enues not lative grants. form of rents. 3 Royal rev- were not contingent upon legislative grants, must have been contingent amply sufficient to maintain the royal state and dignity. In upon legis- addition to the private estates which he possessed as an individual, and which he could dispose of by will, the king enjoyed the use of the royal demesne, which belonged to him as king, and which he could neither burden nor alienate Dues in the without the consent of the witan.2 The king also received certain dues (cyninges-gafol) in the nature of rents, which were in their origin voluntary contributions, but which finally became compulsory charges certainly upon all holders of folkland. And in addition to the sums which thus accrued to the king from his private estates, the royal demesne, and the folkland, he received revenue from the following sources: from the fines which were levied in the courts of law to the king's use, as conservator of the public peace; 5 from trove, and treasure-trove, wreck, mines, salt-works, and the mint; 6 from tolls, from markets and ports, and from transport by roads and navigable streams;7 from the heriots which were assessed upon the estates of the king's special dependents according to their rank; and from escheats and forfeitures.9 The king had the right of maintenance for himself and suite when in public progress; and he had also the right to license the building of bridges and fortresses. 10 Thus supported and maintained by an independent revenue, the king was able to deal upon equal terms with the witan, with whose advice and consent he performed all important acts. Receipts from fines, treasure the like. The legislative power: 4. The supreme powers of the continental Teutonic state, the king and whether monarchical or non-monarchical, were vested in a national assembly in which every freeman had his place. the witan. 112; Kemble, Saxons in Eng., vol. ii. pp. 30, 223, 224. Kemble considers it a tax levied by the king and the witan, -a view which can hardly be correct. 5 Kemble, Saxons in Eng., vol. i. p. 151; vol. ii. pp. 54, 55. 6 Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 55-73. 7 Kemble, Saxons in Eng., vol. ii. pp. 73-78, 94. 8 Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 98-102. 9 Ibid., vol ii. p. 50; Essays in A. S. Law, p. 64 seq. 10 Kemble, Saxons in Eng., vol. ii. pp. 58, 91. moot. agemot. While all ordinary business was disposed of by a council composed of the principes, great matters were submitted by the principes to the general assembly of the people.1 In the primitive kingdoms, in which the Teutonic settlers originally grouped themselves in Britain, the state assembly appears as the folk-moot, the meeting of the whole people in arms. In the structure of the folk-moot there is no departure from The folkprimitive traditions. By the time of the conversion, however, when for the first time it is possible to ascertain the form. which Teutonic society in Britain had assumed, the primitive states have ceased to exist as independent communities, they have become bound up in the seven or eight aggregates generally known as the heptarchic kingdoms. The national The witenassemblies of these heptarchic kingdoms are not folk-moots but witenagemots; they are not great popular assemblies of an entire nation, but small, aristocratic assemblies composed only of the great and wise men of the land.2 In the absence of the principle of representation, it is quite possible to understand how an originally democratic assembly, into which the magnates of the land entered as the great factors, would naturally shrink up into a narrow aristocratic body composed of the magnates only, wherever the extent of territory to be traversed rendered it difficult for the mass of the people to attend. The results of this principle are practically the same, Likeness whether worked out in England or Achaia. In the narrow English districts of country occupied by the primitive states, it was an assem possible for the folk-moots to preserve a continuous existence, blies. for the reason that it was not inconvenient for the people to attend the meetings of a local assembly in which their interests were directly involved. But as the process of aggregation 1 "De minoribus rebus principes consultant, de majoribus omnes; ita tamen ut ea quoque quorum penes plebem arbitrium est apud principes pertractentur."-Tac., Germ., c. 11. 2 See Kemble's chapter on the Witenagemot, Saxons in England, vol. ii. PP. 182-240; Freeman, Norm. Cong., vol. i. p. 67, and Appendix Q; Stubbs, Const. Hist., vol. i. p. 119. 8 "The Achaian assembly practically consisted of those among the inhab itants of each city who were at once wealthy men and eager politicians. Those citizens came together who were 4 "While the district whose mem- between and Acha The folkmoot shrinks up into the witenagemot. Composi tion of the witan. advanced, the extent of territory to be traversed widened; It is impossible to ascertain at what exact period the change was brought about through which the primary Teutonic assembly was converted into a narrow aristocratic body. The change was no doubt a gradual one, which probably advanced, pari passu, with the aggregation of the local communities.* That such a change did take place, and that the whole body of the people did retain for a long period of time the abstract right to be present in the national gemot, may be implied Every free from a series of vestiges which, beginning with the Dooms of Æthelberht, extend beyond the Norman conquest. If it be true, then, that every freeman did possess the abstract right to be present in the national assembly, there is no reason for assembly. the attempt to explain the presence of the great men who did. man retained the abstract right to be present in the national 1 Kemble, Saxons in England, vol. ii. p. 193. 2 "The idea of representation had 3 Stubbs, Const. Hist., vol. i. p. 119. I have attempted to describe was effected is neither very easy to determine nor very material. It was probably very gradual and very partial; indeed, it may never have been formally recognized, for here and there we find evident traces of the people's being present at, and ratifying the decisions of, the witan."-Saxons in England, vol. ii. P. 195. 5 For a collection of these vestiges see Freeman's Norm. Cong., vol. i. Appendix Q. of the king magnates. Wessex be in fact attend upon the theory of representation. The composition of the witenagemot is a subject which is involved in the greatest obscurity; in no one of the ancient laws can be found any positive enactment defining its constitution. From the documents attested by the witan the name by which the members of the assembly are usually described-it appears that the great council was attended by the king, who Witans was sometimes accompanied by his wife and princes of the composed blood; by the archbishops, and all or some of the bishops and and the abbots, and sometimes by priests and deacons; by all or some of the ealdormen; and by a large number of ministri or king's thegns, amongst whom were no doubt embraced the chief officers of the royal household, as well as the most considerable of the king's personal dependents.1 As the work of consolidation advanced, the magnates of the conquered kingdoms became entitled to seats in the Witan of Wessex, which Witan of finally became the Great Council of the Empire.2 The num- came the ber of the witan thus increased with the expansion of the Council of realm. In a witenagemot held at Winchester in 934, in the the Empire, reign of Æthelstan, there were present the king, four Welsh princes, two archbishops, seventeen bishops, four abbots, twelve ealdormen, and fifty-two king's thegns, in all ninetytwo persons. In another, held in 966, in the reign of Eadgar, were present the king's mother, two archbishops, seven bishops, five ealdormen, and fifteen thegns, which is considered a fair specimen of the usual proportion. The highest number and usually given is one hundred and six; and it seems that from ninety of about a to a hundred was not an unusual attendance, after the consol- hundred idation of the monarchy.5 The great council thus constituted was generally known as the witenagemot, literally the meeting of the wise; but it was also called mycel gemot, the great meeting, and sometimes mycel getheaht, the great thought. tions of the central body."-Ibid., p. 8 Cod. Dipl., No. 364. An act of Cod. Dipl., No. 518; Stubbs, Const. Cod. Dipl., Nos. 353, 364. 1107; consisted members. Powers of King legis lates with and consent The meeting of the witan was generally proclaimed in advance, at some one of the royal residences.1 The supreme powers of the consolidated kingdom were the witan. vested in the king and the witan, who possessed the right to consider all public acts which the king could authorize,2 including many acts which, according to modern theories, would be considered as purely executive. In every act of legislation the right of the witan to advise and consent was invariably recognized. The earliest of the old English enactments conform to this principle, which pervades all Teutonic legislation. The king enacts all laws, which are added to the existthe counsel ing customary law, with the counsel and consent of the witan, by whose concurrent authority they are promulgated. The laws of the Wihtræd are decreed "by the great men with the suffrages of all, as an addition to the lawful customs of the Kentish peoples." Hlothare and Eadric, kings of the men of Kent, augmented the laws which their forefathers had made before them, by these dooms. The laws of Ine are enacted" with the counsel and teaching of the bishops, with all the ealdormen and the most distinguished witan of the nation, and with a large gathering of God's servants." 8 Ælfred promulgated his code with the counsel and consent of his witan, and Eadgar ordains with the counsel of his witan in praise of God, and in honor of himself and for the behoof of all the people. 10 Of the old English laws, those of of the early thelberht, Hlothare and Eadric, Wihtræd, Ine, Eadward the Elder, Æthelstan, Eadmund, and Eadgar, are mainly in the nature of amendments of custom. Those of Elfred, Æthelred, Cnut, and those described as Eadward the Confessor's, aspire to the character of codes.11 Taxation, in the modern sense of the term, can hardly be said to exist until a very late period in the history of the Old-English common Character laws. Taxation. own and the king's authority."— Saxons in England, vol. ii. p. 205. Ibid., vol. ii. p. 206, note I. 6 Schmid, Gesetze, p. 15. 8 Schmid, Gesetze, p. 21. 10 Ibid., pp. 184 187; Stubbs, Const. Hist., 127; Saxons in England, vol. ii. pp. 206-213. 11 Select Charters, pp. 60, 61. |