276 SAXON FRANK-PLEDGE AND Saxon society was tending. More perfect than the private guilds, it in one instance at least suppressed them, and apportioned their property among the new municipality, with a regard to vested interests. But whether a town consisted of one or of many guilds is unimportant. What is essential is to remember that life and property were not secured to the Anglo-Saxon by the state, but by the loyal union of his free fellow-citizens; that honour and courage were expected from neighbours, as readily as, among ourselves, from the police; and that free co-operation secured the weak from the strong, provided for the destitute or orphan, and mitigated the ruinous losses against which no care can provide. The system may have been, must have been, imperfect in its workings. But the question is not merely one of material results: it is rather of moral education; and I believe the Saxon guilds are unmatched in the history of their times as evidences of self-reliance, of mutual trust, of patient self-restraint, and of orderly love of law among a young people. It is interesting to contrast the Welsh expedient for enforcing justice, where it was withheld, with the Saxon frank-pledge system. The laws ascribed to Dyvnwal Moelmud' legalize, so to speak, the right of insurrection. In minor cases of wrong, a special commissioner is to reverse the decisions of the local magistracy. But where the king or his judges are the offenders, or in any other case "where law cannot be obtained to afford clear and permanent right," the head of the family was entitled to demand justice for his clansmen, and, by bringing into court the oaths of three hundred qualified Welsh Laws, vol. ii. p. 499. Dr. Guest has, I think, identified Dyvnwal Moelmud as king of Devonia in the sixth century. Archæol. Journal, 1859, pp. 126-129. WELSH VENDETTA CONTRASTED. 277 men, could reverse the decision of the supreme courts. We only know that this abstract right existed, and cannot pronounce in what way it was practically applied. But two points in it are remarkable. The strong family feeling of the Kelts displays itself in the substitution of the "chief of kindred" for the hundred or tithing-man. "The session of emergency," as it is called, is characteristic of an impulsive rather than of an orderly race; and recals the custom of Arcenefeld, by which “if a Welshman kill a Welshman the parents of the slain man gather together, and plunder the murderer's kindred and burn their houses, till the body be laid in the grave, about noon of the next day." The spirit that animated these institutions survives in the "lynch law" of Galway that has been transplanted to America, and still colours the contrast of French progress by revolutionary movements with the slow, constitutional, onward march of English liberty. Clearly, differences of race can be dated back to the earliest historical institutions. CHAPTER XVIII. THE ANGLO-SAXON COMMONWEALTH. GROWTH, RIGHTS, AND REVENUE OF ROYALTY. FUNCTIONS OF THE WITAN. GROWTH OF FEUDALISM. THR ROMAN AND ANGLO-SAXON FAMILY. GROWTH OF VILLEINAGE. LOCAL TENures. NATURE OF ANGLO-SAXON LIBERTY. SOCIETY, FOOD, AMUSEMENTS, AND DRESS IN THE ANGLO-SAXON TIMES. HE importance of royalty was sensibly increased TH in England by the events of the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, and by the fusion of Roman and Saxon ideas. The change in the ceremony of coronation would alone indicate this: the old king had been lifted up on a shield, and carried three times round the ranks of his shouting warriors, while a sacrifice was offered up; the king of later times received a sword as head of the host, a crown as chief judge, a sceptre in token of royalty, and a rod for the chastisement of evil-doers.1 Once invested, the king's first duty was to ride round the limits of his dominions, confirm the local customs, and receive in return the homage of his new subjects. At twelve years old every male was compelled to take the oath of allegiance, the breach of which, by Alfred's laws, was punished by death. The theory of AngloSaxon justice was that every man should endeavour to Grimm's Rechts-Alterthümer, pp. 234-237. Silver's Anglo-Saxon Coronation Service, pp. 6-8. See, however, Flor. Wig., vol. i. p. 173, and elsewhere, "levavere in regem." RIGHTS OF ENGLISH ROYALTY. 279 right himself before he applied to the king for redress. But as provinces of different origin, with dissimilar local customs, were united under one sovereignty, aplications to the supreme power became more and more frequent; the number of royal commissioners was multiplied; their functions were extended; and writs were introduced to transfer causes from the local courts to their cognizance.' The rights, limitations, and feudal relations of English royalty were very complex. All public property was vested in the Anglo-Saxon king; grants of folc-land required his previous sanction; rivers and roads were under his jurisdiction, and offences there committed against the peace were offences against the king; treasure-trove, by a just analogy, belonged to the sovereign. These rights, to which Roman law has no parallel, are no doubt based on the facts of original conquest. To the chief, as representative of the tribe, accrued all that the individual could not claim. Whether the king was punishable for crimes against the law is doubtful, as we never hear of blood-money being exacted from an English king. Edgar's penance was of course canonical, and though Canute once paid a were-gild, it was for the special offence of having killed a guild-brother. If the sovereign was really irresponsible, the worst precedent of Roman law was paralleled, if not imitated, in his case; and, with even greater stringency, the rights of the English treasury could be barred by no prescription, while four years were sufficient against the impe Kemble's Saxons in England, vol. ii. chap. ii. Grimm's Rechts-Alterthümer, pp. 247-250. Leges Edw. Conf., s. 14; Leges Henrici Imi, cap. x. A. S. Laws, vol. i. pp. 448, 518, 519. As the fee of the soil had in theory been derived from the sovereign, treasuretrove belonged to him. 280 REVENUE OF THE KING. rial fiscus.' The king's revenue was derived from several sources. He inherited crown-lands, distinct at once from the folc-land, and from his own private property; his officers received the customs; the Roman abuse of purveyance was retained in England, and gradually extended to the king's officers, to his retinue, and to his posts; the money of the wiht-gilds went to the king; the estates of those who died intestate and without heirs escheated to him; succession dues might be claimed from the estates of all followers; and a custom of voluntary presents from his gesith was gradually reduced to a tax on certain stated occasions. Of these sources of revenue much of course remained in the hands of the different reeves (gerefan) as their fees. Out of the surplus the king maintained his court, entertained strangers, paid his judicial commissioners, and contributed to public works. The Church, the army, the fleet, the police, the poor-rates, the walls, bridges, and highways of the country, were all local expenses, defrayed by tithes, by personal service, or by contributions among the guilds. Enough has been said to show that Anglo-Saxon 1 The "nullum tempus occurrit regi," is, I believe, immemorial in English law. As early as the time of Henry II. it was held that the crown could recover lands unjustly severed from its domain after any lapse of time. Dial. de Scac., lib. ii. c. 10. On the other hand, "bona vacantia," i. e. the goods of persons dying without succession, could be acquired by prescription under Roman law, until they were reported to the fis cus. Sandars's Institutes of Justinian, lib. ii. tit. 6. By four years' possession the Roman exchequer was barred to seize forfeited goods; and if the exchequer sold or gave to a private person, his title upon the mere delivery was unquestionable; but the injured person had his remedy against the exchequer if he sued in time. Codex, lib. 7. tit. 37. 1 and 2. 2 Canute's Laws, s. 70; A. S. Laws, vol. i. p. 413. 3 Canute's Laws, 71; A. S. Laws, Rechts-Alterthümer, settled in Magna Charta. |
