The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution: The making of the constitution

His wergild. The noble; emancipation of youths; freedmen; the unfree
Agrarian dependents; slaves

7. Ownership of Land: the village community

The patriarchal theory; collective land-ownership yields to individual ownership
Waste lands the last to be divided; the Russian mir; the village council. Teutonic
villages: the mark system

The vicus identical with the mark; the mark in the time of Tacitus; structure of

the mark.

ΙΟΙ

The village; sacredness of the homestead; the arable lands; the common or waste

lands

103

The mark-moot; theory of aggregation.

As stated by Kemble; as stated by Freeman

8. The Hundred and the Hundred Court: their names have varied in different

Their influence as institutions; the hundred court, like all other Teutonic courts, a
popular assembly; president of the hundred court chosen in the state assembly

9. The State Assembly: its functions chiefly political

107

Its business prepared beforehand by a permanent council which settled all minor

questions.

10. Criminal Law: all offences except treason and effeminacy could be atoned for

by fines

11. Kingship: principle of election. Sovereignty in states non-monarchical
12. Military Organization: its likeness to political organization. The comitatus, its
divisions of rank; relative duties of princeps and comes
Origin of feudalism. The host composed of three elements, the main body of the
people fighting in groups united by the family tie, the chosen infantry from the
hundreds, the bands of professional warriors each under its own princeps
Divisions of the host give form to civil organization in conquered lands

13. Teutonic Heathenism: its influence on national character

Geographical limits of Teutonic mythology; in the song of Beowulf is revealed
the moral temper of the English people; each Norse god impersonated some
physical or moral force; the hope of a life beyond the grave

The primitive religion as a source of principles and morals; a century and a half of
English heathenism

14. Engles, Saxons, and Jutes: the Saxons; our earliest knowledge derived

from Ptolemy

Account of Eutropius; only a portion of the Saxons pass into Britain. The An-
gles or Engles: only one of the three tribes mentioned by Tacitus

Whole tribe probably passed into Britain; Engles gave their name to the new na-

tionality, the conquered land became Engla-land or England. The Jutes

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117

Plautius and Agricola ; Britain becomes a Roman province; superficial character

of Roman civilization a mere military department. The defences of Britain;
barriers against the Picts.

Saxons appear as pirates in the Channel in A. D. 287; first attack Britain in 364;
"the Saxon Shore; " Britain left to her own defence

2. Importance of the Period of Teutonic Conquest and dimness of its

History: the Welsh driven to the west; out of the fusion of the Teutonic set-

tlements grew the English nation; period of historic darkness and legend.

Fragmentary history of the conquest; Gildas; English Chronicle; Nennius; Chris-
tianity and the early laws

Bæda; archæological and geographical research

3. General Character of the Conquest and Nature of the Early Settle-

ments: character of the migration; distribution of the land

The host embodies all the elements of political organization; structure of the primitive

rice or kingdom

The heptarchic kingdom an aggregation of primitive kingdoms; the primitive king-

dom a reproduction of the civitas of Cæsar and Tacitus. The new society

purely Teutonic

Fate of the Roman cities; the new system of municipal life.

4. Distinctions of Rank

The free and the unfree; the free, the ceorl and eorl; the unfree, læts and slaves . 126

The slave the mere chattel of his lord

Practice kinder than theory; the primitive village community in Britain a min-

iature democracy; growth of the new kingship; invading tribes non-monar-

chical

The heretoga or ealdorman; the ealdorman advanced to the dignity of kingship;

blending of the hereditary with the elective principle

The ealdorman remains the head of his district. Tribal sovereignty; the king's

powers and duties; the dignity of kingship grows as the process of aggregation

advances.

The comitatus; the hlaford the loaf-giver; the gesith or companion; the thegn-

the new nobility by service.

benefits derived by the thegn from his lord; the thegnhood becomes a territorial

nobility

Its ranks ever open to the class beneath it; the relation of lord and man, - repre-

sents but one element of feudalism; the trinoda necessitas, a threefold obliga-

tion from the citizen to the state; feudalism in embryo.

5. Ownership of Land and the growth of great Estates: family land; com-

mon land; folkland; the ethel or alod; the mark

The homestead the earliest form of individual ownership in land; the principle next
extended to arable lands; decay of the system of common cultivation.
Survivals of the system, - Lammas lands; the word "mark" in England; the mark
as the township; family land an estate of inheritance .

Inalienability of family land; wills depend at first for validity upon family consent.

Common lands, their history coextensive with that of the law of real property 137

Folkland; growth of great estates; probabilities as to their origin

The dependent township; title to its lands vested in the lord; the free communi-

ties lose their independence; the dependent township becomes the manor; book-

land.

The witness of the community; the new method of conveyancing; the estate con-

veyed by book usually a fee simple; the alod disappears in the book-land.

• 138

139

Rights of a grantee of book-land depend upon the terms of the grant. Laenland,

its origin and attributes

141

142

A laen generally an estate for life; occupancy at the will of the lord; an "unbooked

laen "

6. The Township and the Tun-moot: the tun-moot regulated the internal af-

fairs of the township, and elected its officers and representatives; the township

as the parish.

143

As the manor; functions of the tun-moot divided between the parish vestry and

manorial courts

144

7. The Hundred and the Hundred-moot

Modern hundred originally a shire

144

145

8. The Early Kingdoms and the Folk-moot: for a long time the early kingdoms

preserve their folk-moots and their tribal kings

146

The heptarchic kingdoms and the witenagemot: the primitive national assemblies
purely democratic; in the heptarchic kingdoms such assemblies shrink up into
bodies purely aristocratic, — the folk-moots become witenagemots

Representative principle not yet extended to national assemblies .

1. The Limits of Teutonic Conquest: Britain as a country never ceased to exist

until after the battles of Deorham and Chester

149

Conquest then assumed a more humane form; nature of the early settlements;

distribution of the conquered territory; settlements of the Jutes, of the Saxons,

of the Engles.

2. Formation of the Heptarchic Kingdoms: the war-leader becomes king;

early kingdoms bound together in seven or eight larger aggregates

Survival of ancient boundaries and tribal kings

3. Relation of the Heptarchic Kingdoms to each other: the Bretwaldas;

Palgrave's view; Bæda

The Chronicle; Kemble's brilliant criticism; Freeman's view; Green's view

Supremacy of bretwaldas only a temporary and uncertain overlordship. National

unity the joint work of the church and the sword; the kingdoms of Northern,

Central, and Southern Britain; this threefold division only broken down after a

struggle of two centuries

. 154

4. The Conversion and the Growth of Unity in the National Church:

for a century and a half the Teutonic conquerors of Britain remained heathens.

Latin Christianity and its conquests; Kent the first Christian kingdom

Gregory's plan of ecclesiastical organization; London and York; Æthelberht un-

dertakes to propagate the faith; conversion of the East Saxons; East Anglians

reject the new faith; Eadwine of Northumbria; his conversion followed by that

of the Deirans.

. 156

Penda and the heathen reaction; Celtic Christianity and its conquests; tribal life
of Ireland; St. Patrick; elsewhere the church becomes national and episcopal;
in Ireland it becomes tribal and monastic

Celtic monastery at Hii; Oswald; missionaries from Hii convert Northumbria;

conversion of the West Saxons; conversion of the Mercians and East Saxons. 158

Battle of the Winwad (655) breaks the power of English heathenism; Synod of

Whitby (664); English church accepts Christianity in its Latin form; organiza-
tion of the English church by Theodore

"He was the first of the archbishops whom the whole English church consented to

obey ;" annual councils at Clovesho; Theodore breaks up the great dioceses

into smaller sees

Primacy of Canterbury; York; Theodore's work completed under Eadward the

Elder. The unity of the church foreshadows the unity of the state; the church

councils the first national gatherings

159

160

161

5. The Struggle for Supremacy between Northumbria, Mercia, and

Wessex: supremacy of Northumbria; Eadwine the first Northumbrian bret-

walda; overthrown at Hatfield in 633; Oswald reëstablishes Northumbrian su-

premacy

162

Oswiu finally unites Bernicia and Deira; Northumbria gives place to Mercia . 163

6. Supremacy of Mercia: Æthelbald; Mercian supremacy broken by Wessex in
754; Offa rebuilds the Mercian power

Cenwulf

163

164

7. Final Supremacy of Wessex: Cerdic and Cynric first kings of the West Sax-

ons; battle of Deorham (577) secures the Severn Valley

164

Defeated by the Welsh in 584; internal dissensions weaken Wessex for two centu-

ries; Welsh in their rear remain unconquered until 815; Ecgberht, the eighth and

last bretwalda; visits the court of Charles the Great; ascends the throne of

Wessex in 802.

Final conquest of Cornwall (815); overthrow of Mercia and Northumbria; Ecg-

berht unites all the English kingdoms under the sway of Wessex

8. From Ecgberht to Eadgar (829–958)

165

· 166

166

The Danish invasions; at first mere plundering raids; the period of conquest and
permanent settlement; Ælfred and the Danes; Peace of Wedmore in 878

The Danelagh; all England outside of the Danelagh grows into a compact king.

dom;

Eadward the Elder begins, and Æthelstan completes, the conquest of the

Danelagh

Eadgar the Peaceful finally unites Engle, Saxon, and Dane under his sway; Britain

becomes Englaland, "Wessex has grown into England"

CONSTITUTION OF THE CONSOLIDATED KINGDOM.

1 The Shire System: its growth a vital element in the process of national develop-

ment; the early shire formed by a union of townships; the modern shire identi

tical with the primitive state

. 170

With the triumph of Ecgberht the work of consolidations begins; "The state of

the seventh century became the shire of the tenth, while the shire of the seventh

century became the hundred of the tenth "

Historical origin of certain of the modern shires

2. An Outline of the Constitution in the tenth Century: central powers of
the state vested in the king and witan; local administration, in the shires
The folk-moot survives as the shire-moot, early shire-moot as the hundred-moot;
classification of the central powers of the state in accordance with modern ideas 173
Saxons, and all other tribes that en-

3. The Executive Power - the King.

gaged in the Conquest, non-monarchical

. 174

Kingship in Britain an outgrowth of conquest; right of election limited by the
hereditary principle; growth of the new kingship

Peace and justice belong at first, not to the king, but to the folk. In the growth of
kingship is involved all the elements of constitutional life. The comitatus
Relation of lord and man: the king becomes the lord of his people; so recognized
in the early laws; the national peace becomes the king's peace; the king becomes
the source or fountain of justice

The folk-land becomes terra regis. Growth of territorial lordships

The dependent village community becomes the manor after the Conquest

All the elements of feudalism exist before the Conquest. The movement from the
personal to the territorial organization: the free community passes through “the
process of feudalization"

Nature and extent of the royal authority; Eadgar; the king's wergild.

Royal revenue not contingent upon legislative grants; dues in the form of rents;
receipts from fines; treasure-trove and the like

4. The Legislative Power: the king and the witan

The folk-moot; the witenagemot; likeness between Old-English and Achaian as-

The folk-moot shrinks up into the witenagemot; composition of the witan; every

freeman probably retained the abstract right to be present in the national assem-

Witan composed of the king and the magnates; Witan of Wessex becomes the

Great Council of the Empire; usually consisted of about a hundred members 185

Powers of the witan; king legislates with the counsel and consent of the witan;
character of the early laws; taxation

Danegeld; ecclesiastical legislation; treaties and alliances
Alienation of folkland; bookland converted into folkland; the folkland becomes
terra regis