Of the origin of tithes so much has been said by previous writers, that it may be thought presumptuous

stolorum principis, necnon et beati patris nostri Gregorii papæ ; PRESENTIBUS et subscribentibus archiepiscopis et episcopis Angliæ universis, necnon Beorredo, rege Merciæ, et Edmundo, Estanglorum rege: abbatum et abbatissarum, ducum, comitum, procerumque totius terræ, aliorumque fidelium infinita multitudine, qui omnes regium chirographum laudaverunt; dignitates vero sua nomina subscripserunt.*

It is difficult to form a very exact notion of the meaning of this charter: Mr. Selden, in his History of Tithes, [p. 206.] conjectures that "the purpose of the charter was to make a general grant of tithes payable freely; because it seems before, that [p. 207.] the payment of all tithes had commonly been omitted. Which, as it is against the concurrent testimony of the greatest part of our ancient writers, so is it contrary to the very words of the statute, and the following reasons, [Rich. Tillesley's Animadversions upon Mr. Selden's History of Tithes, Lond. 1621, p. 186.] which evidently shew that this grant was of the tenth part of lands, not of tithes properly. For,

1. Ethelwolf could not give that first which had been given before by Ethelbert, upon the preaching of Augustine the Monk, [see the laws of Edward the Confessor,] Offa, king of Mercia, [see Selden, ibid. page 201.] and, Elfwold, king of Northumberland, [ibid. p. 200.]

2. Whereas those kings gave tithes properly, and that not only in themselves, but also in their subjects, and so should give more than Ethelwolf, who gave but this Decima of his own land of inheritance, as appears from his passing it per regium chirographum, (his royal charter only, not any act of Parliament,) from Ethelwerd's de omni possessione sua, the word hereditariam in the charter, his Testament in Florence of Worcester, &c. yet Ethelwolf is extolled by king Edgar [in his speech to the clergy in Ailredo Rievallensi de Genealogia regum Anglorum, p. 359. apud Decem Scriptores] and William of Malmesbury, [de Gestis Pontificum Angliæ, p. 242.] as doing something extraordinary, and therefore this must be more than tithes.

3. There was no need for Ethelwolf to have asked the consent of his bishops and nobles, to give tithes out of his own lands, though it might seem requisite to ask consent to convey so much land.

to hope that any fresh information can be obtained. I will however observe, because I do not remember to have before seen the observation, that the decimal proportion of tithes to the whole property, of which they formed a part, arose perhaps originally from the obvious and acknowledged utility of the decimal system, which in all civilized nations has been adopted in almost all subjects of calculation. When Christianity was first introduced into Europe, tithes were certainly unknown; but in the time of Ethelbert, king of Kent, they already formed a part of the Christian system, though Selden contends that they were not introduced into England till the end of the eighth century. About the year 795, Offa, king of the Mercians, gave to the Church tithes of all his kingdom to expiate the death of Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, whom in the preceding year he had caused to be murdered.

The grant of Ethelwolf therefore cannot be con

4. Ethelwolf gave such a Decima as was liable not only to taxes and exactions of state then, but also to that trinoda necessitas of Pontis exstructio, expeditio, and arcis munitio: to which service lands only, and not annual profits, were liable.

5. If Ethelwolf gave [Selden, p. 207.] the tithes of prædial and mixed profits, and the tithe of every man's personal possessions were at that time also included in the gift; then how could there be any newly-consecrated tithes after? (as he endeavours to prove from chartularies in the 11th chapter,) since all were now given by a charter in Parliament, nay by Parliamentary authority, as he calleth it.

6. If monasteries and nunneries (for so the charter and Edgar's speech do express) did not at that time enjoy any tithes, (as his history tells us they did not,) then nothing can be more certain than that king Ethelwolf did not give them: and therefore our author had good reason to say, that he gave the tenth of all his kingdom unto the Church, &c." SPELM. LIFE OF ALF. p. 21.

sidered as an original gift, but as confirmatory of preceding grants, though it probably surpassed all of them in extent, and served in no slight degree to confer upon the Church that inordinate wealth which in a later age she possessed.

But the pious king of Wessex, finding that his dominions were no longer assailed by the barbarians who had so long harassed them, was now smitten with the general desire of paying a visit in person to the city of Rome. In the prosecution of this wish, he assembled a numerous retinue, and taking with him his youngest and favourite son Alfred, who now made the journey for the second time, he set out for the Imperial city. On arriving at the place of his destination, he was honourably received by the Pope, who, no doubt, looked on him with especial favour in consequence of his late donation to the Church. We could have wished that the Chroniclers had given us some insight into the customs and modes of life which at this time prevailed, and particularly of the occupations in which the Court of Rome were engaged. It would be interesting to know how Ethelwolf could have amused himself, or occupied his time during the long sojourn which he made in that city. Neither would it be without profit to learn the state of our own country, which could allow its sovereign to absent himself so long from the government. On these points, however, the contemporary chronicles are silent: what they have told us concerning this journey does little credit to the discretion of Ethelwolf, if we consider the advanced age to which he must then have arrived. As soon as the period of his stay was

• Ethelwolf must have been in England on Nov. 5, 855, the date of his charter to the Church, and he was married to Judith on

expired, the king, having no doubt gratified his curiosity, and refreshed his devotion by a sight of the relics and sacred things which the city of Rome contained, set out upon his return to England. Passing through France, he paid a visit to the court of the French king, Charles the Bald, and there was captivated with the youthful graces of the princess Judith, who could hardly at that time have been more than thirteen years old. Though queen Osburga was probably still alive, for the Chroniclers have, singularly and unfortunately, been silent on the subject, the old king was not deterred from gratifying his inclinations: he married the young princess, and brought her to England as his queen*.

But the state, whose sovereign has been so long absent, will probably be, if not in open rebellion, at least in a disaffected state, and ripe for insurrection. Such was now the state of England. We are ignorant of the manner in which the government was administered during the absence of Ethelwolf; it is most probable that it was confided to the charge of Ethelbald, the king's eldest son. If so, the trust which the king placed in this prince, nearly lost him the crown. Ethelbald was a warlike prince, very acceptable to the people, and may have been already anxious to possess some share in the government of his father's dominions, as had been before enjoyed by Ethelstane, now dead, his uncle, or as some say his elder brother. A specious excuse for

the 1st of October, 856, [Bouquet, vii. 72.] as he was returning through France. His stay therefore at Rome must have been about nine or ten months.

Her mother Ermengarde was married to Charles the Bald on the 12th of December, 842, and Judith was their eldest daughter. 'Sax. Ch. Ass. Ethel. Flor. Sim. Hunt.

rebellion seemed now to present itself. The king had been an unreasonably long time absent, and by his marriage with the princess Judith, seemed to have alienated his affections from his former family. To this was added the offence which the nobles of Wessex took at the queenly honours conferred upon the king's new wife. Since the time of Edburga", the kings of Wessex, in deference to the public indignation which the crimes of that princess called forth, had never conferred on their wives the appellation of queen, or in any way allowed them to participate with themselves in the honours of sovereignty. When therefore they heard

"Ethelwolf broke this custom, and the law against the king's wife did not continue long in force; yet in the times of some of his successors there was often a respect had unto it. For in some memoirs of the reign of king Edgar, the queen is styled only his wife, or legitima regis conjux or Cynninges gemæcca, that is, the king's wife, and not queen. In the subscriptions of king Edgar's charter of privileges to Hyde Abbey, by Winchester, yet remaining in Sir Robert Cotton's Library, [sub effigie Vespasiani A, viii. See the learned Dr. Smith's Catalogue thereof, p. 106.] and written in letters of gold in a hand of the same age, his wife Elfthrith subscribes thus: EGO ELFTHRITH,... legitima regis conjux, &c. and also EGO EDGIFA, prædicti regis ava, &c. and there are others of that nature of the same time, as will appear by consulting the Monasticon. This Elfthrith is the same that our historians commonly call Elfrida or Elfihrida, daughter to Orgar, then Earl or Duke (for those titles were not then distinguished) of Cornwall. And Edgifa was the third and last wife of king Edward, son to king Alfred, and grandfather to Edgar; yet perhaps by reason of this severe law she durst not style herself otherwise than the king's grandmother; for so Ava as well as Avia in those times denoted. In the same library is also extant a reformation of the monastic life of both sexes, entitled Regularis concordia Anglicæ nationis monachorum sanctimonialiumque, [Dr. Smith, who tells us 'tis a very fair MS, gives us another title, in his catalogue, p. 151, sub Faustina, B. iii.] and written in Edgar's time, wherein he takes care of the