often experience from the perils of travelling, and the violence of the great, in attending the witena-gemot, must have made many persons backward in frequenting it, especially when they had been chosen without desiring the distinction. This law seems directed to counteract this disposition. That it was no common gemot appears from the next provision of the same law, which supposes a reluctance in the yldestan men to inflict the punishment enjoined, and therefore imposes a fine on every one that would not ride with his companions to execute the law. It proceeds to forbid all revenge for the punishment, and directs the same loss of property on the avenger as had been attached to the person that would not attend the gemot. I cannot think that the severity of this law wanted for enforcing attendance on a mere folc or shire-gemot, for which there were so many inducements from its vicinity and popularity. Hence I think it relates to the great national council, to which only the word gemot, by itself, properly applies. The word gemot is frequently thus used to express the witena-gemot.h That every freeman had his definite rights, and every land its definite burthens and services, known and established by law and custom, is apparent from numerous Anglo-Saxon documents which have survived to us, and is fully shown by Domesdaybook, in which the commissioners appointed by the Conqueror made a specific return of the gelding lands and burghs of the country, and stated the individual payments and share of military burthens to which each was subject, and which only could be claimed from him according to law and ancient custom. The act of the national legislature to which, by his representatives, he assented, could alone subject him to further burthens. These definite, individual rights favour the supposition that the witenagemot, in order to affect the property and exemptions of the free class of the people, must have consisted of more orders than that of the nobility and clergy, and the probabilities, on the whole, seem to be that the witena-gemot very much resembled our present parliaments. Dr. Brady's assertions, in his treatise on boroughs, that "there were no citizens, burgesses, or tenants of the king's demesnes summoned to great councils or parliaments until the 23d of Edward the First" is not supported by the authorities which he adduces, but rests on his mistaken supposition that the first writ, now existing, of that year, in which the sheriff was directed to proceed to the election of citizens and burgesses was the first time that they were elected at all, although there is nothing in that writ which marks it to have been the commencement of an h Wilk. Leg. Sax. p. 62, 69, 116, 146, &c, He gives it in his book, p. 54. Brady on Bor. P. 68. innovation so momentous, and although one of the next documents which he produces shows that the government attempted to get money from the burghs without calling their representatives into parliament. The true inference from all his documents is, that the writs for the election of burgesses now existing are but the copies of more ancient forms, and the repetition of a prescriptive custom which has no known commencement. That they were not regularly summoned will appear probable when the frequent violences of power, and all the irregularities of those disturbed times are duly considered. That kings may have sometimes been content with the money they obtained from the barons and the counties, or may have sometimes procured it, by persuasion or threats, from the burghs separately, as Edward the First attempted in the instance alluded to, are also credible facts; but the fact that he was obliged to solicit the grant from the burghs, is evidence that he had not the legal power of raising it without their consent; and their right to give this consent is evidence of the existence of their constitutional privilege of not being taxed without their own consent; and this truth confirms all the reasoning which makes it probable that their representatives were called to the Saxon witena-gemot when it was intended that the burghs should contribute to the taxation. It does not at all shake this general principle that some new burghs attained the privilege within the period of historical record.1 We know what was necessary to exalt a ceorl to a thegn, but we cannot distinctly ascertain all the qualifications which entitled persons to a seat in the witena-gemot. There is, however, one curious passage which ascertains that a certain amount of property was an indispensable requisite, and that acquired property would answer this purpose as well as hereditary property. The possession here stated to be necessary was forty hides of land. The whole incident is so curious as to be worth transcribing.-Guddmund desired in matrimony the daughter of a great man, but because he had not the lordship of forty hides of land, he could not, though noble, be reckoned among the proceres; * Ibid. p. 66. One writ mentions that the mayor, sheriffs, aldermen, and all the communities of the city had granted him a sixth of their movables, and the other, reciting this as an example, directs the commissioners to ask (ad petendum) this of the demesne cities in the four counties mentioned, and to go with the sheriffs to them to require and efficaciously induce them to make a similar grant. P. 67. 1 The ancient charters of London, or copies of them recited in authentic charters, exist from the time of Henry the First, but none contain the grant of its right of sending representatives. The just inference seems to be that this constitutional right had been established long before. There is no charter existing, and none have been known to exist, that confers the right on any of the ancient burghs. This appears to me to show that it was the ancient immemorial right of all burghs or cities, beginning with their existence, and constitutionally attached to it, and not flowing from any specific grant. and therefore she refused him. He went to his brother, the abbot of Ely, complaining of his misfortune. The abbot fraudulently gave him possessions of the monastery sufficient to make up the deficiency. This circumstance attests that nobility alone was not sufficient for a seat among the witan, and that forty hides of land was an indispensable qualification.TM I cannot avoid mentioning one person's designation, which seems to have the force of expressing an elected member. Among the persons signing to the act of the gemot at Cloveshoe, in 824, is, "Ego Beonna electus consent. et subscrib."" CHAPTER V. Witena-Gemot.-How convened.-Times and Places of meeting.-Its Business and Power. THEY were convened by the king's writ. Several passages in the writers of this period mention that they assembled at the summons of the king. "On a paschal solemnity all the greater men, the clergy, and the laity of all the land, met at the king's court, to celebrate the festival called by him." In 1048, the Saxon Chronicle says, "the king sent after all his witan, and bade them come to Gloucester a little after the feast of Saint Mary." In one MS. in the year 993, the king says, "I ordered a synodale council to be held at Winton on the day of Pentecost." The times of their meeting seem to have been usually the great festivals of the church, as Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide; and of these, if we may judge by its being more frequently mentioned, Easter was the favourite period. But their meetings were not confined to these seasons; for we find that they sometimes took place in the middle of Lent, near the feast of Saint Mary, July, September, and October. One ancient law-book, the Mirror, mentions "that Alfred caused the earls to meet for the state of the kingdom, and ordained for a perpetual usage, that twice in the year, or oftener, if need were, during peace, they should assemble together at London to speak their minds 3 Gale's Script. p. 513. 3 Gale, Script. 395. CMS. Claud. c. 9, p. 122. e Sax. Chron. 163. Sax. Chron. 164. Heming. Chart. 50. n Astle's MS. Charters, No. 12. b Sax. Chron. p. 163. d Sax. Chron. 161. f Astle's MS. Chart. No. 2. for the guiding of the people; how to keep from offences; live in quiet, and have right done them by ascertained usages and sound judgment." We may add, that annual and more frequent meetings are often mentioned, but never annual elections. The place of their assembly was not fixed. After Egbert's accession, the gemot was convened at London, at Kingston, at Wilton, Winton, Cloveshoe, Dorchester, Cyrneceaster, Calne, Ambresbury, Oxford, Gloucester, Ethelwaraburh, Kyrtlenegum, and other places. Perhaps the place of their meeting depended on the king's residence at the time, and was fixed by his con venience. Our monarchs seem to have maintained their influence in the witena-gemots by their munificence. One account of their meeting in the time of Edgar is thus given: "All England rejoicing in the placid leisure of tranquil peace, it happened that on a certain paschal solemnity all the majores of all the country, as well clergy as laymen, of both orders and professions, met at the royal court called by him to celebrate the festivity, and to be honoured by him with royal gifts. Having celebrated the divine mysteries with all alacrity and joy, all went to the palace to refresh their bodies. Some days having been passed away, the king's hall resounded with acclamations. The streets murmured with the busy hum of men. None felt entirely a refusal of the royal munificence; for all were magnificently rewarded with presents of various sort and value, in vessels, vestments, or the best horses The king presided at the witena-gemots, and sometimes, perhaps always, addressed them. In 993 we have this account of a royal speech. The king says, in a charter which recites what had passed at one of their meetings, "I benignantly addressed to them salutary and pacific words. I admonished all-that those things which were worthy of the Creator, and serviceable to the health of my soul, or to my royal dignity, and which ought to prevail as proper for the English people, they might, with the Lord's assistance, discuss in common."k The speech of Edgar, in favour of the monks, is stated at length in one of our old chroniclers.' It has been already mentioned, that one of their duties was to elect their sovereign, and to assist at his coronation. Another 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 h Mirror, c. i. s. 2. Sax. Chron. 142, 161, 168, 124, 128, 163, 146. 20. Astle's MS. Chart. No. 8, No. 12. MS. Cleop. i 3 Gale Script. p. 395. Eth. Abb. Ailr. Heming. 93. MS. Cott. Aug. 2, 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 Ælfred, 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 oath."n 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 ealdorman, who, with the word of the king and his witan, made peace with them. In 1016, it expresses that Eadric, the ealdorman, 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. 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, 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 n Wilk. Leg. Angl. 47. P Ibid. 132. Ibid. 126. q Ibid. 150. t Ibid. 130. • Sax. Chron. 140. " Ibid. 165. |