Saxon Chronicle speaks of Ecgberht as 'the eighth king who was Bretwalda.' What were the exact nature and extent of the dominion of these Bretwaldas is very doubtful; but we may accept as a fact that each of the seven had acquired and exercised some kind of supre macy over all his neighbours. The existence of the Bretwaldas would seem to indicate certain earlier attempts at a union of the whole English race, which was ultimately carried out by the West Saxon kings in the 9th and 10th centuries.2 The three kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria at length became predominant. Ecgberht, King of the West Saxons, not only added to his dominions the dependent kingdoms of Kent and Essex, but compelled the extensive states of Mercia and Northumbria to acknowledge his supremacy. Still the Mercians, East Anglians, and Northumbrians retained each their ancient line of kings, and neither Ecgberht nor his five immediate successors assumed any other title than that of King of the West Saxons. This is the only style used by Alfred in his will. The consolidation of the various kingdoms into one was hastened by the invasions of the Danes, by which the three minor kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia were overwhelmed, and even that of the West Saxons was brought to the brink of destruction. Led by their Vikingr, or Sea-kings, these 'Slayers of the North' ravaged almost every European coast during the 9th and 10th centuries. They were closely akin to the 1 Beda, Hist. Eccles. ii. 5; Chron. Sax. An. 827. Mr. Kemble points out that of six manuscripts in which the passage quoted occurs, only one reads 'Bretwalda,' four have Bryten-, and one Breten-walda. 'The true meaning of this word, which is compounded of wealda, a ruler, and the adjective bryten, is totally unconnected with Bret or Bretwealh, the name of the British aborigines. Bryten is derived from breótan, to distribute, disperse it is a common prefix to words denoting wide or general dispersion, and when coupled with wealda, means no more than an extensive, powerful king-a king whose power is widely extended.'-Saxons in England, ii. 20. Freeman, Norm. Conq. i. 28. Invasions of the Danes. English, and spoke another dialect of the same common Teutonic speech. Their institutions exhibited a striking similarity to those of the English, and even where differing in details were generally governed by identical principles. The first recorded descent of the Danes upon the shores of England occurred towards the end of the 8th century. They re-appeared again and again, and at length, instead of making mere predatory excursions, began to form permanent settlements in the island. The genius and heroism of Ælfred 1 alone rescued the English from their imminent peril. Yet he was never able to expel the Danes from England, or to become its sole master. By the treaty of Ælfred and Guthrum (A.D. 879), the limits of the Danish occupation southward were defined upon the Thames, along the sea to its source, then right to Bedford, and then upon the Ouse to Watling Street.' To the North it extended as far as the Tyne, and on the West to the mountain districts of Yorkshire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. Throughout this district-the Denalagu, or region where the Danish law was in force—the armies, as the Saxon Chronicle expressly terms them, of the Danes continued to occupy the land, governing, as a military aristocracy, the subject Anglian population. The victorious arms of Ælfred's three able and energetic successors, Eadward, Æthelstan, and Eadmund, succeeded in reducing the Danes to something like real submission, and also in obtaining an acknowledgment of supremacy over the bordering nations of the isle of Britain. At length, in 959, Eadgar, having outlived the last Danish king of Northumbria, received the crown as King of all England, uniting in his person, as the elect of all three provinces of England, 1 Dr. Freeman thus eloquently sums up the character of the great Ælfred: A saint without superstition, a scholar without ostentation, a warrior all whose wars were fought in defence of his country, a conqueror whose laurels were never stained by cruelty, a prince never cast down by adversity, never lifted up to insolence in the day of triumph,-there is no other name in history to compare with him.'-Norm. Conq. i. 51. the threefold sovereignty of the West Saxons, Mercians, and Northumbrians. The English and the Anglo-Danes gradually coalesced, the English language and institutions maintaining the ascendency, though appreciably influenced by contact with the foreign element in their midst. After the death of Eadgar the Peaceable (A.D. 975), the minority and feeble character of Æthelred the Unready provoked fresh attacks from Denmark. These now assumed the form of a regular war of conquest, conducted by the kings of a country which had at length been admitted within the civilizing pale of Christendom, and whose people were no longer ferocious pirates, like their ancestors in the former invasions. The English royal house was for a time supplanted by its Danish rival, but the polity of the kingdom was not changed. The English still outnumbered their conquerors; and on the death of Harthaknut, in 1042, the ancient line of Cerdic regained the throne. With the exception of the reigns of Harold II. and the first four Norman kings, descendants of the House of Cerdic have occupied it ever since. Before the Norman Conquest, the various Teutonic tribes had coalesced with one another and with the AngloDanes, and become fused into one nation. We have now to inquire what was the constitution of the English nation from the 7th to the 11th century; a constitution which survived the Norman Conquest, and which in all its essential principles-developed and adapted from time to time to meet the requirements of successive generations, but still the same-has continued down to our own day. Constitution of English nation from 7th to 11th century. of the soil. Of the exact process by which the territory conquered Appropriation by each of the invading tribes was divided among the colonists, we have no positive knowledge. But there can be little doubt that a principle of allotment was generally 1 Robertson, Hist. Essays, p. 203; Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 173. General allotment probable. The magths. Private estates of the chiefs. Public lands. Absolute owner ship in severalty soon became the general rule. Folkland. adopted based upon the existing divisions of the host into companies, each consisting of a hundred warriors united by the tie of kinship. The allotment of land made to each hundred warriors would be by them subdivided, according to the minor divisions of the kindred, into magths, or districts occupied by a greater or less number of settlers closely connected by the family tie. Certain portions of the land appropriated to the separate magths were held in absolute ownership by the heads of families; other portions were both held and cultivated in common as the common property of the community. Besides the land thus divided among the simple freemen, a further portion of the territory was retained by the chief of the tribe as his private estate; and it is probable that the nobles also and leaders of subordinate rank either themselves appropriated or received grants of estates in severalty. All the land which remained after satisfying these various claimants was the common property of the whole colony-the Folkland. As the various tribal colonies or shires coalesced into kingdoms, and the kingdom of Wessex absorbed the other kingdoms and developed into the kingdom of England, the Folkland of the shire. became in turn the Folkland of the provincial kingdom and of the English nation. Although tenure of land in common by local communities continued to subsist, and has left its traces in the common lands of townships and manors of the present day, absolute ownership in severalty, which had existed from the first, soon became the general rule. During the pre-Norman period, therefore, the whole land of England may be broadly divided under the two great heads of (1) Public, or Folkland; and (2) Private, or Bôcland. (1.) Folkland, the land of the folk or people, was the common property of the nation. It formed the main source of the State revenues, and could not be alienated without the consent of the national council. But it might be held by individuals, subject to such rents and services. as the State, in its landowning capacity, should think fit to determine. While, however, it continued to be Folkland, its alienation was only temporary, and could not be in perpetuity; so that at the expiration of the term for which it had been granted it reverted to the nation. It was closely analogous to the Ager Publicus of the Romans, and its individual holders to the Roman possessores. (2.) Bôcland1 was land held in full ownership, either Bookland. as part of an original allotment, or as having been subsequently severed from the Folkland, with the consent of the nation, and appropriated to individuals in perpetuity, subject merely to such burdens as the State, in its political as distinguished from its landowning capacity, might impose upon its members. Folkland, even when granted to individuals for a life or lives or other term in severalty, always retained certain marks of its public character in the burdens to which it was liable. Its possessors were bound to assist in the execution of various public works, including the repair of royal vills; and they might be called upon to entertain the king and great men in their progress through the country, and to furnish carriages and horses for their service. Bôcland, on the contrary, was released from all public burdens, except the trinoda necessitas, or liability of its owners to military service and to a contribution for 1 Bocland = land conveyed by book or charter, the usual mode after the introduction of writing. But at an earlier period the conveyance was symbolized by the delivery of a staff, spear, arrow, branch of a tree, or piece of turf. This practice was continued after the introduction of writing, and long survived in our law of real property, in a modified form, as the livery of seisin, the essential part of a feoffment. Though all land, on being granted in perpetuity, ceased to be Folkland, it was not strictly Bôcland, unless conveyed in writing. Land thus held is absolute property, and has been called in different Teutonic dialects edel, odal, or alod. Similar to the possessors of Bôcland, both in name and with reference to the nature of their possessions, were the 'libellario nomine possidentes' and the 'libellarii' of the Longobards and Franks. |