CHAP. IV. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 71 or points, and with a cross in it. The bird figured in the chief banner is probably the celebrated raven,* which the Northmen preserved as their national ensign after their conversion to Christianity. GENEALOGY OF THE ANGLO-DANISH KINGS OF ENGLAND. A-THE GOVERNMENT, LAWS, AND 1. Introduction.-The completeness of the Anglo-Saxon conquest has been already deduced from the exclusive establishment of their language in England. Even the British names of places yielded to Anglo-Saxon ones, with some few exceptions, and those chiefly in the border counties and in Cornwall. "No one traveling through England," says Mr. Hallam (Middle Ages, ch. viii., note 4), "would discover that any people had ever inhabited it before the Saxons, save so far as the mighty Rome has left traces of her empire in some enduring walls, and a few names that betray the colonial city, the Londinium, the Camalodunum, the Lindum." Hence it follows that the laws and customs of England were also entirely of German origin; and, indeed, several of them may be traced back to the ancient German usages recorded by Tacitus. 2. The King and Royal Family.-Among the latter was the nature of the kingly power. The Teutonic tribes that invaded Britain, like their ancestors in the wilds and woods of Germany, had no regular and permanent king, but elected a supreme head as occasion required, who, as his office chiefly consisted in directing their warlike expeditions, obtained the name of Heretoga, or army-leader. Among the Saxons and Frisians of the Continent this state of things continued much longer than in England, where * See above, p. 40. one. the more settled and permanent nature of the Anglo-Saxon possessions early introduced a regular monarchical form of government. Ella of Sussex was the first who assumed the title of Cyning, or king. Throughout the whole of the Anglo-Saxon period the kingly dignity remained elective; and though the crown was generally retained in one family, there was no rule of hereditary succession. Regard was still had to the original purpose for which a king was chosen-that he should be a person capable of carrying on the government and conducting the enterprises of the nation. If the eldest son of the deceased monarch was qualified for this, he commonly had the preference, but still not without election by the great council. But if he was a minor, or otherwise disqualified, he was frequently set aside, and another appointed, who, however, was usually a member of the reigning family. Thus we have seen the lineal succession broken by Alfred, Athelstane, Edred, and other monarchs. The right of election appears to have belonged to the whole nation, though attempts were sometimes made to confine it to the clergy and nobility. By degrees the kingly power grew stronger in England, especially after the separate kingdoms became merged into The kings then began to assume more high-flown titles: as that of Basileus-which was borrowed from the Byzantine courtPrimicerius, Flavius, Augustus, etc.; some of which are not very intelligible, and were probably not very well understood by the bearers themselves. Egbert, however, and his five immediate successors, contented themselves with the title of kings of Wessex. Edward the Elder assumed the style of "King of the English" (rex Anglorum), while Athelstane called himself "King of all Britain" (totius Britanniæ monarchus, rex, or rector), and was the first to introduce the Greek name of basileus. Edwy and Edgar are remarkable for their pompous titles. The king, like the rest of his subjects, had a wer-gild, or fixed price for his life, the amount of which varied in different kingdoms, but was of course considerably higher than that of his most distinguished subjects. Alfred made the compassing of the king's death a capital offense, attended with confiscation. king's sons, or, in their default, those who had the next pretensions to the succession, were called athelings, or nobles. The consort of an Anglo-Saxon king was styled emphatically "the wife" (ewen), "the lady" (hlofdige). She was crowned and consecrated like him, had a separate court, and a separate property, besides her dowry, or "morning gifts" (morgen-gifu). The 3. Division of ranks.-The whole free population of England under the rank of royalty may be divided into two main classes of corls (earls) and ceorls (churls); that is, gentle and simple, or nobles and yeomen. Cyning probably means the son of the nation, yn meaning race, and ing being the well-known Anglo-Saxon patronymic. Atheling is a patronymie from Athel or Ethel (noble), which forms the prefix of so many of the names of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Ealdormen.-In ancient times the affairs of each tribe were directed by the eldest (ealdorman, alderman), which name thus became synonymous with chief. Hence caldorman was the chief title of nobility among the Anglo-Saxons, and was applied to any man in authority, but more especially to the gov ernor of a shire or large district. In the 11th century, under the Danish monarchs, an important change was introduced in the appellation of ranks. The word eorl or earl lost its general sense of good birth, and became an official title, equivalent to alderman, and was applied to the governor of a shire or province. The term earl as a general designation of nobility was now supplanted by thane; and hence in the later period of Anglo-Saxon monuments we find thane opposed to ceorl, as eorl is in the earlier (Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii., p. 360, 361). The ealdorman, or earl, and bishop were of equal rank, while the archbishop was equal to the atheling, or member of the royal house. After the Norman conquest the title of alderman seems to have been restricted to the magistrates of cities and boroughs. Thanes. Next in degree to the alderman was the thane (A. S. thegn, from thegnian, to serve, minister). There were different degrees of thanes, the highest being those called king's thanes. It was necessary that the lesser thane should have five hides of land (about 600 acres); while the qualification of the alderman was forty, or eight times as much. Nobility in England first arose from office or service; but subsequently the hereditary possession of land produced an hereditary nobility; and at length it became so much dependent upon property, that the' mere possession of five hides of land, together with a chapel, a kitchen, a hall, and a bell, converted a churl into a thane. In like manner, as we have seen, by a law of Athelstane (which, however, was perhaps only a confirmation of a more ancient charter), a merchant who had made three voyages on his own account became a thane. The thane was liable to military service on horseback, and was, therefore, on a par with the eques, or knight. He probably had a vote in the national council. Ceorls or churls.-Between the thane and the serf, or slave, was the churl or freeman (sometimes also called frigman; in Lat. villanus; Norm. villain). But every man was obliged by law to place himself under the protection of some lord, failing which he might be seized as a robber. The ceorls were for the most part not independent freeholders, and cultivated the lands of their lords, on which they were bound to reside, and could not quit, though in other respects they were freemen. But there were several conditions of ceorls, who in the Domesday-Book form 2-5ths of the registered inhabitants. We have already seen that the ceorl might acquire land, and that, if he obtained as much as five hides, he became forthwith a thane. Hence there must have been many ceorls in England who were independent freeholders Possessing less than this quantity of land, probably the Socmanni or Soemen of Domes CHAP. IV. DIVISION OF THE SOIL. day-Book, and whom Mr. Hallam describes as "the root of a noble plant, the free socage tenants, or English yeomanry, whose independence has stamped with peculiar features both our constitution and our national character." (Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. ii., p. 274.) Serfs.-The lowest class were the serfs, or servile population (theowas, esnas), of whom 25,000 are registered in Domesday-Book, or nearly 1-11th of the registered population. Slaves were of two kinds-hereditary or penal slaves. A free Anglo-Saxon could become a slave only through crime, or default of himself or forefathers in not paying a wergild; or by voluntary sale-the father having power to sell a child of seven, and a child of thirteen having power to sell himself. The great majority of slaves probably consisted of captured Celts or their descendants: a conclusion which seems to be corroborated by the fact that this class was by far most numerous toward the Welsh borders, and that several Celtic words preserved in our language relate to some menial employment. Clergy. The clergy occupied an influential station in society. They took a great share in the proceedings of the national council; and in the court of the shire the bishop presided along with the alderman. This influence was a natural result of their superior learning in those ignorant ages, as well as of the veneration paid to the sacerdotal character. 4 The witena-gemôt.-The great national council, the assent of which was necessary for all the laws of the Anglo-Saxon kings, was called witena-gemót, assembly of the witans or wise men. Of its constitution we know little or nothing. It was composed of bishops, abbots, aldermen, and, according to the general expression, of the noble and wise of the kingdom; but who these last were is uncertain. They probably comprised the royal thanes; and it is not improbable that even all the lower thanes were privileged to attend, though they may not often have exercised their right. But it is now generally admitted that the ceorls had not the smallest share in the deliberation of the national assembly; that no traces of elective deputies, either of shires or cities, exist; and that the Saxon witena-gemôt can not therefore be considered as the prototype of the modern parliament. 5. Division of the soil. Folc-land and Boc-land. The soil of England was distributed in the manner usual among the Germans upon the Continent. Part of the land remained the property of the state, and part was granted to individuals in perpetuity as freeholds. The former was called Folc-land, the land of the folk, or the people, and might either be occupied in common, or parceled out to individuals for a term, on the expiration of which it reverted to the state. The land detached from the Folc-land, and granted to individuals in perpetuity as freehold, was called Boc-land, from boc, a book or writing, because, after the introduction of writing, such estates were conveyed by a deed or charter. Previously they were con 73 veyed by some token, such as a piece of turf, the branch of a tree, a spear, a drinkinghorn, etc.; and in the case of lands granted to the Church, these tokens were solemnly deposited upon the altar. Conveyances of this kind were even continued after the introduction of writing, and there are instances of them as late as the Conquest. The title to land thus conveyed seems to have been equally valid with that of bocland; but the latter name can be applied with propriety only to such land as was conveyed by writing. Bocland was exempt from all public burdens, except those called the trinoda necessitas, or liability to military service, and of contributing to the repair of fortresses and bridges (fyrd, burh-bot, and brycge-bót). Bocland was granted by the king with the consent of the witan; it could be held by freemen of all ranks, and even bequeathed to females; but in the latter case only in usufruct, reverting after the death of a female holder to the male line. After the Norman conquest we hear no more of folc-land; what remained of it at that period became terra regis, or crownland: except a remnant, of which there are traces in the common lands of the pres ent day. This was a consequence of the feudalism introduced by the Normans, by which all England was regarded as the demesne of the king, held under him by feudal tenure. 6. Shires. The territorial division of shires or counties is a very ancient one, being mentioned in the laws of King Ina, long before the time of Alfred; though that monarch may perhaps have rectified their boundaries, The smaller kingdoms and their subdivisions fell naturally into shires, as Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Essex, and Norfolk and Suffolk in East Anglia. At what time the complete distribution of counties was effected is unknown; but they existed in their present state at the time of the Conquest. The counties of York and Lincoln, apparently from their great size, were divided into thirds, called tredings, which, under the corrupt name of ridings, still exist in the former. In the later Anglo-Saxon times a scir-gemot (shire-mote, or county court) was held twice a year-in the beginning of May and October-in which all the thanes were entitled to a seat and to a vote. Its functions were judicial, and it was presided over by the ealdorman, or earl, and by the bishop; for originally the ecclesiastical dioceses were identical with the counties. Hume justly remarks that, among a people who lived in so simple a manner as the Anglo-Saxons, the judicial power is always of more importance than the legislative; and the thanes were mainly indebted for the preservation of their liberties to their possessing the judicial power in their own county courts. The scir-gerefa (shirereeve, sheriff) was the executive officer appointed by the king to carry out the decrees of the court, to levy distresses, take charge of prisoners, etc. The sheriff was at first only an assessor, but in process of time became a joint president, and ultimately sole pre-ident. This court survived the Conquest; and it is the opinion of Mr. Hallam that it D contributed in no small degree to fix the lib-|wer or leod, but there was also a tariff for erties of England by curbing the feudal aristocracy. (Middle Ages, vol. ii., p. 277.) 7. Hundreds.-The territorial division into hundreds was very ancient among the Teutonic races, and is mentioned by Tacitus (Germ., 6 and 12). In England the constitution of the hundreds is so anomalous that it is impossible to ascertain the principle on which it was founded. Some of the smaller shires present the greatest number of hundreds; but this may have arisen from their being more densely populated. Some writers have supposed that the hundreds consisted of 100 families of freemen; but the hypotheses on the subject are little better than guesses. In the time of Edward the Confessor the hundreds of Northamptonshire seem to have consisted of 100 hides of land. In the north of England the wapentake corresponded to the hundred of the southern districts. The name, which literally signifies the touching of arms, was derived from the ceremony which took place on the inauguration of the chief magistrate, when, having dismounted from his horse, he fixed his spear in the ground, which was then touched with the spears of those present. We have here the military origin of the hundred, as adverted to by Tacitus, who, however, also mentions its civil or judicial destination. The hundred-mote, or court of the hundred, was held by its own hundred-man under the sheriff's writ, and was a court of justice for suitors within the hundred. But all important cases were decided by the county court; and in course of time the jurisdiction of the court of the hundred was confined to the punishment of petty offenses and the maintenance of a local police. 8. Tythings. Frankpledge.—In the later Anglo-Saxon times, and in the southern districts of England, we also find another smaller subdivision, the teothing, or tything, synonymous with ward. Every man, who e rank and property did not afford an ostensible guarantee for his good conduct, was compelled, after the reign of Athelstane, to find a surety (bork). This surety was afforded by the tythings, the members of which formed, as it were, a perpetual bail for one another's appearance in cases of crime, with, apparent ly, an ultimate responsibility if the criminal escaped, or if his estate proved inadequate to defray the penalty incurred. In this view the tythings were also called frith-borhs, or securities for the peace; a term which, having been corrupted into friborg, gave rise to the Norman appellation of frankpledge. The institution seems to have existed only partially in the north of England, where it was called tienmanna tale (tenman's tale). 9. Punishments.-In considering the punishments of the Anglo-Saxons we can hardly fail to be struck by their mercenary spirit, a characteristic, however, which they shared in common with the jurisprudence of many other barbarous or semi-civilized nations. Almost every offense could be expiated with money; and in cases of murder and bodily injuries, not only was a price set upon the corpse, called wergild, or lodg ld, or simply every part of the body, down to the teeth and nails. Considerable value seems to have been set on personal appearance, as the loss of a man's beard was valued at 20 shillings, the breaking of a thigh at only 12; the loss of a front tooth at 6 shillings, the breaking of a rib at only half that sum. In the case of a freeman this price was paid to his relatives, in that of a slave to his master. In this regulation we see but little advance upon that barbarous state of society in which, in the absence of any public or general law, each family or tribe avenges its own injuries. The wergild is merely a substitute for personal vengeance. The amount of the wergild varied according to the rank and property of the individual, and in this sense every man had truly his price. For this purpose all society below the rank of the royal family and of an ealdorman was divided into three classes: first, the tywhind man or ceorl, whose wer, according to the laws of Mercia, was 200 shilings; secondly, the sixhind man, or lesser thane, whose wer was 600 shillings; and thirdly, the royal thane whose death could not be compensated under 1200 shillings. The wer of an ealdorman was twice as much as that of a royal thane: that of an atheling three times, that of a king commonly six times as much. But a regulation still more calculated to defeat the true ends of justice was that by which the value of a man's oath was also estimated by his property. The evidence of a thane in a court of justice counterbalanced that of 12 ceorls, and that of an ealdorman the oath of 6 thanes. In accordance with this mercenary spirit we are not surprised to hear that the fountains of justice were often corrupted at their source, and that the ealdorman on his bench, and even the monarch on his throne, were not always inaccessible to a bribe. In cases of foul or willful murder (morth), arson, and theft, capital punishment was sometimes inflicted, if the injured party preferred it to the acceptance of a wergild. Banishment was a customary punishment for atrocious crimes. The banished criminal became an outlaw, and was said to bear a wolf's head; so that if he returned and attempted to defend himself it was lawful for any one to slay him. Cutting off the hands and feet was another punishment for theft. Adultery, though a penal offense, might be expiated, like murder, with a fine. 10. Courts of justice.-The two principal courts of justice were the shire-mote, or county court, and the hundred-mote, of the constitution of both of which we have already spoken. From the county court an appeal lay to the king in council. In the county court, as observed above, all the thanes had a right to vote; but as so large and tumultuous an assembly was found inconvenient, it gradually became the custom to intrust the finding of a verdict to a committee usually consisting of 12 of the principal thane, but sometimes of 24, or even 36, and in order to form a valid judgment it was necessary that Wer and leed both signify man, and gild money or payin nt. CHAP. IV. ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. two thirds of them should concur. In the northern districts these judges were called lakmen. Their decisions were submitted for the approval of the whole court. The accused, who was obliged to give security (borh) for his appearance, might clear himself by his own oath, together with that of a certain number of compurgators or fellow-swearers who were acquainted with him as neighbors, and at all events resident within the jurisdiction of the court. The compurgators, therefore, were witnesses to character, and their functions can not be at all compared to those of a modern juryman. The thanes, or lahmen, who found the verdict, bore a nearer resemblance to a jury; yet it is evident, from the mode of trial by compurgation, as well as those by ordeal and judicial combat, of which we shall speak presently, that they were not called upon, like a modern juryman, to form a judgment of the facts from the evidence and cross-examination of witnesses. If the accused was a vassal, and hi hlaford, or lord, would not give testimony in his favor, then he was compelled to bring forward a triple number of compurgators. The accuser was also obliged to produce compurgators, who pledged themselves that he did not prosecute out of interested or vindictive motives. 75 3 furlongs, 3 acres, 9 feet, 9 palms, and 9 barleycorns. 11. Gilis. The municipal gilds of the Anglo-Saxona may be traced to the heathen sacrificial gilds, an original feature of which was the common banquet. These devil's gilds, as they are termed in the Christian laws, were not abolished, but converted into Christian institutions. There were even numerous ecclesiastical gilds. It was incumbent on them to preserve peace, and, in case of homicide by one of the members, the corporation paid part of the wergild. In London were several frith-gilds (peace-gilds) of different ranks; and in the time of Athelstane we find them forming an association for the purpose of mutual indemnity against robbery. Ealdormen are usually found at the heads of the gilds as well as of the cities themselves. The chief magistrate of a town was the uric-gerefa, or town-reeve, who appears to have been appointed by the king. Other officers of the same kind were the portreeve and burgh-reeve. The chief municipal court of London was the Hus-thing, literally, a court or assembly in a house, in contradistinction to one held in the open air, whence the modern hustings. This word was introduced by the Northmen, in whose language thing signified any judicial or deliberative assembly. 12. Commerce, manners, and customs.England enjoyed a considerable foreign commerce. London was always a great emporiun: Frisian merchants are found there and in York as early as the 8th century. Wool was the chief article of export, and was received back from the Continent in a manu factured state. Mints were established in several cities and towns, with a limited number of privileged moneyers; and many of the Anglo-Saxon coins still preserved exhibit considerable skill. The Anglo-Saxons loved to indulge in hospitality and feasting, and at their cheerful meetings it was customary to send round the harp, that all might sing in turn. The men, as well as the women, sometimes wore necklaces, bracelets, and rings, which were of a more expensive kind than those used by the female sex. We have al Ordeals, or God's judgments, were only resorted to when the accused could not produce compurgators, or when by some former crime he had lost all title to credibility. Some forms of ordeal, as the consecrated morsel and the cross-proof, were only calculated to work upon the imagination; others, and the more customary, as those by hot water and fire, subjected the body to a painful and hazardous trial, from which it is difficult to see how even the most innocent person could ever have escaped, except through the collusion of his judges. These were conducted in a church under the superintendence of the clergy. In the ordeal by hot water, the accused had to take out a stone or piece of iron with his naked hand and arm from a caldron of the boiling element; in that by fire, he had to carry a bar of heated iron for a certain distance that had been marked out. In both cases the injured member was wrap-ready adverted to King Alfred's taste for ped up by the priest in a piece of clean linen cloth, which was secured with a seal, and if, on opening the cloth on the third day, the wound was found to be healed, the accused was acquitted, or in the contrary event, was adjudged to pay the penalty of his offense. Judicial combats, called by the Anglo-Saxons earnest, and by the Danes holmgang, from their being generally fought on a small riverisland, though not entirely unknown, appear to have been much rarer among those people than among their Norman successors. Within the verge of the king's court an accused person enjoyed sanctuary and refuge. Its limits, whether permanent or temporary, are defined with an exactness almost ludicrous, and as if there was something magical in the numbers, to be on every side from the burgh gate of the king's residence, 3 miles, The origin of trial by jury is discussed in a note at the end of ebap. viii. jewelry. The Anglo-Saxon ladies employed themselves much in spinning; and thus even King Alfred himself calls the female part of his family "the spindle-side," in contradistinction to the spear, or male side. Hence the name of spinster for a young unmarried woman. B. ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The Anglo-Saxon language was converted into English by a slow process of several centuries. The works of Alfred, and the AngloSaxon laws before the reign of Athelstane, present the language in its purest state. On an examination of Alfred's translations, Mr. Turner found that only about one fifth of the words had become obsolete (Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii., p. 445), so that the great bulk of our language still remains Anglo-Saxon. The period of transition, called by some writers |