But the surplus (folc-land) went to the state, to be allotted or rented out, as future circumstances might require. Ten AngloSaxon families formed a tithing; one hundred families formed a hundred-expressions which afterwards came to mean the land these families dwelt on. The bond of union that kept the tithing together was the frith-borh (Norman frank-pledge), or system of mutual police, by which every man of the ten became responsible for the conduct of the other nine. The resemblance of this system to trial by jury is only apparent. The jury belongs to a later period.

The wooden towns of the Anglo-Saxons, rising on old Roman sites, began to stud the land plentifully when the desolating wars consequent on the first settlements had subsided. But architecture made little progress among the early Anglo-Saxons. A log-house on a hill, surrounded with a dike and a stockade, formed the burh or fortress, which served as the nucleus of thousands of English towns. Clustering around this central point clung the squalid huts of trades-people and dependents, attracted by the instincts of safety, or by the hope of a little employment from the big house. In general, the free inhabitants of these towns levied their own purse, and chose their own officials. responded to the Norman mayor, was citizens and confirmed by the king. collect the royal dues, but he also looked after the city walls and the militia drill.

taxes, had their common The tún-geréfa, who corprobably elected by the His chief work was to

The people elected reeves or magistrates, who held the courts of the tithing and the hundred; the latter once a month, the former whenever need arose. Higher than these was the county court, presided over by the ealdorman or earl of the district; or in his absence by the sheriff (scir-geréfa), assisted by the bishop. The Anglo-Saxon sheriff seems to have derived his office from the king, who could dismiss him for negligence. His court met twice a year. In addition to their judicial

functions, these courts witnessed the completion of important sales, and took charge of the military defences of the land.

The Witenagemôt, or Witan, constituted the supreme court of the Anglo-Saxon nation; but it corresponded with the King's Court or Great Council (Curia Regis) of Norman times, rather than with the modern parliament. Composed of the earls and prelates, with some of the leading thanes and clergy, and presided over by the king, it met three times a year at the great festivals of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. The Witan joined the king in making peace or war, in imposing taxes, in enacting laws, in raising forces, and in appointing prelates. They, moreover, had power to elect a member of the royal family to the vacant throne, and could depose a bad king; and they formed the supreme tribunal, beyond which there lay no appeal.

Generally speaking, the Anglo-Saxon law-code was not bloody. Ethelred and Canute both condemned the destruction on slight grounds of "God's handiwork and his own purchase." When death was inflicted for treason, witchcraft, or sacrilege, the criminal was usually hanged. Fetters, shackles for the neck, the stocks, scourges, knotted rods, and whips with leaded thongs awaited minor offenders. Recourse was had to mutilation only in the case of incorrigible thieves. But the grand en

gine of Anglo-Saxon law was the fine. The wiht gild or crimemoney, and wer-gild or life-money secured a certain amount of compensation, both to the king or the state, and to the family or the individual who had suffered wrong. A regularly graduated scale priced the lives and bodies of all Anglo-Saxons from the king to the theow, descending even to front teeth and fingernails. The luxury of knocking out a front tooth cost the striker six shillings; he could amuse himself with a finger nail for one. Fifty shillings satisfied the law for the blinding of an eye; the mulet for a cut-off ear was only twelve, The wer gild

of the West Saxon king amounted to six times that of the thane; the thane's, to four times that of the ceorl.

A man's wer-gild settled the value of his oath. A thane could outswear half-a-dozen churls; an earl could outswear a whole township. So the man who, when charged with any crime of which sufficient evidence was wanting, could get an earl or a few thanes to swear him innocent, got off by what was called "compurgation." If the united oaths of his neighbours failed to determine the innocence of a suspected man, one of the ordeals was resorted to, with the following ceremonial:--After three days of fasting and prayer, closed by the sacrament, the accused proceeded to a church, where were assembled the accuser and twelve witnesses. The Litany having been read, the suspected man plunged his hand into a vessel of boiling water, or took three steps with a bar of red-hot iron in his hand. Having wrapped the scorched or scalded limb in a cloth, the priest sealed it up, and so it remained for three days. If at the end of that time the wound was healed, that was accepted as a sign of innocence; raw flesh proved guilt. Room was afforded by the ordeal for unlimited cheating and collusion.

Third Period. - Feudal Monarchy.

1066 1485.

CHAPTER I.

THE REIGN OF THE CONQUEROR.

Who shall reign?-A bloody Christmas Risings in Kent and Hereford Siege of Exeter-Rebellion in the north-- Desolation of Northumbria The Feudal System- Lanfranc-The New Forest-Hereward The Camp of Refuge- The Bridal of Norwich Family troubles Domes day Book-A cinder at Mantes.

FRO

ROM the victorious field of Senlae the Conqueror, having sent part of his army westward to desolate Sussex and Hampshire, marched to Dover, which immediately surrendered. After eight days, spent in waiting there for fresh troops from Normandy, he pushed on towards London, in which the scattered fragments of the Anglo-Saxon government lay, vainly striving to patch up a substitute for the fallen throne of Harold. Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Aldred, Archbishop of York, backed by many nobles, supported the claims of Edgar the Etheling to the vacant throne; and the northern earls, Edwin and Morcar, vowed that they would fight for him, though they were suspected of aiming at power for themselves. Not a few maintained that William should be elected king. Meanwhile he passed, almost within sight, lining the Southwark bank with the

smoking ashes of houses. Crossing the Thames at Wallingford,* he fixed his camp at Berkhampstead;† and from that centre spread his ravages far into all the neighbouring shires. His cavalry speared stragglers and carried off plunder under the very shadow of London walls. Senlac had cowed the English spirit, and the ancient fire of their courage burned low. Out from their strong stone ramparts, on which Danish war had often poured its useless fury, came a crowd of London citizens, with Stigand, Edgar, Aldred, and the leading nobles, to offer the crown of England to the Duke of Normandy. With many fair promises, belied in a day or two by a renewal of ravaging and plunder, he accepted the honour, not as a prize his sword had won, but as a right, dating from the promise and the will of the Confessor. Then preparations for the coronation filled London with bustle for a while.

The ceremony took place on Christmas-day. Having passed

with an armed guard along the grassy road that then 1066 joined London to Westminster, the Conqueror entered the abbey of the latter town, to receive the crown from the hands of Aldred, Archbishop of York; Stigand, the primate, having been passed over on account of his doubtful title. When the officiating prelate asked the gathered crowd whether they chose William for their king, a pealing shout was the reply. This noise alarmed the Norman soldiers who stood without the abbey, and who had heard of the bloody horrors of St. Brice's Day. At once some of the neighbouring houses were set on fire, and the work of plundering and blood began. With a rush, the crowd of spectators left the abbey; and in the presence of but a few terrified monks the great Conqueror received the English crown.

* Wallingford in Berkshire on the Thames is a borough of two thousand eight hundred and nineteen inhabitants, forty-six miles from London.

Berkhampstead St. Peter's is a market town of Hertfordshire, lying twenty-six and a half miles north-west of London, in a deep valley on the right bank of the Bulborn and Grand Junction Canal.