitatis), and these were selected from the king's men 
 
 1 That is, the importer was allowed three days for clearing and 
 selling ; after that he was charged as for import dues. 
 
 2 Monetarii, persons privileged to coin money. It appears from 
 the text that these moneyers had to pay two sums : one a fixed sum 
 
 or their office, and another for the privilege of re-coining.
 
 THE CUSTOMS OF CHESTER. 375 
 
 and the earl's men. 1 If any of these stayed away from 
 the hundred on the day when it was sitting, without clear 
 excuse, ho paid ten shillings, divided between the king 
 and the earl. 
 
 For rebuilding the city wall and the bridge, the reeve, 
 by notice, summoned one man for every hide of the 
 county. For every man who did not obey the summons, 
 his lord paid to the king and the earl forty shillings. 
 This penalty was exclusive of the firma 2 (burgh com- 
 position). 
 
 At that time this city returned as its yearly "ferme" 
 assessment forty-five pounds and three bundles of marten 
 skins. Of this one-third went to the earl, and two- thirds 
 to the king. 
 
 When Earl Hugo (i.e., Hugh d'Avranches) received the 
 command of the city, it was not worth more than thirty 
 pounds, for at that time it was very much wasted. There 
 were then two hundred and five houses less than there 
 were in the time of King Edward. Now there are the 
 same number exactly that Hugo found. 
 
 Mundret held this city of the earl for seventy pounds 
 and one mark of gold. He had it to farm for fifty pounds 
 and one mark of gold. 3 All the earl's pleas were in the 
 county and the hundred, 4 except Inglefield. 
 
 1 Twelve judices, probably the twelve lawmen having sac and soc, 
 who are spoken of at Lincoln, Stamford, and Cambridge. 
 
 2 Firma (i.e., " firma burgi") was a fixed sum payable by way of 
 composition fur the total profits of the town. 
 
 a That is, pounds' weight of denarii and one mark of gold, which 
 was only money of account, not coin. Therefore this payment means 
 the equivalent or value of one mark of gold. 
 
 4 That is, were held in the shire-moot and the hundred-moot.
 
 376 LINCOLN, ITS HISTORY. 
 
 The land, (whereon stands the church of St. Peter), 
 and which Robert of Rodeland claimed as tain-land, as 
 his county proved, 1 never belonged to the manor outside 
 the city, but does belong to the burgh, and was always 
 subject to the customary dues of the king and the carl, 
 just as is the case with the other burgesses. 
 
 Of the city of Lincoln, whose customs come next for 
 notice, a good deal might be written. 
 
 I will, however, draw your attention to a few of the 
 chief events in its history. 
 
 It was a Roman settlement of some note. Lindum 
 has left its name, " Lindi Colonire " to the Lincolnshire 
 which was afterwards formed round its ruins. 
 
 Through it ran the old Ermine Street, and the Fosse- 
 way connected it with Ratae, or Leicester. 
 
 Round the square Roman fortress a fortified suburb 
 grew up, and so it became an important inlet for the 
 coasting trade of central Britain. 
 
 But on the departure of the Romans, and through the 
 troubles that then ensued, it fell into a heap of ruins, 
 leaving only its name as the settlement of the Lindiswara, 
 or dwellers about Lincoln, to show what it formerly was. 
 
 Three hundred years later the Danes made their mark 
 upon the land, as the numerous " bys " throughout the 
 county testify. 
 
 In the tenth century it formed a portion of the eastern 
 or Danish half of older England, and was part of the 
 district known as "the Five Boroughs": Derby, Leicester, 
 Stamford, and Nottingham being the other four. 
 
 1 That is, as was proved at tlic shire-moot.
 
 LINCOLN, ITS HISTORY. 377 
 
 The independence of these five boroughs (and I quote 
 from Mr. Green) 1 was unfettered by any kingly rule. 
 Each of them seems to have had its own Jarl and Here, 
 or army, while (if we may judge from the instance of 
 Lincoln and Stamford) the internal government of each 
 was in the hands of twelve hereditary " lawmen." 
 
 As time went on the trade of Lincoln continued to 
 increase and improve. The merchants of Lincoln were 
 in close connection with the north, and so trustworthy 
 wore they that a Norwegian king, on the eve of an 
 expedition, could leave his treasure in the hands of one 
 of them. 
 
 In Knut's time its trade was largely extended, for then 
 as we read in the old chronicle 2 the city, with its 
 merchant guild and its twelve lawmen (ruling the city 
 sokes), was the " emporium hominum terra marique 
 venientium." 
 
 If we take Domesday as our exponent, the city would 
 appear to have suffered less mischief from the troubles of 
 the preceding times than other cities experienced, nor do 
 we find from the survey that evidence of lawlessness and 
 roughness of life which, as I have shown, was so con- 
 spicuous in the annals of Chester. 
 
 Danish and Saxon names and Saxon life survived, and 
 kept their hold over the place in full strength down to 
 the period of the Norman survey. 3 
 
 1 " Conquest of England," ch. iii. p. 122. 
 
 2 William of Maltnesbury. 
 
 3 For fuller details about Lincoln and the older settlement, see 
 Green's " Making of England," ch. i. p. 4; cb. ii. pp. 58 and 70, and 
 " Conquest of England," cli. iii. p. 122 ; and ch. ix. pp. 419, 450.
 
 37? CUSTOMS OF LINCOLN. 
 
 Now these are the Customs of Lincoln. 
 
 In the city of Lincoln there were in the timo of King 
 Edward nine hundi^ed and seventy inhabited houses. 
 
 This number, following the English reckoning, is taken 
 at one hundred for one hundred and twenty. 
 
 In the city itself there were twelve lagenien (lawmen), 
 that is, men having sac and soc. Hardecnut, Suartin, 
 Grimwold's son, Ulf, Suortbrand's son, who had thol and 
 theam, Walraven, Alwold, Britric, Guvel, Albert Godric 
 Eddeva's son, Si ward the priest, Lewino the priest, Aldeno 
 the priest. 
 
 Now there are just as many, having similar rights of 
 sac and soc : (1) Suardine, in the place of his father 
 Hardecnut ; (2) Suartin ; (3) Sortebrand, in the place 
 of his father Ulf; (4<) Agemund, in the place of his father 
 Walraven; (5) Alwold; (6) Godwine, the son of Britric; 
 (7) Norman the Fat, in the place of Gurel ; (8) Albert, 
 Ulfs brother, is still living ; (9) Peter of Valenges, in the 
 place of Godric Eddeva's son ; (10) TJlnod the priest, in 
 the place of Si ward the priest ; (11) Bernard, in the place 
 of his father Lewine, who is now a monk ; (12) Ledwin, the 
 son of Raven or Rawen, in the place of Alden the priest. 
 
 In the time of Edward the city of Lincoln rendered 
 (i.e., made return) to the king as due for yearly " ferme " 
 twenty pounds, and to the earl ten pounds. Now it 
 renders one hundred pounds in ora> of twenty pennies to 
 the ora or ounce, divided between the king and the earl. 
 The return for the mint is seventy-five pounds (i.e. of 
 denai-ii). 
 
 In south Lincoln the financial and legal customary
 
 OXFORD, ITS HISTORY. 379 
 
 settlement to the king and earl is returned at twenty- 
 eight pounds. 
 
 In Xorth Riding, to the king and earl it is returned at 
 twenty-four pounds. 
 
 In West Riding, to king and earl it is returned at twelve 
 pounds. 
 
 In South Riding, to king and. earl it is returned at 
 fifteen pounds. 
 
 For infraction of the king's peace, whether it had been 
 given by the king's hand or by his seal, the fine is im- 
 posed on and through the eighteen " hundreds." Each 
 " hundred " pays seven pounds ; of these, twelve of the 
 " hundreds " pay to the king and six to the earl. 
 
 If any one has been outlawed for any offence by the 
 king, or by the earl, or by the men of the shire reeve- 
 court, to him no one could give protection save the king 
 himself. 
 
 There is no written evidence for the existence of Oxford 
 as a city, or burgh, or town before the beginning of the 
 tenth century, when that part of the country was a 
 borderland of East Mercia. 
 
 At the close of the ninth century a house of secular 
 canons had grown up round the tomb of a local saint, 
 Fi-etheswid or Fredewide, on the slope of a gravel spit 
 between the Thames and the Cherwell, <: where a wide 
 and shallow reach of the larger stream offered a ford by 
 which the cattle drovers from "Wessex could cross." l 
 
 There a little town grew up, which was the commence- 
 ment of the future city. There Alfred established a mint. 
 
 1 Green's " Conquest of England," ch. ix. pp. 437 and 439.
 
 380 OXFORD, ITS HISTORY. 
 
 . The town, from its situation, throve in wealth and im- 
 portance, dividing with London the traffic along the 
 Thames ; so that in Knut's time it was a place of note, 
 and we read of its burghers bargaining with an Abbot of 
 Abingdon that, in return for a toll of herrings, which 
 their barges were to pay in passing, he should cut a new 
 channel for their traffic. 
 
 It was at Oxford that Knut, after the victory of Assan- 
 
 ' dun and his coronation in London, held a witenagemot, 
 
 when he formally renewed Edgar's laws, and showed 
 
 himself to his conquered subjects as one who resolved to 
 
 rule in English fashion. 
 
 It was at Oxford, too, that some few years later, on 
 Knut's death, the witan gathered again to decide the 
 question of the succession. 
 
 When Eadward, in A.D. 912, annexed London and 
 Oxford, each town already had " lands which owed obedi- 
 ence thereto," lands which could hardly have been other 
 in extent than the present Middlesex and Oxfordshire. 
 
 As Middlesex owed its being to the severance of London 
 from the rest of Essex, so in the lands about Oxford we 
 may possibly, says Mr. Green, see the district won at a 
 time when it served as a frontier town against Guthrun's 
 realm. 1 
 
 Oxfordshire owes its creation to the same cause that 
 led to the creation of Herts, Bucks, and Beds that of 
 military necessity, districts assigned to the fortresses 
 which Eadward raised at these points. 
 
 I now give the extracts from Domesday of 
 
 1 " The Conquest of England," ch. v. p. 237.
 
 CUSTOMS OF OXFORD AND OXFORDSHIRE. 381 
 
 The Customs of Oxford and Oxfordshire. 
 
 Oxenefordsire. In the time of King Edward, Oxene- 
 ford rendered for theloneum (that is, the right to levy 
 duties on imports) and for gablnm (demesne rent), and 
 for all other customary charges throughout the year, first 
 to the king twenty pounds and six four-gallon measures 
 (sextarios) of honey. Then to the Earl Algar ten pounds 
 for an adjacent mill which he had within the city bounds. 
 
 When the king went on a military expedition, twenty 
 burgesses went with him in lieu of all the rest, or gave 
 the king twenty pounds as a discharge for all the citizens 
 from service. 
 
 Now Oxenford renders sixty pounds, counting twenty 
 pennies to the era (ad numerum de viginti in ora J ). 
 
 In the town itself, both within and without the wall, 
 there ai'e two hundred and forty-three houses liable to 
 the chief or Danegeld tax (geldum), and not reckoning 
 these there are five hundred houses minus twenty-two, 
 so wasted and destroyed that they cannot make return 
 for this geld. 2 
 
 Then follow the names of the tenants. 
 
 1 Ora had two meanings. It meant sometimes money that is not 
 coin in actual circulation, but money of account. There were two 
 kinds of ora : one estimated at sixteen peninges, forty pence ; the 
 other at twenty peninges, fifty pence. Ora also meant, as here, a 
 weight ; so many orae went to the pound (libra). Where, as here, it 
 was the " libra ad nuinerum," then the ora was required to be up to 
 twenty denarii (pennies) in weight. See Appendix, Note B. 
 
 2 Oxford had been stormed and taken by William not long before 
 this, when out of seven hundred and twenty-one houses, four hundred 
 and seventy-eight were fired and consumed. This was in revenge 
 for a gross insult to the king from one of the burgesses.
 
 CUSTOMS OF OXFORD AND OXFORDSHIRE. 
 
 All these above-written hold these aforementioned 
 houses free, by reason of the duty of wall-repairing (i.e., 
 the city walls). All those houses which ai*e called mural l 
 were in the time of King Edward free from all customary 
 payment except for military expeditions and for the 
 repairing the Avail. 
 
 All the burgesses of Oxenford have common of pasture 
 (habent communiter pasturam) outside the wall, paying 
 for it six shillings and eight pennies. 
 
 The county of Oxford renders a three nights' rent 
 (trium noctium firmam), hoc est, to the amount of one 
 hundred and fifty pounds. 2 
 
 For augment, twenty-five pounds by weight. 3 
 
 For the burg or borough, twenty-five pounds by weight. 1 
 For the mint (moncta) twenty-five pounds weight of 
 
 1 They were called " murales inansiones" because, if need re- 
 quired, the tenants were bound to repair the city wall at the king's 
 command. 
 
 2 This "trinoctium" in older times was called " feorm-fultum." 
 It was the tax for tlie king's sustentation as he went through his 
 realm. The composition for it varied greatly. Mr. Green (" Con- 
 quest of England," p. 404, note 2, citing Stubbs' " Constitutional 
 History," vol. i. 88, 117) says that feorm-fultum was not converted 
 into money payment till after the Conquest. Perhaps the words 
 hoc est mark the fact of the commutation having taken place, and 
 having become an established institution. Quoro, whether these 
 words may not be translated, " This is now fixed at." 
 
 3 As to what this means I am puzzled. It may mean either ail 
 additional or extra tax, or it may be translated thus : " For additions 
 made to it." 
 
 4 That is, the " firma burgi," or composition for the total profits 
 of the town payable to the lord or king, within the borough, com- 
 pounded for as here by a fixed sum, rendered by the burgesses, and 
 apportioned among themselves.
 
 CUSTOMS OF OXFORD AXD OXFORDSHIRE. 383 
 
 pennies, reckoning twenty to the ora ; for providing arms, 
 four shillings. 
 
 For the queen's tax, 1 to the amount of one hundred 
 shillings. 2 
 
 For hawking, ten pounds. 
 
 For each sumpter horse, twenty shillings. 
 
 For dogs, twenty pounds' weight of pennies, reckoning 
 twenty in the ora ; also six four-gallon measures of honey, 
 and twenty pennies for customary dues. 
 
 For infraction of the king's peace (whether it had been 
 give- u under his hand or by seal), if the consequence be 
 the death of a man living under the king's peace, the 
 limbs and life of his slayer will be at the king's disposal, 
 should he be cauglit. If he should not be caught, he 
 will be counted an outlaw by everybody, and whoever 
 chances to kill him shall have what is on him at his free 
 disposal. 
 
 1 The queen's tax (called gersuma) was a due claimed by the 
 queen-consort, the old Latin term for it being aurum reginte. It was 
 a payment of an extra tenth on every voluntary fine or oblation of 
 above ten marks paid to the king. It lasted in England down to 
 the early part of the seventeenth century, being claimed by Queen 
 Henrietta Maria, the Consort of Charles I. Lappenberg says that 
 so far as he could trace it, it was in ancient times confined to Mercia 
 and East Anglia. Gcrsuma appears in many old charters, and is 
 Used sometimes as meaning fine, sometimes exaction or demand, 
 sometimes income. See Ducange and Cowell, sub verbo " gersuma ; " 
 cf. also Lappenberg's "Anglo-Saxon Kings" (Bohn's edition), vol. ii. 
 ch. xix. p. 379. 
 
 2 As in Domesday reckoning, following the old Saxon system, 
 shillings (solidi) were only moneys of account, not actual coins, in 
 this case the return for the queen's tax was to the amount of one 
 hundred shillings in denarii.
 
 NOTICE OF BERKSHIRE, 
 
 If any stranger is desirous of staying iii Oxenford, 
 and happens to die there as a householder, leaving no 
 relatives, the king shall have all he has left behind him. 
 
 Whoever has forcibly broken into the curtilage or 
 house of another, or entered them, the breaking being 
 accompanied with man-slaying, or wounding, or assault, 
 must pay one hundred shillings to the king. 
 
 So, too, he who, when summoned to attend the military 
 muster, does not go, will pay one hundred shillings to 
 the king. If any one shall slay another within his 
 curtilage or house, the body of the offender, and all his 
 property, are in the king's power, except the wife's dower, 
 supposing she has been dowered. 
 
 About Berkshire, except the name, and the fact that 
 it was during Alfred's time a stronghold of the Danish 
 invaders, and that he was born here (at Wantage), there 
 is nothing remarkable. 
 
 The name, so Asser says, is derived 1 from the large 
 quantity of bearroc or box-trees which grow among its 
 woodlands, but its position along the Thames Valley made 
 it a county of importance from a military as well as a 
 trading point of view. 
 
 These are the Customs of Berkshire. 
 When the great tax (geld) was paid in the time of 
 
 1 Ilia paga qure nomina'tur Bearrocscire quae paga latiter vocatur 
 a Bearroc sylva ubi buexus abunclantissime nascitur. " Berkshire," 
 says Mr. Green, " was a district wedged as it were into an angle 
 which the Thames makes as it runs from its head waters eastward to 
 Oxford, and then turns suddenly to the south to cleave its way through 
 chalk uplands to Reading and the Kenuet Valley." (" Conquest of 
 England," ch. iii. p. 98.)
 
 CUSTOMS OF BERKSHIRE. 38$ 
 
 King Edward, it was the common custom throughout 
 the whole of Berkshire that the hide paid three pennies 
 and a halfpenny before Christmas Day, and as much 
 at Pentecost. 
 
 If the king was sending an army anywhere, there went 
 one soldier only for (every) five hides, and, for his susten- 
 ance or pay, for every hide there were given to him four 
 shillings for two months. 
 
 Now, in respect of these moneys, they were not sent to 
 the king, but were given to the soldiers. 
 
 If any one on summons to the " fyrd " did not go, he 
 forfeited all his land to the king. But if any one, having 
 the intention of staying away, promised to send another 
 in his place, and the one who was to be sent stayed away, 
 his lord was quit therefor for fifty shillings. 
 
 On the death of a thair, or a soldier of the king's 
 demesne, there were sent to the king by way of relief 
 all his arms, and one horse saddled and another horse un- 
 saddled. But if he had dogs or hawks, they were sent 
 as a present to the king, who might take them if he chose. 
 
 Whoever slew a man who was under the king's peace 
 suffered forfeiture to the king of body and goods, all of 
 them. 
 
 Whoever in the night time broke into a town (civi- 
 tatem) paid by way of penalty one hundred shillings to 
 the king, not to the sheriff (vice-comiti). 
 
 Whoever was summoned to assist in the king's hunting 
 (ad stabilitionem venationis), and did not go, had to pay 
 by way of penalty fifty shillings to the king. 
 
 With these specimens OL Domes lay book I clo.se this 
 A. L. 00
 
 SOCIAL, LEGAL, Axb POLITICAL CHANGES, 
 
 portion of my inquiry into the progress of social and 
 political life in England. 
 
 Very different will be the characteristic features of its 
 social, legal, and political history that present themselves 
 for notice between the death of William the Conqueror 
 and the reign of Henry the Second. 
 
 We shall then see the change in all the institutions of 
 the country to the more complete feudal type. We shall 
 see the rise of a powerful nobility, whose struggles with 
 the Crown were of material assistance to thd pdoplfe in 
 their efforts to maintain self-government, and to retain 
 local independence. 
 
 We shall come to the era of charters, whether general 
 charters of liberty or special charters assuring to the 
 boroughs their old customs and customary life. 
 
 We shall note the development of borough life and the 
 expansion of borough privileges. 
 
 We shall discover the commencement of the later sys- 
 tem of our English law, and the rise to influence of the 
 lawyers in the constitutional as well as legal settlement 
 of the country. 
 
 Finally, we shall see the complete amalgamation of 
 the English and Norman people, followed by a royal 
 policy totally different from that which, prior to the 
 reign of Henry the Second, had been exhibited by any 
 of his predecessors, viz., a desire to govern England, not 
 ' as foreign rulers, but as English kings. 1 
 
 1 See " Documents Illustrative of English History," by W. Stubbs, 
 M.A., rp. 76-117,
 
 APPENDICES, 
 
 387
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 ox THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE 
 
 EXCHEQUER. 
 
 Ix this note I shall give an account of the early history 
 of the Exchequer, for that was the court that during the 
 years which ensued between the reigns of William, the 
 Conqueror and Henry the Second became not only the 
 place where the assessments, dues, and payments of the 
 country were received and acknowledged, but where the 
 various legal questions connected with all this business 
 were argued and settled, and where the moneys actually 
 paid in were tested and approved. 
 
 As I have already stated, in the times preceding the 
 Conquest, and probably for some few years after it, the 
 receptacle of these customary payments was the royal 
 hoard or treasury, and the official whose duty it was to see 
 to them was the ancient " hordere," who, under the later 
 title of Treasurer, occupied a position of dignity in the 
 royal household, and probably had a seat in the "Curia 
 regis " itself. 
 
 The early history of the Exchequer is well told by its 
 best and ablest exponent, Richard, Bishop of London, and 
 from his work (the " Dialogus de Scaccario") I give the 
 following account of it. 
 
 At what particular period of time the Exchequer made 
 its appearance in England as a separate and distinct 
 branch of the Curia regis, it is not easy to say; but this 
 is clear, that in the reign of Henry the Second, one hun- 
 dred years or so after Domesday time, it was established 
 in complete and efficient order. Its range of work was 
 then thoroughly marked out ; its officials were well known, 
 their respective duties were assigned and limited, and its
 
 390 APPENDIX. 
 
 high importance in all matters relating to the revenue 
 of the country was recognised and appreciated. 
 
 It took its name, ."scaccarium," from the covering or 
 cloth that was spread on the quadrangular table at which 
 the chief officials sat. This cloth was black in colour, 
 divided and marked out by stripes into spaces of about 
 a palm's breadth, whereon were laid small stones. 
 
 From its apparent resemblance to a chess-board, the 
 name " scaccarium " was given to the table, and so by 
 extension to the court itself. 
 
 A more " abstruse reason for the name," says the 
 learned author of the " Dialogus," " may be found in this 
 surmise, that as in the game of chess there are two sets 
 of combatants, who attack or defend, subject to certain 
 rules and limits, so here the officials are arranged into 
 two sets, some acting as presiding officers, others sitting 
 ex-officio, and none of them can act in any Avay indepen- 
 dent of the established laws. Again, as in the game of 
 chess the contest depends on the kings, so here the 
 conflict and the contest are intrusted in the main to two 
 individuals, to wit, the treasurer and the sheriff, each of 
 whom sits at the account, whilst the rest sit round as 
 judges to observe and to adjudicate." 
 
 In Henry's time there were two Exchequers, the upper 
 and the lower Exchequer, whose method of proceeding 
 was in some special points distinct, but whose care and 
 duties were one and the same, viz., to watch and maintain 
 the king's interests. 
 
 " The origin of the upper Exchequer," says the author 
 from whom I am quoting, ' dates from an early period of 
 time, and as years have passed on it has acquired strength 
 and solidity consequent on the authority reposed in its 
 administrators. It may be said to owe its commencement 
 to the conquest of the kingdom by King William, the 
 idea of it having been imported into England from the 
 Exchequer that existed across the sea. Still, in very 
 many and very important points, these two institutions 
 differ. 
 
 " Some persons hold the view that its use was known 
 to the earlier kings of England. They assign as a reason 
 that some very old country folk belonging to the Crown
 
 APPENDIX, 391 
 
 lands (whose memory, by the way, is not quite trust- 
 worthy) declare that they were well assured of the 
 amounts they had to pay out of every pound of rent 
 from the stories told by their fathers and grandfathers 
 of a farm register in which were made entries of these 
 amounts. Whatever credit one may be disposed to give 
 to these tales, the explanation afforded thereby does not 
 touch the history of the Exchequer ; it only affects that 
 relating to the payment of rent. 
 
 " On the other hand, there are people who assert that 
 the 'farm register' belongs to the times of the English 
 kings, and that there is no mention of any ' farm regis. 
 ter ' in the Doom book, although in that record a fall 
 account of the whole kingdom is given, both in the days 
 of King Edward and in that of King William, and the 
 value of every estate is set down accurately. If then 
 ' farm registers ' were in existence, the probability is that 
 at the date of the survey they were kept only by order 
 of those officials who were responsible for the king's dues, 
 and for special reasons, not as a general practice." 
 
 It is therefore difficult to assign any fixed period at 
 which the institution of the Exchequer made its appear, 
 ance, or when it became a court separated from the Curia 
 regis. 
 
 " At whatever period the practice was introduced of 
 taking payments, of giving acquittances for and settling 
 disputed questions respecting the rents, dues, assessments, 
 fi nes, and other moneys belonging to the king or applicable 
 to the requirements of the country in a distinct chamber 
 or court, certain it is that it received the strong support 
 of the magnates of the land. So that now no one can 
 venture to infringe the statutes of the Exchequer nor dare 
 to resist them. There is this, too, in common between 
 the Exchequer and the King's Court, that no person what- 
 ever can act in contravention of the records or the orders 
 of each of them. And the importance of this court (the 
 Exchequer) ranks high, as well on account of the authority 
 attaching to it by virtue of the effigy of the king graven 
 on the treasury seal, as on account of that of the person- 
 ages who sit there, and by whose skill and learning the 
 constitution of the whole realm is upheld. For in it sits,
 
 392 APPENDIX. 
 
 the king's chief justice, next to the king the principal 
 official in the realm, by reason of his judicial capacity. In 
 it are some of the chief magnates of the land, "who act 
 with him as privy councillors, and so the result is that 
 the final orders decreed by personages of this eminence are 
 accepted as law immutable." The waiter then goes on, 
 "All the personages referred to by me, whether sitting ex- 
 officio or by virtue of the king's special order, take their 
 seats for the purpose of hearing and deciding on such 
 special questions as arise from time to time in the subjects 
 dealt with. For the skill and learning of the Exchequer 
 are visible not in the matter of argument, but in that of 
 the varied decisions which it has to give. For it is easy 
 enough by arithmetical computation to strike a balance 
 between the sum assessed and the amount actually paid 
 in ; but when there turns up a complicated inquiry on 
 various points affecting the revenue, consequent on vary- 
 ing modes of requisition and want of uniformity therein 
 on the part of the sheriffs, the decision as to what ought 
 to have been their proper plan of proceeding is a busi- 
 ness of grave import, as some think ; and therefore it is 
 here that the skill and knowledge of the Exchequer are 
 regarded with special respect. The decisions on doubts 
 and doubtful points cannot be drawn up in one complete 
 volume, because as yet all this class of doubts has not 
 been disposed of, but some of the points that in our 
 presence have been heard and settled, I shall refer to 
 further on." 
 
 From this narrative, then, it would appear that the 
 idea of a separate court or chamber for revenue purposes 
 was a foreign one. That it had not taken any clear form, 
 nor had any attempt been made to give it one in the days 
 when the Norman settlement under William was effected ; 
 that its establishment was owing to the complication of 
 the accounts of the country, and to the legal doubts and 
 questions that were necessarily i-aised as the pecuniary 
 requirements of the kingdom became greater and more 
 pressing; and that as soon as the idea of an Exchequer 
 Court had taken definite shape (when, it is not easy to 
 say), it grew so rapidly in favour with all ranks, from the 
 king downwards, that it was in less than a century re?
 
 APPENDIX. 393 
 
 garded as a national institution, part of and almost on 
 an equality with the old Curia regis. 
 
 The very titles of the chapters or sections of the 
 " Dialogus " bear witness to the large range of matter 
 that came nnder the cognizance of this new court, and 
 show that it was an important factor in the development 
 of constitutional principles in England. 
 
 That is not, however, the reason why I am now refer- 
 ring to it. I refer to it here for the information it 
 gives, not only as to the procedure in vogue at the time 
 for getting in and settling and entering in the rolls the 
 accounts of the sheriffs, but as to the coinage of the 
 country. 
 
 The " Dialogus " shows us that the coinage of the realm 
 had fallen into a very bad plight. 
 
 So large an amount of mischief had been done by clip- 
 pers, defacers, forgers, and imitators, that the energies 
 of the Exchequer were taxed to the utmost to secure 
 proper payments by some satisfactory method of test. 
 
 In old times a simple plan had been adopted to make 
 up for such deficiencies in the coins paid into the Trea- 
 sury as were assumed to be inevitable. 
 
 It is very probable that at first, and for some time, the 
 ordinary practice of counting the coins when paid in was 
 deemed to be a sufficient protection. 
 
 Then, partly for the sake of quicker despatch, and 
 partly in consequence of doubts respecting the proper 
 weight of the coins offered to the treasury, the plan of 
 weighing the coins was taken up, and the term applied 
 to this form of accepted payment was " solutio ad 
 scalam." 
 
 Then it was found (but long prior to the establishment 
 of the Exchequer) that, either from ordinary use and cir- 
 culation, or from trick and fraud, the actual value of many 
 of the coins of the country was considerably diminished. 
 
 To remedy this the rule was adopted of putting an 
 arbitrary exti-a charge of six pennies in every pound in 
 tale paid into the Treasury. This mode of accepted pay- 
 ment was called "solutio ad pensum." 
 
 Moreover, as Domesday shows us, for some parts of 
 England the additional method of the fire test was resorted
 
 394 APPENDIX. 
 
 to, and the accepted payment of coins so exacted Avas 
 called " solutio ad ignem et pensum." 
 
 Between the period of the Conquest and the reign of 
 Henry the Second the deficiency iu the coins became so 
 great that at last the matter was taken in hand by the 
 Exchequer, and then a more elaborate process of testing 
 by combustion was established, and this is how it was 
 managed, and I again refer to the " Dialogus de Scac- 
 cario." 
 
 In the course of his narrative, the writer (who styles 
 himself magister, or teacher) explains very carefully the 
 names, authority, and duties of the various officials who 
 took their seats in the upper and lower Exchequer. 
 Among them were two who had no assigned seat at either 
 board, but were called in and discharged their functions 
 as occasion demanded, and by order of the President or 
 the Treasurer. These two officials were the knight presi- 
 dent of the silver assay, and the melter (fusor). 
 
 In reply to the query of the pupil (discipulus) as to 
 what their special work consisted of, the teacher thus 
 replies : 
 
 " The knight president of the silver assay (miles ar- 
 gentarius) carries from the lower to the upper Exchequer 
 the sack containing all the silver that has been paid in 
 below for the purpose of having it tested. This sack is 
 sealed with the seal of the sheriff. Then, in the view of 
 all (present in the upper chamber), the ' miles argen- 
 tarius ' takes out from the sack forty-four shillings, 1 
 which he had previously marked. 
 
 " These are thrown together and tested as to weight. 
 This is done by placing a proper pound weight in one 
 basin of the scales, and in the other as many of the pen- 
 nies as are equal in weight thereto. These are counted 
 by him, and marked as up to standard weight. 
 
 " Having ascertained their weight, the same official puts 
 aside into a cup (ciffum) one pound, that is, twenty shil- 
 lings' worth of these tested pennies. The remainder of the 
 same tested quantity he places in a pui'se. I should men- 
 
 That is, forty-four shillings' worth of pennies.
 
 APPENDIX. 395 
 
 tion that two ordinary pennies are paid by the sheriff, not 
 by the treasury, to the metal founder as his recompense. 
 Then the silver assay er, the sheriff whose money is to be 
 assayed, and two other sheriffs selected by the president 
 of the Exchequer, or in his absence the Treasurer, pro- 
 ceed to the furnace. There the metal founder or melter 
 appears by summons and takes his stand with his neces- 
 sary implements. Then, in the presence of these persons, 
 as well as of certain barons who have been specially dele- 
 gated, the coins are carefully counted and handed over 
 to the melter. Thereupon this person counts the coins 
 carefully, lays them in a small vessel containing glowing 
 coals, sets the vessel on the furnace, and, in accordance 
 with the ordinary process of melting, reduces the coin 
 into a mass, stopping from time to time to cleanse the 
 silver. 
 
 " It behoves him to be very careful not to go beyond the 
 proper heating point, nor by insufficient melting to spoil 
 and waste the heap. 
 
 " For the former fault the king suffers, for the latter 
 the sheriff. 
 
 " So the coin melter must be constantly on his guard, 
 and as vigilant as possible not to allow the silver to be 
 discoloured, but to come out properly melted and pure. 
 And this they ought to look to who are commissioned 
 by the chief officers to watch the work. 
 
 " After the assay has been made, the c miles argen- 
 tarius,' attended by his overseers, carries the result to 
 the barons present, and then in the sight of all he weighs 
 the mass with the aforementioned pound weight. 
 
 " Then the result of the examination is chalked on the 
 top, in this form : ' Yorkshire. In the fusing so many 
 (stating the number) have gone to the pound,' and this 
 is called ' the assay.' This inscription, be it noted, can 
 only be recorded on express permission to chalk the 
 words. 
 
 ' ; Xow, if the sheriff from whom the coin came makes 
 complaint that more metal was consumed than need have 
 been, owing to over-heating or to infusion of lead, or if 
 the coin melter himself admits that the testing has failed, 
 then the twenty shillings' worth of pennies that are still
 
 396 APPENDIX. 
 
 in the purse are counted out before the barons, in order 
 that they may be submitted to test by the same process. 
 
 " You see then the reason why forty-four shillings' 
 worth of pennies were taken out of the large heap of coin 
 at the commencement of the proceedings, and placed in 
 the purse that was sealed with the sheriff's seal. 
 
 " Note again, that the melter receives two pennies for 
 the assay, bat if he again goes wrong, even after a third 
 assay, he loses these, and must be contented with the two 
 pennies that wei'e first paid to him. 
 
 " Now all these tests are applied, not to one pound 
 alone, but to all those which each sheriff pays for his 
 county dues (firmoe). Every sheriff knows well that the 
 loss on this one pound under the assay will be deducted 
 fi'om the other pounds. 
 
 " Therefore, supposing his payment in is one hundred 
 pounds in coin, and it turns out that there is a deficiency 
 in one of them to the extent of twelve pennies, he will be 
 credited only to the amount of ninety-five pounds (and 
 will have to make up the difference)." 
 
 The explanation of the cause and origin of this assaying 
 process is thus described : 
 
 " The history dates fi*om an eai-ly period. According 
 to the traditions of our fathers and grandfathers, it seems 
 that in the first few years after the Conquest the rents 
 of the king's lands were paid, not in money, but in kind ; 
 that is to say, he received from the tenants all the different 
 articles which were wanted for the daily requirements of 
 his household ; and the persons whose office it was to 
 collect these dues knew how much was to come out of 
 each estate. 
 
 " But in order to provide for the pay and donatives of 
 and to the soldiers, and to pay the fees taken in the 
 various lawsuits and other legal business of each county, 
 as well as the different charges) assesspd on the cities and 
 castles where the cultivation of the land was not prac- 
 ticable, payments in coined money wore required. There- 
 fore, during the whole period of William the First's reign, 
 a silver assay was known and used, continuing up to the 
 reign of his son Henry. 
 
 " I, too, can testify to this matter, for I have met
 
 APPENDIX. 397 
 
 persons who told me that they had -witnessed the carriage 
 of articles of food at stated times from the king's estate to 
 the royal court, where the officials were certified as to the 
 amounts due, and the particular articles to be received 
 from each named county. Thus county A would have to 
 send in so mucli wheat, county B so much meat of various 
 sorts, county C so much horse fodder ; and so on through 
 the different counties. 
 
 " In process of time the royal officials, in making up 
 their accounts against the sheriffs, hit upon the idea of a 
 kind of money reckoning. 
 
 " For instance, if a particular coanty had to furnish 
 wheat sufficient to provide bread for one hundred men, 
 the return as against the sheriff was entered as one 
 shilling ; for the carcase of a pasture-fed ox, one shilling ; 
 for a ram or an ewe, four pennies ; for the provender of 
 twenty horses, four pennies ; and so on through all the 
 different county returns. 
 
 " In the time of King Henry, William's son, there were 
 many foreign expeditions, and a good deal of armed 
 rebellion in many remote parts of England. The ex- 
 penses consequent thereon were large, and large money 
 payments were absolutely necessary. Meanwhile another 
 trouble arose. 
 
 " The king's court was besieged by a host of discon- 
 tented cultivators of the land ; nay, more, and this was 
 specially annoying to the king, often, as he journeyed 
 through the country, a crowd of farmers would beset the 
 road with their ploughshares, which they showed and 
 offered to him as a sign of the bad plight to which farming 
 was reduced owing to the general agricultural distress. 
 Further, they complained of the grievous oppression from 
 which they Avere suffering by reason of the demands for 
 food made and insisted on by the royal purveyors, who 
 invaded their lands and houses, and carried off by force 
 what they chose. Stirred by these reclamations, and 
 roused to action by the advice of the Great Council, the 
 king sent certain persons of approved prudence and dis- 
 cretion through the realm as commissioners, with instruc^ 
 tions to make personal inquisition, and to report. Among 
 other things, part of their duty was to fix a money value
 
 398 APPENDIX. 
 
 upon the returns for food and provender ; to ascertain 
 what was the total amount in each county of all the sums 
 payable by it, and to make the sheriff of each county not 
 only liable for them, but pay ad scalam ; that is, on every 
 pound of twenty shillings to add six pennies over. This 
 plan was adopted on the presumption that the overcharge 
 of six pennies would be sufficient to cover any probable 
 deficiency in the coin of the realm, which was at the time 
 not in so bad a plight as was afterwards the case. 
 
 " In this, however, the authorities were mistaken, and 
 were compelled to issue orders that the " ferm " dues of 
 manors should be paid not only ad scalam, but ad pensnm, 
 but this was feasible only when large amounts were paid 
 in. 
 
 " Still these methods of payments into the Exchequer 
 continued for some years ; and so you will constantly find 
 entries of this kind in the old year rolls : ' Paid into the 
 treasury one hundred pounds ad scalam, 1 or 'Paid into 
 the treasury one hundred pounds ad pensum." 
 
 " Meanwhile there came to the council a man of good 
 sense, sound judgment, and discreet speech, and always 
 ready to give a trustworthy opinion on all matters of 
 importance." 
 
 [This was Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, the great uncle 
 of the author of the " Dialogus."] 
 
 " He was advanced to the Exchequer by the king's own 
 order. He soon found that the then existing method of 
 payment into the Treasury was only a protection in re- 
 spect of number and weight, but did not guard against 
 the mischief of bad quality ; for in the absence of a proper 
 testing process, a pound weight of silver might not be 
 good payment, owing to intermixture with copper or 
 brass. 
 
 " Therefore, after consultation with the king, he intro- 
 duced into the Exchequer the plan of testing the ' firma3 ' 
 by melting and assaying. Thus did he protect the in- 
 terests of the crown and of the country. 
 
 " The interests of the country were protected in this 
 wise : That as the sheriffs soon saw that they would be 
 the sufferers if the coinage turned out to be of base 
 quality in fusion when they paid in their assessments,
 
 APPENDIX. 399 
 
 they began to look carefully after the moneyers in their 
 own counties, and to see whether they did their coining 
 work properly and honestly. If they did not, the sheriffs 
 inflicted such severe punishments as effectually deterred 
 others from attempts at fraud. 
 
 " In those counties where by ancient custom the land 
 was terra regis^ the payments were made in tested silver. 1 
 
 " Those counties that paid their assessments incident- 
 ally, and as occasion required^ into the treasury, paid by 
 number (and so were liable to the testing process in the 
 Exchequer). Such are Shropshire, Sussex, Northumber- 
 land, and Cumberland) The sheriff also is allowed to pay 
 in sums of tested silver by weight, instead of blanched 
 money, and so he avoids the risk of the fusing process ; 
 but then the king's coin melter is entitled to inspect the 
 coins and pass them as approved." 
 
 I append to this account of the method of testing the 
 moneys paid into the Exchequer from the " Dialogus " a 
 short extract, from the same work, on the subject of what 
 were called blanched or white lands (blancos ftindos) . I 
 do so not so much because it bears upon the matter above 
 discussed, namely, the history of the coinage of the realm 
 at and after Domesday time, but because it shows a 
 curious use of the word blancus, and may account for the 
 meaning of the word " white," which is to be found in 
 various parts of England in connection with land : e. g. in 
 Essex we have Whitehall, near Chingford, White-Rooth- 
 ing, White-Xotley, White- Waltham; in Berkshire, White 
 Knights, etc. 
 
 This is the account that Richard, Bishop of London, 
 gives of the grants " fundorum blancorum numero " (pt. 
 iv. v.) : 
 
 " The originator of this mode of grant, and the reason 
 for it, are not easily traceable. When we read of the 
 payments of ' firm ' dues (numero) by number, we under- 
 stand the meaning to be that a receipt was given on the 
 counting only of the coins, not on the testing of them. 
 Therefore, when the king made a grant of land together 
 
 1 The term for them was firma llanccc, blanched duea and assess- 
 ments.
 
 400 APPENDIX. 
 
 with the hundred, that is with the privilege of private juris- 
 diction in the shape of sac and soc, the land so granted 
 was called 'blanched land' (fundum blancum coUatum). 
 Bat when the grant was only of the estate, and not of the 
 hundred as well, in consequence of which the profits from 
 it (firmed) were said to be dealbatee, unblanched, it was 
 called a grant by number (fundus numero datus). 
 
 " Now, on the grant of an estate the grantee has to 
 carry into the Exchequer, in Michaelmas term, the king's 
 writ, or the king's charter, for the purpose of having its 
 assessment fixed for the sheriff's information. Otherwise 
 it will not be entered in the great roll, nor will any 
 assessment in respect of it be made against the sheriff. 
 
 " The entry is made in this fashion : next to the entry 
 of the fixed eleemosynary payments, the tithes, and 
 the equipments or liveries, at the top of the page is 
 written : ' In the lands granted to N. M. in this locality, 
 twenty pounds blank or blanched ; and to N. M. in this 
 locality,twenty pounds in number (numero).' "
 
 APPENDIX IT. 
 
 NOTE A. On the titles COMES and Dux. 
 
 THE title " comes " was applied to several classes of officials, and dates 
 from a somewhat early period of the Imperial Government of Rome. 
 
 In the first stage of their existence in Roman polity, the Comites 
 were assessors and advisers attached to the retinue of the governor of 
 a province or some other high official. Then they attained to the 
 dignity of " companions of the Imperial Court." Eventually they 
 were advanced to the position of governors of provinces, superintend- 
 ing the general administration as well as the military arrangements 
 therein. 
 
 In the Theodosiau Code the collective body of the comites is styled 
 " comitiva." For approved merit in the discharge of the duties of a 
 public official a person was inscribed in the comitiva, and received by 
 way of distinction the title " comes." 
 
 In his treatise, " De re Militari " (cited in the Digest 49, 16, 5, 2), 
 an old writer, Arrius Menander, speaks of "dux" as synonymous 
 with " praises militum," or general in command. 
 
 In the Theodosiau Code "dux" and "comes" are described as 
 occupying positions of equal dignity in the provinces, and as entrusted 
 with the duties of general superintendents of all the military in each 
 respective province. 
 
 In Sicily the dux was of equal authority to that of the praetor ; 
 and in a rescript from the Emperors Honorius and Theodosius (the 
 younger) (circitcr A.D. 407) to A. A. A. Stilicho, the latter is 
 addressed as " comes et magister utriusque militias," and is directed 
 to order the " comites aut duces militum " to carry out a strict in- 
 quiry in respect of a charge of certain abuses which had crept into his 
 province in the matter of elections to the posts of tribunes and pre- 
 fects of the cohorts (see Cod. Theod., lib. vii. tit. xiii. 18 and 1'J). 
 
 " The titles counts and dukes," says Gibbon (" Decline and Fall," 
 ch. xii.), "have obtained in modern languages so very different a sense 
 from their Roman form, that their use may occasion some surprise. 
 But it should be recollected that the second of those appellations is 
 only a corruption of the Latin word which was indiscriminately 
 applied to any military chief. All these provincial generals were 
 therefore dukes ; but no more than ten among them were dignified 
 with the rank of "count" or "companion" a title of honour, or rather 
 favour, which had been recently invented in the court of Constantine. 
 A. L. 1 D D
 
 402 APPENDIX. 
 
 A gold belt was the ensign which distinguished the office of the counts 
 and dukes, and besides their pay they received a liberal allowance, 
 sufficient to maintain one hundred and ninety servants and one 
 hundred and fifty-eight horses." 
 
 According to Savigny (see " Gesch. d. Rom. Rechts. im Mitt.," I. iv. g 
 79, 80), the history of this office and title (viz., Comes) in the Prankish 
 system of polity is as follows : Beginning with the period of time that 
 Tacitus dealt with (see " Germania," c. 12), we have evidence of the 
 existence of certain chief men, elected by popular vote into the na- 
 tional councils, whose duty it was to administer justice in the cantons 
 and villages. Coming down to later times, as the old laws and docu- 
 ments show, we read of an official occupying much the same position 
 and discharging the same duties among the Franks, called " graf," 
 " gratio," " gravio," " graphic." On the settlement of the Franks in 
 the conquered countries, carrying with them as they did many, if not 
 all, of their ancient customs and national modes of trial, the graf 
 made his appearance as a judicial dignitary, and that by name. To 
 this name the lloman people gave as a translation the term that they 
 were familiar with, because the duties and position of each seemed 
 much alike. That term was "comes," and so, in course of time, the 
 two titles were in use as meaning the same office (each having the 
 same original meaning, viz., companion). Graphic and comes con- 
 tinued in existence together for many years before the complete 
 merging of the former in the latter took place. Each title was used 
 and was recognised. The Frankish official was called graf; the 
 lloman official was called comes. Hence we find that even as late 
 as the time of Charlemagne the title graphic as well as comes is in 
 existence, and we read of duces, comites domestici (officers of the 
 royal household), vicarii (in later days called vice-comites), grafiones 
 and ceutenarii, all named together, and that so late as the ninth 
 century. 
 
 NOTE B. Note on the AIUMA.NNI, RACmiiBURai, and Boxi HOMINES. 
 
 The possession of freedom was the distinctive mark of the members 
 of the old German body, and the basis of the Germanic organization 
 was the class of freemen. What the old German folk understood by 
 freedom was not mere liberty as opposed to slavery, but the complete 
 recognition and enjoyment of rights of all kinds. This view of a 
 man's position in his tribe or clan corresponds with the Roman terms, 
 " caput " and " civis optimo jure." All the original Teutonic invaders 
 claimed their privilege to stand on this ground, but the terms by 
 which each body of freemen was known were different. Among the 
 Lombards Arimanni was the name whereby the ancient freemen of 
 the north were marked, and that name was applied to the female 
 as well as the male members of the race. "Liberre faeminse et ari- 
 mannae " are the words of the Lombard Law of Rachis (see L. Longob. 
 Hothseris 222, cited by Luitpraud, iv. 6). Later on, that is at the time 
 of Charlemagne (as a diploma of the year A.D. 808 shows us), the title 
 arimanni had received a meaning somewhat more special. It was
 
 APPENDIX. 403 
 
 confined to the free Lombards who constituted the national assembly 
 before the introduction of fiefs, i.e., before the era of feudalism, and 
 the term, " alii liberi homines," which appears in the same diploma, 
 is used by way of contradistinction to that of arimanni, as intended 
 to cover the Eomau inhabitants, the German incomers, the Franks, 
 and such free vassals as had acknowledged a lord and were not mem- 
 bers of the "heerbann" under the comes. Where the term "liberi 
 homines " stands by itself in the old documents it must be taken to 
 be identical with arimanni, and to mean a free Lombard. 
 
 The arimanni shared in the administration of justice equally with 
 the escavini or ecbevins, and in the later documents the word ger- 
 inanus is used, as being synonymous with arimannus. This is 
 especially noteworthy in the historical documents published between 
 the eighth and the twelfth centuries. 
 
 The term arimauni was also applied to the citizens of a town, for 
 these also were freemen. This use of the word does not appear earlier 
 than the beginning of the ninth century. Thus the arimanni of 
 Mantua are spoken of somewhere about the eleventh or twelfth cen- 
 tury. But the older the document the more precise is the meaning 
 of the term ariman, that which I have already given, viz., free 
 Lombards. 
 
 From Arimannus we get the term Arimannia. This term has 
 three significations. 
 
 It is used as noting the collective body of the arimanni forming 
 a canton or any other community. In this form it is mentioned in 
 Marculf (i. 18), " Our fidelis comes here to our palace with his ari- 
 mannia." 
 
 It was also used as a mark of distinction between full property in 
 laud and that which was of an emphyteutic character, 1 or which was 
 of the nature of a fief. In this sense arimannia is equivalent to the 
 " dominium ex jure Quiritium " of the old Roman law, and it may be 
 taken that it was a proof of freemanship on the owner's part (see as to 
 this, Muratori, t. i. lib. c. p. 725, citing the deposition of a witness in a 
 suit between the Pope and the Bishop of Ferrara in the year A D. 
 1182). 
 
 Arimannia also meant a special kind of tax. That tax was one 
 which the comes of the district was authorized to levy on all the 
 inhabitants of his district, to provide for the general expenses during 
 a time of war. 
 
 As to the etymology of the word, Savigny has examined this matter 
 with great care and skill. His conclusion is that the root of the word 
 is ' hari," "heri," i.e., " heer," which means the collective body, the 
 people. Hence arimann was a man of the people, and whether called 
 arimanni or edelingi, all to whom either appellation was appropriate 
 are to be taken as the men of the whole Lombard body, free in every 
 sense of the term. 
 
 As to the etymology and meaning of the word " Rachimburgus," 
 
 A perpetual lease on condition of the regular payment of rent.
 
 404 APPENDIX. 
 
 there has been much learned discussion, and various opinions have 
 been propounded. I will not dwell on these, but refer such of my 
 readers as may be desirous of examining them, to Von Saviguy's 
 learned disquisition thereon (see " Gesch. des Rom. Eechts. im 
 Mitt.," I. iv. 60-63). 
 
 The conclusions he draws are these : 
 
 First as to the etymology of the word ; the root of it may be taken 
 to be " rek," which means great, notable, illustrious. 
 
 Next as to the locality to which it belongs. This was the country 
 where the Franks settled. 
 
 Then as to its meaning. This must be understood as being pre- 
 cisely the same as that of ariinann. The Prankish rachiruburg was 
 like the Lombard arimann, the freeman, the member of the conquer- 
 ing tribe. The same rights that the arimann claimed and possessed, 
 the same did the rachimburg claim and possess. Therefore, like tho 
 former, the latter, among other privileges, obtained that of being 
 present at the " mallum," or public assembly, and of taking part in 
 the public administration of justice. On the complete settlement 
 of the Franks in Gaul two other terms, Latin ones, were applied to the 
 rachimburgi, viz., "liberi homines" and " boni homines," and in 
 time it came about that " bonus homo " and "rachimburgus " were 
 used by the Frankish historians as identical expressions. Eventually 
 the term rachimburgus gave way to that of bonus homo. 
 
 To sum up the matter then concisely. The arimanni were the 
 freemen who, under the Lombard domination, formed the national 
 body of those who were entitled to appear at the popular meetings, 
 and take part in all popular national discussions. The racbimburgs 
 were identically the same in that part of Europe where the Frankish 
 immigrants were located. After their complete settlement in Gaul 
 their name was Latinized into " liberi homines " and " boni homines." 
 The former term designated their position and rights as freemen ; 
 the latter term marked the fact that they were not only free, but 
 were untainted with any charge of crime or misconduct, for this 
 would have disabled them from taking part in the popular assemblies. 
 
 NOTE C. Escavinei and Scabini. 
 
 In this note I propose to give in a condensed form the account of 
 the Escavinei and the Scabini as drawn by Savigiiy in his " History 
 of the Roman Law in the Middle Ages " (book 1, ch. iv. 68-78). 
 
 I use the words Escavinei and Scabini purposely, in order to mark 
 the fact that there were two separate periods in the history of this 
 class of officials. The Escavinei are those who appear in the judicial 
 organization of the Germanic immigrants prior to the era of Charle- 
 magne. The Scabini appear under that name by force of the refor- 
 mation worked by Charlemagne, and after his reign. 
 
 Long before Charlemagne's time, and in a comparatively remote 
 period of the history of Germany, the whole body of the freemen, 
 " rachimbourgs," or " boni homines," took part and stood on an 
 equality in the public administration of justice ; all were, in effect,
 
 APPENDIX. 405 
 
 " escavinei," "makers or establishes of the law" (from the verb 
 fclid.jff.n or schnpfen) . The word itself, " escavineus," was not used 
 till a much later period as a word of art. It was introduced to express 
 a new idea, that of men who were attached to the retinue of the 
 Comes, as being able to render special assistance in any suit to the 
 main body of the " boni homines." 
 
 In this sense the word occurs in an ancient document cited in a 
 suit held before Charlemagne, A D. 781, which ran thus : " Certain 
 parties came before the Comes and his Escavinei, and judgment was 
 given on the knowledge and actual approval of the boni homines or of 
 their Comes." 
 
 We may take it, then, that in the earliest times all the freemen 
 were judges, hearing and deciding on a footing of equality, and con- 
 taining in their body no members dignified with any special name ; 
 but that later on, for some reason which is not particularly noticed, 
 a special title was conferred on certain individuals, and that title was 
 escavineus or echevin. 
 
 Charlemagne, seizing probably on the idea so presented, to wit, a 
 special body of men fit for judicial work, and noting the old term, 
 made use of the idea, but slightly altered the term itself, perhaps to 
 emphasize the fact of his reformation of the judicial system in this 
 part of it. 
 
 He selected certain individuals expressly and by name to act as 
 public officials, and entrusted them with the duty of rendering 
 assistance at the ordinary assemblies where such assistance might be 
 needed. To these ordinary assemblies the body of freemen might 
 resort or not, as they pleased. Very often they preferred to stay 
 away. In process of time the business fell into the hands of these 
 selected men, and these men, so selected, were called, by way of 
 distinction, scabini. The term scabini never appears in any docu- 
 ment prior to Charlemagne's reign. After that period it gradu- 
 ally took the place of the old term escavineus. From the Prankish 
 portion of Charlemagne's dominions the system of judicial adminis- 
 tration by help of the scabini was introduced into Italy, and as 
 among the Franks, so among the Italian dwellers, scabini were ap- 
 pointed, under royal mandate, by the comes, or by the collective body 
 of the people. Seven Scabini were bound to be present and assist at 
 every placitum or ordinary public meetin.cr. In Italy the Latin term 
 " judices" was applied to the scabini. The function of the scabini 
 (and this is traceable to very early times, as the Salic and the 
 Ripuarian laws attest) was to decide questions of fact, and to take 
 notice and apply to these questions of fact such points of law as 
 might arise. Their decision was given independent of the president 
 or comes. His sole function was to execute the judgments that were 
 arrived fit 
 
 One other ancient set of officials remains to be noticed, but their 
 history is involved in so much obscurity that very little can be re- 
 corded of them. I allude to the " Sagibarones," of whom all that 
 can be said is that their oflice was a judicial one, and that they were 
 dignitaries holding permanent office, and ranking on an equality with
 
 406 APPENDIX. 
 
 the comites or counts. la the laws of the Anglo-Saxon King Ine, 
 Law 6 runs : " If any person shall fight in a church, let him pay one 
 hundred and twenty shillings ; if he fights in the house of an ealdor- 
 man or a sagibarou, let him make amends with sixty shillings, and 
 pay another sixty by way of penalty." This is Spelmau's rendering 
 of the law. Wilkins has the words " illustris sapieutis " for the Saxon 
 " gedungencs witan." The word Sagibarones appears in several laws 
 of the Salic Code. 
 
 NOTE D. Explanation of the terms LEUDES and ANTKUSTIONS. 
 
 The word leudcs is thus explained by Ducange : 
 It meant vassals or subjects. Among the Saxons the word was 
 Jeod ; among the Germans, licden, luden, luyden, and leute. The 
 general signification of these words is "men." In the " 'Wisigothic 
 Law," book iv. tit. 5, 5, we find : " Inter leudes quicumque nee 
 regiis beneficiis aliquid fuerit consecutus." " They were classed 
 among the leudes, who had not received any concession from the 
 royal benefices." In the "Lex Lougobardorum," lib. ii. tit. 22. ^ " : 
 "Excepto si leudes id est de Saxo aut Friso, Salicum Occident per 
 sexaginta denarios solidus solvatur," " Provided that if the Lciulrs 
 (that is, Saxon or Frisian) slay a Salian, full compensation (for the 
 homicide) must be paid to the amount of sixty denarii." For a 
 Salian was reckoned as one of the most noble dignity among the 
 Franks. In the edict of Chlotaire II., Leudes and Fideles are classed 
 together. We also read of King Pepin : " Bex Pepinus suos scaritos * 
 et leudes suos ad prosequendum warfarium transmisit." " King 
 Pepin sent his select men and his Leudes to carry out the warlike 
 expedition." 
 
 Antrustions were of the same quality as Leudes, men who swore 
 fidelity to their head chief or king. The term comes from the Ger- 
 man word Treue, trust. In, truste Domini. In the " Formulae " of 
 Marculf (lib. i. cap. xviii.) appears the following form (I give the 
 translation of the original) : "It is right that all who promise trust 
 and perfect fealty to us should be defended by our countenance. 
 And because this man, who under God's favour is a fidelis of ours, 
 comes here in our palace (cum sna arimannia) with his following, and 
 has shown himself ready to swear trust and fealty to us in our 
 presence, therefore, by these presents, we decree and order that 
 henceforth he be recorded and numbered among our Antrustious. 
 And if any one dare to kill him, let that person know that he will be 
 held guilty, and adjudged to pay for his weregild 600 (solidos) shil- 
 lings." 
 
 1 Scarire means to distribute into parts, scubas. Scaritus is a man selected 
 or set aside. In an old Capitulary of one of the Charles's appears this: "Id 
 est ut fidelitatem nobis promittunt sicut tune scarivimus et scriptum comitilms 
 nostris dedimus," " To promise fealty to us, as we Uavo specially decreed and 
 written to our counts."
 
 APPENDIX. 407 
 
 NOTE E. On the etymology and meaning of the icord ALOD. 
 
 Pontoppidan (quoted by Blackstone, vol. ii. p. 45), Note /, defines 
 it thus: "Allodh is the transposed form of Odhal, the Norwegian 
 name for property rights, derived from Olid, property and all." 
 " It is," he says, "the exact opposite of Feodh, which is stipendiary 
 property." 
 
 Cujacius explains it in this way : " quasi sine lode," lod or lot 
 being the Teutonic for payment, rent (scot and lot), the owner hold- 
 ing otherwise than as a Leodis or vassal. 
 
 Budams derives it from laudare, and this from laudiim, i.e., the 
 decision of an arbitrator. " Hence," says this writer, " it is that 
 allods were not obtained by force of the decision of a judge." 
 
 Other writers derive the word from ohn and leida, sine subjectione, 
 free from submission to any one. Spelman says it comes from the 
 Saxon word Lead, i.e., Populare prcedium, as opposed to Feudum, 
 which is Prcedium dominicale. Some writers assert that its root is 
 aid, as in alder, which means property transmitted to a man by his 
 ancestors. Some find the root in the word Lod, onus or burden, 
 and that it means unburdened ; and some old writers, with whom 
 M. Guizot agrees, connect the word with the Teutonic word Loos (SOTS 
 or lot), though with somewhat singular inconsistency they thought 
 that alods were not made by distribution or allotment. 
 
 The term occurs in a large number of old documents and charters, 
 as well as ancient Laws, Capitularies, and Formulae, from the time of 
 the Burguudiau Code down to that of William the Conqueror. I 
 cite from two early documents : 
 
 1. The " Acta Normannorum," book ii. par. 53. I give a transla- 
 tion of the Latin. The king grants " to Kollo and his successors all 
 that land from the river Epte down to the sea, for him and them to 
 hold it as their estate and alod for ever." "Also he gave to the 
 same Duke Rollo his daughter Gisla in wedlock, and the land already 
 assigned as alod and estate." 
 
 2. The Charter of William, Duke of Normandy, A.D. 1042 : 
 
 " I (the King) have given the land, which Wichol the Bearded held 
 in alod, absolutely free and discharged from all customs belonging to 
 rue." 
 
 In "Domesday" appears this of Warkshall : "The king holds 
 Warkshall ; the Countess Garda held it of Count Godwin as alod." 
 And again, " Almar held Colingley of King Edward ' eicut alodium 
 as allodial," that is, subject to no service or rent. 
 
 NOTE F. 
 
 I take this opportunity of explaining in some detail the two sub- 
 jects, the Customs of the Salic Land, and the Salic Law, as they 
 are not of themselves connected, at least so far as originating cause 
 is concerned.
 
 4o8 APPENDIX. 
 
 The exclusion that is spoken of in the text is an old national 
 custom, applicable to a particular set of people, dependent upon 
 special habits, and independent of regular positive law. Like many 
 other customs, it was worked into form and received the recognition 
 of law in later days, as, for instance, in the Bipuarian Law and Salic 
 Code. 
 
 According to a learned foreigner (M. Wiarda), whose opinion is 
 approved by M. Guizot, the origin of the Salic Law is not German. 
 He holds that the Salic Law appeared in writing for the first time 
 on the left bank of the Bhine, upon the territory situated between 
 the Forest of Ardennes, the Meuse, the Lys, and the Scheldt, a 
 country for a long while occupied by the Salian Franks, who were 
 the special subjects of this law, and from whom it received its name. 
 Further, that in none of the texts actually existing does this law 
 appear to go farther back than the seventh century. The only language 
 in which it has appeared is the Latin language, the same language, 
 in fact, in which all the other Barbarian Codes were given out 
 the Eipuarian, Barbarian, and Allemaniau laws. The Germanic 
 dialects, be it noticed too, were not reduced to writing prior to the 
 reign of Charlemagne. Indeed, Otfried, of Weissemburg, the trans- 
 lator of the Gospel, speaking, in the ninth century, of the Frankish 
 tongue, calls it " lingua inexplicabilis." 
 
 M. Guizot, in agreeing with this view as to the later date of the 
 Salic law, maintains that it belongs to a period in which the Franks 
 had for a long time existed in the midst of a .Roman population, and 
 when Christianity was not a belief with them of recent date. 
 
 To whatever period we assign its appearance much later, it may 
 be, than the earliest Frankish settlements in Gaul it may fairly be 
 assumed from its contents that there was a large infusion in it of 
 the old customs which had been handed down from generation to 
 generation, and adopted by the Frankish dwellers at the mouth 
 of the Ehine, until at length, towards the end of the eighth century, 
 they became crystallized into law. 
 
 Although described as the Salian Law, strictly speaking it is no 
 law at all, nor is it a code. It discusses various matters political 
 law, civil law, criminal law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, but 
 without any pretence to method, order, or classification. Looked at 
 closely, it bears more resemblance to a set of penal rules, for crimes 
 and offences occupy the chief place in it. What there is of political 
 regulation makes its appearance indirectly, and as it were by accident, 
 with reference only to customs and institutions already established 
 and accepted. 
 
 Such indeed is the character of all legislations in their early stage. 
 It is by the penal rules that nations make the first visible steps ; and 
 whether under a religious form or under one purely secular, the 
 penal law is the first to make its appearance in the legislative career 
 of nations. Their earliest effort towards the perfecting of civil life 
 consists in raising barriers, in proclaiming beforehand punishments 
 for excuses of individual liberty of action. 
 
 So says M. Guizot, and so affirms Sir Henry Maine, whose words
 
 APPENDIX. 409 
 
 I cite : * "It may be laid down, I think, that the more archaic the 
 code, the fuller and more complete is its penal legislation." We see 
 this in the Teutonic codes, including those of our Anglo-Saxon fore- 
 fathers, and to this condition of social life does the Salic Law 
 bi-long. 2 
 
 I cite from the Formulae of Marculf the form by which a father 
 nominate.! his daughter to an equal share of the terra paterna with 
 his sons. The power thus possessed by the father marks a much 
 later period of time than that when the old exclusive customs in 
 Salian Land prevailed, and indicates the revolution that had taken 
 place therein. 
 
 " My dearest daughter, I make this declaration and appointment. 
 By an old custom, that has kept long hold among us, but is a 
 cruel and unjust one, sisters were excluded from any share in the 
 lands of the father with their brothers. But I, deeply weighing 
 this unjust custom, love to think that thou canst have an equal 
 share in my property at my death with my sons, who ought not 
 to be more dear to me, nor to be more largely endowed with for- 
 tune than thyself. Therefore, by this my letter, I appoint thee, 
 my dearest daughter, to be one of my lawful heirs, and on a footing 
 of equality with thy brothers, my sons ; and I do declare that thou 
 must share in a like manner and on equal terms with them, as well 
 in the paternal alod as in my other possessions, whether purchased 
 or otherwise acquired ; further, that thy share be in no respects 
 less than theirs, and that all of you divide and receive, share and 
 share alike, the whole of my substance and effects " (Marculf, 
 "Form.," lib. ii. c. xii. ; Append, et cap. xlvii. xlix.). 
 
 NOTE G. 
 
 The following form of grant is taken from the Formularies of Mar- 
 culf (lib. i. cap. xiv.). 
 
 It deserves to be set out at length, for it is not only a good specimen 
 of the legal style in which this kind of grant was formulated, but it 
 shows that hereditary benefices were established facts at the period 
 when Marculf wrote, that is, in the eighth century. 
 
 I give an English version of the original document, which runs 
 thus : 
 
 " Of our own will and pleasure we have seen fit to grant to the 
 high and noble (A.B.) the aforesaid vill, situate in the pagus 3 named, 
 with all its belongings in its entirety, as it has been held by him or 
 by our treasury, or as at the present time it is held. Wherefore we 
 declare this our authority, which we direct shall be in perpetuity, to 
 
 1 " Ancient Law," chapter x. p. 369. 
 
 * For a larger and more detailed examination of the Salian Law, the reader 
 is referred to Guizot's " History of Civilization in France," Ninth Lecture, 
 pp. 151-479. 
 
 * A " pagus " was the totality of a numbar of " villa " lying together and 
 not inclosed in walls.
 
 416 APPENDIX. 
 
 wit, that the above-named personage shall have as a grant to him for 
 ever the said vill in its entirety, together with the lands, houses, 
 buildings, labourers, serfs, vineyards, woods, fields, meadows, pastures, 
 waters, watercourses, and mills, adjacent and appeudant, or subject 
 to any control of persons attached to our treasury and dwelling in it ; 
 free from all outgoings and from the claim of any judge to enter 
 thereon for the purpose of exacting " freda." l To the intent that 
 the above-named (A.B.) may have, hold, and possess it as his own pro- 
 perty, without any other legal transfer, to him and his successors, by 
 the favour of God and through our bounty, and may leave its posses- 
 sion to whomsoever he pleases." 
 
 Even so far back as the sixth century the custom of granting here- 
 ditary benefices was in existence, as this extract from the " Lex 
 Wisigoth " (lib. v. tit. ii. 2) shows: "When a man who has re- 
 ceived a benefice from the prince dies intestate, his property sluill 
 go to his heirs in due order of succession in accordance with the 
 law." 
 
 NOTE H. 
 
 The influence of a dream upon the Saxon lung, Edwin (A.D. COS) 
 is well told in Bede's "Ecclesiastical History" (bk. ii. chs. xii. and 
 xiii.). 
 
 In the course of his adventurous life the king had fallen into his 
 enemies' hands. In the prison to which they had consigned him he 
 had a dream, in which an unknown personage approached him with 
 a grave air, and said : " What wouldst thou promise to him who 
 would and could save thee ? " " Whatever it shall be in tuy power 
 to perform," replied the Saxon. " Well," replied the unknown, " if 
 he who can save thee only requires of thee to live according to his 
 counsel, wilt thou follow him?" "I will," swore Edwin. The 
 apparition, placing his hand on Edwin's head, said : " When this 
 sign shall again present itself to thee, recall this moment and our 
 conversation." 
 
 Edwin escaped the danger, but never forgot the dream. 
 
 Some time afterwards, as he was sitting alone, he saw a personage 
 enter the room. As he advanced, it seemed to the king that he was 
 like the man of his dream. Without pronouncing a word, this per- 
 sonage advanced and laid his hand on the king's head. 
 
 This was Paulinus, to whom, so the ecclesiastical writers say, the 
 Holy Spirit had revealed this means of winning the monarch to the 
 
 1 " Fredum," freda, f redus, f ridus, from " frid," Teutonic for pax, and 
 identical with "bannum," was a fine or composition by which on payment 
 to the treasury a person arraigned for an offence obtained protection for a 
 time from the chieftain. When paid to the royal treasury it was called " fre- 
 dum regale." 
 
 The payment of " freda " to the treasury is recognised in the Lex Aleman- 
 norum, the Lex liaia variorum, and the Lex Frisipnum (see the " Leges Bar- 
 barorurn," by Heroldus), as well as in the Capitularies of Charlemagne. Some- 
 times the " freda " were paid not to the treasury direct, but to the judices (Lex 
 Salica, lib. 52, 4, and lib. 55, 2).
 
 APPENDIX. 41 1 
 
 faith of Christ. Struck with wonder, Edwin fell to the ground. 
 Raised up by Paulinus, he promised to be a Christian, adding that 
 the men of the country should decide what they would do. 
 
 At Paulinus's suggestion the "Witenagemot was convoked, and 
 there to all the assembly the king recounted his dream and the 
 reason of his change of faith. He asked them all what they thought 
 of the new doctrine. One of them, Coin, the chief of the pagan 
 priests, spoke at length, adding this at the end of his address : " If 
 upon due examination you shall find that the new doctrines that 
 are preached to you are better and superior to the old, you are bound 
 in common with us all not to delay the adoption of them." 
 
 Then rose an old warrior chief and said this : " The life of man on 
 this earth, in comparison to that space of time which is unknown to 
 us, is like to that which may happen when you and your attendants 
 are sitting at supper in the winter season, and when a fire is lighted 
 in the midst, and the room is filled with the genial heat, whilst the 
 whirlwind rages, the rain beats, and the snow falls outside, and a 
 sparrow flutters quickly in at one door and flies hastily out at the 
 other. During the brief period that it is within the room the chill of 
 winter does not touch it ; but in an instant the security it has en- 
 joyed in its flight has disappeared ; and as you look upon it, it has 
 flashed from the darkness of winter at one door into the darkness of 
 winter in which it disappears at the .other. Such too is the brief 
 measure of human existence. We know not what went before, and 
 we are utterly ignorant as to what shall follow. If the new doctrine 
 can make you more certain as to this, then in my opinion it is one 
 that ought to be adopted by us." 
 
 Other speeches followed ; then Paulinus explained his dogmas, and 
 the assembly, voting as in sanction of national laws, solemnly re- 
 nounced the worship of the ancient gods. On the proposal of Pauli- 
 nus, the high priest first, with a sword and brandishing a pike, 
 struck the walls of the temple and the images in it with his lance. 
 A wooden house was erected wherein the king and many of his men 
 were baptized. 
 
 NOTE I. 
 
 I. The military service. This was the principal obligation attach- 
 ing to the possession of a fief. As to the period of time for which 
 a vassal was liable, this varied. In one fief sixty, in another forty, 
 in another twenty days ; but whatever the period, the obligation waa 
 absolute. The vassal, on the requisition of the lord, was bound to 
 follow him, sometimes alone, sometimes with such or such a number 
 of men, sometimes within the limits of the feudal territory, some- 
 times everywhere ; sometimes only for defence, sometimes for attack 
 as well as for defence. Then, again, the conditions of the duration 
 of the time varied according to the extent of the fief one fief would 
 involve a complete service, another only half the service. The variety 
 of conditions and forms of obligation was enormous. 
 
 II. The second service due by the vassal to his suzerain, and which
 
 412 APPENDIX. 
 
 is expressed by the word fiducia, was the obligation to serve his 
 suzerain in his court in his pleas whenever he invoked his vassals, 
 whether to ask for their counsels, or take part in the judgment of 
 disputes brought before him. 
 
 III. The third service was the obligation to acknowledge the juris- 
 diction of the suzerain. 
 
 _IV. There was a fourth, somewhat more uncertain in its extent ; 
 viz., feudal aids (auxilia). "Aids" were certain subsidies, certain 
 pecuniary assistance which, in particular cases, the vassal owed to 
 the lord. These were of two kinds : legal aids, or assistance agreed 
 on beforehand, imposed by the mere possession of a fief; and cour- 
 teous, or willing aids, which the lord could not obtain but with the 
 vassal's consent. Legal aids were three in number : the vassals 
 owed them to their suzerain first when he was in prison, and it be- 
 came necessary to pay his ransom ; next, when he armed his eldest 
 son knight ; thirdly, when he married his eldest daughter. Some- 
 times, and during particular periods, extraordinary aids were con- 
 sidered as obligatory ; for example, in the heat of the Crusades the 
 obligation was introduced of giving an aid to the lord whenever he 
 desired to go to the Holy Land. 
 
 Besides these general services, certain prerogatives were introduced 
 in favour of the suzerain, which, though not primitive and inherent 
 in the feudal relation, in the end became incorporated with it. 
 
 1. The right of relief; that is to say, at the death of the vassal the 
 heir had to pay the suzerain a certain sum (relerium,relevamentum), 
 as though the fief had fallen vacant by the death of the possessor, 
 and so it was held necessary to raise it again in order to resume its 
 possession. The amount of relief greatly varied, and was the subject 
 of continual dispute and discussion between the suzerain and the 
 vassals. 
 
 2. A second right of the same kind was that which the lord 
 generally had, when his vassal sold his fief to another, of exacting a 
 certain sum from the new possessor. In the earliest ages the vassal 
 was not allowed to sell his fief without the lord's consent. As this 
 immobility of fiefs became inconvenient and almost impracticable 
 in civil life, the permission to sell fiefs was soon introduced under 
 one form or another, and on more or less favourable conditions. But 
 on being introduced it gave rise to a claim for the suzerain's profit 
 or right, and for redemption or indemnity at each change. 
 
 3. Forfeiture (foris factura, putting out) was also a right and a 
 source of revenue for the suzerain. When the vassal failed in any 
 of his principal feudal duties, he incurred forfeiture ; i.e., he lost his 
 fief either for a limited time or for life, or even for ever. Here was 
 an opportunity for exaction on the part of the suzerains, who strove 
 incessantly to multiply the cases of forfeiture, and to get it pronounced, 
 even when contrary to all justice; but it was not less a legal penalty 
 the chief legal penalty of the feudal code, and universally admitted 
 in feudalism. 
 
 4. The right of wardship, or of garde noble, was also one of the 
 lord's prerogatives. During the minority of the vassal he took the
 
 APPENDIX. 413 
 
 guardianship and the administration of the fief, and enjoyed the 
 revenue. This right, says M. Guizot, was never generally admitted 
 into French feudalism. It existed in Normandy and in some other 
 provinces ; from Normandy it was transmitted to our own country. 
 
 o. The suzerain had also the right of marriage (maritaf/ium), that 
 is to say, the right of offering a husband to the heiress of a fief, and 
 of obliging her to choose among those whom he offered her. The 
 obligation of military service, an obligation of which a woman could 
 not acquit herself, was the source of this right, which is thus set 
 out in the " Assises de Jerusalem," cap. 242 : " When the seigneur 
 desires to summon, as he is entitled to do, a woman who holds an 
 estate of him which owes him body service, to take a husband, he 
 must present to her three men of suitable condition in this way : he 
 must send thres of his men one to represent himself, and two to 
 represent his court, and the one who represents him must say to her: 
 ' Madam, on the part of my lord so-and-so, I offer to your choice 
 three men naming them and call upon you, on the part of my lord, 
 by such a day naming the day to have taken one of these three 
 for your husband ' ; and this he saith three times." 1 
 
 The woman could only escape accepting one of the husbands offered 
 her by paying to the suzerain a sum .equal to that which they had 
 offered him to have her as a wife, for he who desired the hand of 
 an inheritor of a fief thus bought it of the suzerain. 
 
 Such were some of the obligations imposed on vassals and of the 
 prerogatives claimed by lords, odious most of them in themselves to 
 the people, and opening up an extensive ground for exaction and 
 extortion. 
 
 We cannot wonder at the hatred that the whole system of feudal 
 tenures and feudal service inspired, or at the eulogistic terms 
 in which Blackstone speaks of the statute by which in England 
 military tenures, with all their heavy appendages, were destroyed (12 
 Car. ii. c. 24). For by it " the court of wards and liveries, and all 
 wardships, liveries, primer seizins, and ouster lemains, values, and for- 
 feitures of marriage by reason of any tenure of the king or other- 
 wise, were totally taken away, and all fines for alienation, tenures 
 by marriage, knight's service and escuage, and also aids for marrying 
 
 1 This inari'fnguuji.or claim of right to give in marriage the vassal's daughter, 
 was sometimes waived by the Crown. Thus in the Charta pro Csedomanen- 
 sibus, given by Phillip Augustus (\.D. 1220), appears this clause ("which I trans- 
 late from the original Latin text) : " Moreover, we have granted to the same 
 parties that neither we nor our heirs will give their wives or daughters (that 
 ir;, after the husband's death) in marriage to any persons against the \vill and 
 consent of their relations, save only as regards those whose husbands are 
 military tenants, or when the wives and daughters are tenants of a military 
 tenancy (nisij'eudum i-el inembi-um loricce teneant *),for here we are in duty bound 
 to follow the uses and customs of Normandy as to maritaglum." 
 
 * Feodum loricse was the same us fief de hauberk, a fief he'd in military tenure. 
 This, on the death of a tenant, leaving only females as heirs, was separated 
 into eight portions, and divided among them. These shares were called membra 
 Jon'cce.
 
 4H APPENDIX. 
 
 the daughter, and knighting the son, and all tenures of the king 
 in capite were done away. 
 
 NOTE K. Feudiim. 
 
 According to Ducange, it was the opinion of the writers who pre- 
 ceded him that the word, as a term of art, first made its appearance 
 in the reign of Charles le Gros (about A.D. 884) in the Constitution 
 published by him in respect of the Roman Expedition. " To all who 
 are summoned to arms by this enactment. If any one does not follow 
 his lord to the assembly in the field called Rungall, and appear with 
 his military following, he shall be entirely deprived of his ' feudum ; ' 
 those excepted who by their lord's permission shall stay away." The 
 word " feudum '' is repeated in the same document. 
 
 Some authorities maintain that this proclamation is not a genuine 
 document. Be that as it may, the term makes its appearance in 
 other royal decrees in the reigns of Charles the Simple, Rolf and Lo- 
 thair, but not earlier than any of the reigns above mentioned, that is, 
 than A.D. 844. 
 
 The word " feudum," which in the ancient Latin documents was 
 translated into " beneficium," in its earliest signification meant a 
 property given in recompense by way of pay or reward (for services 
 in the field). It may be taken to be a term of German origin, de- 
 rived from the old German words. " fe," fee, reward, recompense, and 
 the radical " od," property, goods, possession. In the later feudal 
 terminology it was equivalent to " fief," and then it meant not only 
 the land itself, but the tenure also. 
 
 NOTE L. 
 
 I. " The people occupy settled seats." This word "occupy" marks 
 an important change in social life. 
 
 In the time of British life on the island, prior to and even during 
 the Roman domination, there is not much sign of real occupation or 
 settlement. What villages or towns there were at both periods were, 
 as Mr. Green points out, probably modifications of communities 
 which might take, and as may be inferred did take, after awhile a 
 municipal shape, but after all could have been little more than col- 
 lections of huts, like the Gaulish communities which had risen 
 under like circumstances. 
 
 The difference between such communities and the meanest Roman 
 town, as well as between them and the occupation of a settled people, 
 is, as a matter of fact, immense. 
 
 Under the Roman rule, no doubt order and settlement followed the 
 steps of the conquering legions, but this was confined very much to 
 the localities occupied and administered by Roman rule. 
 
 On the departure of the Romans, intense disorder supervened, and 
 for a long period but little chance of administrative occupation and 
 civilized settlement was afforded. 
 
 Therefore, as I say, the establishment of the inhabitants as
 
 APPENDIX. 415 
 
 settled occupiers marked a distinct arid decided forward step in social 
 life. 
 
 The settled occupation, it should be noticed, would run very much 
 on the lines of the settlement of the earliest comers. Billings by 
 Billings, Kensings by Kensings, Kennings by Kennings, and so on ; 
 and as a mark of the permanency of the occupation and settlement, 
 we have to this day the names of the old Saxon immigrants, Billings- 
 gate, Kensington, Kennington, etc., etc., a foreign immigration that 
 has been one of the chief causes of the making of England. 1 
 
 II. " The land is appropriated to separate townships." There are 
 two matters here that require explanation : (1) the township, (2) the 
 laud settlement of the Saxons. 
 
 (1) The township, or the tun, 2 has its Latin equivalent in the 
 terms villa, vicus, prajclium, territorium According to Ducange the 
 word comes from the Teutonic word Tong, the hundred ; tunginua 
 and centeuarius being used in the Salic Code as meaning the same 
 thing : " Tunginus aut centenarius mallum indicent," " In mallo 
 ante T. aut C. ambulent." 
 
 The tun gerefa is the Saxon term for the tunginus, the prefect of 
 the tun or villa. This tun or township, which was the unit of Saxon 
 social life, was made up of a cluster of farmers' homes, each set in 
 its own croft. It was surrounded by an earthen mound, tipped with 
 a stockade or quickset hedge, and defended externally by a ditch. 3 
 Thus each township formed a ready-made fortress in war, and in 
 times of peace its intrenchments were of use in the event of village 
 or house feuds. 
 
 Every dweller within them was bound to take part in the securing 
 and repairing of the defences. 
 
 Inside the mound lay the homes of the villagers, the farmsteads 
 with their farms and cattle stalls, and in the centre rose the sacred 
 tree or mound where the village with its elders met in the tun-moot, 4 
 which gave order to their social and industrial life. Outside, and 
 close to the village, were the home pastures and folds, where the calves 
 and lambs of individual cultivators were reared. " Here," says Mr. 
 Green, 5 from whom I am quoting (referring as authority to Nasse), 
 " and in the ' yrfelaud ' or family estate, held apart from his fellow- 
 
 1 Green, " Tho Making of England," ch. iv. In Note 1, at p. 188, citing Pro- 
 iVs*nr Stubbs' " Constitutional History," vol. i. p. 92, this is said ;of this ter- 
 minal "ing": "In England it is probable that all the primitive villages inJ 
 whose name the patronymic ' in<j ' occurs were originality colonized by com- 
 munities united either really by blood or by the belief in a common descent." 
 See, too, Kemble's "Saxons in England," vol. vi. ch. ii. pp. 58,59, and 231. et 
 seq. 
 
 2 According to Bishop Stubbs, the "tun" is originally tho enclosure or 
 hedge, whether of the single fiirm or the enclosed village, as the " burh " is 
 the fortified house of the powerful man. " Mallum," the greater assembly, in 
 which public causes are discussed. 
 
 3 Kemble's " Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. pp. 301-302. 
 
 4 The probable origin of the village green, which was once a regular append- 
 age to an English village. 
 
 5 " Tho Making of England," ch. iv. p. 181.
 
 416 APPENDIX. 
 
 freemen by the astheling or noble, we find the first traces of a per- 
 sonal property, strongly in contrast with the common holding which 
 prevailed through the rest of the township." 
 
 Beyond and around these home pastures lay the village plough- 
 lands, generally massed together in three or four large " fields," each 
 of which was broken into long strips of soil that were distributed in 
 turn among the village husbandmen. 
 
 The whole was inclosed by a border-land or mark, which formed 
 the common pasture, where flocks and herds could be turned out by 
 every man to graze, though in numbers determined by usage or by 
 the tun reeve. 1 
 
 In the tun, then, you have the real life of the Saxon people ; and 
 in its moot the transaction of all that portion of work went on which 
 is of so much importance to the dweller in a circle of this sort, viz., 
 tbe every-day work of his life. There the community i.e., the free- 
 men, for no slave had a place or voice met to order its own industry, 
 and to make its own laws. There new settlers were admitted to free- 
 dom of the township ; here bye-laws were framed. Here, too, strife 
 of farmer with farmer was settled, according to the custom of the 
 place ; and here the four men were chosen who had to follow either 
 their head man or the ealdorman to hundred, court, or war. 
 
 "It was here," says Green, "in these knots of husbandmen, that 
 the men from whom Englishmen were to spring learned the worth 
 of public opinion, of public discussion, the worth of the agreement, 
 " the common sense," the general conviction to which discussion 
 leads, as of the laws which derive their force from being expressions 
 of that general conviction." 2 
 
 I think it will be admitted that any attempt to sketch the history 
 of the development of social life in England would be utterly incom- 
 plete without a proper consideration of that part of the fabric which 
 is in truth the foundation of tbe whole. 
 
 (2) From the township and the village moot I proceed to notice the 
 nature and peculiarities of the Anglo-Saxon laud system. The 
 subject is an important one for two reasons. First, on general 
 grounds ; for, as I have pointed out in an earlier lecture, a proper 
 understanding of the changes that have taken place in the history 
 of land tenures helps on the better understanding of the changes that 
 have taken place in social life. Secondly, because, as you will see 
 presently, there never has been a time at least during and since the 
 Koman occupation when the land was absolutely and entirely tbe 
 property of the community, and when private property in land was 
 forbidden. But a third reason for the importance of the subject 
 may be mentioned, namely, the great change that was introduced into 
 the tenure of laud upon and after the Norman settlement here. 
 
 As I have already mentioned, the land conquered by the Germanic 
 tribes at the outset belonged to them in common. Hence, among the 
 
 1 Kemble's "Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. p. 43; and Sir H. Maine's "Village 
 Communities," lect. i. pp. 10, 11, 82-85. 
 
 2 " The Making of England," ch. iv. p. 191.
 
 APPENDIX. 417 
 
 Anglo-Saxons a special denomination was given to a part of the 
 territorial acquisitions of the community, viz., " folk-laud," or land 
 of the people. This was the property of the community, separate 
 an J distinct from the " gafol-cuude " land, which the Saxon conquer- 
 ors first distributed among themselves as being at the time enclosed 
 an 1 cultivated. 
 
 The " folc-land " was really a reserve of land equivalent to the 
 ayer publicus of Rome, kept by the State, and unalienable even by 
 sanction of the Witan, although capable of being leased for a term. 1 
 The condition of things in connection with this reserve of common 
 land was apparently this. 
 
 Land, as I have already shown, was with the Franks, as with all 
 the German race, the accompaniment of freedom. Only the freeman 
 could be a holder, and it was by virtue of his rights as a free member 
 of his community that he claimed to possess his holding. 
 
 Now in every village the woodland and pasture land were undi- 
 vided, and every free villager could turn his cattle or swine on to 
 them. 
 
 But besides woodland and pasture land, there was meadow land. 
 This, too, was open and undivided from hay-time to spring. When 
 the grass began to grow, and whilst it was growing, this common 
 meadow was fenced off into grass fields, and after hay-tune was on- 
 fenced and laid open again. 
 
 Plough-laud was differently treated, for that was allotted in equal 
 shares, both of corn and fallow land, to the families of the freemen, 
 subject to fresh division as the number of claimants increased or 
 dwindled away. 2 It was the freeman or " ceorl " to whom alone this 
 privilege of sharing was granted. The unfree-man, or the " laet," 
 i.e.. he who tilled the land which another owned, was excluded. 
 
 To all this land was attached the burden of dues to the State. 
 It was all " gafol-cunde," charged with the "gafol," namely, the 
 trinoda necessitas, i.e., road-making, wall-making, and militia. To 
 these were added certain local requirements, such as imposts for pur- 
 veying and posting, as well as rent (very often in kind) payable to the 
 king. 
 
 Now if, with the witan's sanction, a grant of "folc-land" was 
 made to any one (and no one could throw it up after receiving it 
 until he had brought three-quarters of it under cultivation), and the 
 state had reserved no rights on it beyond the trinoda necessitas, when 
 the conditions of the grant were fulfilled the Ian I became the holder's 
 property. He acquired it as free land ; he might stock, lease it out, 
 or sell it, as he pleased; and so he became possessed of land whose 
 name was " hoc-land," or deed-land, so called because it was granted 
 by charter or grant, " boc." It was freed from " gafol." 
 
 Hence, as we see, not only was private property in land recognised 
 and sanctioned, but it was dressed in a better robe than was " fo!c- 
 land " ; for it was held free from burdens, and unrestricted, so far as 
 
 1 KemMe's " Anslo-Saxons." vol. i.ch. xi. pp. 292, 293, 293. 
 
 2 Sir H. Maine's "Village Communities,'' .ect. iii. pp. 78, 79,80. 
 A. L. K E
 
 Ij.i8 APPENDIX. 
 
 the grantee's power of dealing with it by deed or testament was con- 
 cerned. 1 Beyond him, however, this freedom did not extend ; for 
 the estate was confined to the next generation, and was not allowed 
 to go out of the family, through a sort of entail. 
 
 Land might be tied up to almost any extent (especially if reversion 
 to a monastery was in contemplation). " The man who has ' boc- 
 land,' and which his kiudred'left him, then ordain we that he must 
 not give it from 'moeg-burg' (his kindred), if there be writing or 
 witness that it was forbidden by those men who first acquired it, and 
 by those who gave it to him that he should do so, and then let that 
 be declared in the presence of the king and of the bishop before his 
 kinsmen " (Alfred's Laws, 1. 41). 2 
 
 Within his own kindred on the spear side (i.e., the male side), the 
 landowner might devise his lands at pleasure. Still, in the wills of 
 great nobles, a certain preference to sous over daughters, and to elder 
 over younger sons, is perceptible. 3 
 
 III. " The mutual responsibility of the kindred," etc. This is a very 
 important branch of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, though by no means 
 free from obscurity. It refers to the system of responsibility by which 
 every free member of the community above twelve years of age was 
 bound, on peril of forfeiture of his lad, or right of compensation, or 
 of the protection of his wer, 4 to enrol himself in a hundred or tything 
 (" teothung "), which should be surety for him, and in case of an 
 accusation against him should present him to justice. 
 
 To this effect runs the Law 20 of Knut : " We will that every 
 freeman be brought into a hundred and into a tithing. And that 
 every one be brought into a hundred and into a ' borh,' and let the 
 ' borh' hold and lead him to every plea, i.e., let every one be brought 
 in so as to be under pledge ('borh'), with a surety who shall be 
 answerable for his appearance in any suit." 
 
 This regulation, however, did not apply to those who by rank, 
 family connection, or commendation, were exempted from the pro- 
 visions of this and similar enactments. 
 
 Under this system a master of a family was answerable for the 
 misdeeds of his wife, his children under age, his household and 
 slaves, even for damage done by his cattle ; in fact, for all and every- 
 thing subjected to his protection, " mund," " mundbyrd," or that 
 belonged to him, and whose " weregild " consequently fell on him. 
 
 Of a less comprehensive character was the reciprocal responsibility 
 of family or kin (" msegburh' '), as will be seen in the laws of 
 ^Ethelstan and Ine. 
 
 1 Kemble's " An^lo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. xi. p. 361. 
 
 2 See "Alfred's Laws for Wessex," cap. 41. 
 
 8 On all this matter of the land, its divisions, method of cultivation, its 
 tenures, and transmissible qualities, etc., see, in addition to Green's " Making 
 of England," ch. iv., and the authorities there quoted, Pearson's " History of 
 England," vol. i. ch. xvii. pp. 266-268; but above all, Sir H. Maine's "Village 
 Communities," lect. iii. pp. 78-99. 
 
 4 At a former lecture I explained this and the weregild at some length. For 
 more on this topic, see Kemble's "Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. x.
 
 APPENDIX. 419 
 
 This family or kin responsibility chiefly comprised the obligation 
 of avenging the slain, the protection of minors in the administration 
 of their property, and the payment of half the \veregild if cne of 
 the msegburh (or kindred) committed a homicide and fled from 
 justice; but it carried with it also the right or privilege of receiving 
 the weregild for a slain kinsman, and of this two-thirds fell to the 
 relations on the male side, and one-third to those on the female. 1 
 
 With the development of the Anglo-Saxon States, and the inter- 
 mixture of that people with Britons and Danes, this legal responsi- 
 bility, founded on kinship, lost a considerable part of its influence, 
 and other artificial relations or connections took the place of the 
 rapidly decreasing patriarchal customs. 
 
 The wealthy lord of the soil, the feudal superior, received all his 
 vassals or subjects under his protection, 2 and took on himself the 
 obligation of presenting them, if accused, to justice, and of paying 
 the weregild of the homicide if lie had fled. 
 
 On the other hand, the old responsibility which arose out of kin 
 relationship, so far as his vassals were concerned, was now given to 
 the "hlaford," 3 their representative in the state or the hundred. The 
 relations of the criminal also were called on to pay the weregild to 
 him, of which only a part fell to the kindred of the slain. 
 
 But even this institution was insufficient for the great number of 
 the freemen who were not included in any of these associations. 
 
 As a check to the evils resulting from this state of things, recourse 
 was had to an old, probably an originally military, division of the 
 country into " tythings," and in one of these every freeman whose 
 rank and possessions were not in themselves a sufficient guarantee 
 for his good conduct was enrolled. 
 
 Every ten freemen formed a tything, " teething," and of these 
 one was the chief or " tything-man " (the " tyenthe-heved " of King 
 Edward's law ). 4 
 
 The military character of this formation, which at a later period 
 was merged in the " watch and ward " on the public way, was long 
 to be traced. At last even the leader of the men of the hundred, 
 the " Btallere," 5 degenerated into the subordinate official, the con- 
 stable. 6 
 
 1 See the " Laws of Edward and Guthrun," cap. xiii. 
 
 2 This marks one important social change, the substitution of the feudal 
 notion of lordship and protection for the old patriarchal idea, kin relationship 
 and responsibility. 
 
 3 Hlaford, the loaf-giver: see as to this word, Freeman's " Norman Conquest," 
 vol. i. ch. iii. p. 88, note 3 (3rd edition, 1877). 
 
 * See "Laws of Edward the Confessor," cap. xxviii. 
 
 5 Sallere: the word " Stallarius ' appears in the Chronicle of Simeon of 
 Durham U.D. 1063) : " Eadnorth, who was ' Siallere ' of King Harold, met 
 him with his array"; and in Richard of Monmouth s " History of Ely," who 
 tells of one Ali'gar the "Stallere" attacking the vill of Estre. The same 
 author, in another place, calls this Alfgar the Constable; and from this Spel- 
 man thinks that "Stallere" and Constable come to be identical in meaning. 
 The " Stallere " originally meant Prefect of the stable. 
 
 6 Lappenberg (quoting Palgrave, vol. i. p. 200, who remarks that "tything" 
 and " ward " were synonymous in the ancient law), " Anglo-Saxou Kings," 
 vol. ii. chs. xx. and xxi. Edition 18Si (Bell & Sons).
 
 420 APPENDIX. 
 
 It is not improbable that these tythings were at an early period 
 bound for the weregild of their members, and entitled to the same 
 (see "Lex Salica," tit. xiv., xliv., xlv.), from which it may be in- 
 ferred that for the crime of the murderer, burglar, or ravisher, pay- 
 ment of weregilds was exacted from nine of his fellows. 
 
 In the older laws of the Anglo-Saxons, the word tythings is not 
 used. Gild brethren is the term in vogue, as in Laws 27 and 28 of 
 Alfred (A.D. 890), 
 
 Who were these gild brethren? Probably the members of " frith- 
 gilds " (peace gilds), such as the ones existing in London in old times, 
 nnd mentioned in Athelstan's Ordinance (A.D. 930), "Among our 
 ' frith gegildas,' as well eorlish as ceorlish"; probably existing also 
 in other cities and large towns. 
 
 But inasmuch as no gild was expected to take on itself obligations 
 for its members beyond its special means of control over them, as 
 would be the case of civic gilds, it is clear that every freeman was 
 not necessarily included in a "gild." Therefore, after Athelstan's 
 reign we meet with various enactments passed to compel every non- 
 exempted freeman to find " borh " (a surety). 
 
 This in the southern parts of England was imposed upon the 
 tythings, and was called " frith-born," and by the Anglo Normans, 
 " franc-pledge " sureties for the peace. In Yorkshire the term was 
 " tienmanna-tale." But more upon this institution will be seen in 
 the extracts from the Anglo-Saxon and Norman laws which are dealt 
 Avith by me. a 
 
 NOTE M. 
 
 Qefus (root 0e, whence 9e'w riOeu Ti#??Au), natural justice, right, 
 law, duty, a decree, command. 9e<r/xds, a law, institution, rite, divine 
 as opposed to human law. 
 
 Qefjus, that which is established by custom, that which is laid down 
 (and so), awarded. 
 
 At'*?/, natural right arising from custom, habit, usage. Homer, 
 Od. iv. 691, uses it for custom; ^Escbylus Agam, 911, for privilege, 
 way, manner ; Euripides Medea, 413, for law, right, justice. Later 
 on it came to be used for the decision of a judge, a lawsuit, a trial, a 
 cause, a penalty. Homer uses it in the plural for righteous judg- 
 ments in the hands of monarchs. 
 
 No/xos (from ve/jiw, to apportion, to distribute, to allot), means 
 strictly anything assigned or apportioned ; then it was extended to 
 mean all that becomes law by usage or custom ; and then a law, or 
 ordinance. 
 
 1 As to this subject of "gylrls," or gilds, as exhibiting the past idea of im 
 urban community in the earlier days of the Saxons, see Keinble's "Anglj- 
 Saxons," vol. ii. cb. vii. pp. 09 et s<j. See also further on at p. l;jo.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE N. Ine's Laics. 
 
 I desire to draw attention to two points in connection with Ine's 
 laws, and I do so in the shape of a note. One is (and I have already 
 alluded to it) that the word Ealdorman appears for the first time in 
 any of the Saxon laws up to this date, and that it is only from Ine's 
 time that the institution of Ealdormen can be traced with any cer- 
 tainty. The other is an explanation of the term Gesith-cundtnan. 
 
 For the origin of the " Gesith " we must go back to a period much 
 earlier than the Anglo-Saxon immigration. It is in one portion of 
 old Teutonic life that we get the first idea, I mean in the " comitatug," 1 
 or troop of chosen youth, who, from the birth or services of their 
 fathers, were allowed to surround the prince's person, and take rank 
 in the tribe as his " comites," or followers. 
 
 In itself, the position of the comes was inferior to that of free- 
 man, but from the opportunities afforded him of distinction on the 
 field of battle, and of obtaining rich rewards for deeds of valour, as 
 well as from the fact that he was not only the chosen follower of the 
 chief in war, but a distinguished attendant of his household or court 
 in time of peace, the comes outstripped the freeman in the race for 
 place and power. 
 
 On the settlement of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain this, with other 
 Teutonic institutions, continued ; but as in other classes of the in- 
 vaders, so in this, the old names were lost, and new ones took their 
 place. 
 
 The freeman was called ceorl ; 2 the born noble was called eorl r 
 and the comes, or comrade, was known by the term gesith, the. word 
 being derived from " sithian," to journey, 3 and signifying ""comes 
 itineris." 
 
 In time, but certainly a good deal later than Ine's day, the term 
 gesith itself disappeared, and the title thegn (or thane) took its place. 
 Then the comes or follower became a servant or minister (thegn), 
 raised into the rank of a noble when, through service to royalty, he 
 gained such promotion. So his prior dependent and imperfect free- 
 dom 4 was converted into a loftier state, that of noble by service. 
 
 As Mr. Kemble points out, the gesithas played an important part 
 in Anglo-Saxon history. They were the nucleus of a standing army, 
 the means and instruments of aggrandizing the king's power. As an 
 armed force composed of tried warriors, the favour or friendship of 
 some one or other more powerful soldier among them was an object 
 of consideration to a large part of the community. 
 
 Thus the gesithas grew in strength and wealth, supported by 
 royalty on the one hand and courted by the weaker members of the 
 district on the other. Even in early days the gesith, uufree thougli 
 Le might be, stood above the simple freeman in the matter of the 
 
 1 Tacitus, " De Mor. Germ.," xiii. xiv. 
 
 2 The ceorlish man of Ine's law is the same thing as " ceorl." 
 
 3 The Frisian law books speak of the "sithar" as the c >mpnnion of the 
 judge. See Lajipenberg, vol. ii. ch. xix. p. 387 (Bohn's Library ediiiou). 
 
 * iSee Kemble's " Anglo-Saxons," vol. i. ch. vii. pp. 173 174.
 
 422 APPENDIX. 
 
 pecuniary value of his life. His weregild was triple that of the 
 ceorl. Then, as Ine's laws show, in addition to that he was able 
 to own land, and so he became a gesith-cund- man, and later on 
 a sax-hynde man, ranking in the second class of the free. Finally, 
 as I think I have stated elsewhere, the gesithas rose in power and 
 importance. The highest offices in the country were conferred upon 
 them by the crown, the class of nobles by birth became absorbed in 
 that of nobles by service, and the old comites, transformed into 
 gesiths through the agency of the principle of commendation, rose 
 to the position of mediate lords, whose real leader was the crowned 
 head of the realm. ' 
 
 NOTE 0. 
 
 As this thegn class played an important part in the history of Anglo- 
 Saxon England, it is right that I should state at some little length 
 how the order was brought by Alfred into a more distinguished posi- 
 tion than that which it had occupied before his reign. The thegn 
 (tegn, thainus, tainus) was originally a servant, then he was a person 
 who became noble by service with a superior, and eventually, before 
 the Conquest, his social position was nearly the same as that of the 
 knight in later days. Now, as I have already explained in an earlier 
 lecture, the division of the people in the earliest Saxon times was that 
 of eorls and ceorls ; the eorl being a nobleman, the ceorl (churl) 
 being a freeman who was not noble (at a later period degenerating 
 into a villanus, an unfree dependent, a nativus or rusticus). In 
 the old days of constant warfare, and of its consequent destruction of 
 property and impoverishment of the inhabitants, the free ceorl had 
 suffered as much as any class. Too weak to resist the attacks of 
 powerful invaders, he was forced to seek for protection by putting 
 himself under the help of a stronger man, and this he did by com- 
 mending himself to a thegn, whose armed aid and protection was 
 given in return for the ceorl's undertaking to follow his new lord 
 as his " man " to the field. Again, as lands were wasted by the 
 Danes, they were re-peopled by the rural nobles, who, placing settlers 
 on them, gave them cattle and implements of culture, receiving in 
 return service from the recipients. Now the result of all this was 
 that the class of free ceorls became almost extinguished, while the 
 bulk of the landowners were thegns, varying in degree and position 
 king's thegns, afterwards in feudal times barons ; middle thegns, 
 afterwards county knights; and lesser thegns, all who possessed 
 " soke," or private jurisdiction on their own lands. Thus the thegns 
 grew in strength and numbers, and rose to such importance that to 
 attach them to his standard was an object of consideration to the 
 king. Alfred seized on the idea of making use of the body for military 
 purposes, and by his skill it became the nucleus of a new military 
 
 Hall am' a 
 . . i" History 
 
 , .. . pp. 113. 114; and Freeman's " History of the Nor-r 
 
 man Conquest," vol. i. ch. iii. pp. 87-90 (3rd edition, 1877).
 
 APPENDIX. 423 
 
 system. Moreover, he stirred the ceorls into life by holding out 
 to them the hope of rising from their inferior condition of churldom 
 into the hetter one of thegnhood by a law which appears in the 
 written code of bis son Eadward. Shortly stated, what he did was to 
 subject all owners of five hides of land to thegn service. He then 
 divided the whole country into military districts, every five hides 
 having to send an armed man at the king's summons, who was to be 
 provided with victuals and pay. Each borough was rated at one or 
 more such districts, and sent its contingent of from one to twelve 
 soldiers. Two objects, therefore, were kept in view by this system. 
 One, that of establishing a proper military force for the protection 
 of the country ; the other, the mfusion of a spirit of patriotic emula- 
 tion by holding out to every freeman the hope and desire of raising 
 himself in the social scale. 
 
 NOTE P. "An ox's bell, a dog's collar, and a blast 7iora." 
 
 This law, as it stands, is not altogether easy of comprehension, and 
 as some explanation of it is needed, I here give it. The first point to 
 notice in it is the illustration it affords of one part of country life of 
 England at the time. At a date when much of the old Teutonic form 
 of proprietary relations was still in existence, and when the wealth 
 of the district consisted mainly of herds of cattle and of swine, we 
 must imagine the members of the community who inhabited the 
 villages using the common mark or waste as pasture ground for their 
 herds. 
 
 Large in extent and stretching away in many places into the 
 wild deep forest and woodland as was this waste, the risk the owners 
 ran of losing their beasts and swine was no small one. 
 
 To avoid this, something that should give notice of the direction 
 in which these beasts had strayed, an animal to keep them together 
 and follow them when straying, and a note or call with which the 
 beasts might become familiar and to which they would return from 
 their wandering, was absolutely necessary. 
 
 An ox's collar for some of the leading beasts, with a bell on it, a 
 dog's collar, with the owner's name or mark, and also with a bell oa 
 it, and a blast horn, enabled the herdsman to discover the where- 
 abouts of his charge, to drive them homeward and to call them to 
 him. 
 
 These instruments'were absolutely needed and almost sacred. Hence 
 a theft of any one of them was an offence that required a punishment 
 that would be certain and defined. The penalty, therefore, was a 
 fixed one a shilling, no small sum in those days. 
 
 But a question may be asked, why, if the offence of cattle-stealing 
 was looked upon in this primitive society as a very high one (and 
 this we know was the case), should not the theft of articles that were 
 absolutely necessary for the proper custody and care of the beasts be 
 more severely treated. 
 
 The answer is, that in these old times a great distinction was made 
 in respect of the character of the offence of stealing. A bold, open,
 
 424 APPENDIX. 
 
 and manifest theft was not regarded with so much disfavour as a 
 secret one. 
 
 In stealing any of these three articles enumerated in the law, n 
 man was taking something that proclaimed itself, and so each of them 
 was reckoned or looked upon as an informer ("melda"). 
 
 Therefore, however intrinsically valuable each article might be, the 
 penalty was independent of that value ; while on the other hand, 
 however poor and commonplace was each article, still the price re- 
 mained the same, viz., what, by the terms of the law, it was declared 
 to be worth. 
 
 A similar principle appears in other parts of the old Saxon laws on 
 the subject of torts and offences. Thus, is one of Ine's laws, c. 43, an 
 axe was declared to be a " melda " (an informer), because of the noise 
 it made in felling a tree, and therefore it was enacted that " if any 
 one fell in a wood a good many trees, and it be afterwards discovered, 
 let him pay for III trees each with XXX shillings. He need not pay 
 for more of them, were there as many of them as might be, because tbe 
 axe is an informer, not a thief." "But," as the same law runs, "if 
 any one burns a tree in a wood, and it be found out against him who 
 did it, let him pay the full ' wite ' (that is, the fine to the reeve as for 
 a public wrong). Let him give LX shillings, because fire is a thief." 
 The act of burning is noiseless and secret, like the act of a thief, but 
 the act of felling is loud and tends to attract notice. 
 
 NOTE Q. On the ORDEAL and the DUEL. 
 
 From the preamble to Ethelred's laws and from Chapter I. we have 
 evidence that in his time, A.D. 980 to A.D. 1016, the ordeal was one of 
 the methods in use for preserving the faith or peace of the district. 
 I propose to explain this mode of testing the innocence of an accused 
 person. 
 
 Ordeal (ordalium) is a Saxon word signifying a great judgment, 
 and in very early times this mode of purgation was a recognised in- 
 stitution. 
 
 It was a well-known custom, traceable back for many years, to give 
 an offender who, on arraignment, pleaded not guilty, the choice of 
 the two forms of trial. He might put himself on God and the country 
 by the testimony of twelve men, or he might put himself on the 
 judgment of God alone the presumption in the latter case being 
 that God would always deliver the innocent. 
 
 By the judgment of God the ordeal was carried out in two ways 
 one by water, the other by fire. 
 
 The ordeal by fire was reserved for freemen, and those who were of 
 a better condition ; that by water was kept for bondmen and rustics. 
 
 In the brdeal by water, either cold or hot water was used. If cold 
 water was selected, the innocence of the party essaying the venture 
 depended on whether his body was not borne up by the water con- 
 trary to the course of nature. His thumbs were tied to his toes, and 
 in this posture he was thrown into the water. If he swam in it, he 
 was considered guilty ; if he sank, he was declared innocent.
 
 APPENDIX. 425 
 
 In hot water the accused had to thrust his bare arm or legs into 
 boiling water. If he brought the limb or limbs out unhurt, he was 
 taken to be innocent ; if they were hurt, he was judged as guilty. 
 
 They that were tested by the fire ordeal had to pass, bare-footed 
 and blind, over nine hot, glowing ploughshares, or were compelled to 
 carry a hot, burning iron in their hands. In this latter case the iron 
 varied in weight according to the degree of the offence. If it was of 
 one pound weight, the term applied to the test was " simplex crda- 
 lium ; " if of two pounds' weight, " duplex ordalium ; " if of three 
 pounds' weight, " triplex ordalium " (the single ordeal, the two- 
 fold ordeal, and the three-fold ordeal). 
 
 If the party accused performed the fire ordeal unhurt, he was taken 
 to have given proof of his innocence. 
 
 Ft-r each of these three ordeals the ceremony was as follows : 
 
 For three days before the trial, whether by water or fire, the culprit 
 was to attend the priest, to be constant at mass, to make his offering, 
 and to sustain himself on nothing but bread, onions, salt, and water. 
 On the day of trial he was to take the Sacrament, and swear that 
 he was not guilty of or privy to the crime charged against him. 
 
 In the fire ordeal, the fire by which the iron or the ploughshares 
 was to be heated was lighted in the church. After it was lighted no 
 man was to enter the church save the priest and the accused, until 
 eitl.er the iron or the ploughshares had attained the proper amount of 
 heat. Then, from a stake which was fixed in the church, a distance 
 of nine feet was measured out, each foot corresponding in length to 
 the foot of the accused. When all was ready, an equal number of 
 men, twelve persons on each side for the accuser and the accused, were 
 to enter the church and to stand along on both sides of the ordeal, all 
 fasting. The priest then sprinkled them with holy water, which they 
 also tasted. 'Ihen they had to kiss the book, and to be signed by the 
 cross. During the whole of this time the fire was not allowed to be 
 mended, but the iron or the ploughshares remained on the coals till 
 the last collect was finished. Then the iron was placed on ten staples 
 which were to sustain it, or the ploughshares were laid at certain 
 distances on the ground. The accused then started on his trial, 
 carrying the hot iron or walking upon the heated ploughshares over 
 the nine feet space mentioned. During this time nothing was to be 
 said but a prayer to God to discover the truth. At the end of the 
 nine feet the accused threw down the iron or ceased walking. Upon 
 that his hand or his feet were bound up in a bandage, which was 
 sealed, and kept so bound for three days. At the close of that time 
 the seal was broken and the bandage removed. If it was seen that 
 the limb or limbs were hurt, the accused was declared guilty ; if not, 
 he was acquitted. 
 
 From all this it may be surmised that the ordeal was not so terrible 
 as one might at first sight suppose it to be. 
 
 Independent of the chance of collusion between the accused and the 
 priest, there was ample opportunity given to the former for preparing 
 for the trial by the application of remedies useful for hardening the 
 epidermis of the hand or feet. Then again, a good constitution, a
 
 426 APPENDIX. 
 
 careful preservation of the air from the members affected, and a rapid 
 walk over the small space of nine feet might very well tend to keep 
 off any signs of damage severe enough to outlast three days. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that, before the thirteenth century had 
 closed, such an absurd form of procedure as the ordalian test was 
 condemned in England ; and that by enactment of Parliament in the 
 reign of Henry the Third trial by ordeal was totally abolished. 
 
 I have now to speak of trial by the Duel. 
 
 The introduction of this method of settling disputes is the only real 
 change in the legal system of England attributable to the Conqueror 
 on his accession to power, if we except his ordinance respecting the 
 separation of the civil and the ecclesiastical courts. 
 
 Wager by battle is an ancient Teutonic custom, and is to be found 
 as a well-recognised institution in most of the old Teutonic Codes. 
 
 It was entirely in accordance with the primitive notions of the 
 early Teutonic tribes. It followed the principle that had always been 
 an admitted one, of the right of private warfare. It was, however, 
 an improvement upon that, for it forced the parties who were im- 
 mediately concerned in the matter to bring the settlement of their 
 feud into the light of day, and so it tended to get rid of the worst 
 form of revenge for wrongs inflicted secret assassination. 
 
 Like the ordeal it was called the judgment of God, and was repre- 
 sented as an appeal to, and an acknowledgment of, the unerring 
 wisdom of Providence. 
 
 In the originating idea which gave it a position among the custom- 
 ary forms of procedure in use in early times, wager by battle was not 
 so absurd a method of settling disputes as a more advanced civiliza- 
 tion rendered it. It had this advantage, that it substituted one con- 
 clusive trial of strength between two representative champions for a 
 succession of murderous acts of vengeance committed by the private 
 members of an offended tribe, and it compelled the rival parties to 
 bring their quarrel to a public legal issue, for the result of a combat, 
 like the result of a trial at law, was that the side that suffered defeat, 
 was forced to submit to a verdict at law. Thus it happened that 
 wager of battle placed some restriction on the fiercer practice of 
 private feud. Again, as the mode of deciding the dispute or disposing 
 of the charge had a semblance of legality about it, and as the result 
 received the sanction of a legal judgment, wager of battle, or trial by 
 the duel, as it was afterwards called, helped to settle in the minds of 
 the community a belief in the advantages of legal forms. Nor was it 
 without some marks of a rational reliance on testimony and vouchers 
 for truth in respect of the matter in dispute. It was never awarded 
 without the oath of a credible witness, who would venture his life in the 
 duel for the truth of what he swore. The champion of the deman- 
 dant was always one who could be a fit witness, at least, in a suit for 
 land. Therefore the demandant, in civil suits, himself could never 
 engage in the combat, though the defendant or the tenant might fight 
 either in his own person or by that of another. 1 
 
 1 " I am ready," said the party litigant, " to pr jve it by my f reeman (A), whom
 
 APPENDIX. 427 
 
 When the Conqueror introduced and established the trial by duel, 
 it was intended to be applicable only to criminal accusations. For 
 civil causes this mode of settlement does not seem to have been in- 
 troduced by special law, though, doubtless, after the opening was 
 made for it by William's enactment, it was not long before it began 
 to be resorted to in the matter of civil suits, especially those about 
 land. Between the time of the Conqueror and the reign of Henry II., 
 the trial by duel maintained a strong hold in the legal system of the 
 country ; but on the introduction of the assize by the latter monarch 
 that hold became weakened. Gradually it fell out of repute, and 
 Glanville gives us a good legal reason why this should be. 1 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 In this note I give an explanation of some of the terms employed 
 in Domesday book, of the measures of land, and of the money and 
 coins in use at the time of the survey. 
 
 I begin with the word " villein." 
 
 The word comes most probably from " villa," vill. It represented 
 at a later date the inhabitants of the out portion of a parish in which 
 there were a few houses. 
 
 Coke (Coke-Littleton, I. fol. 115 b) thus defines vill : " A vill is 
 formed of several adjacent buildings (mansionibus), where several 
 inhabitants are collected together." 
 
 " Villanus " in Domesday is the latinized expression for the old 
 Saxon " ceorl." In one of Eadmund's laws (circa A D. 943) appear 
 these words : " Praepositus ; vel thainus ; comes ; vel villanus," which 
 may be translated as " The reeve, or the knight ; the earl (gesith) 
 or the ceorl." 
 
 As I have mentioned in the text of this work, the " ceorl," even 
 before the Conquest, had been gradually falling from his old position. 
 After the Conquest he had lapsed into a condition of villenage. 
 
 The slave, on the other hand, whose state prior to William's vic- 
 tory was of the vilest and most miserable quality, after the Conquest 
 ceased to be regarded as a mere chattel, and by degrees rose to the 
 position of villenage. 
 
 At the period of the Domesday survey, the villein was practically 
 the cultivator of the lord's private demesne. He held a parcel of it 
 by tenure of service on the estate, paying for the land he so held a 
 customary rent in labour. 
 
 This in time was commuted into a money payment, and even in 
 old days, as Domesday shows, some few villeins'- held by a fixed 
 money rent like the modern farmer. Others there were (boors) who 
 
 his father on his death-bed enjoined by the duty he owed him, that if at any 
 time he should hear of a suit for this land, be would hazard himself in a duel 
 for it, as for that which his father had seen and heard." {Reeves's " History 
 of English Law," vol. i. ch. ii. p. 82). 
 
 1 Glanville, lib. 2 c. 3. 
 
 2 Termed in Domesday "censarii," "censores," and "censorii."
 
 428 APPENDIX. 
 
 had no land of their own, but worked on the lord's demesne, like the 
 labourer of later days. 
 
 As a rule, the villein could not leave his holding, but then he 
 could not be driven from it so long as the services or dues were ren- 
 dered or paid ; and in cases where his labour-rent had been fixed 
 by custom, it could not be altered at the lord's caprice or will. 
 
 The " colibert," i.e., the "sokeman," might go if he chose; but 
 if he did, his land lapsed into the hands of his lord. 
 
 The services rendered by the villein (where his rent was not in 
 money) were numerous and varying in quality. 
 
 To ride among his lord's retainers as one of his following ; to go 
 at bis lord's 1 ilding where ordered ; to keep head- ward at nightfall 
 over the manor, or horse-ward over its common field ; to hedge and 
 ditch about the demesne ; or to help in the chase and make the deer- 
 hedge, were among the services by which the villagers held these 
 lands. In addition to these they were bound to give their labour 
 one day a week on the lord's land, and to work for a month in 
 harvest. 1 
 
 From a political point of view the villein could not be called free ; 
 he had no share in the general citizenship, for his lord was his repre- 
 sentative in the hundred-moot or the shire-moot. Yet practically 
 he was free ; and in this respect he was superior to the slave or 
 theow, who under Saxon law was a mere chattel, subject to his 
 owner's caprice, and liable to be sold as the owner pleased. But, as 
 I have already stated, the Conquest introduced a new range of senti- 
 ment with reference to him. 
 
 I have spoken of the gradual degeneration of the villein as to 
 status and rights. Littleton (chap, ii., sect. 172) notices the low 
 condition into which many of the villeins had fallen in his time. 
 
 He makes a strong point of the distinction between villeins proper 
 and some freemen, who held, according to the custom, of a manor. 
 " Their tenure," he tells us, " is called villeuage, and yet they are 
 not villeins." 
 
 In commenting on this passage, Coke (citing the old authorities, 
 Bracton, Brittan, and Fleta) points out the dual character of tenure 
 in villenage in his time. In one of them, the person of the tenant 
 was bond and the tenure was servile. In the other, the person was 
 free though the tenure was servile. This shows the change for the 
 worse in the political and social condition of villenage that resulted 
 from the Conquest ; for at the date of the Domesday survey, it can 
 hardly be said that the villein was bond. Had he been so, it is diffi- 
 cult to understand his admission into the conference apparently on 
 an equality with the other members of the inquest. Probably we 
 may ascribe to the aristocratic character of feudalism this decline in 
 status of this class of the men of England. 
 
 1 Green's " Conquest of England," ch. vii. pp. 329-331. See further as to 
 the "villeins" of England at the time of the Conquest, Freeman's "History 
 of the Norman Conquest," vol. v. ch. xxiv. pp. 476-179.
 
 APPEN'DrX. 429 
 
 We meet with the term " cotarius " in Domesday. The word 
 comes from " cot," a cottage. These persons were much the same 
 as the older " coscets." They were men who had a free socage 
 tenure, and paid a "ferm" or rent in provisions and money, with 
 some customary service added. 
 
 Akin to this class was that of the bordarii or borduarii. 1 Their 
 position, however, was somewhat superior to that of cotters or 
 coscets, for they were boors holding a little house, bigger than a mere 
 cot or hovel, and having some land of husbandry as well. 
 
 " Drenchs," also spoken of in Domesday, were free tenants of a 
 manor freeholders. They are called in the same book, " taini " or 
 " taini mediocres," and sometimes " milites regis." 
 
 TLe "freemen" of the inquest were all those who, prior to and 
 immediately after the Conquest, occupied a position above the socmeii 
 class. They were such as owed no suit or service save the ordinary 
 dues and the trinoda necessitas. 
 
 In later days, and after the feudal doctrines had gained complete 
 hold of England, they were those who owed kuigbt's service. Under 
 the later Xorinan or feudal rule, the doctrine as to service was this : 
 every tenure which was not tenure in chivalry was held to be tenuie 
 in socage. The test was, how it was held. If by homage and un- 
 certain service, it was chivalry tenure. If by service certain (i.e., 
 fixed, in lieu of service of all kinds), whether accompanied with 
 fealty, or homage and fealty, or homage only, it was socage tenure. 
 
 The " socmeu " of Domesday (knowu also as Badmans 2 ) were the 
 inferior landowners, who had lauds in the " soc " or franchise of a 
 great baron, or in Saxon days of a thegn. 
 
 They were privileged villeins, descendants probably of the "ceorls," 
 whose degradation had been, as I have said, slowly going on, but 
 who, from father to son, had been allowed by their lords to remain 
 on their holdings, until at length they had acquired a permanent and 
 legtl interest, not unlike the interest of the copyholder of a later 
 date, and equal to that of a freeholder with this exception, that their 
 right of alienating the land was not recognised or even thought of. 
 
 With the fall of the free ceorls, the rise of the thegn class, as I 
 have mentioned in the text, is a noteworthy fact. The king's thegn, 
 the baron of later feudalism ; the middle thegn, who afterwards be- 
 came the country knight ; and the lesser thegu, that is, the man who 
 possessed soke or private jurisdiction within his lands, were all estab- 
 lished personages some time before the Conquest was achieved. 
 
 It was to this extension of thegnhood, and to the growth of the 
 sokes or private jurisdictions, that the socmeu class of fieeholders 
 
 1 The word comes from the old French word "horde," and so in oldFiench 
 " bordelage," i.e., a base or servile tenure. For a learned note on the word 
 "bordarii" as used in Domesday, and for the meaning of the word, see 
 " Domesday for Kent," by the Rev. L. B. Larking, M.A., notes p. 167. 
 
 A- to later legislation in respect of "Cottages a'ud the iumaies thereof," See 
 31 Eliz. c. 7, and Coke's reading thereon, 2 Iut. ff. 737-740. 
 
 * From "rad" or "rede," firm, stable.
 
 430 APPENDIX. 
 
 seem to owe their origin. And if, as Bishop Stubbs (" Constitutional 
 History," i. p. 214, etc.) points out, it is probable that, save in a few 
 special cases, grants of sac and soc were, before the Conquest, ex- 
 emptions from the jurisdiction of the hundred-courts, exemptions 
 that increased as time went on, we must look upon the socmen of 
 England as a privileged set of tenants, well established throughout 
 the country when the Domesday inquest was held, and Mr. Somner's 
 suggestion as to the etymology of the word socage is therefore more 
 consonant with the history of this class of tenants than that of 
 Littleton. Socage, says the former, comes from the Saxon word 
 " soc," liberty or privilege. Socage, says the latter, comes from the 
 word " soca," which is the same as carruca, or plough. 
 
 According to Somner, socage tenants were privileged tenants. Ac- 
 cording to Littleton, they were tenants owing agricultural service to 
 their lords. 1 
 
 That the socmen were at the time of the Conquest privileged 
 tenants, owing fixed and determinate services ; that they could not 
 be compelled to relinquish their tenements at their lord's will, and 
 therefore that they were looked upon and recognised as free, may, I 
 think, be taken to be undoubted facts. 
 
 We meet with the word "cnicht" in connection with an old institu- 
 tion to which I am about to refer, whose name at least had survived 
 down to the period of the Conquest. 
 
 The cnitchten-gild (or gild of cnichts), a sodality of young nobles 
 (so says Kemble), shows the existence of a set of men who, if noble 
 in old Saxon times, do not appear to have retained that distinction. 2 
 
 The cnicht of later days seems to have been a man who had served 
 as an armed attendant on the king, or perchance on some great lord ; 
 so he was looked upon as a personage of honour and repute in his 
 particular locality. 
 
 I draw attention to this class of men for the purpose of saying a 
 few words about one of the oldest of our English institutions. I 
 refer to the " Cnichten-gild," whose burghers' club existed in Canter- 
 bury, in Nottingham, and in London long before the coming of the 
 Norman. 
 
 I have spoken in another part of this work of the Saxon gilds. To 
 what I have there said I would add this remark : It is to the constant 
 and determined tendency of the burgh or town gilds towards unity of 
 purpose and unity of action that municipal life within our English 
 boroughs owes its power of steady development. By this unity and 
 union our towns have passed from a mere collection of brotherhoods 
 to organized communities. 
 
 This is another debt of gratitude England owes to the Saxon frith- 
 gild system. Now, among our ancient gilds, next to the frith-gild 
 none is of older birth than the cnichten-gild. Indeed, Madox is 
 
 1 See Coke, Littleton, 1 Inst. lib. 2, ch. v. sects. 117 and 119, f. 856, note 1. 
 
 2 Tbe word occurs ia Bede, " cnichtas and geonge men" (" Bcdse Eccl. Hist. 
 Gentis Anglorum," lib. iii. cap. 18). Hickes (Dissert., ep. p. 20) tells us of a 
 gild of thegns at Cambridge whose rules he sets out. The members of the gild 
 were called cnichts and gildmen.
 
 APPENDIX. 431 
 
 inclined to date its origin earlier than that of any other gild. He 
 says " that the English cnichteii-gild of London is the most ancient 
 that occurs to his memory." On this point Mr. Green is disposed to 
 differ from him, placing its institution at a later period than that of 
 the frith-gild ; and as to this Mr. Green's opinion appears to be the 
 correct one. 
 
 Be this as it may, the cnichten-gild is, beyond all doubt, of great 
 antiquity. This cnichten-gild of London takes its place at an earlier 
 date than any other special gild we know of now. It was endowed 
 with land and adorned with privileges. The laud and privileges were 
 retained for some time, but eventually given and granted by the men 
 of the gild to the canons of the Holy Trinity of London, and with 
 that gift and grant the gild apparently ceased to exist. That grant 
 was confirmed by King William and his two successors. 
 
 Whether this cnichten-gild of London was of a religious or secular 
 character is not quite clear from doubt. Stow thinks it must have 
 been secular, and speaks of the men of the gild as having been given 
 to display feats of arms. 1 After a time, Stow goes on, the members 
 of the gild were burgesses of London. 
 
 Madox maintains that it was a secular gild, partly because of its 
 name, cnichts that is, young men, and partly from the very fact 
 recorded of the gild, viz., its own grant to a religious house. 
 
 One word more about all these gilds in connection with the change 
 of political and social ideas consequent on the Conquest. 
 
 Not long after that event, the character and position of all gilds, 
 whether religious or secular, were materially affected. 
 
 The rule was established that no gilds could be legally set up 
 without the license of the king. If any peraons erected a gild with- 
 out warrant, i.e., without the king's leave, it was a trespass, and all 
 persons so acting were liable to be punished ; and in the twenty-sixth 
 year of Henry the Second, several gilds in London were amerced to 
 the crown as " adulterine," i.e., set up without warrant from the king ; 
 among them the gild of Goldsmiths, of which Ealph Flael was alderman. 
 " Peradventure," says Madox, " from these (old) secular gilds, or 
 in imitation of them, sprang the method or practise of gildating and 
 embodying whole towns ; and so perchance it came to pass that the 
 name and office of alderman was brought into towns, cities, and 
 boroughs." 
 
 From this explanation of some of the persons and classes of per- 
 sons referred to in Domesday, I proceed to notice the different kinds 
 of land there spoken of. King's-land (terra regis), in-land, thain- 
 land, and reve-land require some few words of comment. 
 
 The king's-land, or terra regis, of Domesday is thus described by a 
 learned and accurate authority : 2 
 
 1 Probably, suggests Madox, Stow was induced to form this opinion from 
 the word " cnicht." See the grants referred to in the text, set out in Madox's 
 " Firma Burgi," pp. 23 and 24, notes i and k. 
 
 * Allen's "Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in 
 England," p. 160.
 
 432 APPENDIX. 
 
 " It was derived from a variety of sources. It consisted in part of 
 land that happened at the time of the survey to be in the king's 
 hands by escheat or forfeiture from his Norman followers. It was 
 constituted in part of the lands of Saxon proprietors, which had 
 been confiscated after the Conquest, and had not been granted away 
 to subjects. But it was chiefly composed of land that had been pos- 
 sessed by the Confessor in demesne or in farm, or had been held by 
 his thegns and other servants. Of the last description, part was 
 probably the private boc-land of the Confessor, which had belonged 
 to him as his private inheritance. But if we compare the number of 
 manors assigned to him as his demesne lands in Domesday with the 
 estates of boc-land possessed by Alfred, it seems incredible that the 
 whole should have been his private property. A great part must have 
 been the folc-land or public property of the state, of which, though 
 the nominal proprietor, he was only the usufructuary possessor, and 
 with the license and consent of the witan, the distributor on the part 
 of the public. The land which is called terra regis in the Exchequer 
 Domesday, is termed in the original returns of the Exon Domesday 
 demesne land of the king, belonging to the kingdom." 
 
 " In this matter," as Professor Freeman tells us, 1 "the advice of 
 the witan could not fail to become formal. The folc-laud, ever grow- 
 ing through confiscations, ever lessening through grants, gradually 
 came to be looked on as the land of the king, to be dealt with as he 
 thought good. The land which was practically the land of King 
 Edward, became as a matter of course (without any change formally 
 enacted) the land of King William." 
 
 Thain-land, or, to use the later form, tain-land, as the name implies, 
 was in old Saxon days the expression for laud assigned to the thains 
 by grant or charter, and so it became bocland. 
 
 In the time of Edward the Confessor, tain-land was land which be- 
 longed to a private person (a tainus). 
 
 The same process of conversion that, as I have shown, had affectfd 
 the ancient folc-land of England affected tain-land also, and at the 
 date of the Domesday survey a good deal of this tain land had be- 
 come annexed to the terra regis. 
 
 As Domesday for Herefordshire shows us, the conversion of tain- 
 laud into reve-land is visible in a district of that county. "Hffic 
 terra fuit tempore Edwadi tain-laud, sed postea conversa est in 
 ' reve-land.' " " In Edward's time, this land was tain-laud ; since 
 that period (probably in Harold's reign), it has been converted into 
 reve-land." 2 
 
 In Domesday we meet with various latinized forms of our word 
 house such as domus, haga, inansio, mansura, and maneilum. 
 
 i " William the Conqueror," ch. iv. p. 132. See also Lapj,enberg, " The 
 Anglo-Saxon Kings" (Bohn's Edition), vol. ii. ch. xxi. p. 399. 
 
 * ' Terra," says Sir H. Ellis, " when put simply (that is, when it stands 
 alone, without any qualifying word), uniformly simiifies arable land as distinct 
 from wood, meadow, and common pasture." (See Ellis's "Introduction to 
 Domesday," vol. i. p. 195.)
 
 APPENDIX. 433 
 
 Of these terms, haga appears to be restricted to the meaning of 
 house in a burgh or town. Between mansio and mansura there is 
 frequently no difference, each being used for house or dwelling-place. 
 Sometimes, however, mansio is applied to the dwelling-place, whilst 
 mansura is used to denote not only the house, but also the house 
 with land attached to it, and occasionally the land where a house 
 once stood. 
 
 In Domesday for Dover most of the houses are spoken of as man- 
 surae, and in respect of two of them the owners were only possessed 
 of half of the laud attached to them. In Canterbury all the houses 
 are called mansurffl. 
 
 In Domesday for Cambridge, Hereford, Huntingdon, Lewes, 
 Shrewsbury, and Warwick, the word used is mansura. For Glou- 
 cester, Lincoln, Oxford, and York, mansio is the term employed. 
 For Chester manerium appears. The houses in Arundel (Castrum 
 Harundel), Guildford, 1 and Wallingford are called hagae, and inBrid- 
 port, Dorchester, Exeter, Shaftesbury, and Wareham, the word domus 
 is used. 
 
 The manerium of William's day and of Domesday must not be 
 confounded with the manors of the later copyhold system. 
 
 The word was in vogue in the early feudal times, and by the feud- 
 ists it was identical with their use of the word villa, that is, an estate 
 in a country district, having buildings on it suitable for the storing of 
 crops. Manerium also meant in their terminology a dwelling-place, 
 with a certain amount of land attached to it. Further, it was also 
 applied to the feudal mansion itself. 2 
 
 Manor in the later English law obtained a larger signification. It 
 grew out of the royal grants that after the Conquest were made to 
 the barons, or other men of eminence, of lands, for them and their 
 heirs to dwell upon and exercise jurisdiction, in return for services 
 and yearly payments. 
 
 A recent article on the subject of " Early Landholding and Modern 
 Land Transfer," by Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., is a valuable contri- 
 bution to the history of the subject on which I am now engaged. 3 
 
 Our old manorial system, at the time of and subsequent to the Con- 
 quest, is so well described, and the composition of the manor long 
 prior to its later form under our copyhold tenure is so carefully 
 sketched, that I cannot do better than recommend my readers to turn 
 to Sir Frederick's paper. I will only briefly notice a few points (well 
 explained in the article), because they furnish the key to the proper 
 understanding of a subject, not altogether free from difficulty. What 
 feudal tenure always implied was the duty and the right of jurisdic- 
 tion of some kind ; for local, or more exactly speaking personal, jus- 
 
 1 Gildeford, where the burghers houses are called hagae, a house belonging 
 to the Bishop of Bayeux, apparently not geldable because it was part of the 
 bishop's manerium, is called domus, and two others outside the burgh are styled 
 domus. 
 
 1 Cf. " Oraigii Jus Feudale," the glossary, under each word. 
 
 * Macmfllan'* Magazine for April, 1890. 
 
 A.L. F P
 
 434 APPENDIX. 
 
 tice was as essential to feudal tenure as military service. Lordship 
 and court jurisdiction were necessarily connected and inter-dependent. 
 As I think I have shown elsewhere, there was an inclination on tbe 
 part of the general body of freemen to neglect the attendance at the 
 moots or courts ; hence the result was, that private courts on the 
 whole survived only where there was a sort of compact nucleus of 
 local business and interest by which they could be maintained. 
 
 Such a nucleus was afforded by the complex structure known as 
 the Manor. 
 
 What we find, then, from the Conquest downwards is, that an Eng- 
 lish manor included the lord, the free tenants, who held of the lord by 
 regular feudal tenures, and owed suit to his court, and the villeins or 
 customary tenants, who held land according to the custom of the 
 manor in villenage or base tenure, being generally bound not only to 
 make stated payments in kind, but to furnish work on the lord's own 
 land at stated intervals. 
 
 Therefore the idea of a manor unaccompanied by private jurisdic- 
 tion, as well in the early period of the Norman settlement as in the 
 period just preceding it, is not warranted by the history of the insti- 
 tution. It was from this Normanized manorial system that the later 
 notion of copyhold and copyhold tenures grew into life, and it was to 
 the baser part of it, viz., to villenage, that it owes its position in the 
 law of England. Copyhold tenure is in the main due to the negli- 
 gence or the goodnature of the lords. 
 
 Formed at first by encroachment, afterwards ripened into property 
 by tenure, and eventually recognised as a customary right, our English 
 system of copyhold tenure is a remarkable instance of the influence 
 of custom upon law, and the value of prescription as confirming and 
 settling titles. 1 
 
 I now proceed to notice the measurements of land spoken of in 
 Domesday, not for the purpose of settling the controversy as to the 
 exact amount of one of them, the " hide," but for the purpose of 
 quoting from a very valuable old treatise a passage relating to this 
 matter. 
 
 First I state the terms employed in Domesday, or at the time of 
 that survey. These terms are " acra," " virgata," "hyd," or hide, 
 and " carrucata." 
 
 The " acra," or acre, 2 was the unit. That seems (at least the Ken- 
 tish acre was so) to have been from one-fourth to one-third more than 
 the Roman jugerum. This, which was as much as an ox could plough 
 in a day, was, according to Quintilian, two hundred and forty feet in 
 
 1 For "manorinm," and the duties of the steward and bailiff thereof, accord- 
 ing to the custom and law of England at a later period of time than the Con- 
 quest, see Fleta (ch. 72 and 73), pp. 159-164. 
 
 2 From the A.-S. " aecer " a field. The Norman acre evidently differed from 
 the Saxon acre, as tbe Register of Battle Abbey shows, where a grant of land 
 is spoken of thus : " Tri^iuta acras prati ad mensuram Norrnaiiuia? dimensas 
 in fundo manerii sui vocabulo Bodeham." Thirty acres of meadow, according 
 to the Norman scale of measurement, on the land of his nmnerium styled 
 Bodeham.
 
 APPENDIX. 435 
 
 length, and one hundred and twenty in breadth ; BO that the Domes- 
 day acre was about three hundred feet in length, and one hundred 
 and fifty in breadth. The virgate (or compass of land) contained 
 from twenty-four to thirty acres, probably thirty. The " hide," from 
 the old word " hyden," to cover, oiiginally meant not a measure but 
 a family (Bede speaks of familiae, i.e. hides) ; what its actual extent 
 was is by no means free from doubt. According to Mr. Kemble it 
 ranged from thirty to thirty- three acres. Sir H. Ellis thinks " it con- 
 tained no certain number of acres." Mr. Morgan shows that it varied 
 from sixty-four to three hundred and sixty acres, and Mr. Coote holds 
 that " at all times it was a settled and defined quantity of land; for 
 though the number of its acres varied, it expressed the same quan- 
 tity." Mr. Pearson : has gone into the discussion with great care. 
 His conclusions are : (1) That there were two hides, the first, Bede's, 
 being probably of twenty-five to thirty acres ; the second, that of 
 later times, one hundred to one hundred and twenty acres. (2) That 
 this extended measurement may be attributable to the growing ten- 
 dency towards converting commonage in unenclosed lands into pro- 
 perty. He quotes a passage from the Domesday in Kent, which 
 Beems certainly in point. It runs thus : " In the common land of St. 
 Martin there are four hundred and a half acres, which make two and 
 a half sowlings, or Kentish hides." This and other instances in Domes- 
 day would seem to indicate a measure of one hundred or one hundred 
 aud twenty acres. 
 
 In tbe old treatise I referred to a few lines back the matter is 
 noticed, though briefly and without much explanation. That treatise 
 is the "Dialogus de Scaccario," by Richard, Bishop of London, 
 Treasurer of the Exchequer in the reign of Henry the Second. 
 
 This work, which appears to have been written about a century 
 after the Domesday Inquest, is one of great value for the account it 
 gives of many of our old institutions, and for the light it throws 
 " upon every important point in the development of constitutional 
 principles before the Great Charter. 2 
 
 This is the passage in the " Dialogus," which I translate : 
 
 I. xvii. Concerning the Hide, the Hundred, and tlie County, accord- 
 ing to the traditional talk of the country. 
 
 " The Teacher. This topic was more familiar to the country folk. 
 According to their traditions the ' hide ' in its primitive form con- 
 sists of one hundred acres. The ' hundred ' is made up of so many 
 hundreds of hides, the exact quantity not being defined, for some 
 hundreds contain more and some fewer hides. Hence you will find 
 in the old special grants of the kings of England the hundred fre- 
 quently spoken of as the centuriate. Following this plan, ' counties ' 
 are made up of hundreds, some more and some less, as the wise men 
 of the time settled them." 
 
 1 " History of England," vol. i., Appendix B., pp. 651-658. 
 * " Documents Illustrative of English History," by W. Stubbs, M.A., part iv. 
 p. 160.
 
 436 APPENDIX. 
 
 According to this authority, then, the measurement of the hide 
 was in King Henry's day taken to be one hundred acres. 
 
 The term " carrucata " was introduced by the Normans, and in 
 the opinion of a modern writer (Mr. Eyton) represented an estate 
 which in point of value and capacity was closely analogous to the 
 Saxon hide. 
 
 Mr. Eyton further maintains that the term as employed by the 
 Normans meant the measurement of the ungeldable laud (quse nun- 
 quain geldavit). 
 
 Between Mr. Eyton and Mr. J. Horace Bound, to whom I have 
 before referred, there is a controversy on this point, viz. whether there 
 is any connection between the " carrucata terras " and the " terra ad 
 unam carrucam." 
 
 Mr. Eyton holds that there is no such connection, and insists that 
 the Norman surveyors applied it to land which had never been hidated, 
 or whose hidation they could not fix or discover. Hence they used 
 the term as an alternative for the Saxon hide. 
 
 Mr. Bound dissents from this view, and maintains (1) that the 
 carrucata was virtually the equivalent of the " terra ad unam carru- 
 cam"; (2) that whilst the hide is systematically opposed to the terra 
 ad unam carrucam as measures calculated on different plans, the 
 carrucata never is so opposed. 
 
 "Without attempting to settle this controversy, I would draw atten- 
 tion to the fact that in the time of Edward the Second (see a deed of 
 Thomas de Arden, 19 ed. 2), a carrucate or plough-land is declared to 
 be one hundred acres, upon which a tribute was levied, called Car- 
 vagium or Carucagium ; that Skene defines it thus, " as great a por- 
 tion of land as may be tilled by one plough in a year and a day " ; 
 and that Littleton, in his chapters on " Tenure in Socage," says 
 " Soca idem est quod carrucata." Soke and carrucate are all one. 
 But then he may have been deceived by the word itself. 
 
 In the reign of Henry the Third the king took " carvage," that is, 
 two marks of silver of every knight's fee, towards the marriage of his 
 sister Isabella to the Emperor (Stow's Annals, p. 271). 
 
 To return, however, to the word as used in Domesday ; this in- 
 ference is noteworthy, that " carrucate," when it occurs in hidated 
 districts, represents the name given by the Normans to a plough-land 
 free from liability to geld ; l and this I think may be taken to be the 
 actual meaning of the word at that time. 
 
 I shall now advert to the subject of the current coins, the method 
 of taking payments, and that of making up accounts known and 
 applied at the time of the Domesday survey. I start with the follow- 
 ing points. 
 
 1. All the moneys specified in Domesday (as was the fact also in 
 Saxon times) are not to be understood as being current coins, money 
 
 1 See vol. i. of " Domesday Studies," published 1888. " Danegeld and the 
 Finance of Domesday," by J. Horace Round, M.A. Also, for large information 
 on the subject of the Carrucate and the Bovate, see in the samte volume Canon 
 Isaac Taylor's paper on " The Plough-land and the Plough."
 
 APPENDIX. 437 
 
 in actual use, for many of those mentioned as being paid or rendered 
 are only moneys of account, expressions for money used by way of 
 computation. 
 
 2. That our modern acceptation of these moneys of account does 
 not convey the true meaning of them in the days when the Normans 
 first ruled the land. 
 
 The coins in actual use or currency, though of small value, were 
 made of silver. They were the penny (called in Domesday " den- 
 arius," and in a few passages "numnms"), the halfpenny ("obolus,") 
 the farthing (" ferding," or " ferting "), and the " styca." They were 
 all Saxon coins, continuing in use for many years after the Conquest, 
 for apparently no new money was made by others than the moueyers 
 or minters of certain favoured towns until the year A.D. 1175, when 
 Henry the Second seems to have struck new coins. 
 
 Besides the moneys above mentioned, a small copper coin, called 
 " minuta" (or mite), is spoken of in Domesday (but only under one 
 place, Cheshire). This is supposed to be identical with the copper 
 coins in currency in the time of the Northumbrian kings, known as 
 " stycse," and worth about half a farthing. 
 
 All the moneys that were collected by the sheriffs and town reeves, 
 whether on account of "geld," or "gablum," or of fines and penalties, 
 were collected for and paid into the Treasury ; that is, in Saxou days, 
 into the " Hoard," to the hands of the " Hordere," or treasurer. 1 
 
 It is very probable, as Mr. Green points out, that the later system 
 of the Exchequer owes its origin to the necessity of providing proper 
 machinery, not only for receiving the Danegeld and other sums 
 levied by and paid to the sheriffs, but for giving formal acquittance 
 thereof; 2 but of this I have spoken elsewhere. With reference to the 
 collection of these rents and profits, taxes and fines, two things are 
 clear. 
 
 One is, that the amounts to be got in and accounted for were lar^e 
 in quantity, and complicated in the matter of figures, throughout 
 every county and town of England. 
 
 The other is, that the expression of these amounts in pennies, half- 
 pennies, and farthings (though they were the coins actually received), 
 would have caused infinite trouble both to those who had to levy and 
 pay in, and those who had to receive. Hence, as a matter of econo- 
 mical arrangement, the plan of reckoning the levies and payments by 
 moneys of account was a matter of necessity. 
 
 Therefore, instead of rendering the account of "geld," "gable," 
 fine, and penalty in pennies, etc. only, the less troublesome process 
 of doing so in pounds (librae), ounces (orae), and shillings (solidi), was 
 resorted to. 
 
 When, then, we come across these expressions in Domesday, we 
 must remember that they are expressions for moneys of account, 
 terms of computation only, not actual coins, as with us. A pound 
 
 1 Green's " Conquest of England," ch. x. p. 513. 
 * Ibid., ch. x. p. 491, note.
 
 438 APPENDIX. 
 
 meant a pound weight of pennies ; an ounce (ora) and a shilling 
 meant a fractional part of a pound; and in the case of the " ora," 
 sometimes the weight used. 
 
 Now the pound (libra) had three qualifying terms applied to it, 
 " lihra ad numeruin," " libra ad peusum," and " libra ad iguem et ad 
 pensum." 
 
 The " libra ad numerum was the pound weight of ready money 
 (that is of pennies), reckoned not in shillings but in orae, and was 
 the expression for a pound weighing twelve ora, of which every ora 
 was to weigh twenty pennies. 
 
 Sometimes this form was expressed specifically, "libra ad numerum 
 de xx u in ora," sometimes simply "libra ad numerum," but in which- 
 ever form it was written, it always meant the same a " pound weight 
 of standard pennies, tested by ora;, each ora being equivalent in 
 weight to twenty pennies. 
 
 The reason for this was that there were two orae : one, the larger, 
 equal in value to twenty pennies ; the other, the smaller, equal to 
 fifteen pennies. 
 
 The ora owes its introduction into England to the Danes, and with 
 them it was merely a computation for money, and so it survived to 
 Norman times, and in Domesday was not only the mode of account- 
 ing for the libia, but the weight used for ascertaining the proper 
 amount of pennies required for that sum, it was the twelfth part of 
 the nummulary pound. 
 
 The solidus, which represents the Saxon scilling or shilling, was 
 also money of account, not coin in circulation. In Domesday it was 
 reckoned as equivalent to twelve pennies, though its value in Saxon 
 times seems to have been a good deal less. 
 
 Besides these moneys, there were other moneys of account, viz. the 
 mark and the mancus. Both are of foreign origin. The mark, as a 
 term of computation, was introduced by the Danes, and is spoken of 
 in the treaty or agreement between Alfred and Guthrun. The 
 mancus, so far as England is concerned, is a denomination of money 
 imported from the Continent. Scarcely ever in circulation in our 
 country, and only used as an expression for a sum equal in value 
 to something like seven shillings, or it may be more. 
 
 Of the librae there were, as I have said, two other kinds, the " libra 
 ad pensum," or "pensata," and the "libra ad ignem et pensum," or 
 " arsa et pensata." I add a few words of explanation as to tbem. 
 
 The libra " ad pensum," or "pensata," meant a pound of pennies 
 (denarii), ascertained to be correct by their actual weight ; tbat is, by 
 placing a pound weight in one scale, and so many pennies as would 
 be equal thereto in the other. 
 
 The libra " ad ignem et pensum," or " arsa et pensata," was used 
 to signify that in addition to the test by weight that of fire had been 
 resorted to. 
 
 These latter pennies, then, were coins not only weighed but refined. 
 A few examples from Domesday will illustrate the matter I am now 
 engaged upon. 
 
 Thus, for Dover we read that this city in Edward's time returned
 
 APPENDIX. 439 
 
 as assessment to the geld eighteen pounds (librae). Of these pennies 
 the king took two portions of one half, and the earl (Godwin), the 
 other portion thereof. The second half went to the Canons of Saint 
 Martin. For gablum or demesne rent, its Domesday assessment was 
 forty pounds, though the king's reeve returned it at fifty-four. Of 
 these the king took thirty-four pounds of pennies, reckoning twenty in 
 the ora, and the earl thirty pounds ad numerum (also twenty in the ora). 
 
 In Canterbury the returns for gablum (demesne rent) payable by 
 nineteen burgesses for sac and soc, for toll, and for other dues and 
 rents, was assessed at fifty pounds, being one pound less than in 
 Edward's time ; but the receiver of the moneys made returns as for 
 thirty pounds (arsas et pensatas), weighed and tested by fire, and 
 twenty-four ad numerum ; that is, reckoning twenty pennies in the ora. 
 In addition to all this the sheriff had one hundred and ten shillings. 
 
 In Lewes, in addition to geld, gablum, and toll, each seller and 
 buyer had to pay the reeve one penny (nummum). On the sale of 
 an ox there was a charge of a halfpenny (obolum) ; of a slave, four 
 pennies, in whatever part of the Rape the sale took place. 
 
 In addition to these payments fines were imposed for bloodshed- 
 ding, adultery, rape, and for the recapture of a fugitive, in shillings 
 and pennies, varying in amount. For calling in coin every moneyer 
 had to pay twenty shillings. An extra charge of thirty-eight shillings 
 was imposed on all the burghers of the burgh. In the Rape of Romsey 
 the assessment for house tax was fixed at twenty-four pounds (of 
 pennies), and for the privilege of coining new money one hundred 
 and eighteen shillings was the charge. 
 
 In Worcester the Domesday inquest resulted in some important 
 changes so far as customary exactions were concerned. For instance, 
 an old charge in favour of London, and paid by the moneyers of 
 Worcester in return for the badges or stamps used in their business, 
 disappeared. And so did a special assessment on the city, divisible 
 between the king (Edward) and earl (Edwin). Again, the demesne 
 lands which had, prior to the inquest, belonged partly to the baron 
 and partly to the earl, became king's land. 
 
 The old assessments under this head were altered, and the sheriff's 
 return to King William's surveyors was twenty-three pounds and five 
 shillings ad pen sum (that is, by actual weight) for the king's lands, 
 a general charge on the county of seventeen pounds ad pensum, and 
 an additional charge of ten pounds of pennies (decem lib denariorum) 
 of twenty pennies in the ora, or a hawk, together with a tax of one 
 hundred shillings, of twenty pennies in the ora (ad numerum), for 
 the queen's "gersuma," : and for every sumpter horse, twenty shillings 
 of twenty pennies in the ora. Those seventeen pounds ad pensum, 
 together with sixteen pounds ad numerum, came from the suits heard 
 in the County Courts, and from the hundreds; and for these sums 
 the sheriff was personally answerable. 
 
 I will only add one more citation from Domesday, and that is 
 Norwich Norwic). 
 
 1 See note at next page.
 
 440 APPENDIX. 
 
 Here again there were changes since Edward's time. At that 
 period the town or vill made returns of twenty pounds (of pennies) 
 to the king and ten to the earl. In addition to this it made return of 
 twenty-one shillings, and four pennies for provender (prebendarios), 1 
 of six four-gallon measures of honey, one bear, and four dogs for the 
 bear. The returns on the Domesday inquest were seventy pounds 
 ad pensum to the king, and one hundred shillings ad numerum 
 for the queen's "gersuma"; one palfrey, and twenty pounds of 
 blanched or tested money (blancas) to the earl, and twenty shillings 
 (ad numerum) for " gersuma." Instead of the old annual burgh 
 rent of five pennies per head, charged against thirty-six French and 
 six English burghers resident in the new burgh, the Domesday 
 return was made in respect of forty-one French burghers, resident 
 in the king's demesne ; and in that of the earl the assessment stood 
 at the same amount as before. 
 
 1 According to Ducange, " sub verbo," prebendarius is the same as proven- 
 darius. Prebendarius was also the old term for purveyor " Uluard Preben- 
 darius Regis." For further information about the queen's gersuma, also called 
 "aurum reginse," see the Dialogus de Scaccario, Lib. II., ch. xxvi., from which 
 it appears that at the time when that work was published (the reign of Henry 
 the Second) there was a special officer, called queen's clerk, whose duty it was 
 to supervise this matter, and that to the writ of summons for sums due to the 
 king these words were added, "and for the queen's money one mark of gold."
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abdy, John, case of, cited (Croke's 
 cases), 172. 
 
 '' Acra," the, or acre, difference 
 between Anglo-Saxon and Nor- 
 man measurements, 434, n. 2. 
 
 Adrian, companion of Theodore, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, 175. 
 
 Adrian, Pope, message to Eng- 
 land, 219. 
 
 li Ad Scalam " payments into the 
 Exchequer, why introduced, 
 397, 398. 
 
 ^Ethelbert, or ^thelbirht, King, 
 164, 191, 195, 229 ; his laws, 201, 
 233. 
 
 JEtheling, the, 154. 
 
 .iEthelred, King, his laws, 181, 201, 
 202. 
 
 ^thelstan, King, 193, 195, 247, 
 249 ; his conversion to Christi- 
 anity, 193 ; his laws alluded 
 to, 246, n. 1, 253. 
 
 JEtius, unable to help the Britons, 
 140. 
 
 Agri limitrophi, 8. 
 
 ' Ahrimanni," the, 29, 34, n. 1 ; 
 meaning of the term and its 
 early history, 402, 403 ; various 
 meanings of, 867. 
 
 Akeman Street, 136. 
 
 Alaric, 12. 
 
 Alcuin, 145, n. 1, 175. 
 
 "Alderman," account of the 
 origin and development of the 
 office from " Stowe's Survey,"' 
 170-172. 
 
 Alfred, King, 146, 147, 224, n. 1, 
 226, 265, 266 ; his merits, 148 ; 
 his laws, 181, 195, 224, 227, 228, 
 229, 231, 250, 251; popular 
 fallacies about, 230 ; his death, 
 236; his legislation as to the 
 Thegns and Thegnhood, 422; 
 his peace with Guthrun, 55, n. 
 1, 225, n. 2, 234, 235. 
 
 Allodial lands, 59, 73. 
 
 Allodial proprietors, their privi- 
 leges, 65 ; the " gifts " made 
 by them changed from volun- 
 tary offerings to obligatory 
 payments, 66. 
 
 " Alod," meaning of the word, 59, 
 60, 61, 85; various definitions 
 of, 407. 
 
 Alode " alode et in fundo," 51. 
 
 " Alods" not exempted from pay- 
 ment of imposts, 65. 
 
 " Ancient Law, 1 ' by Sir H. Maine 
 9, n. 1, 189. 
 
 Andely, treaty of, 78. 
 
 Anglo-Norman royalty, 344. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon races in England,
 
 442 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 commencement of, 140 ; na- 
 tionality, 148, 189 ; laws, their 
 special features, 194-200 ; laws, 
 201, 291 ; Chronicle, the, cited, 
 219, 247, 338. 
 
 " Angylde," legal value, 231. 
 
 " Annuse functiones," 23. 
 
 Anselm, 300. 
 
 " Anscote " and " Ohnlote," King, 
 William's laws as to, 318. 
 
 Antrustions, 36, 93; explanation 
 of word, 406. 
 
 " Apocrisiarius," office of, 164. 
 
 Aristocratic institutions, growth 
 of, 106. 
 
 Aristocracy, feudal, described, 
 120 ; position of the feudal, 
 125 ; Norman, 334, 349. 
 
 Aries, Hilary, Archbishop of, 99. 
 
 Arwysthli, 131. 
 
 " Ascripti glebae," 22. 
 
 "Assaying," the process of, its 
 history, 396. 
 
 Asser cited, 146, n. 1, 225. 
 
 Athalric, King of the Visigoths, 
 99. 
 
 Athelney, school of, 147. 
 
 Augustine, his mission to Eng- 
 land, 192. 
 
 Austrasia, 38-40. 
 
 " Axe," the, " an informer, not a 
 thief," 424. 
 
 Baluzius, Steph., referred to, 67, 
 
 n. 2, 68, n. 2, 79, n. 1. 
 Barbarian invasion, the, effect of 
 
 on Europe, 25, 30; world, the, its 
 
 dissolution consummated, 51. 
 Barbarians, the, occupation of 
 
 Italy and Gaul by, 86. 
 Barbaric customs, influence of 
 
 Roman law on, 13. 
 
 Bards, the, 131. 
 
 " Barones," the, 170, 339, 340. 
 
 Barons, the English, 127 ; and the 
 
 king, conflict between, 351,352. 
 Bath, Roman road to, 136. 
 Beccancild, council of, 168, 205. 
 Bede, the Venerable, 175, 211, 212 ; 
 
 his death, 213; mentioned, 147. 
 Bedfordshire, Roman road 
 
 through, 186. 
 Benedict, 175. 
 " Benefice," the, 85. 
 " Benefices," protection given to 
 
 the king's vassals in respect of, 
 
 by Charlemagne, 78. 
 " Beneficiaries," vassals of the 
 
 king, 49 ; explanation of word, 
 
 74. 
 
 " Beneficiary lands," 59, 74. 
 Berington referred to, 337. 
 Berkhampstead, 205. 
 Berkshire, name whence derived, 
 
 384 ; customs of, 384, 385. 
 Bishop, office of, much sought 
 
 after, 98 ; court of, established 
 
 by William the Conqueror, 320. 
 Bishops, their power, 102, 103. 
 " Blanched lands," 400. 
 Boadicea, death of, 133. 
 "Boc-land," 232, 233, 353, n. 1; 
 
 could not be left away from the 
 
 kindred, 418. 
 
 "Boni homines," 29, 34, n. 1. 
 " Bordarii," the, 429, and n. 1. 
 " Borh," or surety, 203 ; Edgar's 
 
 laws on, 269 ; Ethelred's laws 
 
 on, 273 ; Knut's laws concern- 
 ing, 282. 
 "Bot," amends or reparation, 
 
 209 ; laws concerning, 232, 240. 
 Boundaries fixed between Saxons 
 
 and Danes, 234.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 443 
 
 Bowness, Roman road to, 136. 
 
 Bracton cited, 356. 
 
 Brady referred to, 337. 
 
 l; Breviarium-Alaricianum," the, 
 11, 12, 13. 
 
 Briee's day, Saint, massacre of, 
 272. [274. 
 
 "Bric-bot," Ethelred's laws on, 
 
 Bristol, its rise, 275, 278. 
 
 British ancestors, our, 131. 
 
 Britain, a Roman province, 133 , 
 supplies corn to the colonies on 
 the Rhine (A.D. 358), 139 ; ceases 
 to be a Roman province, 140. 
 
 Brittaii cited, 356. 
 
 " Brittania prima," Roman pro- 
 vince of England, 141. 
 
 Brunanburh, battle of, 258. 
 
 Brunehaut, Queen, 40. 
 
 " Bryten-wealda,'' or king, 205. 
 
 Burgundian Code, 13. 
 
 " Burh," Edgar's laws on the, 269. 
 
 " Borh-bot," Ethelred's laws con- 
 cerning, 274. 
 
 " Burh-bryce," what, and penalty 
 for, 209. 
 
 <: Burh-gemot," Knut's laws con- 
 cerning, 282. 
 
 " Burh-thegn," the, 162. 
 
 ' Butler," office of, 163. 
 
 Caesar, 131 ; lands at Dover, 133. 
 
 " Camerarius," the, 162. 
 
 Canon law, when introduced into 
 England, 320, 321. 
 
 Canterbury, notice of, in Domes- 
 day Book, 439. 
 
 Capet, Hugh, 60. 
 
 Capetian Revolution, the, 51. 
 
 Capitularies of Charlemagne, 50, 
 85. 
 
 " Capitation tax," the, 26. 
 
 Caractacus, defeat of, 133. 
 
 Carloman, 79. 
 
 Carlovingian Dynasty, the, 37, 
 51,80. 
 
 Carte referred to, 337. 
 
 " Carrucate," explanation of, and 
 controversy as to term, 436. 
 
 "Carvage," 436. 
 
 " Ceapgeld," seizure of goods, 319. 
 
 Ceawlin, 206. 
 
 Cedric in Sir W. Scott's " Ivan- 
 hoe " alluded to, 154. 
 
 Celcyth or Chelsea, council at, 
 210, 219. 
 
 Cenimagni, the, 131. 
 
 " Censiti," 22. 
 
 " Centeners," 49. 
 
 " Ceorl," the, 154, 168, 329 ; laws 
 concerning, 241. 
 
 Chamberlain, the, at the court of 
 the Saxon kings, 162. 
 
 Champs de Mars, assemblies of, 
 65 ; contrasted with the Witan- 
 agemot, 329. 
 
 Chancellor, the, 164. 
 
 Chapmen, regulations concerning, 
 202, 
 
 Charlemagne, 33, 35, n. 1, 41-50. 
 
 Charles Martel, 79. 
 
 Charles the Bald, 69, 74, 74, 79, 85. 
 
 Charles the Simple, the Norman 
 Rolf attorns to him, 51. 
 
 Charter, the Great, alluded to, 340. 
 
 Chaucer referred to, 202, n. 1. 
 
 Chester, rise of, 275, 278 ; its his- 
 tory, 368, 370; its customs as 
 recorded in Domesday, 370, 376. 
 
 Childebert, treaty of, 78. 
 
 Childeric in., 38. 
 
 Chivalry and feudalism, 303 ; its 
 draw backs, 308 ; its good quali- 
 ties, 307-309.
 
 444 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Chivalry introduced into England 
 by the Normans, 301, 302, 307. 
 Choeniulphus, King, 220. 
 Christian faith, the, powerful in 
 
 Gaul, 99, 100. 
 
 Christianity, influences of, on the 
 Frankish invaders, 21 ; estab- 
 lishment of, in England, 142; 
 its spread in England, 178, 183, 
 n. 1, 207, 208. 
 
 " Chronica," the, of William of 
 Malmesbury, excerpts from, 
 313. 
 
 Chronicle, the Anglo-Saxon, ex- 
 cerpt? from, 314, 315. 
 
 Chronicles of Alfred's reign, 147, 
 226. 
 
 Church, the, its influence and de- 
 velopment, 174-183 ; its organi- 
 zation described by Bishop 
 Stubbs, 177, 178 ; under Oifa, 
 145 ; its influence on chivalry, 
 304 ; its property safeguarded 
 by ^thelbert, 202. 
 
 Church, the Roman, its growing 
 influence and power at the fall 
 of the empire, 24. 
 
 " Church-frith," 202. 
 
 Church shot, 182. 
 
 Civilization and early social and 
 constitutional life, 5 ; in Eng- 
 land, 129. 
 
 " Clair on Epte," the peace of, 5, 
 225, n. 2. 
 
 Clan Chattan and Clan Quhaile, 
 feud between, referred to, 56. 
 
 Clergy, the, their rise to power in 
 the municipalities, 21 ; under 
 the Barbaric invasion, 30 ; 
 their influence on the people 
 and on social life, 98, 102, 104 ; 
 king, nobility, and the, 92. 
 
 Clovis, 12, 32, 33, 38. 
 
 "Cnichts" and the "Cnichten 
 Guilds," 430, 431. 
 
 Codes, era of, 191. 
 
 Codex Gregorianus, 12 ; Hermo- 
 geniani, 12 ; Theodosiani, 1, 14. 
 
 Coinage, king's right to, 161 ; of 
 the realm as dealt with by the 
 Exchequer, 393, 396. 
 
 " Coloni," 22. 
 
 " Comes," the, 153, 401, 402 ; ex- 
 planation of term, 402 ; account 
 of by Savigny, 402. 
 
 " Comes Stabuli," or Master of 
 the Horse, 162. 
 
 " Comitatus," the Teutonic, 168. 
 
 " Comites," the, 31. 
 
 " Comitia," abolition of the, 19. 
 
 " Commendation," form of, 82, 83, 
 84; in Anglo Saxon England, 
 83, n. 1. 
 
 " Commonitorium," the, 10, and 
 n. 1. 
 
 " Concilium Legatinum," the, 218. 
 220, 337. 
 
 Constantino and the Municipia, 
 19. 
 
 " Constitutions of Clarendon," 321. 
 
 Corporate life, destruction of, at 
 the fall of the Roman Empire, 
 20. 
 
 " Cotarius," the, in Domesday, 
 429. 
 
 "Cottages and the inmates there- 
 of," legislation as to, in Queen 
 Elizabeth's time, 429, n. 1. 
 
 " Count," the Roman, 26 ; Frank- 
 ish, 35 ; of the Palace, 81, 96. 
 
 " Counts of the district," the first, 
 95 ; Charlemagne's, 49. 
 
 Country life under the Roman 
 Imperial system, 7.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 445 
 
 . its attractions, and offices, 
 96. 
 
 ' Craigii Jus Feudale " referred 
 to, 9, 35. 
 
 Crown and Church, conflict be- 
 tween, 321. 
 
 Cubicularius," the, 162. 
 
 Culinton, Council of, 261, 262. 
 
 " Curia de More," or Customary 
 Court, 336. 342. 
 
 Curia Eegis," 342. 
 
 " Customary law," epoch of, 190. 
 
 Cuthbert, Bede's pupil, his 
 account of his master's death, 
 212. 213. 
 : ang," or king, 161. [161. 
 
 " Cyninges-feonn," or royal dues, 
 
 " Cyninges horsthegn," 162. 
 
 ' Danegeld," the, 150, 346. 
 Danes, the, their advent in Eng- 
 land, 141 ; in England, 173 ; 
 
 defeated by Alfred, 225. 
 Danish invasion, the, 184-187. 
 ' Decretum Cantianum," the 
 
 Kentish ordinances of ^thel- 
 
 stan, 254, 256. 
 " Decretum Sapientum Angliae," 
 
 or ordinances of the wise men 
 
 of England, 254, 255. 
 Decurise," courts of the, 327. 
 " Deira," Anglian province of, 
 
 141. 
 Denarius prebendarius," 440 
 
 and n. 1. 
 " Deschamp, Eustace," extract 
 
 from poem on Chivalry, 305, 
 
 " Dialogus de Scaccario " cited, 
 :;M. n. 1; in reference to land 
 and its measurements, 435 ; its 
 author's name, 398, 420. 
 
 " Disc thegn," the, 162. 
 
 " Dispensator regis," the, 162. 
 
 Domesday, Bishop Stubbs on, 366 : 
 Professor Freeman on, 358, 359. 
 
 Domesday Book referred to, 158, 
 n. 1, 311, 315, 334, 352, 357-363 ; 
 extracts from, 437, 438 ; mea- 
 sures of land in, 431, 437; 
 money and money reckoning 
 in, 438, 440. 
 
 " Domesday Studies," referred to, 
 436. 
 
 Domesday survey, notice of in 
 the "Dialogus de Scaccario," 
 359. 
 
 " Domus " in Domesday, 433, and 
 n.l. 
 
 " Dooms " or laws of jEthelbert, 
 201; Hlothsere, 202; Eadric, 
 202 ; Knut, 182 ; of the city of 
 London, 255, 256 ; of the Coun- 
 cil of Kent, 256, 257; of the 
 Witan of Exeter, 257, 258. 
 
 " Dooinsmen," 215. 
 
 Dorchester, 184. 
 
 Dover, Caesar lands at, 133 ; Ro- 
 man road to, 136 ; notice of, in 
 Domesday Book, 438, 439. 
 
 " Drenchs " in Domesday, 429. 
 
 "Drenghs," 159. 
 
 " Druids," the, 131. 
 
 " Druidism," disappearance of. 
 133. 
 
 Ducange referred to, 61. 
 
 "Duces," 31, 36; appointed by 
 the king, 168. 
 
 Duel, the, legalised in England 
 under Knut, for the Danes, 279 ; 
 trial by, one of the two changes 
 in the legal system of England 
 attributable to the Conqueror, 
 390 ; note on, 426, 427.
 
 446 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 " Duke," the Eoman, 26 ; Charle- 
 magne's, 49 ; Anglo-Saxon, 166 ; 
 title used in Wessex and Sus- 
 sex, 167. 
 
 Dunstan, 263. 
 
 "Dux," Frankish, 35; title ex- 
 plained, 401, 402 ; mentioned 
 in the Theodosian Code, 402; 
 Gibbon's account of, 401. 
 
 Eadberht, king of North Britain, 
 210. 
 
 Eadmer the Monk quoted, 314 ; 
 extracts from, 316. 
 
 Eadmund the First, laws of, 
 258-262. 
 
 Eadric, 195, 272. 
 
 Eadward's laws, 237, 239, 240. 
 
 Eadward the Elder, 162, 195, 236, 
 237. 
 
 Eald frith, ruler of Northumbria, 
 214. 
 
 Ealdhelm, Bishop, 207. 
 
 " Ealdorman," office of, 166, 170, 
 205. 
 
 East Anglia, 207. 
 
 Ecclesiastical corporations, 98. 
 
 Ecclesiastical power and au- 
 thority at the fall of the Ro- 
 man Empire, 18. 
 
 " Echevin," the, 53, n. 1. 
 
 Edgar Atheling, his reign, 263- 
 266; his ordinances, 266-270; 
 his law, " an ox's bell, a dog's 
 collar, and a blast horn," ex- 
 plained, 423, 424. 
 
 Edmund Ironsides, 167, 195. 
 
 Edmund, king of Northumbria, 
 his rule and character, 142-144. 
 
 Edward the Confessor, his laws, 
 286-290 ; his Norman sym- 
 pathies, 291 ; his promise to 
 
 William, Duke of Normandy, 
 294 ; royalty weakened under 
 him, 329. 
 
 Edward I., the pecuniary aids to 
 the Crown fixed by law, in his 
 reign, 346. 
 
 Edwin's, King, dream, 410, 411. 
 
 Edwin, Earl, treachery of, 297. 
 
 Egberht, Archbishop, 181, 214, 
 219, 248, 264. 
 
 Eginhard referred to, 78, 81. 
 
 " Ehrimans," the, 34, n. 1. 
 
 Ellis's " Introduction to Domes- 
 day " referred to, 358, 432, n. 2. 
 
 Ely, inquest of, in Domesday, 367. 
 
 Emina, sister of the Norman 
 duke, married to Ethelred, 272. 
 
 " Emphyteusis," 8. 
 
 Empire, Eoman, condition of 
 affairs at its fall, 24, 25. 
 
 England, feudalism in, 111 ; and 
 France, fundamental differ- 
 ences between, 127 ; aristo- 
 cratic institutions of, differing 
 from those of Europe, 128; 
 social life in, 129, 130, 172 ; a 
 part of the European Common- 
 wealth, 140; broken up into 
 little kingdoms, 141 ; a single 
 united, 188 ; and Borne, inter- 
 course between, 217 ; Saxon 
 and Danish, end of, under Ed- 
 ward the Confessor, 291 ; Nor- 
 man, 292, 310, 328 ; Saxon and 
 Norman contrasted, 300 ; and 
 Frankish Gaul contrasted, 
 330-333 ; settled occupation of, 
 after departure of the Romans, 
 
 English barons, the, 127. [414. 
 
 " English Institutions," inquiry 
 into, dates back beyond the 
 Norman Conquest, 2.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 447 
 
 " Eorl," the, 154, 205. 
 
 Ermine Street, 136. 
 
 " Escavinei," history of thesa 
 officials, 404, 405 ; meaning of 
 the term, 405 ; Charlemagne's 
 legislation respecting them, 
 405. 
 
 " Essai sur 1'histoire de France," 
 by M. Guizot, 54, n. 1, and 
 preface. 
 
 Estate, grant of, how entered in 
 the Exchequer, 400. 
 
 Ethelred, 195, 346, n. 1 ; his reign, 
 271 ; his laws, 273. 
 
 Europe, formation of modern, 
 dates from Charlemagne's 
 reign, 51. 
 
 Exchequer, early history of, 389, 
 410 ; completely established un- 
 der Henry II., 389 ; and Scacca- 
 rium, identical, 390 ; abstruse 
 meaning, according to the 
 author of the "Dialogus de 
 Scaccario," 390 ; upper and 
 lower, 390; early history of, 
 390, 393 ; account of the upper, 
 by the author of " The Dialo- 
 gus," 390. 
 
 Eyton, Mr., on the Carrucata, 
 436. 
 
 "Fair Maid of Perth" referred 
 
 to, 56. 
 Faith, religious, of the early 
 
 Britons, 132. 
 Fall of the Roman Empire in the 
 
 West, 16, 20, 21. 
 " Fealty " or fidelity, birth of, 118 ; 
 
 and Feudalism, 353 ; oath of, 
 
 imposed by William I., 352, 353. 
 " Fees " or fiefs, distribution of, in 
 
 early times, 29. 
 
 "Feodum loricse," "fief de hau- 
 berk," 413, n. 1. 
 
 Feos-bot, Ethelred's laws on, 274. 
 
 Feudalism, the result of the con- 
 nection of personal status with 
 territorial status, 59 ; its his- 
 tory, 111-128; M. Guizot on, 
 value of his criticism and learn- 
 ing on the subject, 112 ; a re- 
 cognised fact in Europe, 107 ; 
 rise of, 111 ; predominant in 
 the tenth century, 109; uni- 
 versal only in form, 109 ; why 
 hateful, 109, 110; of Frankish 
 growth, 111 ; central authority 
 had no existence under, 112; 
 its progress in France, 113 ; its 
 political character, 114, 117 ; 
 how conquered, 121, 128 ; in 
 England, whether in existence 
 before the Norman Conquest, 
 328, 329 ; and chivalry, 303. 
 
 Feudal aristocracy, the, special na- 
 ture of, 114 ; in France, 127, 128. 
 
 Feudal form of government, why 
 hated, 114, 117; denned, 116; 
 its evil qualities, 115, 117 ; its 
 merits, 117, 119, 120, 121 ; con- 
 trasted with other forms, 114, 
 115, 116, 117, 118 ; services and 
 prerogatives under, 410, 413 ; 
 society has its origin in the 
 " leudes," 98. 
 
 " Feudum," derivation and mean- 
 ing of the word, 414 ; its latin- 
 ized form, " beneficium," 414 ; 
 blancum, 403 ; collatum, 403 ; 
 honoratum, 51 ; numero datum, 
 403. 
 
 " Fideles," 36, 93, 94 ; ordinances 
 of William the Conqueror to 
 his, 321.
 
 448 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 " Fidelis," meaning of the woid, 
 855 ; oath of allegiance of, 354. 
 
 " Fidelity," oath of, to King 
 Eadmund, 262. 
 
 " Fiefs," distribution of, under 
 William the Conqueror, 333. 
 
 Fifth century, Barbarian inva- 
 sion in, 17. 
 
 "Fihtwyte," meaning of word, 
 168. 
 
 " Firma burgi," 382, n. 2. 
 
 " Firmse," melting and assaying 
 of, 398, 399 ; dealbatse, 400. 
 
 " Flavia Caesariensis," Roman 
 province of, in England, 141. 
 
 "Flet" explained, 203. 
 
 Fleta quoted, 255, n. 1, 297, n. 1, 
 353, 356. 
 
 " Flyma," ordinances as to, 255. 
 
 Florence of "Worcester, extract 
 from, 313, 314. 
 
 " Fo3hde" or feud right, 56. 
 
 " Folc-land," 47. 
 
 " Folk-moot," 124, 151. 
 
 " Folk-right," ^Ethelstan's law as 
 to, 255. 
 
 Forest laws under Knut, 279. 
 
 " Forfang " explained, 254, 255. 
 
 "Fragmentum Papiniani," 358. 
 
 "Francia," what this territory 
 was in the time of Theodosius 
 the Great, 30, n. 1. 
 
 " Frank-pledge," 420. 
 
 Frankish community, the, 93. 
 
 Franks, their origin, 30, 31 ; their 
 position in Gaul, 91. 
 
 France and England, difference 
 between, in respect of govern- 
 ment and political life, 227, n. 
 2, 276, 285, n. 1, 299, 210, 317, n. 1. 
 
 " Fredum," " fredus," " frida," 
 payments of, 410, n. 1. 
 
 Free Institutions in Europe, 106. 
 
 Freeman's, Professor, " William 
 the Conqueror " referred to, 
 293,297; "Norman Conquest" 
 quoted, 2, 3, 5 ; special value of 
 this work, 310, n. 1, and pre- 
 face ; on Domesday, 358, 359 ; 
 his notice of Alfred referred 
 to, 224, n. 1 ; feudalism under 
 William the Conqueror, 353; 
 on folc land and its gradual 
 merging in king's land, 432. 
 
 " Freeman," the, or " ^theling," 
 154. 
 
 French monarchy, progressive 
 development of, 127. 
 
 " Frith-borge heved," 288. 
 
 " Frith-borgs," law of Edward 
 the Confessor as to, 287, 290. 
 
 " Frith-borh," 420. 
 
 " Frithes-bot " in Ethelred's laws, 
 274. 
 
 " Frith-breach " in Ethelred's 
 laws, 274. 
 
 "Frith-gilds" under ^Ethelstan, 
 244, 248-250, 430. 
 
 Frumold, letter of Eginhard in 
 favour of, 81. 
 
 " Fundum blancum coliatum," 
 400. 
 
 " Fundus numero datus," 400. 
 
 Fyrd, the, 153, 178, 274 ; laws con- 
 cerning, 209. 
 
 Ga, the, 160, 168. 
 
 " Gablum," 437. 
 
 " Gafol cunde land," 417. 
 
 Gaul, occupation of, by the 
 Franks, 30, 33; made French, 
 51 ; commerce with Britain, 
 131; and England contrasted, 
 333-335.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 449 
 
 '"Gegyldan," or brothers of the 
 Guild, 251. 
 
 c: Geld." 437. 
 
 ' Geraot," importance of the, 
 232. 
 
 4i Gemots," growth of, 138. 
 
 General Council of the Barons, 
 341. 
 
 George, the Papal Legate, 218, 
 220. 
 
 "Gerefa," meaning of the word 
 and various offices, 242-246. 
 
 German life, what were the cha- 
 racteristics impressed by it on 
 Europe, 33. 
 
 " Germania " of Tacitus, referred 
 to, 75. 
 
 Germanic customs in the " Edict 
 of Theodoric," 11, 12; com- 
 munities, the old, two social 
 conditions therein, 26, 30. 
 
 " Gersuma " (the Queens), 383, 
 n. 1, 439, 440, n. 1. 
 
 " Gesithas,"' the, their importance 
 in Anglo-Saxon history, 421, 
 422. 
 
 'Gesith,"the, 153, 165. 
 
 " Gesith-cundman," the, 209. 
 
 " Gesta Gulielmi," excerpt from, 
 312; "Begum" excerpt from, 
 313. 
 
 Gibbon, on the reign of Charle- 
 magne, 41 ; on the influence of 
 Christianity upon the Barbaric 
 invaders of Gaul, 99-101 ; on 
 the reign of Pepin the Short, 
 217. 
 
 Gifts of estates, 75. 
 
 Gild brethren, the, 420. 
 
 " Glebae inhaerentes," 22. 
 
 Gloucester, Court held at, 315, 
 328. 
 A.L. 
 
 Godwine, Earl of "VVessex, 284, 
 285, 329. 
 
 Gogmagog hills, Boman road 
 over, 136. 
 
 Goths, the. 186. 
 
 Gontran and Childebert, treaty 
 of, 78, 95. 
 
 Grain, cultivation of, in Britain, 
 137. 
 
 Grants of land for life in Charle- 
 magne's time, 80. 
 
 " Graphic," " Grafio," and 
 "Gravio," 402. 
 
 Greatanlea, council of, 253; or- 
 dinances of, 254, 255. 
 
 Great Council, the, 335. 
 
 Green, Mr. J. B., on the English 
 Church as influencing English 
 social life. 180-183; on the tun, 
 or township, 415, 416 ; on the 
 kirkshire, or parish, 180-183 ; 
 on the importance of Augus- 
 tine's mission to England, 192, 
 his value as a writer on the 
 early history of England, 
 preface. 
 
 Gregory, Pope, 175 ; his mission 
 to England, 192 ; consecrates 
 Ecgberht Archbishop of York, 
 214 ; his pastoral book men- 
 tioned, 147. 
 
 " Grith," immunity from moles- 
 tation, 283. 
 
 Guizot on Charlemagne. 48, 50. 
 54 ; on Feudalism, 112, 128, 
 passim ; on chivalry, 301 ; 
 302; importance of his criti- 
 cisms on the Anglo-Norman 
 Constitution, 311. 
 
 Guy, Count of Ponthieu, 295. 
 
 Guthrun, the Danish leader, 226. 
 
 Gytha, wife of Earl Godwine, 285. 
 GO
 
 450 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Haddon and Stubbs' "Council 
 and Ecclesiastical Documents : 
 cited, 219 and n. 2. 
 " Haga," in Doomsday, 433. 
 Hale, referred to, 337, 356. 
 Hallam, on seeming analogies 
 between Roman and Feudal 
 institutions, 9; on Charle- 
 magne, 41, 44 ; on the Salic 
 usages, 62; on "Commenda- 
 tion," 84 ; on chivalry, 308, 309. 
 " Harold the Dauntless," Sir W. 
 
 Scott's, referred to, 184. 
 Harold Harefoot, 284. 
 Harold Hardrada, king of Nor- 
 way, invades England, 296. 
 Harold, king of England, 293- 
 
 298; slain, 297. 
 Harthacnute, 284. 
 Harwich, 245. 
 Hastings, battle of, 298. 
 Hatfield, battle of, 143. 
 " Heaforweard," 161. 
 " Healsfang," 283. 
 Henry, son of William the Con- 
 queror, afterwards King of 
 England, knighted at West- 
 minster, 314 ; mentioned, 350, 
 351. 
 Henry II. mentioned, 321, 338, 
 
 340 ; 350. 
 Henry I. of France mentioned, 
 
 340. 
 
 " Hereditary benefices," specimen 
 of grant of, from Marculfus, 
 409, 410; custom of granting 
 dates back to sixth century, 410. 
 Herefordshire, conversion of 
 thain-land into reve-land at 
 period of Domesday survey, 432. 
 " Hermans," the, 34, n. 1. 
 Hermogenian Code, 12. 
 
 " Heriots," royal right to, 161, 
 169 ; Knut's laws concerning, 
 283. 
 
 " Heretoga," or duke, 166. 
 " Hide," the 435. 
 Higden quoted, 363. 
 " Hildesheimeri Annales " cited, 
 
 66, n. 1. 
 
 Hilary, Archbishop of Arles,99. 
 Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims, 
 
 letter of, 50, n. 1. 
 Hitchin, Roman road at, 136. 
 " Historia Novorum " cited, 314, 
 
 316. 
 " Hlaford," meaning of word, 419, 
 
 n. 3. 
 
 " Hlcefdige," 161. 
 Hlothaire, his laws noticed, 195. 
 " Homage," oath of, under Wil- 
 liam, 356. [132. 
 Homes, the, of the early Britons, 
 Homicide under Franco-German 
 legislation, 50; not held morally 
 wrong in early legislation, 56. 
 Honorius, the Emperor, 140. 
 " Hordere," the, 389. 
 " House," its Latinized form in 
 
 Domesday, 432, 433. 
 Hoveden, Roger, excerpts from, 
 
 313. 
 " Hrsegelthegn," the servant of the 
 
 wardrobe, 162. 
 
 Hugh, Bishop of Durham, men- 
 tioned, 351. 
 
 Hugh Capet mentioned, 349. 
 "Hus-carles of Knut," the, 280, 
 
 n. 1. 
 
 Hundreds and tithings, 251 ; Ed- 
 gar's ordinances on, 266, 267. 
 " Hundredmoot," the, 151. 
 ' Hynden men," the laws concern- 
 ing, 257, 258.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 451 
 
 " Iceni," the, in England, 131. 
 
 Imperial Government of Home, 
 its despotic character and de- 
 basing influences, 17 ; why sub- 
 verted by the Barbarians, 16, 
 17. 
 
 Ine, King of Wessex, his reign 
 and laws, 167, 195, 206-209; 
 special note on the " comes " or 
 " gesith" under these laws, 421. 
 422. 
 
 " Ingenuilis," term explained, 88, 
 n. 1. 
 
 " Ingfangthef," meaning of, 289. 
 
 " Inquilini," 22. 
 
 Invasion, the Norman, its char- 
 acter and consequence, 24. 
 
 Ipswich, 245. 
 
 Italy, nations in, mere confedera- 
 tions, 108. 
 
 " Ivanhoe," Sir W. Scott's, men- 
 tioned, 154, 155. 
 
 Jarrow, the home of Bede, 211. 
 
 John, his treacherous conduct 
 towards his brother, King 
 Richard, 351 ; ascends the 
 throne, 352. 
 
 Keltic race in England, 130. 
 
 Kemble's " History of the Anglo- 
 Saxons " on royalty and its 
 rights, 160, 161, n. 1.; on the 
 royal household, 162-164 ; on 
 the " heretog " or " comes " and 
 ealdorman, 166-169; on homi- 
 cide under Anglo-Saxon law, 
 197, 198 ; on the early kings of 
 England, 204, 205 ; on trial by 
 jury in England, 230; on the 
 "gerefa," 243-247; on the 
 " fnthgild," 250, 251. 
 
 Kent, 141, 203, 204, 207 ; the king 
 of, the first king of any note in 
 England, 142. 
 
 " Kindred," mutual responsibility 
 of the, under the Anglo-Sax- 
 ons, 418, 419 ; Knut's legislation 
 concerning, 419. 
 
 King, clergy, and nobility, the, 
 92 ; the, as head of the nation, 
 149, 160. 
 
 King's gerefa, the, 168 ; land, 431 , 
 432. 
 
 Kirkshire, or parish, the, 180-183. 
 
 Knighthood, ceremony of admis- 
 sion to, 304 ; oaths on admission 
 to, 305. 
 
 Knut, King, his ordinances, 282- 
 [281 
 
 " Lset," the, 157. 
 
 " Lancelot du Lac," 306. 
 
 Land contribution, in the Roman 
 times, 23 ; influence of, upon 
 the social organization, 58 ; 
 system, the Anglo-Saxon, 416, 
 418; the, under the Anglo-Saxon 
 system : folc-land. plough-land, 
 boc-land, gafol-cunde land, 417, 
 418; measurement of, and the 
 terms employed in Domesday 
 Book and in the " Dialogus de 
 Scaccario," 434, 435. 
 
 Lands, " blanched or white " 
 (" blanci-fundi "), origin of, and 
 suggestion as to, 399, 400. 
 
 " Landwehr," the, 69. 
 
 Lan franc, 300. 
 
 Legantine Council, passage from, 
 cited, 200. 
 
 " Leod " or people, summoning of, 
 201. 
 
 Leofric, Earl of Mercia, men- 
 tioned, 329.
 
 452 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 " Leudes," the, 36, 93, 97, 98, 102 ; 
 explanation of term by Du- 
 cange, 406. 
 
 " Levee en masse," the, held by 
 the ealdorman, 168. 
 
 Lewes, notice of, in Domesday 
 Book, 439. 
 
 Lex Burgundionum, 10, 11, 60; 
 talionis, 57 ; ripuaria, 67, n. 2. 
 68, n. 1. [404. 
 
 " Liberi Homines," the, 867, n. 2, 
 
 " Libra ad numerum," " ad pen- 
 sum," if ad ignem et ad pen- 
 sum," meaning of each ex- 
 plained, 438. 
 
 Lichfield, Archbishopric of, 217. 
 
 " Light shot," 182. 
 
 Limitanean grants, 9, n. 1. 
 
 Lincoln, the Roman Road to, 136 ; 
 its history, 376, 377 ; its cus- 
 toms as recorded in Domesday, 
 378, 379. 
 
 " Lingua inexplicabilis," the 
 Frankish language described 
 
 Littleton, 356, 357. [as, 438. 
 
 Loeti, the Frankish, 31. 
 
 Lombardic law, 50. 
 
 Lombards, laws of the, referred 
 to, 83; invasion of Italy by 
 the, 86. 
 
 London, Roman road to, 136 ; 
 Bishop of, 171 ; settled by 
 Alfred, 226; enlarged under 
 Knut, 275, 278 ; dooms of the 
 city of, 255, 256. 
 
 " Loos " in connection with 
 " alod," 60. 
 
 Lothair, treaty of, referred to, 69, 
 n. 1. 
 
 Louis le Debonnaire, 66, 71, 80, 81 ; 
 le Germanique, 69, n. 1 ; the 
 Pious, capitularies of, 85. 
 
 Lynine, Roman road to, 136. 
 " Magistri Militise," 31. 
 " Magnates," the, 339. 
 "Magnum Concilium Regni," 336. 
 Maine, Sir Henry, on the relation 
 
 of feudalism to Roman institu- 
 tions, 8; on Charlemagne, 42; 
 
 historical development of law. 
 
 189 ; his work on " Ancient 
 
 Law " noticed, 189. 
 " Manerium," the, in Domesday, 
 
 433, 434. 
 " Manorial System," the, at th^ 
 
 time of and subsequent to thy 
 
 Conquest, 433, 434. 
 "Mansio" and "Mansura" in 
 
 Domesday, 433. 
 
 " Mansus indominicatus," 88, n. 1. 
 Manumission of slaves, 159. 
 Marculf, formulae of, 61, 62, 71 , 
 
 67 (n. 2), 82, 95. 
 " Maritagium," as explained in 
 
 the " Assises de Jerusalem,' 1 
 
 413, n. 1. 
 
 " Mark," the, 178, 251. 
 Marriage, claim of right of, by 
 
 the king prior to and in the 
 
 time of William the Conqueror, 
 
 346. 
 Marshal, the, at the court of the 
 
 Saxon kings, 162. 
 ;i Maxima Csesariensis," Roman 
 
 province of, in Britain, 141. 
 " Mayors of the palace," 37, 42. 
 " Melda," meaning of word, 424. 
 "Mercia," Saxon province, 141, 
 
 207. 
 Merovingian kings, arbitrary 
 
 revocation of grants under, 77. 
 " Methel," or assembly, 203. 
 Middle class, destruction of, at 
 
 fall of the Roman Empire, 17.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 453 
 
 ' Military sarvice," its early his- 
 tory. 67 ; under Charlemagne, 
 68. 
 
 ' Milites servientes," the, 359. 
 
 Min< j s in Britain developed by 
 the Romans, 139. 
 
 Mi-si dominici'' of Charle- 
 magne, 47, 49. 
 
 Missi of the king, 66. 
 
 Mistletoe reverenced by the Bri- 
 tons. 132. 
 
 Monarchical institutions, 106 ; 
 system established. 122. 
 
 Monasteries in England, benefits 
 conferred by them, 176. 
 
 Money and coins at the time of 
 the Domesday survey, 436440 ; 
 distinction between current, 
 and monies of account, 437 5 
 " blanched or tested," 440. 
 
 M >ntesquieu referred to, 78. 
 
 " Moot," the, 153. 
 
 Morkf.-re, Earl, treachery of, 297. 
 
 Morris, Mr. "\V., quoted, 4. 
 
 " Morte d' Arthur " referred to, 
 306. 
 
 " Mund-byrd," or protection, 168, 
 200. 
 
 Municipal system of Rome, 7, 18, 
 21 ; and ecclesiastical system, 
 7, 18, 21 ; institutions of Rome, 
 their three epochs, 16, 20 ; life 
 not extinct at the period of the 
 Barbaric irruption, 25. 
 
 ' Murales mansiones," 382. n. 1. 
 
 Murdrum," the, or system of 
 pledge introduced in England 
 under Knut, 279. 
 
 Mutilation, substitution of. for 
 death by William the Con- 
 queror, 320. 
 
 National assemblies, 50. 
 
 National Spirit, destruction of, at 
 the fall of the Roman Empire 
 in the West, 16, 17. 
 
 Navy created by Alfred, 225. 
 
 Xeustria, 38, 39. 
 
 " Nisi feodum vel membrum 
 loricae teneant," 413, n. 1. 
 
 Nobility, king, clergy and, 92. 
 
 Nobility, modern idea of, when 
 first started, 97; by birth, 
 quaere whether in existence un- 
 der the Anglo-Saxons, 165, 166. 
 
 Norman Conquest, the, 2, 3, 4, 
 129, 293; consequences of, in 
 England, 298-301, 322-527 ; 
 what happened after it, 331-342. 
 
 Norman England, 292. 
 
 Norman and Anglo-Saxon politi- 
 cal and social life compared, 
 324-326. 
 
 Norman invasion threatened in 
 Ethelred's reign, 271 ; how 
 staved off, 271. 
 
 Normans and French, contrast 
 between, 85. 
 
 Normans, what England owes to 
 the, 300, 301. 
 
 Normandy, its definite position in 
 Europe, 51. 
 
 Norsemen, the, described, 185. 
 
 Northumbria, Kings of, 142. 
 
 Norwich, notice of, in Domefeday 
 Book, 439, 440. 
 
 Nottingham, rise of, 275, 278. 
 
 Oath of fealty in the time of 
 William the Conqueror, 855. 
 
 Oaths of homage, and of fealty, 
 according to Littleton, 356, 357. 
 
 Odo, Archbishop, 261. 
 
 " Oferhyrnes," or penalty for con- 
 tempt of jurisdiction, 2f#
 
 454 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Offa, King, 144, 145, 216-218 ; the 
 
 only record of his laws, where 
 
 to be found, 219, 229. 
 Oligarchies, epoch of, in Europe, 
 
 190. 
 " Onhlote " and " anscote," laws 
 
 of William the Conqueror as 
 
 to, 318. 
 
 " Ora," the, 438. 
 Ordeal, the, of water or iron, 
 
 Edward the Confessor's laws 
 
 on, 28 ; William's laws on, 319 5 
 
 note on, 424, 426. 
 "Ordericus Vitalis " cited, 814, 
 
 and 345, n. 1. 
 
 Ordinance, ecclesiastical, by Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror, 321, 32'2. 
 " Originarii," 22. 
 Orosius's "History of the World," 
 
 147. 
 
 Osulf, king of North Britain, 210. 
 Oswald, King, 220. 
 Oxford and Oxfordshire, their 
 
 history, 379, 380 ; their customs 
 
 as recorded in Domesday, 381, 
 
 384. 
 Oxford, rise of, 275, 278; school 
 
 of, 147 ; essays (published 1855) 
 
 referred to, 194. 
 
 Pagan worship abandoned in 
 Gaul, 100. 
 
 "Pagi," country districts, 138, 
 248. 
 
 Palace, Mayors of the, 87, 42. 
 
 Palgrave, Sir F., on the Limi- 
 tanean grants, 9, n. 1 ; on the 
 Saxon hundred and shire, 152, 
 n. 1 ; on the " Cornea " and 
 "Dux," 167, n. 1; on the 
 " Concilium Calcenthense," 220 ; 
 as to trial by jury in Alfred's 
 
 time, 230 ; as to Domesday 
 Book, 864, n. 2. 
 
 Parliamentary life, idea of, grew 
 out of the Saxon genmts. Ills. 
 
 Patricians, Roman and Venetian. 
 contrasted with the Feudal 
 aristocracy, 119; Roman and 
 Venetian, position of, 1'JT. 
 
 Paulinus, Christian missionary, 
 142. 
 
 Pearson, Mr. C. H., on the Roman 
 roads in England, 136 ; on the 
 early settlement of Britain, 
 131-133 ; on the character of 
 Alfred, 148 ; on the influence 
 of Christianity on social life in 
 England, 179; on the Danish 
 invasion, 187, 188 ; on the code 
 of King Alfred, 229, 330 ; on 
 the influence of the Norman 
 character upon English life, 
 301 ; on chivalry, 307. 
 
 Penda, leader of the Saxons of 
 Mercia, 143. 
 
 " Pensum, solutio ad,'' :>s. 
 
 Pepin le Bref, 37, 38, 73, 79, 83, 
 211, 217. 
 
 Personal allegiance to the head 
 of the State, 237. 
 
 Personal independence, spirit of, 
 among the Franks, 33. 
 
 Peterborough, founded by Edgar, 
 263, n. 1. 
 
 Philip I. of France mentioned.;! !:>. 
 
 Picts and Scots, inroads of, 1 I 1 >. 
 
 " Placitum," freemen summoned 
 to the, 71. 
 
 " Plough-alms," 182. 
 
 Pollock, Sir F., on " Early Land- 
 holding and Modern Land 
 Transfer," referred to, 435. 
 
 "Pontifical, the," of Ecgberht,
 
 INDEX. 
 
 455 
 
 Archbishop of York, cited, 21O, 
 21j. 
 
 the, William the Conque- 
 appeal to, 295. 
 " Posse Comitatus," summoned by 
 
 the Ealdormen, 168. 
 Prefect, the Roman, 26. 
 Praefects. Roman, in Britain, 133 ; 
 appointed by the Saxon king, 
 
 " Precarium," the Boman grant 
 
 of, 79. 
 Prince, the equivalent of ealdor- 
 
 man in Xorthumbria, 167. 
 Princes appointed by the Saxon 
 
 king, 168. 
 
 -res," the, 339. 
 Proprium," synonymous with 
 
 the term "alod," 63. 
 
 Each," or " Rek," 35. 
 Rachimbnrgi," 29-34, n. 1, 35, 
 n. 1 ; etymology and meaning 
 
 of, ; 
 
 Had," meaning of the term, 429, 
 
 Radchenistre," 159. 
 
 ian.'' 159. 
 Ragnachaire, 32. 
 Ranks, in early Anglo-Saxon 
 
 166. 
 
 Rathimburgi," 34, n. 1. 
 " Reeve," the, 153. 
 " Reeve Gerefa," the, 242. 
 Reeve's history of the English 
 
 laws cited, 320, n. 1, 355, n. 1. 
 " Referendarius," the, 164. 
 " Regimburgi," 34, n. 1. 
 Relief," rights of under William 
 the Conqueror, 346. 
 
 . itus," its nature in 
 :ian times, 23. 
 
 Rent, fixed, its advantages to the 
 cultivator, 23. 
 
 "Reve-land" and " thain-land," 
 432. 
 
 Ribble and Mersey, hind between 
 the, U/.i. 
 
 Richard Coeur de Lion mentioned, 
 351. 
 
 Richard, Bishop of London, cited, 
 a59. 
 
 Richborough, Roman road to, 
 136. 
 
 Ripuarian Franks, 62. 
 
 Roads, Roman, in England, 135, 
 136. 
 
 Robert the Devil sails against 
 England, 281. 
 
 Rolf, vassal of King Charles, 5 ; 
 Normans settled under, 61. 
 
 Roman national life, its destruc- 
 tion, 5; conquest of England, 
 6 ; institutions, reasons for en- 
 quiring into, 6, 15; country 
 and town life, 7; legislation, 
 7; law in England, 192, 320; 
 municipal system, 7; law and 
 feudalism, 8; frontier lands, 
 9 ; civilization and law as 
 affecting the barbarian inva- 
 sion, 10; empire in the west 
 after the barbarian invasion, 
 31 ; institutions, toleration of 
 by the barbarians, 10 ; civiliza- 
 tion, disappearance of, 191; 
 jurisprudence retained by the 
 bishops, 102; world, ancient, 
 dissolution of consummated, 
 51 ; and German, fusion of the 
 two races, 103; rule in England, 
 its effects, 34, 135; legions with- 
 drawn from Britain, 140. 
 
 Rome, a mere municipality, 107 ;
 
 456 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 state of, in the 8th century, 
 216, 217. 
 
 Rouen, Archbishop of, mentioned 
 351. 
 
 Bound, Mr. J. Horace, on the 
 carrucata, 436 and n. 1. 
 
 Royalty, tendency to develop- 
 ment of, 29 ; weakened under 
 Edward the Confessor, 329. 
 
 Rural districts, the, under the 
 Roman imperial rule, 21, 24; 
 beneficial influence of the 
 clergy in the, 21, 22, 25. 
 
 " Rustici," 22. 
 
 " Ryknildway," the, 136. 
 
 " Sache," meaning of word, 289. 
 
 " Sagibarones," the, 405, 406. 
 
 Saint Palaye referred to, 305, n. 1. 
 
 Salian Franks, 62. 
 
 Salian or Salic law, its early 
 history and date and contents, 
 408. 
 
 Salic law, the, revised by Char- 
 lemagne, 50 ; land, 62, 63, 408. 
 
 "Salvamentum," money payment, 
 83. 
 
 Salvianus referred to, 85. 
 
 Salisbury, meeting at, to swear 
 fealty to William, 314,353,364. 
 
 Savigny referred to, 10, n. 1. 
 
 Saxons, subjugation of the Britons 
 by the, 140 ; in England, 141 ; 
 and Normans contrasted, 300, 
 324, 325. 
 
 Saxony, old, scholars from, at- 
 tracted to the Court of Alfred, 
 147. 
 
 "Scabini," the, 29, 35, n. 1, 47, 
 49; date from Charlemagne's 
 reign, 40c ; his legislation re- 
 specting, 405. 
 
 " Scalam, solutio ad," 397, 398. 
 
 "Scaritus" explained, 406, n. 1. 
 
 " Schire revan," the, 205. 
 
 Scotus, John, 145, n. 1. 
 
 " Scyr," the, 160. 
 
 Seculars, the, or unmonastic 
 
 clerg3', 180. 
 " Secundarius regis," the, or chief 
 
 counsellor, office created by 
 
 Kiiut for Earl Godwiiie, 285. 
 Senlac, battle of, 297. 
 Saptimius Saverus, 20. 
 " Servi terrae," 22. 
 " Servilis," term explained, 88, n. 
 
 1. 
 "Servitium militare," or knight's, 
 
 service, 340. 
 Severus, the Emperor, success of, 
 
 in Britain, 133. 
 Shaftesbury, school of, 147. 
 Shakespeare referred to, 204, n. 1. 
 " Shipgeld," 150. 
 "Shire moot," the, 151. 
 Shire, the, or ga, 168; gerefa, 
 
 168; system under ./Ethd.sum, 
 
 248, 265; under Edward the 
 
 Confessor, 287. 
 "Shot," "scot," "sceatte," 182, 
 
 n. 1. 
 
 Sigebert, 32. 
 Sigurd the pirate, 185. 
 Siward of Northumbria, 185. 
 Slaves, 36 ; Anglo-Saxon, 158. 
 " Soche," meaning of word, 289. 
 " Socmen," in Domesday, 429, 431. 
 " Sortes Bur guild ionum," 60 ; 
 
 " Sortes Gothorum," 60. 
 " Sors," the old name for " manor," 
 
 60. 
 
 " Soul-shot," 182. 
 Spaniards, remonstrance of, to 
 
 Louis la Debonnaire, 71.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 457 
 
 " Stabulator," the, 162. 
 
 "Stallere," meaning of word, 
 419, n. 5. 
 
 Stamford Bridge, battle of, 296. 
 
 State, the, as arbitrator in settle- 
 ments for injuries, 57; the 
 Frankish, 63, 64. 
 
 Stephen, Sir James, on the in- 
 fluence of the early Church in 
 Gaul, 24, n. 1 ; on Charlemagne, 
 42, 44, -17. 
 
 "Stiaward," the, 162. 
 
 " Strator regis," the, 162. 
 
 Stubbs, Bishop, on the "wehr- 
 geld," 55 ; on the organization 
 of the Church in England, 177, 
 178 ; on the Teutonic origin of 
 the English nation, 134 ; on the 
 natural organism of England, 
 152-154 ; special value of his 
 work, " Documents Illustrative 
 of English History," 311, and 
 preface; his " History of the 
 Constitution " referred to, 358. 
 
 " Sub infeudation " in Hallam 
 cited, 84. 
 
 Tables of Borne, the XII., 191. 
 
 Tacitus referred to, 75. 
 
 'Tain-land," or " thain-land," 
 its fate at the time of the 
 Domesday survey, 423. 
 
 Taxes for providing means of 
 transport, 66. [288. 
 
 " Tenmanne-tale " or "f rith-borg," 
 
 Tenure, notion of, when first in- 
 troduced, 356. 
 
 " Terra aviatica, 62 : or " here- 
 ditas," 62 ; " paterna," 62 ; form 
 of grant by father to daughter 
 from Marculfs formularies, 
 409; "sortis titulo acquisita," 
 A.L. 
 
 62; "regis," or Crown land, 
 
 353 ; its meaning in Domesday 
 
 432, n. 2. 
 Territorial aristocracy, rise of, 
 
 30; status, 53, 74; property 
 
 assigned as rewards to war- 
 riors, 60 ; divisions under Saxon 
 
 rule, 151. 
 Teutonic customs, divergence of, 
 
 from Eoman, 54 ; occupiers of 
 
 England, 130, 140 ; elements 
 
 in England, 140; institutions, 
 
 134, 172. 
 "Textus Roffensis," the, cited, 
 
 317. 
 
 " Thanes," the, or thegns, 330. 
 " Theam," meaning of word, 289. 
 Theft, its position in the early 
 
 Anglo-Saxon codes, 198-200. 
 "Thegn," the king's, 153, 154; 
 
 laws concerning, 241, 327. 
 " Thegns and thegnhood " under 
 
 Alfred's law, 422. 
 Thegnhood, its value, as a means 
 
 of establishing a military 
 
 organization, 422. 
 " Thegn-right," Edward's laws 
 
 concerning, 241. 
 Theodore of Tarsus, 144, 177; 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, 175. 
 Theodoric, edict of, 11 ; his reign, 
 
 11 ; address of, 67. 
 Theodosian Code, the, and the 
 
 Theodosian Novellte, 12, 14, 15. 
 Theodosius the Great, importance 
 
 of his reign, 14. 
 Theophylact, the papal legate, 
 
 218. 
 
 " Theowna," the, 158. 
 "Thesaurarius," the, 162. 
 " Thing," " ting," or assembly, 
 
 203. : J"1. 
 
 H H
 
 458 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Thundresfield, laws of, 255. 
 
 Thuringians, 67. 
 
 Tithe, the, attempts to insist on 
 payment in early times, 
 181. 
 
 "Tithing," the, its military, 
 character, 419. 
 
 " Tithings " and " hundreds," 251. 
 
 " Tol," meaning of word, 289. 
 
 " Tort," early legislation as to, 
 197, 198. 
 
 Tostig, Earl, 294. 
 
 Towns, Roman-British, how 
 formed and what, 138. 
 
 Townships under Saxon settle- 
 ment, 415, 416. 
 
 Treasure-trove, king's claim to, 
 161. 
 
 Treaty of A.D. 847, between Lo- 
 thaire, Louis le Germanique, 
 and Charles le Chauve, noticed, 
 69, n. 1. 
 
 " Trial by jury " not introduced 
 by Alfred, 230. 
 
 Tribe, the old German, 26,34, 35 ; 
 life, causes of its dissolution, 
 28, 29 ; or " band " in Frankish 
 states, their relations, 64. 
 
 Tributarii, 22. 
 
 " Tributalis," term explained, 88, 
 n. 1. 
 
 Tributary lands, 59, 85. 
 
 " Trinoctium," otherwise called 
 " Feorm-fultum," 382, n. 2. 
 
 " Trinoda necessitas," the, 150. 
 
 " Tun-gerefa," the, 168 ; and the 
 " tun," Mr. Green cited, 415, 
 416. 
 
 " Tything" and " ward" synony- 
 mous in the ancient laws, 419, 
 n. 6. 
 
 Tything-man, the, 327. 
 
 Vale of the Tyne, " drenghs " in 
 
 the, 159. 
 "Vestitus," term explained, 88, 
 
 n. 1. 
 
 " Vicus," the, or township, 178. 
 " Vill," form of ancient grant of, 
 
 from Marculfs Formularies. 
 
 409. 
 
 Villa, meaning of the term ac- 
 cording to feudist writers, 433. 
 Villages of the early Britons, 
 
 132. 
 Village life in Anglo-Saxon times, 
 
 415, 416. 
 " Villein," the, in Domesday, 427, 
 
 429; Littleton and Coke on 
 
 " villein and villenage," 428. 
 Visigoths, laws of, referred to, 
 
 83; Athalric, King of the, 
 
 99. 
 
 Wallingford, Roman road to, 136. 
 
 " Wapentake," the, 151. 
 
 Wardship, 161 ; rights of, 346. 
 
 Wards of the city, 171. 
 
 Watling Street, 136. 
 
 Warfaring band, the, among the 
 old German invaders, 27, 28. 
 
 " Wedd," or pledge, 208. 
 
 Wedmore, the peace of, 223, n. 1, 
 233,234. 
 
 Welsh border, the, mentioned, 
 159. 
 
 " Weregild,", the, 36, 53, 51, 57, 
 58, 153, 160, 168, 206, 231. 
 
 Wessex, Saxon province of, 141 ; 
 conquered by Edwin, 142 ; ob- 
 tains supremacy in England, 
 144 ; mentioned, 206. 
 
 Westminster, court held at, 31G, 
 338. 
 
 " White-lands," 400. -
 
 INDEX. 
 
 459 
 
 Wiarda, Monsieur, cited in refer- 
 ence to the Salic laws, 408. 
 
 " Wic," the, 245. 
 
 " Wic gerefa," the, 168. 
 
 Wihtred, King, his laws, 159, 
 n. 1, 195, 204, 206. 
 
 William the Conqueror, 2, 173, 
 281, 293-297, 313, 314, 322, 324, 
 332^335, 345, 346, 353, 354, 356, 
 357, 359 ; invades England, 296 ; 
 conquers England, 297, 298; 
 notice of, by Eadmer, 316, 317 ; 
 his " Intiinatio," 317. 
 
 William of Poitiers cited, 312, 
 313. 
 
 William of Malmesbury cited, 
 265, 313, 338, 342. 
 
 William Rufus, 351. 
 
 William Longchamps, Bishop of 
 Ely, mentioned, 351. 
 
 Winchester, court held at, 316, 
 
 338. 
 
 Winwood, battle of, 143. 
 " Wite," penalty to the Crown, 
 
 202, 231, 282. 
 " Witenagemot," the, mentioned , 
 
 144, 152, 177, 329,330; meeting 
 
 of the, 149, 198. 
 " Witherlay's ret," court or guild 
 
 law framed under Knut, 279. 
 Woodstock, ordinances of, 273. 
 Worcester, notice of, in Domesday 
 
 book, 439. 
 
 " Wreck," the king's right to, 161. 
 Wright cited, 354, n. 1. 
 
 York, Roman road to, 136 ; erected 
 into an archiepiscopal see, 142 ; 
 cathedral of, 214 ; school of, 
 214 ; rise of, 275, 278. 
 
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