BOOK was to co-operate with the king in making laws. Thus Bede says, of the earliest laws we have, that Ethelbert established them with the counsel of his wise men."" The introductory passages of the Anglo-Saxon laws which exist, usually express that they were made with the concurrence of the witan. The witena-gemot appears also to have made treaties jointly with the king; for the treaty with Guthrun and the Danes thus begins: This is the treaty which Alfred, king, and "Gythrun, king, and all the witan of England, and all the "people in East Anglia, (that is, the Danes) have made and "fastened with oaths." 28 In 1011, it is said that the king and his witan sent to the Danes and desired peace, and promised tribute and supply." On another occasion, the Saxon Chronicle states, that the king sent to the hostile fleet an caldorman, who, with the word of the king and his witan, made peace with them." In 1016, it expresses that Eadric, the caldorman, and the witan who were there counselled, that the kings (Edmund and Canute) should make peace between them." In 1002, the king ordered, and his witan, the money to be paid to the Danes, and peace to be made. The treaty, printed in Wilkins' Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ, p. 104. is said to have been made by the king and his witan. 32 They are also mentioned to us as assisting the king in directing the military preparations of the kingdom. Thus, in 992, the Saxon Chronicle says, that "the king ordered, and all his witan, that man should gather together all the ships "that were to go to London." ** In 999, the king, with his witan, ordered that both the ship fyrde and the land fyrde should be led against the Danes." So, in 1052, the king decreed, and his witan, that man should proceed with the ships to Sandwich; and they set Raulf, eorl, and Oddan, eorl, CHAP to heafod-mannum (to be the head-men) thereto." Impeachments of great men were made before the witenagemot. Some instances may be concisely narrated. In 1048, the king, conceiving that he had cause of complaint against the family of the famous Godwin, convened the witena-gemot. The family armed. The witan ordered that both sides should desist from hostilities, and that the king should give God's peace and his full friendship to both sides. Then the king and his witan directed another witena-gemot to be assembled at London on the next harvest equinox, and the king ordered the army on the south and north of the Thames to be bannan. At this gemot, eorl Swain, one of Godwin's sons, was declared an utlah (outlaw); and Godwin and his other son, Harold, were cited to attend the gemot as speedily as possible. They approached, and desired peace and hostages, that they might come into the gemot and quit it without treachery. They were again cited, and they repeated their demand. Hostages were refused them, and five days of safety only were allowed them to leave the country. They obeyed, and went exiles into Flanders.36. We have another instance of the great council both banishing and pardoning. A great gemot, in 1052, was assembled at London, which "all the eorls and the best men in the country" attended. There Godwin made his defence, and purged himself before his lord the king and all the people, that he was guiltless of the crime charged on him and his sóns. The king forgave him and his family, and restored them their possessions and the earldom. But the archbishop and all the Frenchmen were banished.37 The same power was exerted in 1055. A witena-gemot was assembled seven days before Mid-Lent, and eorl Elfgar was outlawed for high treason, or, as it is expressed, because IV. BOOK he was a swica, a betrayer of the king and all his people. His earldom was given to another.” So all the optimates meeting at Cyrncéaster, in the reign of Ethelred, banished Elfric for high treason, and confiscated all his possessions to the king." At a great council, held in 716, one of their main objects is expressed to have been to examine anxiously into the state of the churches and monasteries in Kent, and their possessions." At these councils, grants of land were made and confirmed. The instances of this are innumerable. Thus, in 81 1, Cenwulf, at a very great council convened in London, gave some lands of his own right, with the advice and consent of the said council." It would be almost endless to enumerate all the grants which we know of, where the consent of the council is stated. At the council in 716, they forbad any layman taking any. thing from the monastery therein named; and they freed the lands belonging to it from various impositions and payments." At the council in 824, they inquired into the necessities of the secular deputies, as well as into the monasterial disciplines, and into the ecclesiastical morals. Here a complaint was made by the archbishop, that he had been unjustly deprived of some land. He cited those who withheld it. The writings concerning the land were produced, and viva voce evidence heard. The writings and the land were ordered by the council to be given to the archbishop." At a council in 903, an ealdorman stated that his title deeds had been destroyed by fire. He applied to the council for leave to have new ones. New ones were ordered to be made out to him, as nearly similar to the former as memory could make them." 38 Sax. Chron. 169: 29 MS. Claud. C. 9. 123, 124. 4 Astle's MS. Chart. No. 8.. 43 Ib. No. 12 Ib. No. 21. IV. What was done at one council was sometimes confirmed CHA P. at another. Thus what was done in the great council in Baccanfield was confirmed in the same year at another held in July at Cloveshoh. So a gift at Easter was confirmed at Christmas.4 45 That the witena-gemot sometimes resisted the royal acts, appears from their not choosing to consider valid a gift of land by Baldred, king of Kent, because he did not please them.46 The witena-gemot frequently appears to us, in the Saxon remains, as the high court of judicature of the kingdom. In 896, Æthelred, the ealdorman of Mercia, convened all the witan of Mercia, (which had not yet been reduced into a province) the bishops, ealdormen, and all the nobility, at Gloucester, with the leave of Alfred. They consulted how they most justly might hold their theod-scipe, both for "God and for the world, and right many men, both clergy "and laity, concerning the lands, and other things, that were "detained." At this gemot, the bishop of Worcester made his complaint of the wood-land of which he was deprived, All the witan declared that the church should have its rights preserved, as well as other persons. A discussion and an accommodation took place." 66 In another case of disputed lands, the bishop states, that he could obtain no right before Ethelred was lord of Mercia. He assembled the witan of Mercia at Saltwic, about manifold needs, both ecclesiastical and civil. "Then (says the bishop). I spoke of the monastery with the erfe ge write, "(conveyances of the land) and desired my right. Then "Eadnoth, and Alfred, and Ælfstan, pledged me that they "would either give it to me, or would, among their kinsfolk, "find a man who would take it on the condition of being "obedient to me." No man, however, would take the land 49 Astle's MS. Chart. No. 2. and MS. Claud, C. 9. 124. Spelm. Conc. p. 340. 47 Heming. Chart. 1. p. 93.. BOOK Taxation. on these terms, and the parties came to an accommodation on the subject.4 In 851, the monks of Croyland, having suffered much from some violent neighbours, laid their complaint before the witena-gemot. The king ordered the sheriff of Lincoln, and his other officers in that district, to take a view of the lands of the monastery, and to make their report to him and his council, wherever they should be, at the end of Easter. This was done, and the grievances were removed.49 The power of the witena-gemot over the public gelds of the kingdom, we cannot detail. The lands of the AngloSaxons, the burghs, and the people, appear to us, in all the documents of our ancestors, as subjected to certain definite payments to the king as to their lords; and we have already stated, that by a custom, whose origin is lost in its antiquity, among the Anglo-Saxons, all their lands, unless specially exempted, were liable to three great burdens, the building and reparation of bridges and fortifications, and to military expeditions. But what we now call taxation, seems to have begun in the time of Ethelred, and to have arisen from the evils of a foreign invasion. Henry of Huntingdon, speaking of the payment of ten thousand pounds to the Danes, to buy off their hostility, says, "This evil has lasted to our "days, and long will continue, unless the mercy of God "interferes; for we now (in the twelfth century) pay that "to our kings from custom, which was paid to the Danes "from unspeakable terror.' This payment, and those which followed, are stated to have been ordered by the king and the witena-gemot." Under sovereigns of feeble capacity, the witena-gemot seems to have been the scene of those factions which always attend both aristocracies and democracies, when no com 4 Heming. Chart. 1. p. 120. 49 Ingulf, p. 12. Hen. Hunt. 1. 5. p. 357. Eromton, Chron. p. 879. Ingulf also complains heavily of these exactions, p. 55. 51 Sax. Chron. 126. 132. 136. 140. 142. |