each shire, at the shire-mote or county court. The Witan was the last court of appeal in the kingdom.

The king was the chief of the nobles; he was the general of the army in war; he appointed the aldermen and sheriffs, the bishops, and other high officers of church and state. He was not despotic, but compelled to apply for and take advice from the witenagemot on all important occasions.

As may be supposed, the laws of the Saxons were adapted for a rude and turbulent people, and consisted chiefly in enactments concerning the penalties to be paid for personal injuries. All offences against the person, from an assault, to murder, could be atoned for by payment; and each man's life had a certain value set upon it, called his weregeld.

To make up for the want of a system of police, the curious custom of frankpledge was instituted, by which the members of each tything were responsible for the conduct of each other, that is, became bail for each other's good behaviour; so that if one of them committed any fault, the rest were bound to hand him over to justice. If the culprit escaped, and they could not clear themselves. from participation in his crime or flight, they were compelled to make good the penalty he would have been liable to pay.

The Saxons were an agricultural people. A large part of their land was sown with wheat and other cereals; while the commons and neighbouring forest lands supplied their numerous herds of sheep and swine with grass and acorns. Their agricultural implements, as may be supposed, were rude and cumbrous. Oxen were in general used to draw the plough,

and their heavy wagons; the horse being reserved for riding and purposes of war.

We hear little about Anglo-Saxon commerce till the time of Alfred, who wisely encouraged commercial enterprise. In his reign English merchants traded with the Baltic and Mediterranean, importing from abroad articles of luxury and refinement, in exchange for the produce of English fields and manufactures. Alfred stationed a fleet on the southern shores of England, for the protection of commerce against the numerous pirates who infested the channel. Manufactures for exportation were, of course, not great. The Saxon farmer's wife, her daughter, and maidens, span the wool of the sheep, and made with their own hands the coarse garments of wool that were worn by the men.

The male attire consisted of a linen shirt, above which was worn a tunic of linen or woollen, according to the season, descending to the knee; and if the wearer was a man of rank, it was ornamented with embroidery round the collar and borders, and confined round the waist by a broad belt. Linen drawers and stockings were worn by the higher classes; the poor generally wore bandages from the ankle to the knee.

The Saxon houses were mostly of wood, the only buildings of stone being the churches, monasteries, and the few fortresses; and even these were not common till Edward the Confessor introduced Norman builders. In carving wood, and working in the precious metals, the Saxons appear to have attained some celebrity; but their coins are of very rude workmanship.

We have seen how, in 597, Augustin preached to the heathens of England the gospel. Learning came in the

train of Christianity. The priests and monks who came from Rome were the teachers of the people. Before their conversion they had been wont, at their festivals, to listen to the recital, in rude verse, of the deeds of Odin and Thor, and the prowess of some great warrior, by the scóp, or minstrel. The Saxon minstrels, like those of other early nations, became the historians of the tribes, preserving the memory of their battles and wanderings. After the introduction of Christianity, the poet found subjects fit for loftier verse. The great religious poet of Anglo-Saxon times was Cadmon, who lived about the year 670, in Northumbria. His chief work is a poetical account of the creation and fall of man. Bede, called the Venerable, was born in 672, and died in 735. His life was spent in the monastery of Wearmouth in Northumbria, where he composed great numbers of works in Latin, relating to various religious subjects. His chief work is his "Ecclesiastical History," giving an account of the introduction and progress of Christianity in England. Egbert of York, and Alcuin, were two other Saxon writers of note; and we must not omit the royal author, Alfred. The Anglo-Saxon schools were chiefly attached to the great monasteries; one of the most famous of these was at York, where Alcuin was educated. It had (for the age) a large library of Greek and Roman authors, which were read and studied with great industry.

Alfred's exertions to restore the learning of the priesthood were, for a time, successful; but towards the close of the Saxon period, they had sunk into great ignorance and immorality.

CHAP. VII.

THE NORMANS,

WILLIAM I. 1066-1087.

As the battle of Hastings introduced a new governing class into England, who brought with them a strange language, other manners, laws, and fashions, it will be well, before pursuing the history of this race in England, to glance shortly at their previous history.

The north-west sea-board of France was particularly exposed to the attacks of the same hordes of heathen invaders who, in the ninth and tenth centuries, gave so much trouble to England. The weak French kings who succeeded Charlemagne were unable to resist their repeated attacks. They besieged Paris, and took possession of the fertile province watered by the Seine; and about the year 900 the King of France formally granted to Rollo, their leader, the duchy of Normandy, which was called after them. Here they settled, and very soon lost their own Scandinavian language and manners, and became assimilated to the French population among whom they resided. Successive Dukes raised Normandy to a great degree of power; and by their wise encouragement of learning, the court of Rouen became, in the eleventh century, one of the most polished in Europe. The feudal forms and laws, which we shall afterwards explain, were introduced into Normandy, and there fully developed. William was the sixth duke. His youth had been spent in

wars, to protect his dominions from other claimants; and in the conduct of these he had displayed extraordinary bravery and ability.

The defeat at Hastings seems to have deprived the Saxons of all energy; for although they were still masters of almost the whole country, no organised resistance was formed against their invaders. This can only be accounted for by the want of a leader, and by the treachery and cowardice of the great nobles. Yet it must not be imagined that William's work was accomplished in one battle. He advanced through the country slowly towards London, which at first seemed inclined to resist; but on William's near approach, opened its gates. Here William, after the Norman custom, erected a strong fortress; and on the 25th December, 1066, Stigand, the archbishop, crowned him at Westminster. As an inducement to the English to submit quietly, he took an oath to preserve the Saxon laws of Edward the Confessor, and to govern in all things as he had done. These promises were afterwards embodied in a charter. The work of conquest proceeded slowly for some time, and William seemed unwilling to drive the Saxons to extremity; for he received many of the powerful nobles at his court, and did not deprive them of their possessions. But urged, it seems, by the rapacity of his Normans, who said they did not conquer England for William alone, he took an opportunity of driving the English to insurrection, that he might gratify his Norman barons and knights, by gifts of the forfeited lands. Having subdued the south and east of England, he went to Exeter, the capital of the west,

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