CHAP. IV.

The Witena-Gemot.

THE gemot of the witan was the great coun- BOOK

cil of the Anglo-Saxon nation; their legislative and fupreme judicial affembly. As the highest judicial court of the kingdom, they resembled our present House of Lords. And in those periods, when the peers of the realm represented territorial property rather than hereditary dignities, the comparison between the Saxon witena-gemot and the up, per house of our modern parliament might have been more correctly made in their legislative capacity. The German states are recorded by Tacitus to have had national councils', and the continental Saxons are also stated to have poffeffed them2.

WHEN the cyning was only the temporary commander of the nation, for the purposes of war, whofe function ceafed when peace returned, the witena-gemot must have been the fupreme authority of the nation. But when the cyning became an established and permanent dignity, whose privileges and power were perpetually increafing till he attained the majestic prerogatives, and widely-diffufed property, which Athelftan and Edgar enjoyed, the witena-gemot then affumed a fecondary rank in the state. We will endeavour to delineate

'Tacitus de Morib. Germ.

2 Fabricius Hift. Sax. 64. 69. Chronographus Saxo. P. 115.

IV.

BOOK its nature and powers with fidelity, adopting no theory, but carefully following the lights which

IV.

the Saxon documents afford to us.

THE topics of our inquiry will be these :
WHAT its members were styled.

Of whom it was compofed.

By whom convened.

THE times of its meetings.

THE place.

ITS bufinefs.

Its power.

THE gemot and its members have various appellations in the writings of our ancestors. In their vernacular tongue they have been styled, The witena-gemot; the Engla ræd gifan (councilgivers); the witan; the Eadigra geheahtendlic ymcyme (the illuftrious affembly of the wealthy); the Eadigan (the wealthy); the mycel fynoth (great fynod) 3.

IN the Latin phrases applied to them by our forefathers they have been called optimates; principes; primates; proceres; concionatores Angliæ, and fuch like 4.

THE kings, who allude to them in their grants, call them, My witan; meorum fapientum archontum; heroicorum virorum; conciliatorum me. orum; meorum omnium epifcoporum et principum optimatum meorum; optimatibus noftris. All

3 Sax. Chron. 154. MS. Claud. A. 3. Sax. Chron. 148. Alfred's Will. Wilkins, 76. 102. Ib. P. 10. p. 72, &c.

4 Ethelward, 847. Hem. Chart. p. 15. 17. 23. MS. Claud. MS. Cleop. 3 Gale, 484, 5, &c.

'Heming. Chart. 2. 41. 57. MS. Claud. C. 9. 103. 112, 113. &c.

IV.

these are various phrases to exprefs the fame thing. CHA P. With reference to their prefumed wisdom, they were called witan; with reference to their rank and property, they were ftyled eadigan, optimates, principes, proceres, &c.

As to the compofition of the witena-gemot, no minute information can be given, though fome circumstances may be ftated. The general terms that are used, imply wife men, great men, counfellors, and fenators. Sometimes the expreffions are more difcriminating; as, "all my bishops, "princes, and great men ;-the wife men, bishops, ealdormen, and all the nobility;—all the bishops, "chiefs, and all the beft men of this kingdom in "an unanimous legal council "." One grant, which fays," with the confent of all my optimates,

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as well ecclefiaftical as civil, whose names follow "according to their dignity," is figned by the king, one archbishop, fourteen bishops, the king's mother, the king's four fons, fixteen abbots, and three duces. In another, where fimilar expreffions are ufed, we find the king, two archbishops, four bishops, one abbot, feven duces, and twenty-five miniftri. Some grants are figned by most laymen, and fome by moft ecclefiaftics. The gemots of the witan, no doubt, varied as our parliaments vary in the number and quality of the perfons who, from time to time, attend. One grant, ftating "all the primates of all my kingdom, knowing it, "whose names are underwritten," is figned by the following perfons:" the king, two archbishops,

Heming. Chart. p. 57. ? MS. Cl. C.9. p. 122.

93. Claud. C. 9. p. 124.
· MS. Claud. B. 471.

BOOK" eleven bishops, the queen, eleven abbots, nine "duces, and twenty-fix milites "."

IV.

In a great council in the year 716, the king of Kent was prefent, the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of Rochester, and abbots, abbeffes, prefbyters, deacons, duces, and fatraps. Among the names fubfcribed to the record of this council are five abbeffes. In another great council, held in 811, at London, the king, an archbishop, two bishops, together with princes, duces, et majores natu, are mentioned, who are afterwards ftated again with the additional expreffion of Judices. It fays their names were fubfcribed to the grant. These appear to be the king, the queen, a fubordinate king, an archbishop, three bishops, three princes, three duces, two officers called propincerna ejus and pediffecus, two abbots, and a prefbyter". Another council, in 824, is fubfcribed by the king, eight bishops, one figning himself electus, four abbots, thirteen duces, one pediffecus 2.

MOST of those whose names are fubfcribed to councils or charters, and who appear to have been the witan who conftituted the gemot, have fome titles after their names. If they were clergy, they are ftyled either archbishop, bishop, abbot, presbyter, or deacon. If they were laymen, we find the additions of princeps, duces, comes, ealdorman, minister or miles, or a specific title of household of

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93 Gale's Script. 517. 10 Aftle's MS. Charters, No. 2. "Ib. No. 8. The expreffion majores natu does not here, I think, mean eldest son, but is fynonymous with the Saxon term calders.

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fice, as difc thegn and hrægel thegn. There are, CHA P. however, fome grants which have names without any addition.

witena-gemot.

We know what was neceffary to exalt a ceorl to a thegn, but we cannot diftinctly afcertain all the qualifications which entitled perfons to a feat in the There is, however, one curious paffage which ascertains that a certain amount of property was an indifpenfable requifite, and that acquired property would answer this purpose as well as hereditary property. The poffeffion here ftated to be neceffary was 40 hides of land. The whole incident is fo curious as to be worth tranfcribing. Guddmund defired in matrimony the daughter of a great man, but because he had not the lordship of 40 hides of land, he could not, though noble, be reckoned among the proceres ; and therefore fhe refused him. He went to his brother, the abbot of Ely, complaining of his misfortune. The abbot fraudulently gave him poffeffions of the monaftery fufficient to make up the deficiency. This circumftance attests that nobility alone was not fufficient for a feat among the witan, and that forty hides of land was an indifpenfable qualification 13.

13

It would be highly interefting to know whether they who poffeffed this quantity of land had thereby the right of being in the witena-gemot, or whether the members of this great council were elected from the territorial proprietors, and fat as their

133 Gale's Script. p. 513,