you to the Laws of King Cnute and those of the Confessor the former of which you will find at the end of his Reign in the ensuing Volume wherein is set down what the Heirs of each of those Feudatary Tenants were to pay to their Lords at the Death of their Ancestors BUT that these could not be near all the Lands of England appears by what hath been already said of Lands held in Allodio And I have known some Learned Antiquaries who have not without good Cause believed that all Tenure by Knight-Service in England was derived from the Danes and Norwegians who upon their Conquests and settling here first brought in that sort of Tenure out of Denmark and Norway from whence the English Saxon Kings might by Degrees impose it upon several Lands by them granted to their Ealdormen or Earls and chief Thanes by Military or Knights Service who likewise granted them to their inferiour Thanes under the like Tenures and yet it would have been very unreasonable that such inferior Thanes should have so far been deprived of their antient English Freedom as that the Earls and King's Thanes should have it in their Power to make what Laws and impose what Taxes they pleased upon them as their under Tenants without their Consent AND if meer Tenure alone could have done this I would fain know why the English Kings before the Conquest by the same reason might not as well have made Laws and taxed their Tenants in Capite without their Consent as these could have done their Tenants that held under them But this is altogether false in Matter of Fact as all the Histories of those Times shew Danegelt it self being first imposed by the Consent of the King and his Wites as appears by the Saxon Annals NOT but that I grant all the Lands of England were then held under those three great Services called in Latin Trinoda Necessitas viz. 1. Expedition that is the finding of Men to defend the Kingdom in case of Invasion 2. The Repair of Bridges and 3. Fortifying of Castles from which even Lands granted to the Church were not exempted as appears by the Charters to several Monasteries But these were Services due and to be performed by the Common Law and Custom of the Kingdom and did not concern one sort of Tenure more than another I have no more to observe concerning this Bocland but that it passed by Deed called by Ingulphus Chirographa until the Confessor's time and was confirmed by the Subscriptions of the Fideles or Subjects there present with golden Crosses and some other holy Marks only this methinks ought not to be passed over that the Ceremony of Livery or Seizin of Lands is very antient as appears by the Charter of Ceadwalla King of the West-Saxons preserved among the Evidences belonging to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the Year DCLXXXVII made to Theodore then Arch-bishop of that See of certain Lands with this Subscription Ad cumulum autèm Confirmationis ego Cedwalla Cespitem terrae praedictae supèr sanctum Altare Salvatoris posui propriâ manu pro ignorantia Literarum signum sanctae Crucis expressi subscripsi that is For the farther Confirmation thereof I Ceadwalla have put this said Turf of Earth upon the holy Altar and for want of Learning have with my own Hand made and subscribed the Sign of the holy Cross. The like also hath Camden out of a Patent made by Withered King of Kent to a Nunnery in the Isle of Thanet So much for Bocland CONTRARY to which was that called Folkland which Sir Henry Spelman says was Terra popularis scilicet quae jure communi possidetur vel sine scripto that is Land belonging to the ordinary sort of People which they enjoyed of common Right without any Writings or Deeds as we see in Copy-hold Lands at this day for which the Tenants have seldom any other Evidences than the Copy of the Court-Rolls of the Mannor which Copy-hold Lands were antiently either held by Sockmen that is Free-men holding by the Plow to perform mean and villain Services or else by those who were Villains appendant to the Mannor THESE might be ousted of their small Estates at the Will of the Lord which a Farmer could not be so long as he honestly performed his Services and these were they who after the Conquest were called Tenants in Antient Demesne either of the King or of some other Lord as you will find in the old Natura Breviam OF the like sort also as Dr. Brady very well informs us were Lands and Possessions mentioned by other Names in our Saxon Laws as Gaffolland Rent-Land or Farm-Land Foedus Alured and Guthr c. 2. Gafogyldenhus an House yielding or paying Rent or Gable LL. Inae c. 6. There are also mentioned Inland or the Lords Demesnes which he kept in his own Hands and Neatland which is called Vtland or Outland in Byrthric's Will Terra Villanorum and was let out to Country-men or Villagers Aegder of Thegnes inlandge of Neatland i. e. either of the Lords or Thanes Inland or Demesnes or else the Country-mans Villagers or Villan's Land Gafolland Neatland and Vtland as Mr. Somner truly informs us were opposed to Inland or Demesne-Lands and were Lands granted out for Rent or Service or both and reducible to Folkland and 't is very probable they were the same or of the same Nature for that in the Laws where they are mentioned it appears they were always occupied by Ceorls Churles Country-men Colons or Clowns by Gebures Boors Rustics Plough or Husbandmen or by Neates and Geneates Drudges Villanes or Villagers These three Saxon words being almost of the same Signification tho very different in Sound were always applied to the ordinary sort of People called by us Folk at this day Thus far the Doctor which I will not contradict tho he here makes all Ceorles Men to have been meer Drudges which was not so since those that held Land by Socage-Services were as free as to all things else from the Power of their Lords as our Tenants are at this day BUT I desire by the way that this may not be unobserved that I can no where find the word Colonus used for a Husbandman or Clown in any of our antient Saxon Laws tho Sir Henry Spelman gives us some Examples of the use of it in the German Laws there signifying Liberi Ecclesiastici quos Colonos vocant and the King had also his Coloni but this learned Author supposes that these Coloni answered our Sockmen who were certainly Freemen and not Villains Nor did Villanus signify a Villain but a Country-man or Villager in general till after the Conquest and then it was not from the Latin but French Idiom that a Villain came to signify a Slave or Drudg HAVING now given you what I thought fit to say concerning the several Tenures and ways of Conveyance of Lands in the
Saxon Times I shall proceed in the next place to discourse somewhat of the manner of the disposing of their Goods and Personal Estates which they might do either by Deed or last Will in Writing as at this day But if they happened at any time to die intestate then their Goods were equally divided between the Wife and Children of the Deceased tho by a Law of King Edmund the Relict or Widow was to have half her Husband's Goods yet by the Laws of Edward the Confessor it was declared that in case any one died Intestate then the Children were equally to divide the Goods which I take to be understood with a Salvo of the Wife's Dower or Portion As yet therefore the Ordinaries had nothing to do with the Administration for Goods passed by Descent as well as Lands and upon this Custom the Writ de Rationabili parte Bonorum was grounded at the Common Law as well for the Children as the Wife's Part according as by the Body of the Writ may appear THE antientest Will that Mr. Selden says he hath observed before the Conquest is one of King Edgar's time which Mr. Lambard has given us in his Perambulation of Kent and that is of one Brithric a Gentleman or Thane and his Wife Elswithe wherein they devised both their Lands and Goods and also gave his chief Lord and the Lady his Wife several noble Legacies to prevail with him that his Will might stand good By which it should seem the Lands bequeathed were Feudal Lands held by Knights Service which could not be alienated without the Lord's Consent But Mr. Selden there further takes notice That the Protection or Execution of this Testament as well as the Probate were within the Jurisdiction of the Lord's Court and that especially because divers Lords of Mannors have to this day the Probate of Testaments by Custom continued against that which is otherwise regularly settled in the Church BUT as for Intestates Goods he says The Disposition or Administration of them was in the Saxon times in the chief Lord of him that died in case the Intestate were an immediate Tenant and died at home in Peace But in case he were no Tenant or died in his Lord's Army then it was it seems as other Inheritance under the Jurisdiction of that Temporal Court within whose Territory the Goods were This may be proved out of the Laws of that Time which ordain that upon the Death of an Intestate whom they call CWIALE AWE the Lord is only to have the Heriots due to him which are also appointed by the Laws of the same time that by his the Lord's Advice or Judgment his the Intestate's Goods be divided among his Wife and Children and the next of kin according as to every one of them of right belongs that is according to the nearness of Kindred if no Children or Nephews from them be for it must I suppose be understood that the Succession was such that the Children excluded all their Kindred and of their Kindred the next succeeded according to that in Tacitus of his Germans whose Customs were doubtless mixed with our English-Saxons Haeredes says he successorésque sint cuique liberi nullum Testamentum But it seems Christianity afterwards brought in the free Power of making Testaments amongst them Si liberi non sunt proximus gradus in possessione Fratres Patrui Avunculi BUT this is express'd only in case the Tenant died at home and in Peace for if he died in his Lord's Army both the Heriot was forgiven and the Inheritance both of Goods and Lands was to be divided as it ought which was it seems by the Jurisdiction of the Temporal Court within whose Territory the Death of the Intestate or Goods were for in that case it is not said that the Lord's Judgment was to be used but that the Heirs should divide all or as the words in the Confessor's Law are habeant Haeredes ejus pecuniam terram ejus sine aliqua Diminutione rectè dividant inter se where the Right of the Heir both to Lands and Goods is expresly designed but the Judg that should give it them not mentioned Therefore it seems it remained as other Parts of the Common Law under the Temporal Jurisdiction as by the Civil Law it was under the Praetors Thus far this learned and great Author FROM whence we may make this Note that the Probate of Wills was a Matter of Civil Cognizance before the Conquest and for some time after till the Canon Law being more generally received in England the Bishops Courts took this Power to themselves supposed by Mr. Selden in his 6 th Chapter of his said Treatise to be about the time of Henry the Second WE shall now in the last place go on to the Criminal part of the English-Saxon Laws viz. the manner of Trial Judgment and Execution pass'd and inflicted on Offenders in those Times ALL Trials for Criminal Matters were then either in the Court-Leets the Sheriffs-turn or the County-Courts in which last the greater Offenders were commonly tried and that most antiently by Witnesses and Juries as at this day for we find in the Mirror of Justices that King Alfred commanded one of his Justices to be put to death for passing Sentence upon a Verdict corruptly obtained upon the Votes of the Jurors whereof three of the Twelve were in the Negative And the same King put another of his Justices to death for passing Sentence of Death upon an Ignoramus return'd by the Jury BUT the first Law we read of that defined the Number of Jury-men to be Twelve was that of Aetheldred I. above two hundred Years before the Conquest which says In singulis Centuriis c. in English thus In every Century or Hundred let there be a Court and let Twelve Antient Freemen together with the Lord of the Hundred be sworn that they will not condemn the Innocent nor acquit the Guilty BUT whether there were any such thing as a Grand Jury or Inquest we do not particularly find only we may reasonably conclude there was because in the same Mirror we read that a Justice suffered Death for passing Sentence only upon the Coroner's Record and another Justice had the same Punishment for condemning one without any preceding Appeal or Indictment YET the first time that we find any mention of a Jury by Mens Peers or Equals is in the Agreement between Alfred and Guthrune the Dane in these words in English viz. That if a Lord or a Baron be accused of Homicide he shall be acquitted by twelve Lords but if of inferiour Rank he shall be acquitted by eleven of his Equals and one Lord. BUT in Cases very doubtful and where there was not sufficient Evidence by Witnesses but only strong Presumptions of Guilt in the times after King Alfred Trials by Ordeal came in which Somner in his Glossary says was
and Bell-house The Bell-house may denote the Hall which was the place of ordinary Diet and Entertainment in the Houses of Lords It may well so signify if the Saxons used the like Reason in imposing the Name on the Lord's Hall as some say the Italian Spanish and French have done in calling it Tinello Tinello and Tinel which in our Laws also is retained in Tinel le Roy for the King's Hall They would have it therefore so named because the Tin or tinkling of a Bell at the Times of Dinner and Supper were signified by it BUT Sundernota mentioned in the Latin Copy of this Law seems to denote the distinct Office which he was to hold in the King's Court to make him equal to a Thane And it is also observable that by the same Laws of King Athelstane abovementioned such a Ceorlsman so advanced and having five Hides of Land ad Vtwarum Regis that is as Mr. Selden in the same place interprets held by Knights Service Si occidatur reddentur 2 Millia Thrymsarum so that his Wiregyld shews him to have been every way equal to a Thane BUT the most considerable Observation that may be made from this Law is that V. Hides of Land were at that time reckoned a sufficient Estate to constitute a Thane But as to the Quantity of Land that then went to make a Hide it was sometimes more and sometimes less according to the Goodness or Quality of the Soil but was certainly no more than what one Plow could well manure together with Pasture Meadow and Wood competent for the Maintenance of that Plow and the Servants of the Family So that the Estate of such a Thane could not be much more than what an ordinary Gentleman has at this day NOR can I here pretermit what follows in the same Law above recited where after having shewn us by what means an Under Theyn might come to be a Chief Thane and from thence attain to the Dignity of an Earl it thus proceeds And if a Merchant so thrived that he had passed thrice over the wide or broad Sea by his own Cunning or Craft as it is in the Saxon he was thenceforth a Thane's Right-worthy i. e. was every way equal to him Where you may observe that Wealth and Industry conferred Nobility in the Saxon Times as well as at this Day I come now to the lowest Rank of Men viz. that of Slaves who were called in Latin Servi and in Saxon Freortorlings and there were two sorts of them viz. such as were Personal possessing no Estates but all that they earn'd was their Lords by whom therefore they were maintained The others were Praedial such as were of Servile Condition and Original but possessed their small Holdings and Goods at the Will of their Lord doing all those Servile Countrey Works that were set them and from thence in the more modern Norman Dialect were called Villains from those Villages where they lived and wrought But before as well as after the Conquest that the Latin word Villanus did not signify a Villain or Servant I could prove from many Instances both out of Records and Histories if I thought it would not be too tedious in this Place AS for the Original of these Slaves among the Saxons there is some doubt about them some supposing them to have been derived from the remainder of those meaner sort of Britains who were either taken Prisoners or else never forsook the Land and so their Lives being saved they were made servile by their Conquerors or else such as were descended from those who came over in the nature of Slaves to the English Saxons that first landed here but it is not much material how they began since they might proceed from both or either of these Originals nor had their Lords Power of Life or Death over them for if they killed any of them they were to pay the Value of their Heads to the King THESE Slaves if they were set free at any time by their Masters were what the Romans called Liberti and in Saxon Freolaetan but being then resolved into the Body of Ceorles or Countrey-men they did not as among the Romans constitute any new Order of Men. HAVING now gone through all the Sorts and Degrees of Men who either lived in or were maintained out of the Countrey I shall in the next Place say somewhat of another distinct Body of Men called in Saxon Burh-witan or Burh-wara that is Citizens or Townsmen who had Privileges peculiar to themselves and living in Cities or great Towns were governed by their own particular Magistrates called Ealdormen or Portgerefan i. e. Port-Reeves assisted by the Chief Men of the Place called in Saxon Yldist-Burh-wara who were much the same with what we now call Aldermen or Common-Council Men for as for the Title of Mayor it came not in use here till long after the Conquest BUT as for these Magistrates and Members of Cities and Towns I shall speak more by and by when I come to treat of the constituent Parts of the Great Council of the Kingdom FROM the different Orders of Men we shall now descend to speak of the different Courts where these Persons abovementioned all except the Villains were bound to appear and there either to do or receive Justice for which it will be necessary to look back to the Reign of King Alfred who after the first Invasion of the Danes when he began to resettle the Kingdom found his Subjects so far corrupted by a long and hazardous War that all Places being full of Robberies and Murders there was an absolute necessity for the making of more severe Laws to restrain them so that omitting the Division of Counties or Shires which I shall speak to hereafter he Canton'd his Kingdom 1 st into Trihings or Lathes as they are still called in Kent and other Places consisting of three or four Hundreds in which the Freeholders being Judges such Causes were brought as could not be determined in the Hundred Court concerning the Proceedings in which Court of the Trihing or Lathes you may see divers Precedents in Sir William Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales NEXT to which there was also the Hundred-Court in Saxon Hundred-Gemot and in Latin Centuriata Because it originally consisted of an hundred Hides of Land as an Hide usually of an hundred Acres or else because super decem Decanos centum Friburgos judicabat that is it had Jurisdiction over ten Decennaries or an hundred Friboroughs THIS Court before the Conquest was held twelve times a Year and afterwards was increased by Henry I. to once a Fortnight and then by Henry the Third reduced to once in three Weeks IN this Court antiently Vnus de melioribus qui vocatur Aldermannus one of the principal Inhabitants called the Alderman together with the Barons of the Hundred id est the Freeholders was Judg as may seem by the Register of Ely which saith that Aegelwynnuâ—
This Year the Northumbrians expelled their King Albred from York about Easter and chose Ethelred the Son of Moll once King for their Lord He reigned 4 Years Of which Transaction Roger Hoveden gives us this particular Relation That King Alhred being deposed by the Common-Council and Consent of his own Subjects and forsaken of all his Great Men was forced to retire first to the City of Bebban afterwards called Banbarough-Castle from whence he betook himself to Cynoth King of the Picts with but very few Followers The same Year also appeared a Red Cross in the Heavens after Sun-set and the Mercians and Kentish-men fought at Ottanford now Otford in Kent But neither the Saxon Annals nor any other vouchsafe to tell us what was the Quarrel nor who were the Commanders on either side nor yet what was the Success Also strange Serpents were seen in the Province of the South Saxons Mat. Westminster places this Prodigy two Years after and says They seemed to creep out of the Earth This Year Cynwulf King of the West Saxons and Offa King of the Mercians fought at Binsington now Bensington in Oxfordshire but Offa took the Town So it seems Cynwulf had the worst of it Here follows in the Peterburgh Copy another Relation concerning that Abbey which is thus That In the Reign of King Offa there was a certain Abbot of Medeshamstead called Beonna who with the Consent of the Monks of his Monastery leased out to Cuthbriht the Ealderman X bonde-Bonde-land that is the Ground of ten Bond-men or Villains at Swinesheafde with the Meadows and Pastures and all other Things thereunto belonging upon this Condition That Cuthbriht should pay the Abbot Fifty Pounds and one Night's Entertainment every Year or else Thirty Shillings in Money and that after his Death the Lands should again revert to the Monastery To which Grant King Offa King Egferth Arch Bishop Higebert the Bishop Ceolwulf the Bishop Inwona with Beon the Abbot and many other Bishops Abbots and Great Men were Witnesses I have inserted this Passage thô it does not relate to the Civil History of these Times because it is the First Example of a Lease of this kind and seems to have been done in a great Council of the Kingdom where these Kings were present which was then necessary for such a Grant Also in the time of this King Offa as the Peterburgh Copies relate there was a certain Ealderman called Brordan who desired of the King That for his sake he would free a certain Monastery of his called Wocingas because he intended to give it to St. Peter and to the Church of Medeshamsted one Pusa being then Abbot of it This Pusa succeeded Beonna and the King loved him very well wherefore he freed the Church of Wocingas by the King's consent with that of the Bishop Earls and all other Men's consents so that no body should from thenceforth have any duty or Tribute besides St. Peter and the Abbot this was done in the King's Town called Freoricburne Pehtwin Bishop of Witerne called in Latin Candida Casa deceased XIII Kal. Octob. he was Bishop Fourteen Years and had been bred under Aldhelm that Pious Bishop of Winchester and the same Year Ethelbert was consecrated Bishop of that See at York XVII Kal. Junii This Year according to the Welsh Chronicle the South-Welshmen destroyed great part of Mercia with Fire and Sword As also The Summer following all the Welshmen both of North and South-Wales gathered themselves together and Invading the Kingdom of Mercia made great spoil by burning and plundering the Country whereupon King Offa was forced to make Peace with the other Saxon Kings and to bend his whole Forces against the Welsh Men who not being able to encounter so great a strength as he then brought against them were forced to quit all the plain Country between the Rivers of Severne and Wye and retired into the Mountains whereupon Offa perceiving this seised upon all the Country and planted Saxons in their places and annexing it to his own Kingdom caused that famous Ditch or Trench to be made from Sea to Sea betwixt his Kingdom and Wales whereby he might the better defend his Country from the Incursions of the Welsh hereafter This Ditch is seen at this day in divers places and is called Welsh Clawdh Offa i.e. Offa's Ditch This Year Aethebald and Hearbert kill'd Three chief Gerifs or Governours Ealdwulf the Son of Bosa at Cyningeselife i. e. Kings Cliffe and Cynwulf and Ecga at Helathyrn XI Kal. Aprilis then Alfwold took the Kingdom Aethelred being Expel'd the Land and Reigned Ten Years But H. Huntington and Simeon of Durham gives us a more exact account of this Matter that Aethelred King of Northumberland having caused Three of his Nobles Aldwulf Kinwulf and Ecga to be treacherously slain by two of the same rank The Year following his Subjects Rebelling against him they first slew Aldwulf General of the King's Army in Flight at the place above mentioned as they also did the two other Commanders in the same manner so that King Aethelred's Captains being all slain and his hopes as well as his Forces defeated he was forced to flee into another Country and so Elfwald the Son of Oswulf succeeded him thô not without Civil Broils He was a Just and Pious Prince yet could not escape the hard Fate of his Predecessors as you will see in due time The same Year as the Laudean Copy relates King Charles entred Spain and destroyed the Citties of Pampelona and Cesar Augusta now called Saragosa and having joined his Army subdued the Saracens and received Hostages from them and then returned by Narbon and Gascony into France This Year the chief Gerifs or Governours of Northumberland burnt Beorne the Ealderman in Seletune 19 Kal. Januarij Roger Hoveden calls these Gerifs Osbald and Aethelheard and H. Huntington says They burnt this Ealderman or Chief Justice of the Kingdom because he was more Rigid and Severe than in Reason he ought to have been The same Year the Ancient Saxons and Franks fought against each other in which Battle Charles King of the Franks gained the Victory having wasted the Saxon Territories with Fire and Sword and laid them to his own Dominions as not only our own but the French Historians relate Also Bishop Aethelheard dyed at York and Eanbald was consecrated to the same See and Cynebald the Bishop resigned his See at Lindisfarne and Alchmuna Bishop of Hagulstead deceased 7 th Id. Sept. and Higbert was consecrated in his stead the 6 th of the Nones of Octob. as likewise Higbald was consecrated at Soccabrig to be Bishop of Lindisfarne Also King Allwold sent to Rome to demand the Pall for Eanbald Arch-Bishop of York This Year Werburh the Wife of King Ceolred late King of the Mercians deceased at her Nunnery of Chester where she was Abbess and where the Church is dedicated to her Memory also Cenwulf Bishop of Lindisfarne died
and the Charter of that King to the Abby of Croyland is confirmed under the Rule of St. Benedict and is supposed by Sir H. Spelman in his Councils to be a great Council of that Kingdom because it bears date in the Week of Easter when they were Assembled about the publick Affairs of the Kingdom at which time as also at Whitsontide and Christmass the great Men of the Kingdom were wont of course to attend at the King's Court to consult and ordain what should be necessary for the common Good when also the King used to appear in State with his Crown upon his head which custom of holding great Councils was also continued after the Norman Conquest to the middle of the Reign of Henry the Second as Sir H. Spelman learnedly observes in his Notes at the end of this Council This Year according to the Peterburgh Copy of the Saxon Annals Ceolred Abbot of Medeshamstead and his Monks leased out to one Wulfred the Land of Sempigaham perhaps Sempingham in Lincoln-shire on Condition That after his Death it should again revert to the Monastery he paying in the mean time a Yearly Rent of so many Loads of Wood Coals and Turf and so many Barrels of Beer and Ale and other Provisions with Thirty Shillings in Money as is there specified at which Agreement Burherd King of the Mercians who had now succeeded Beorthwulf was present together with Ceolred the Arch-Bishop with divers other Bishops Abbots and Ealdormen I have inserted this to let you see the form of Leasing out the Abbey Lands in those Days and which it seems required the Solemnity of the Common Council of that Kingdom to confirm it The same Year also according to Florence Berthulph King of the Mercians deceased and Burhed succeeded him Who this next Year together with his Wites that is the Wise Men of his Great Council desired King Aethelwulf that he would assist them to subdue the Northern Welshmen which he performed and marching with his Army through Mercia made the Men of North-Wales Subject to King Burhed but of this the Welsh Chronicles are silent This Year also King Aethelwulf sent his Son Aelfred to Pope Leo to Rome who there anointed him King and adopted him for his Episcopal Son It is much disputed among some of our Modern Historians of what the Pope anointed Alfred King whether of any present or else future Dominions But since an ancient Manuscript in the Cottonian Library containing an History of the Kings of England says expresly That he was anointed In Successorem Paterni Regni and that we do not read of any Territories King Alfred enjoyed till after the Death of his Brethren it is most reasonable to understand it in the plain Literal Sense as it is here set down not only in these Annals but in Asser's Account of this King's Life and Actions that the Pope anointed him King as a Prophetical Presage of his future Royal Dignity And the same Year Ealcher with the Kentish-men and Huda with the Surrey-men fought with the Danish Army in the Isle of Thanet and at first had the better of them but there were many killed and drowned on both sides and both the Ealdormen or Chief Commanders perished Also Burhed King of the Mercians now married the Daughter of King Ethelwulf Asser relates the Marriage to have been kept with great Solemnity at a Town of the King 's called Cippenham now Chipnam in Wiltshire This Year the Danes winter'd in Scepige or Sheppie and the same year King Aethelwulf discharged the Tenth part of his Land throughout his whole Kingdom of all Tribute or Taxes for the Honour of God and his own Salvation This being the famous and solemn Grant of King Aethelwulf concerning Tythes requires a more particular Relation and therefore I shall here give you the Words of the said Grant at large I Aethelwulf King of the West Saxons with the Councel or Consent of my Bishops and Chief Men c. have consented That a certain Hereditary Part of the Lands heretofore possess'd by all Orders and Degrees of Persons whether Men or Women Servants of GOD i. e. Monks or Nuns or meer Laicks shall give their Tenth Mansion and where it is least the Tenth Part of all their Goods free and discharged of all Secular Servitude and particularly of all Royal Tributes or Taxations as well the greater as the less which they call Wittereden which signifies a certain Fine or Forfeiture and that they be free from all other Things as Expedition building of a Bridge or fortifying of a Castle c. And that they may the more diligently pour out their Prayers to GOD for us without ceasing we do in some part discharge their other Service These Things were done in Winchester in the Church of St. Peter in the Year of our LORD's Incarnation 855 the Third Indiction on the Nones of November before the great Altar in Honour of the Glorious Virgin Mary the Mother of GOD St. Michael the Arch-Angel and St. Peter Prince of the Apostles as also of our blessed Father Pope Gregory all the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of England being present and subscribing to it as also Beorhed King of Mercia together with the Abbots Abbesses Earls and other chief Men of the whole Kingdom with an infinite multitude of other Believers who all of them have witnessed and consented to the Royal Grant but the Dignitaries have thereunto subscribed their Names But as Ingulph relates King Aethelwulf for the greater firmness thereof offered this Charter at the Altar of St. Peter at Rome but that the Bishops received it in the Faith of God and transmitted it to be published throughout all the Churches in their several Diocesses Thô this Grant of Tithes is mentioned by the Annals as to be made before the King 's going to Rome yet it appears by the Date as also from Asser and Ingulph not to have been done till after his Return from thence which makes Sir H. Spelman conjecture and not without good Grounds that this Grant was twice made once before his going to Rome it being there confirmed by the Pope and was also regranted by a Great Council of the Kingdom after his Return as appears by the Charter here recited I have been the more exact in reciting this Law concerning Tythes both because it gives us the form of passing an Act in the great Council of the Kingdom at that time and who were the Parties to it as also because this was the first general Law that was ever made in a Mycel Synod of the whole Kingdom for the payment of Tythes thô I do not deny but there had been before some particular Laws of King Ina and King Offa to the same effect yet those could only oblige the West Saxon and Mercian Kingdoms The next Year also according to Florence and Asser's Chronicle K. Aethelwulf went to Rome carrying Aelfred his youngest and best beloved Son along with him but
and instead thereof engaged the Prince of Wales to send him a Yearly Tribute of so many Wolves Heads in lieu of that Tribute which the said Prince performed till within some Years there being no more Wolves to be found either in England or Wales that Tribute ceased But to proceed with our Annals This Year deceased Aelfgar Cousin to the King and Earl also of Devonshire whose Body lies buried at Wilton Sigeferth likewise here called a King though he was indeed no more than Vice-King or Earl of some Province now made himself away and was buried at Winborne The same Year was a great Mortality of Men and a very Malignant Feaver raged at London Also the Church of St. Pauls at London was this Year burnt and soon after rebuilt and Athelmod the Priest went to Rome and there died I have nothing else to add that is remarkable under this Year but the Foundation of the Abby of Tavistock by Ordgar Earl of Devonshire afterwards Father-in-law to King Edgar though it was within less than fifty years after its foundation burnt down by the Danes in the Reign of King Ethelred but was afterwards rebuilt more stately than before This Year Wolfstan the Deacon deceased and afterwards Gyric the Priest These I suppose were some men of remarkable Sanctity in that Monastery to which this Copy of these Annals did once belong The same Year also Abbot Athelwald received the Bishoprick of Winchester and was consecrated on a Sunday being the Vigil of St. Andrew The second year after his Consecration he repaired divers Monasteries and drove the Clerks i. e. Canons from that Bishoprick because they would observe no Rule and placed Monks in their stead He also founded two Abbies the one of Monks and the other of Nuns and afterwards going to King Edgar he desired him to bestow upon him all the Monasteries the Danes had before destroyed because he intended to rebuild them which the King willingly granted Then the Bishop went to Elig where St. Etheldrith lieth buried and caused that Monastery to be rebuilt and then gave it to the care of one of his Monks named Brightnoth and afterwards made him Abbot of the Monks of that Monastery where there had been Nuns before Then Bishop Athelwald went to the Monastery which is called Medeshamstead which had also been destroyed by the Danes where he found nothing but old Walls with Trees and Bushes growing among them but at last he spied hidden in one of these Walls that Charter which Abbot Headda had formerly wrote in which it appeared that King Wulfher and Ethelred his Brother had founded this Monastery and that the King with the Bishop had freed it from all secular servitude and Pope Agatho had confirmed it by his Bull as also the Archbishop Deus Dedit Which Charter I suppose is that the Substance of which is already recited in the Fourth book Anno 656. and which I have there proved to be forged for the Monks had then a very fair opportunity to forge that Charter and afterwards to pretend they found it in an old Wall But letting that pass thus much is certain from the Peterburgh Copy of these Annals That the said Bishop then caused this Monastery to be rebuilt placing a new Set of Monks therein over whom he appointed an Abbot called Aldulf Then went the Bishop to the King and shewed him the Charter he had lately found whereby he not only obtained a new Charter of Confirmation of all the Lands and Privileges formerly granted by the Mercian Kings but also many other Townships and Lands there recited as particularly Vndale with the Hundred adjoining in Northamptonshire which had formerly been a Monastery of it self as may be observed in the account we have already given of the Life of the Archbishop Wilfrid The King likewise granted That the Lands belonging to that Monastery should be a distinct Shire having Sac and Soc Tol and Team and Infangentheof which terms I shall explain in another place the King there also grants them a Market with the Toll thereof and that there should be no other Market between Stamford and Huntington and to the former of these the King also granted the Abbot a Mint But as for the Names of the Lands given together with the Limits and the Tolls of the Market there mentioned I refer the Reader to the Charter it self Then follows the Subscription of the King with the Sign of the Cross and next the Confirmation of the Archbishop of Canterbury with a dreadful Curse on those that should violate it as also the Confirmation of Oswald Archbishop of York Athelwald Bishop of Winchester with several other Bishops Abbots Ealdormen and Wisemen who all confirmed it and signed it with the Cross This was done Anno Dom. 972. of our Lord's Nativity and in the sixteenth year of the King's Reign which shews this Coppy of the Annals to be written divers years after these things were done as does also more particularly that short History concerning the Affairs of this Abby and the Succession of its Abbots for many years after this time As how Abbot Adulf bought many more Lands wherewith he highly enriched that Monastery where he continued Abbot till Oswald Archbishop of York deceased and he succeeded him in the Archbishoprick and then there was another chosen Abbot of the said Monastery named Kenulph who was afterwards Bishop of Winchester he first built a Wall round the Monastery and gave it the name of Burgh which was before called Medeshamested but he being sometime after made Bishop of Winchester another Abbot was chosen from the same Abby called Aelfi who continued Abbot fifty years He removed the Bodies of St. Kyneburge and St. Cynesuith which lay buried at Castra and St. Tibba which lay entomb'd at Rehala i. e. Ryal in Rutlandshire and brought them to Burgh and dedicated them to St. Peter keeping them there as long as he continued Abbot I have been the more particular in the Account of this so Ancient and Famous Monastery as having been the Episcopal See of the Bishops of Peterburgh almost ever since the Dissolution of that Abby in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth This Year also according to Simeon of Durham King Edgar married Ethelfreda the Daughter of Ordgar Earl of Devonshire after the Death of her Husband Ethelwald Earl of the East-Angles Of her he begot two Sons Edwald and Ethelred the former of whom died in his Infancy but the latter lived to be King of England But before he married this Lady it is certain he had an Elder Son by Elfleda sirnamed The Fair Daughter of Earl Eodmar of whom he begot King Edward called the Martyr But whether King Edgar was ever lawfully married to her may also be doubted since Osbern in his Life of St. Dunstan says That this Saint baptized the Child begotten on Ethelfleda the King's Concubine with whom also agrees Nicholas Trevet in his Chronicle though I confess the Major
if they cannot get them then they should take him alive or dead and seize on all his Estate whereof the Complaining Party having received such a share as should satisfy him the one half of the remainder shall go to the Lord of the Soil and the other half to the Hundred And if any of that Court being either akin to the Party or a stranger to his Blood refuse to go to put this in execution he should forfeit 120 shillings to the King And farther That such as are taken in the very act of stealing or betraying their Masters should not be pardoned during life The Eighth and last ordains That one and the same Money should be current throughout the King's Dominions which no man must refuse and that the measure of Winchester should be the Standard and that a Weigh of Wool should be fold for half a Pound of Money and no more The former of those is the first Law whereby the Private Mints to the Archbishops and several Abbots being forbid the King's Coin was only to pass But to return to our Annals Ten days before the Death of King Edgar Bishop Cyneward departed this life King EDWARD sirnamed the Martyr KING Edgar being dead as you have now heard Prince Edward succeeded his Father though not without some difficulty for as William of Malmesbury and R. Hoveden relate the Great Men of the Kingdom were then divided Archbishop Dunstan and all the rest of the Bishops being for Prince Edward the Eldest Son of King Edgar whilst Queen Aelfreda Widow to the King and many of her Faction were for setting up her Son Ethelred being then about Seven Years of Age that so she might govern under his Name But besides the pretence was which how well they made out I know not That King Edgar had never been lawfully married to Prince Edward's Mother Whereupon the Archbishops Dunstan and Oswald with the Bishops Abbots and many of the Ealdormen of the Kingdom met together in a Great Council and chose Prince Edward King as his Father before his Death had ordained and being thus Elected they presently Anointed him being then but a Youth of about Fifteen Years of Age. But it seems not long after the Death of King Edgar though before the Coronation of King Edward Roger Hoveden and Simeon of Durham tell us that Elfer Earl of the Mercians being lustily bribed by large Presents drove the Abbots and Monks out of the Monasteries in which they had been settled by King Edgar and in their places brought in the Clerks i.e. Secular Chanons with their Wives but Ethelwin Ealdorman of the East-Angles and his Brother Elfwold and Earl Brythnoth opposed it and being in the Common Council or Synod plainly said They would never endure that the Monks should be cast out of the Kingdom who contributed so much to the Maintenance of Religion and so raising an Army they bravely defended the Monasteries of the East-Angles so it seems that during this Interregnum arose this Civil War about the Monks and the above-mentioned Dissention amongst the Nobility concerning the Election of a new King But this serves to explain that Passage in our Annals which would have been otherwise very obscure viz. That then there was viz. upon the Death of King Edgar great Grief and Trouble in Mercia among those that loved God because many of his Servants that is the Monks were turned out till God being slighted shewed Miracles on their behalf and that then also Duke Oslack was unjustly banished beyond the Seas a Nobleman who for his Long Head of Hair but more for his Wisdom was very remarkable And that then also strange Prodigies were seen in the Heavens such as Astrologers call Comets and as a Punishment from God upon this Nation there followed a great Famine Which shews this Copy of the Annals was written about this very time And then the Author concludes with Aelfer the Ealdorman's commanding many Monasteries to be spoiled which King Edgar had commanded Bishop Athelwold to repair All which being in the Cottonian Copy serves to explain what has been already related But the next year ' Was the great Famine in England as just now mentioned About the same time according to Caradoc's Chronicle Aeneon the Son of Owen Prince of South-Wales destroyed the Land of Gwyr the second time This year after Easter was that great Synod at Kirtlingtun which Florence of Worcester and R. Hoveden call Kyrleing but where that place was is very uncertain Florence places it in East-England but Sir H. Spelman acknowledges that he does not know any place in those parts that ever bore that name but supposes it to have been the same with Cartlage now the Seat of the Lord North But had not Florence placed it in East-England that Town whose name comes nearest to it is Kyrtlington in Oxfordshire which is also the more confirmed by that which follows in these Annals viz. That Sydeman the Bishop of Devonshire i. e. of Wells died here suddenly who desired his Body might be buried at Krydeanton his Episcopal See but King Edward and Archbishop Dunstan order'd it to be carried to St. Maâ—ies in Abingdon were he was honourably Interr'd in the North Isle of St. Paul's Church Therefore it is highly probable that the place where this Bishop died was not far from Abingdon where he was buried as Kirtlington indeed is But what was done in this Council can we no where find only it is to be supposed that it was concerning this great Difference between the Monks and the Secular Chanons as the former Council was The same year also were great Commotions in Wales for Howel ap Jevaf Prince of North-Wales with a great Army both of Welsh and Englishmen made War upon all who defended or succoured his Uncle Jago and spoiled the Countries of Lhyn Kelynnoc Vawr so that Jago was shortly after taken Prisoner by Prince Howel's men who after that enjoyed his part of the Countrey in peace Nor can I here omit what some of our Monkish Writers and particularly John Pike in his compendious Supplement of the Kings of England now in Manuscript in the Cottonian Library relates That there being this year a Great Council held at Winchester again to debate this great Affair concerning the turning out of the Monks and restoring the Secular Chanons and it being like to be carried in their favour a Crucifix which then stood in the room spoke thus God forbid it should be so This amazing them they resolved to leave the Monks in the condition they then were But whether these words were ever spoke at all or if they were whether it might not be by some person that stood unseen behind the Crucifix I shall leave to the Reader to determine as he pleases Next year all the Grave and Wise Men of the English Nation being met about the same Affair at Calne in Wiltshire fell down together from a certain Upper Room where they were assembled
wrote but the wonder will be much abated when we consider that he had the King's Purse at his command besides those of other people who then looked upon such Works as meritorious But to return to our Annals Elfeage whose sirname was Goodwin succeeded Athelwald and was consecrated 14. Kal. Novemb. but was enthron'd at Winchester at the Feast of St. Simon and Jude R. Hoveden tells us he was first Abbot of Bathe and then Archbishop of Canterbury but at last was killed by the Danes being a man of great Sanctity of Life Also the same year Howel ap Jevaf Prince of North-Wales came into England with an Army where he was fought with and slain in Battel but the place is not mentioned This Howel having no Issue his Brother Cadwalhan succeeded him This year according to the Saxon Annals Aelfric the Ealdorman was banish'd the Land Mat. Westminster stiles him Earl of Mercia and says he was Son to Earl Alfure but neither of them inform us of the Crime for which he suffered that Punishment King Ethelred laid waste the Bishoprick of Rochester and also there was a great Mortality of Cattel in England William of Malmesbury and R. Hoveden do here add much light to our Annals That the King because of some Dissentions between him and the Bishop of Rochester besieged that City but not being able to take it went and wasted the Lands of St. Andrew i. e. those belonging to that Bishoprick but being commanded by the Archbishop to desist from his Fury and not provoke the Saint to whom that Church is dedicated the King despised his Admonition till such time as he had an Hundred Pounds sent to him and then he drew off his Forces but the Archbishop abhorring his sordid Covetousness is there said to have denounced fearful Judgments against him though they were not to be inflicted till after the Archbishop's death This year as the Welsh Chronicles relate Meredyth Son to Owen Prince of South-Wales entred North-Wales with what Forces he could raise and slew Cadwalhon ap Jevaf in a Fight together with Meyric his Brother and conquered the whole Countrey to himself Wherein we may observe how God punished the wrong which Jevaf and Jago did to their eldest Brother Meyric who being disinherited had his eyes put out for first Jevaf was imprisoned by Jago as Jago himself was by Howel the Son of Jevaf and then this Howel and his Brethren Cadwalhon and Meyric were slain and lost their Dominions This year Weedport that is Watchet in Somersetshire was destroyed by the Danes About this time as appears by the Charter in the Monast. Angl. p. 284. the Abby of Cerne in Dorsetshire was founded by Ailmer Earl of Cornwall near to a Fountain where it was said that St. Augustine had formerly baptized many Pagans And where also long after Prince Edwold Brother to St. Edmund the Martyr quitting his Countrey then over run by the Danes lived and died an Hermit But it seems from the Manuscript History of Walter of Coventry this Abby was only enlarged by this Earl Ailmer having been built some years before by one Alward his Father a Rich and Powerful Person in those Parts Goda a Thane was killed and there was a great Slaughter But the same Author last mentioned writing from some other Copy of Annals relates this Story another way That this Goda being Earl of Devonshire together with one Strenwald a valiant Knight marching out to fight the Danes they were both there killed but there being more of them destroyed than of the English the latter kept the field But to return to our Annals This year Dunstan that Holy Archbishop exchanged this Terrestrial Life for a Heavenly one and Ethelgar Bishop of Selsey succeeded him but lived not long after viz. only One Year and Three Months This is that Great Archbishop called St. Dunstan who was the Restorer of the Monkish Discipline in England and who made a Collection of Ordinances for the Benedictine Order by which he thought the Rule of that Order might be more strictly observed in all the Monasteries of England Edwin the Abbot I suppose of Peterborough deceased and Wulfgar succeeded him The same year also Bishop Syric was consecrated Archbishop in the room of Ethelgar abovementioned and afterwards he went to Rome to obtain his Pall. This man is commonly written Siricins but his Name in English Saxon was Syric or Sigeric About this time according to the Welsh Chronicle Meredyth Prince of North Wales destroyed the Town of Radnor whilst his Nephew Edwin or as some Copies call him Owen the Son of Eneon assisted by a great Army of English under Earl Adelf spoiled all the Lands of Prince Meredyth in South-Wales as Cardigan c. as far as St. Davids taking Pledges of all the Chief Men of those Countries whilst in the mean time Prince Meredyth with his Forces spoiled the Countrey of Glamorgan So that no place in those parts was free from Fire and Sword Yet at last Prince Meredyth and Edwin his Nephew coming to an agreement were made Friends But whilst Meredyth was thus taken up in South-Wales North-Wales lay open to the Danes who about this time arriving in Anglesey destroyed the whole Isle This year Gipiswic was wasted by the Danes this was Ipswich in Suffolk and shortly after Brightnoth the Ealdorman was slain at Maldune All which mischief Florence of Worcester tells us was done by the Danes whose Captains were Justin and Guthmund when the Person abovementioned fighting with them at Maldon there was a great multitude slain on both sides and the said Earl or Ealdorman was slain there so that the Danes had the Victory The same year also according to the Annals it was first decreed that Tribute should be paid to the Danes because of the great Terror which they gave the Inhabitants of the Sea-Coast The first Payment was Ten thousand Pounds and it is said Archbishop Syric first gave this Counsel To which also R. Hoveden adds That Adwald and Alfric the Ealdormen join'd with him in it but which as William of Malmesbury well observes served only to satisfy for a time the Covetousness of the Danes and being a thing of infamous example a generous Mind would never have been prevailed upon by any violence to have submitted to for when the Danes had once tasted the sweetness of this Money they never left off exacting still more so long as there was any left but they now met with a weak and unwarlike Prince most of whose Nobility were no better than himself and so as the same Author farther observes they were fain to buy off those with Silver who ought to have been repell'd with Iron This year Oswald that blessed Archbishop of York departed this life as also did Ethelwin the Ealdorman The former of them Simeon of Durham tells us had the year before consecrated the Abby Church of Ramsey which the latter had newly founded and
year the same Archbishop translated the Reliques of St. Aelfeage his Predecessor from London to Canterbury The King himself as William of Malmesbury tells us removed them with his own hands paying them all due Veneration and further adds that his Body remain'd as uncorrupt as if he had been but lately kill'd Richard the Second Duke of Normandy died and Richard his Son ruled after him one year and then Rodbert his Brother succeeded him and ruled eight years This year King Cnute sail'd with his Fleet into Denmark to a Plain near the Holy River but where that was I know not and there came against him Wulf and Eglaf with a very powerful Army out of Sweden both by Land and Sea and many on King Cnute's side were there killed both Danes and English the Swedes keeping the field of Battel After which Cnute returning into England I find no mention made of any Action here in any Author for the two succeeding years But then King Cnute sail'd with fifty Ships of English Thanes into Norway and drove King Olaf out of that Countrey and conquer'd it for himself Bromton's Chronicle relates That this Olaf being a Soft and Easy Prince was already in a manner driven out by his own Subjects and so Cnute only went as it were to receive the Kingdom from the Nobility and People who submitted themselves presently to him ' King Cnute came back into England And as R. Hoveden adds upon his Return banished Hacun a Danish Earl that had married his Niece Gunhilda who was his Sister's Daughter sending him away under pretence of an Embassy for the King was afraid lest otherwise he might deprive him both of his Kingdom and Life King Olaf return'd again into Norway to regain his Right but the People rising up against him he was there slain This is he who was afterwards canoniz'd under the Title of King Olaf the Martyr About this time as Guil. Gemeticensis and John of Walingford do both relate Robert Duke of Normandy pitying the long Exile of his Nephews Edward and Alfred sent Ambassadors to King Cnute requiring him to restore them to their Right but he not at all valuing his threatning sent the Ambassadors back with a Repulse whereat the Duke conceiving great indignation assembled his Nobles and by their Advice caus'd a great Navy to be prepar'd which in a short time came to Anchor at Fescam then the Duke with his Army put to Sea but by Tempest was driven into the Isle of Guernsey and so shatter'd that he was forced to return home where they were detain'd a long time by contrary Winds which was an extreme mortification to him But not long after Ambassadors came over to him from King Cnute signifying That he was contented to resign to the Young Princes half the Kingdom which they should peaceably enjoy during his life and that was not like to be long for he then laboured under a languishing Distemper Wherefore the Duke thought good for some time to defer his Expedition till he should be come back from Jerusalem whither he had vowed to undertake a Pilgrimage And when he had recommended to Robert Archbishop of Rouen and other Nobles his Son William then a Child of Seven Years old and received from them Assurances of their Fidelity to him he began the said Voyage and having perform'd it as he was returning homewards the next year he fell sick and died about the Alpes But of this William his Son by Harlotte his Concubine 〈◊〉 not only succeeded his Father but was also afterwards King of England as you shall hear when we come to his Reign This year as soon as King Cnute return'd into England he gave the Port of Sandwic to Christ's Church in Canterbury with all the Issues and Profits arising from thence on both sides the Haven according to an Extract from his Charter preserved among the Evidences of that Church and that as far as when the Tide of Flood was highest and a Ship lying near the Shore a man could from thence cast a little Axe on land so far the Christ-Church Officers should receive all Rights and Dues This year also according to Monast. Angl. King Cnute founded another Monastery for Benedictines in Norfolk which from its being seated in a Woody Place was called by St. Bennet's in Holme the Lands and Scite of which Abby being by King Henry the VIII th after the Dissolution of the Monasteries exchanged with the Bishop of Norwich for other Lands he is the only Bishop of England who has still the Title of an Abbot Also under this year I find a Charter in the Manuscript Copy of Florence of Worcester in the Bodleian Library made to the Monastery of St. Edmundsbury granting and confirming all its Lands and Privileges the beginning of which Charter being somewhat remarkable I shall here recite Cnute Rex Totius Albionis Insulae aliarumque Nationum adjacentium in Cathedra Regali promotus cum Consilio Decreto Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum Abbatum Comitum omniumque meorum Fidelium elegi sanciendum perpetuo stabilimento ab omnibus confirmandum quod Monasterium quod Badriceswerde nuncupatur c. which is also printed from the Original at the end of Mr. Petyts Treatise of the Rights of the Commons c. King Cnute having performed these great Deeds of Charity and Devotion not long after in the same year as our Annals inform us ' began his Journey to Rome But since our Annals do not tell us what he did there I shall give it you in short from his own Letter as I find it in William of Malmesbury which upon his return from Rome he wrote and sent into England by Living Abbot of Tavistock and begins thus Cnute King of Denmark Norway and all Swedeland to Ailnoth or Egelnoth the Metropolitan and to Alfric of York with all the Bishops and Primates and to the whole English Nation as well Noblemen as Plebeians Health Wherein he gives an account of his Journey as also the reason of his undertaking it then how honourably he was received at Rome and what he had there negotiated for the benefit of his Subjects Then he gives Directions and Commands to his Officers to do all Justice and Right to the People in his Absence a thing to which he resolved on as he says long before but never could till now accomplish what he had designed for the Pardon of his Sins and the Safety of all his Subjects he further signifies that he was received by all the Princes who at that time were with Pope John solemnizing the Feast of Easter with extraordinary Respect and Honour but especially by Conrade the German Emperor that he had dealt with them all about the concernments of his people both English and Danes that their Passage to Rome might be more free and open and had obtained that as well Merchants as others should with all safety pass and repass without any Toll