[884] K. 90 (i. 108); E. 40: ‘Et ut ab omni tributo vectigalium operum onerumque saecularium sit libera in perpetuum, pro mercede aeternae retributionis, regali potestate decernens statuo; tantum ut deo omnipotenti ex eodem agello aecclesiasticae servitutis famulatum impendat.’
[885] K. 56 (i. 64); H. & S. iii. 278; B. i. 171. The charter is of fairly good repute, but nothing that comes from Evesham is beyond suspicion. It is almost impossible to translate these early books without making their language too definite. How, for instance shall we render ‘nulli, neque principi, neque praefecto, neque tiranno alicui pascui constituantur’?
[886] Ine, 70, § 1.
[887] Thorpe, Gloss, s. v. Foster, thinks that this law has to do with the fostering of a child. Schmid is inclined to hold that it speaks of a rent payable to a landlord.
[888] Ine, 64–6: ‘He who has 20 hides must show 12 hides of cultivated land if he wishes to go away. He who has 10 hides shall show 6 hides of cultivated land. He who has 3 hides let him show one and a half.’ The persons with whom these laws deal are certainly not ascripti glebae; they are very great men. Then we must read c. 63: ‘If a gesithcundman go away, then may he have his reeve with him and his smith and his child’s fosterer’; and then c. 68: ‘If a gesithcundman be driven off, let him be driven from the dwelling (botle), not from the set land (naes þaere setene).’ The king’s gesiths have been taking up large grants of waste land and putting under-tenants on the soil. These great folk must not fling up their holdings until they have brought the land into cultivation. If they do abandon their land, they may take away with them only three of their dependants. If they are evicted by some adverse claimant this is not to harm their under-tenants; they are to be driven from the botl, that is from the chief house, but not from the land that they have set out to husbandmen. These last are to enjoy a secure title. We must leave to linguists the question whether we have rightly understood the difficult seten; but these chapters, together with c. 67, which deals with the relations between these lords and their husbandmen, seem to point to some great scheme for colonizing a newly-conquered district.
[889] Kemble, Saxons, i. 294–8; ii. 58.
[890] Karl Lehmann, Abhandlungen zur Germanischen Rechtsgeschichte, 1888; Liber Census Daniae, ed. O. Nielsen, 1879.
[891] Cnut’s law (II. 62) about this matter seems to imply that in consequence of the immunities lavishly bestowed by his predecessors, the old ‘king’s feorm’ was only leviable from lands which were deemed to be the king’s lands, but that Cnut’s reeves had been demanding that this feorm should be supplemented by other lands. The king of his grace forbids them to do this. The old feorm has been changed into a rent of crown lands; a vague claim to ‘purveyance’ is abolished, but will appear again after the Conquest.
[892] In the A.-S. Chron. ann. 991, 1007, 1011, the Danegeld appears as a gafol; but this is the common word for a rent paid by a tenant to his landlord.
[893] Kemble, Saxons ii. 73–6.
[894] Already in 749 Æthelbald of Mercia in a general privilege for the churches (H. & S. iii. 386) says, ‘Sed nec hoc praetermittendum est, cum necessarium constat aecclesiis Dei, quia Æthelbaldus Rex, pro expiatione delictorum suorum et retributione mercedis aeternae, famulis Dei propriam libertatem in fructibus silvarum agrorumque, sive in caeteris utilitatibus fluminum vel raptura piscium, habere donavit.’
[896] Rectitudines c. 1 (Schmid, App. III.).
[898] Schröder, Die Franken und ihr Recht, Zeitsch. d. Savigny Stiftung, iii. 62–82, has argued that, from the first times of the Frankish settlement onwards, the king has a Bodenregal, an Obereigenthum over all land.
[899] Epistola ad Ecgbertum (ed. Plummer, i. 405).
[900] K. 131 (i. 158).
[901] K. 137 (i. 164); B. M. Facs. i. 10. A few words are illegible, but the land is given ‘in ius ecclesiasticae liberalitatis in perpetuum possid[endam].’
[902] Æthelwulf makes a grant to a thegn, K. 269 (ii. 48), ‘pro expiatione piaculorum meorum et absolutione criminum meorum.’ In course of time the piety of the recitals becomes more and more perfunctory. It becomes a philosophic reflection on the transitoriness of earthly affairs and finally evaporates, leaving behind some commonplace about the superiority of written over unwritten testimony.
[903] Bede (ed. Plummer, i. 415): ‘ipsas quoque litteras privilegiorum suorum.’
[904] Vinogradoff, Folkland, Eng. Hist. Rev. viii. 1.
[905] Edw. I. 2.
[906] Schmid, p. 575.
[907] K. 281 (ii. 64); B. M. Facs. ii. 33.
[908] K. 317 (ii. 120); T. 480; B. ii. 195.
[909] K. 260 (ii. 28); B. ii. 33; B. M. Facs. ii. 30.
[910] In K. 1019 (v. 58) there is talk of Offa having booked land to himself, and in K. 1245 (vi. 58) Edgar seems to perform a similar feat without mentioning the consent of the witan, though they attest the deed. See Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 145.
[911] From Alfred and Edward the Elder we have hardly enough genuine charters to serve as materials for an induction, but Edward’s reign seems the turning point.
[912] A.D. 838, K. 1044 (v. 90): Egbert gives ‘aliquantulam terrae partem meae propriae hereditatis ... cum consilio et testimonio optimatum meorum.’ A.D. 863, K. 1059 (v. 116): Æthelred ‘cum consensu ac licentia episcoporum ac principum meorum’ gives ‘aliquam partem agri quae ad me rite pertinebat.’
[913] Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 212.
[914] We know of but four specimens earlier than 750. The first is a deed whereby Wulfhere of Mercia makes a grant ‘cum consensu et licentia amicorum et optimatum meorum’: E. 4; B. M. Facs. iv. 1. The second is a deed whereby Hlothar of Kent makes a grant with the consent of Abp Theodore, his (Hlothar’s) brother’s son Eadric and all the princes; K. 16 (i. 20); B. M. Facs. i. 1. The third, known to us only through a copy, is one by which Æthelbald of Mercia makes a grant ‘cum consensu vel episcoporum vel optimatum meorum’; K. 83 (i. 100). By a fourth deed, K. 27 (i. 30), Eadric grants land ‘cum consensu meorum patriciorum’; but this also we only get from a copy.
[915] K. 1 (i. 1); A.D. 604. Æthelbert for Rochester.
[916] K. 43 (i. 50); B. i. 140: A.D. 697, Wihtræd.—K. 47 (i. 54); E. 17; B. M. Facs. i. 4: Wihtræd.—K. 77 (i. 92); E. 24; B. M. Facs. i. 6: A.D. 732, Æthelbert.—K. 132 (i. 160); E. 54; B. M. Facs. ii. 4: A.D. 778, Egbert.
[917] K. 85 (i. 102); E. 32: Eadbert for Rochester. Of this deed we have but a transcript. The formula of attestation is very curious and may have been distorted either by the original scribe or the copyist.
[918] K. 157 (i. 189), Offa of Mercia uses this eschatocol, but in a Kentish gift.
[919] K. 1006–7 (v. 47–8); B. i. 256–7.
[920] K. 79 (i. 95).
[921] Brunner, Rechtsgeschichte der Röm. u. German. Urkunde, pp. 220–8; Giry, Manuel de diplomatique, 614. Bede in his famous letter (ed. Plummer, i. 417) uses the technical astipulari to describe the action of the prelates who set their crosses to the king’s charters. It occurs also in a charter of 791, K. 1015 (v. 53–4). See also K. 691 (iii. 289), ‘constipulatores.’
[922] Brunner, op. cit. 158. Dr Brunner thinks that the precedents for A.-S. charters came direct from Rome rather than from any other quarter (p. 187); but he fully admits that these charters when compared with foreign instruments show a certain formlessness.
[923] Under our own law we may conceive a case in which a man would be compelled to die unwillingly intestate because one of the two people present at his death-bed capriciously refused to witness a will.
[924] The transition is marked by the following charters.—K. 104, 105, 108, 113, in these we have the mere rogation of fit and proper witnesses.—K. 114 (a Kentish deed which Kemble ascribes to 759–765), in this the clause of attestation speaks of the counsel and consent of the optimates and principes.—K. 118, Uhtred of the Hwiccas makes a grant with the consent and licence of Offa king of the Mercians and of his (Offa‘s) bishops and principes.—K. 120, the witnesses are described as condonantes.—K. 121, 122, (A.D. 774) the clause of attestation says ‘cum sacerdotibus et senioribus populi more testium subscribendo.’—K. 131, ‘testium ergo et consentientium episcoporum ac principum meorum signa et nomina pro firmitatis stabilimento hic infra notabo.’—A clause of this kind becomes common with Offa, see K. 134, 137, 138, 148, 151, but occasionally there are relapses and the signatories merely appear as ‘fit and proper’ or ‘religious’ witnesses. But it is not until after 800 that, save as a rare exception, the consent of the magnates is brought into connexion with the operative words.
[925] Bresslau, Urkundenlehre, i. 697.
[926] Bede’s letter to Egbert (ed. Plummer, i. 405) and his account of Benedict Biscop (ib. 364) show that it was expected of the king that he should provide land for young warriors of noble race; but no word implies that the land out of which the provision was to be made was ‘folk-land,’ nor is it clear that the young warrior was to have a book.
[927] See William’s charter for Fécamp, Neustria Pia, p. 224.
[928] A.D. 692–3, K. 35 (i. 39); B. M. Facs. i. 2: a grant by ‘Hodilredus parens Sebbi ... cum ipsius consensu’; ‘ego Sebbi rex Eastsaxonorum pro confirmatione subscripsi.’—A.D. 704, K. 52 (i. 59); B. M. Facs. i. 3: ‘Ego Sueabræd rex Eastsaxonorum et ego Pæogthath cum licentia Ædelredi regis.’—A.D. 706, K. 56 (i. 64), ‘Ego Æthiluueard subregulus ... consentiente Coenredo rege Merciorum.’—A.D. 721–46, K. 91 (i. 109), Æthelbald of Mercia attests a lease made by the bishop of Worcester.—A.D. 759, K. 105 (i. 128); B. M. Facs. ii. 2: three brothers, each of whom is a regulus, make a gift ‘cum licentia et permissione Regis Offan Merciorum.’—A.D. 767, 770, K. 117–8 (i. 144–5): two gifts by Uhtred, regulus of the Hwiccas, ‘cum consensu et licentia Offani Regis Merciorum.’—A.D. 791? K. 1016 (v. 54): ‘Ego Aldwlfus dux Suð-Saxonum ... cum consensu et licentia Offae regis Merciorum.’
[929] K. 113 (i. 137).
[930] K. 314 (ii. 112); 1067 (v. 127); Liber de Hyda, 57. On the death of Æthelbald, two of his sons, Æthelred and Alfred, seem to have made over the lands which had been devised to them by their father to Æthelbert, the reigning king, so that he might enjoy them during his life. Then again, on Æthelbert’s death, Alfred would not insist upon a partition but allowed his share to remain in the possession of Æthelred, the reigning king. See also Eadred’s will, Liber de Hyda, 153; he seems to have a good deal of land of which he can dispose freely.
[931] K. 1312 (vi. 172).
[932] The violated books are in Chron. Abingd. i. 314, 317, 334.
[933] Were it possible for us to say that the kingship was elective, this would be but a beginning of difficulties. For example, we should raise a question which in all probability has no answer, were we to ask whether a majority could bind a minority.
[934] Adams, The Anglo-Saxon Courts of Law (Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law, p. 1). Hallam, Middle Ages (ed. 1837), vol. ii. p. 416, says that of the right of territorial jurisdiction ‘we meet frequent instances in the laws and records of the Anglo-Saxons, though not in those of early date.’ The one charter older than Edward the Confessor that he cites is one of the Croyland forgeries. Kemble’s opinion seems to have fluctuated; Saxons, i. 177 note, ii. 397, Cod. Dipl. i. xliv-xlvii. K. Maurer, Krit. Ueberschau, ii. 57, thinks that the existence of the private court is proved for Cnut’s reign, but not for any earlier time. Dr Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 119, seems to doubt whether it can be traced far beyond the days of Cnut. Zinkeisen, Die Anfänge der Lehngerichtsbarkeit in England (1893, a Berlin doctoral dissertation), criticizes Mr Adams’s theory.
[935] Essays, pp. 43–4.
[937] K. 853 (iv. 208); E. 343.
[938] The clearest instance is in the Waltham charter, K. 813 (iv. 154), but some details of this are not beyond suspicion. See also the writs for Westminster, K. 828 (iv. 191), 857 (iv. 213); Ordn. Facs. vol. ii. pl. 9.
[939] Charter for St. Edmund’s, K. 1346 (vi. 205). See the account of Bury St. Edmunds in D. B. ii. 372: ‘et quaudo in hundreto solvitur ad geltum 1 lib. tunc inde exeunt 60 den. ad victum monachorum.’
[940] First printed from a copy in the MacDurnan Gospels by J. O. Westwood in Palaeographia Sacra, with a facsimile, plate 11. Accepted by Kemble and printed by him in Archaeological Journal, xiv. 61; Earle, 232; Freeman, Norman Conquest, ii. 52.
[941] See the writ for St. Paul’s, K. 1319 (vi. 183). Mr Adams (p. 44) stigmatizes this as an evident forgery; but the reasons for this severe judgment are not apparent. See also K. 1321 (vi. 190), and the Latin writ of Harthacnut K. 1330 (vi. 192), which may have a genuine basis.
[942] Cnut, II. 12 (Schmid, p. 276).
[943] Thus if a statute requires written and signed evidence of an agreement, a letter in which the writer says, ‘True, I made such and such an agreement, but I am not going to keep it,’ may be evidence enough; see Bailey v. Sweeting, 9 C. B. N. S. 843.
[944] Brunner, Carta und Notitia (Commentationes in honorem T. Mommsen); Brunner, Zur Rechtsgeschichte der Röm. u. Germ. Urkunde.
[945] Both the Angevin charter and the Angevin letters patent are in what we call ‘writ-form.’ The main formal difference is that the charter professes to be witnessed by a number of the king’s councillors, while Teste Meipso does for letters patent. This distinction is coming to the front about the year 1200.
[946] K. 731 (iv. 9); T. 308.
[947] K. 642 (iii. 203); compare D. B. i. 41.
[948] The Conqueror’s charter for Exeter reproduced in Ordnance Facsimiles, vol. ii. is a fine specimen of the solemn charters referred to above. A considerable number of specimens, genuine and spurious (for our present purpose a forgery is almost as valuable as a true charter), will be found in the Monasticon, e.g. i. 174, Rufus for Rochester; i. 266, Rufus for Bath; ii. 109–111, 126, Henry I. for Abingdon; i. 163, Henry I. for Rochester; ii. 65–6, Henry I. for Evesham; ii. 267, Henry I. for Bath; ii. 539, Henry I. for Exeter; iii. 448, Henry I. for Malvern; vi. (1) 247, Henry I. for Merton; iii. 406, Stephen for Eye. Nor was this solemn form employed only by kings:—See Monast. ii. 385–6, Earl Hugh for Chester; iii. 404, Robert Malet for Eye; v. 121, Hugh de la Val for Pontefract; v. 167, William of Mortain for Montacute; v. 190, Simon of Senlis for St. Andrew Northampton; v. 247, Stephen of Boulogne for Furness; v. 316, Richard Earl of Exeter for Quarr; v. 628, Ranulf of Chester for Pulton. As to Normandy, see the charters in the Neustria Pia and the Gallia Christiana. A charter of Henry II. for Fontenay recites a charter by which the ancestors of Jordan Tesson founded the abbey with the consent of Duke William, also a charter of Duke William, ‘quae cartae crucibus sunt signatae secundum antiquam consuetudinem’; Neustria Pia, p. 80; Gallia Christiana, xi. Ap. col. 82. It is probable that during the Norman reigns the king’s cross was considered more valuable even than the king’s seal; Monast. iv. p. 18, Henry I. says, ‘hanc donationem confirmo ego Henricus rex et astipulatione sanctae crucis et appositione sigilli mei’; Ibid. ii. 385–6, Earl Hugh confirms a gift ‘non solum sigillo meo sed etiam sigillo Dei omnipotentis, id est, signo sanctae crucis.’ It is not implied in our text that every specimen of each of the two forms of instrument that we have mentioned will always display all the characteristics that have been noticed. There is no reason, for example, why in a solemn charter the king should not speak in the past tense of the act of gift, and as a matter of fact he does so in some of the Anglo-Saxon books, while, on the other hand, an instrument which begins with a salutation may well have the words of gift in the present tense (this is by no means uncommon in Anglo-Norman documents); nor of course is it necessary that an instrument in writ-form should be authenticated by a seal instead of a cross. Again, a solemn charter with crosses and pious recitals may begin with a salutation. We merely point out that the diplomata of Edward the Confessor and his Norman successors tend to conform to two distinct types. As to this matter see the remarks of Hickes, Dissertatio Epistolaris, p. 77; Hardy, Introduction to Charter Rolls, xiv., xxxvi.
[949] The curious formula, Schmid, App. XI., already has ‘ne sace ne socne.’ This seems to suppose that it is a common thing for a man to have sake and soke over his land.
[950] R. H. ii. 231.
[951] R. H. ii. 458.
[952] D. B. i. 172 b.
[953] R. H. ii. 283.
[954] Hale, Worcester Register, pp. xxx, 21 b; K. Appendix, 514 (vi. 237); Hickes, Dissertatio Epistolaris, i. 86; at the end of his dissertation Hickes gives a facsimile of the instrument.
[955] A record of 825 (H. & S. iii. 596–601) mentions a place ‘in provincia Huicciorum’ called Oslafeshlau; the editors of the Councils say ‘Oslafeshlau is probably the original name of the hundred which now, either from some act of St. Oswald or by an easy corruption, is called Oswaldslaw.’ One of Oswald’s books (K. iii. 160) mentions ‘Oswald’s hlaw’ among the boundaries of Wulfringtune, i.e. Wolverton, a few miles east of Worcester. It is very likely that the true name of the hundred is Oswald’s hlaw, i.e. Oswald’s hill, not Oswald’s law, though the mistake was made at an early time. But the story told by the charter as to the fusion of three old hundreds is corroborated by Domesday, and in the thirteenth century one of the three courts was still held at Wimborntree.
[956] But Dr Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 118, relies on part of this charter and it is not like ordinary forger’s work. If, as is highly probable, there has been some ‘improvement’ of the charter, such improvement seems to have favoured, not the church of Worcester as against the king, but the monks as against the bishop.
[957] ‘cum tolle et teame, saca et socne, et infangenetheof, et proprii iuris debitum transgressionis, et poenam delicti quae Anglice dicitur ofersæwnesse, et gyltwyte.’
[958] D. B. i. 172 b: ‘Ecclesia S. Mariae de Wirecestre habet unum hundret quod vocatur Oswaldeslau in quo iacent ccc. hidae. De quibus episcopus ipsius ecclesiae a constitutione antiquorum temporum habet omnes redditiones socharum et omnes consuetudines inibi pertinentes ad dominicum victum et regis servitium et suum, ita ut nullus vicecomes ullam ibi habere possit querelam, nec in aliquo placito, nec in alia qualibet causa. Hoc testatur totus comitatus.’
[959] Another example is Edgar’s charter for Ely, A.D. 970 K. 563 (iii. 56), which bestows the soke over the two hundreds which lie within the Isle, five hundreds in Essex, and all other lands of the monastery. Kemble was inclined to accept the A.-S. version of the charter. It purports to be obtained by bishop Æthelwold and, if genuine, is closely connected with the Oswaldslaw charter; both testify to unusual privileges obtained by the founders of the new monasticism.
[960] E.g. K. 1298 (vi. 149), ‘Dis is seo freolsboc to ðan mynstre æt Byrtune.’
[961] E.g. K. 277 (ii. 58), 278 (ii. 60).
[962] A.D. 875; K. 306 (ii. 101); B. ii. 159.
[963] Unsuspected charters of the seventh and eighth centuries are so few, that we hardly dare venture on any generalities about their wording. But already in a charter attributed to 674, E. p. 4, Brit. Mus. Facs. iv. 1, something very like the ‘common form’ of later days appears; it appears also in a charter of A.D. 691–2, K. 32 (i. 35), E. p. 12, of which we have but a fragmentary copy, and before the end of the eighth century it appears with some frequency; see e.g. Offa’s charter of 774, K. 123 (i. 150): ‘sit autem terra illa libera ab omni saecularis rei negotio, praeter pontis, arcisve restaurationem et contra hostes communem expeditionem.’
[964] Occasionally the contrast is expressly drawn, e.g. by Æthelbald, K. 90 (i. 108): ‘ut ab omni tributo vectigalium operum onerumque saecularium sit libera ... tantum ut Deo omnipotenti ex eodem agello aecclesiasticae servitutis famulatum inpendat.’
[966] Privilege of Wihtræd, A.D. 696–716, Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 238: ‘Adhuc addimus maiorem libertatem. Inprimis Christi ecclesiae cum omnibus agris ad eam pertinentibus, similiter Hrofensi ecclesiae cum suis, caeterisque praedictis omnibus ecclesiis Dei nostri, subiciantur pro salute animae meae, meorumque praedecessorum, et pro spe caelestis regni ex hac die, et deinceps concedimus et donamus ab omnibus difficultatibus saecularium servitutis, a pastu Regis, principum, comitum, nec non ab operibus, maioribus minoribusve gravitatibus: et ab omni debitu vel pulsione regum tensuris liberos eos esse perpetua libertate statuimus.’ See also the act by which Æthelbald confirmed this privilege in 742, H. & S. iii. 340, B. i. 233–6. According to one version of this act, the trinoda necessitas is, according to another it is not, excepted. The learned editors of the Councils speak of ‘the suspicions common to every record that notices the Privilege of Wihtræd.’ We are treading on treacherous ground. See also the less suspicious Act of Æthelbald, A.D. 749, H. & S. iii. 386: ‘Concedo ut monasteria et aecclesiae a publicis vectigalibus et ab omnibus operibus oneribusque, auctore Deo, servientes absoluti maneant, nisi sola quae communiter fruenda sunt, omnique populo, edicto regis, facienda iubentur, id est, instructionibus pontium, vel necessariis defensionibus arcium contra hostes, non sunt renuenda.’
[967] A.D. 1066, Edward the Confessor for Westminster, K. 828 (iv. 191): ‘scotfre and gavelfre.’
[968] Kemble, Codex, vol. i. Introduction liii-lvi., collects some of the best instances. Offa for a valuable consideration frees certain lands belonging to the church of Worcester from pastiones; ‘nec non et trium annorum ad se pertinentes pastiones, id est sex convivia, libenter concedendo largitus est’: K. 143 (i. 173), B. i. 335.
[969] A.D. 904, K. 1084 (v. 157).
[970] A.D. 826, Egbert for Winchester, K. 1037 (v. 81): ‘Volo etiam ut haec terra libera semper sit ... nullique serviat nisi soli episcopo Wentano.’
[971] K. 1346 (vi. 205). Compare Fustel de Coulanges, L’Immunité Mérovingienne, Revue historique, xxiii. 21.
[972] E.g. K. 1117 (v. 231): ‘tribus semotis causis a quibus nullus nostrorum poterit expers fore’; K. v. pp. 259, 283, 334.
[973] To this class belong the foundation charter of Evesham mentioned above, p. 235, and Offa’s charter for St. Albans, K. 161 (i. 195), which Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 469, are unwilling to decisively reject. Cenwulf’s charter for Abingdon, K. 214 (i. 269), H. & S. iii. 556, sets a limit to the amount of military service that is to be demanded. Æthelstan’s charter for Crediton, recently printed by Napier and Stevenson, Crawford Charters, p. 5, frees land from the trinoda necessitas.
[974] E.g. K. i. p. 274; ii. pp. 14, 15, 24, 26, 83; v. pp. 53, 62, 81.
[975] Observe how Bede describes a gift made by Oswy in the middle of the seventh century; Hist. Eccl. iii. 24 (ed. Plummer, i. 178): ‘donatis insuper duodecim possessiunculis terrarum in quibus ablato studio militiae terrestris, ad exercendam militiam caelestem etc.’
[976] The passages in the dooms which mention it are collected in Schmid, Glossar, s. v. ángild. They are discussed by Maurer, Krit. Ueberschau, ii. 32.
[977] The clauses of immunity which mention the ángild will be collected in a note at the end of this section.
[978] K. 210 (i. 265); B. i. 497; H. & S. iii. 585. The clause in question is not found in every copy of the charter. If some monk is to be accused of tampering with the book, there seems just as much reason for charging him with having omitted a clause which limited, as for charging him with inserting a clause which recognized, the jurisdiction of the church.
[979] These clauses will be discussed in a note at the end of this section.
[980] A.D. 841, K. 250 (ii. 14): ‘Liberabo ab omnibus saecularibus servitutibus ... regis et principis vel iuniorum eorum, nisi in confinio reddant rationem contra alium.’ Compare K. 117 (i. 144): ‘nisi specialiter pretium pro pretio ad terminum.’ Also Leg. Henr. 57 § 1: ‘Si inter compares vicinos utrinque sint querelae, conveniant ad divisas.’ Ibid. 57 § 8: ‘aliquando in divisis vel in erthmiotis.’ Ibid. 9 § 4: ‘Et omnis causa terminetur, vel hundreto, vel comitatu, vel hallimoto soccam habentium, vel dominorum curiis, vel divisis parium.’ See above, p. 97.
[981] A.D. 828, K. 223 (i. 287): ‘cum furis comprehensione intus et foris’; A.D. 842, K. 253 (ii. 16) ‘ut ... furis comprehensione ... terra secura et immunis ... permaneat’; A.D. 850, K. 1049 (v. 95) a similar form; A.D. 858, K. 281 (ii. 64), a similar form; A.D. 869, K. 300 (ii. 95), a similar form; A.D. 880, K. 312 (ii. 109): ‘cum furis comprehensione.’ See Kemble’s remarks, C. D. vol. i. p. xlvi.
[982] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 565.
[983] K. 1084 (v. 157); B. ii. 272: ‘Christo concessi ut episcopi homines tam nobiles quam ignobiles in praefato rure degentes hoc idem ius in omni haberent dignitate quo regis homines perfruuntur regalibus fiscis commorantes, et omnia saecularium rerum iudicia ad usus praesulum exerceantur eodem modo quo regalium negotiorum discutiuntur iudicia.’ Similar words occur in a confirmation by Edgar, K. 598 (iii. 136), which Kemble rejects. This contains an English paraphrase of the Latin text.
[984] Compare K. 821 (iv. 171): ‘swa freols on eallan thingan eall swa thaes cinges agen innland.’
[985] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 570.
[986] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 580.
[987] Few questions in Frankish history have been more warmly contested than this, whether the immunist had a jurisdiction within his territory. On the one hand, it has been contended that there is no evidence older than 840 that he exercised jurisdiction even as between the inhabitants of that territory. On the other hand, it has been said that already in 614 he has civil jurisdiction in disputes between these inhabitants, besides a criminal jurisdiction over them, which however does not extend to the graver crimes. A few references will suffice to put the reader in the current of this discussion; Löning, Geschichte des Deutschen Kirchenrechts, ii. 731; Brunner, D. R. G. ii. 298; Schröder, D. R. G. 174; Beauchet, Histoire de l’organisation judiciaire en France, 74; Beaudoin, Étude sur les origines du regime féodal (Annales de l’enseignement supérieur de Grenoble, vol. i. p. 43); Fustel de Coulanges, L’Immunité Mérovingienne (Revue Historique, xxii. 249, xxiii. I). One of the most disputed points is the character of the court held by an abbot, which is put before us by the very ancient Formulae Andecavenses, a collection attributed to the sixth or, at the latest, to the early years of the seventh century. It has been asserted and denied that this abbot of Angers is exercising the powers given to him by an immunity; some have said that he, or rather his steward, is merely acting as an arbitrator; Brunner, Forschungen, 665, explains him as one of the mediocres iudices of decaying Roman law. On the whole, the balance of learning is inclining to the opinion that, even in the Merovingian time, there were great churches and other lords with courts which wielded power over free men, and that the ‘immunities,’ even if they were not intended to create such courts, at all events made them possible, or, as Fustel says, consecrated them.
[988] Madox, Hist. Exch. i. 109; Bigelow, Placita Anglo-Normannica, 114.
[989] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 224–30.
[990] Nissl, Der Gerichtsstand des Clerus im Fränkischen Reich, 247.
[991] K. 214 (i. 269); 236 (i. 312).
[992] Edw. & Guth. 4; Leg. Henr. II, § 5.
[993] D. B. i. 26.
[994] Chron. de Bello, 26–7: ‘Et si forisfacturae Christianitatis quolibet modo infra leugam contigerint, coram abbate definiendae referantur. Habeatque ecclesia S. Martini emendationem forisfacturae; poenitentiam vero reatus sui rei ab episcopo percipiant.’
[995] Battle Custumals (Camden Soc.), 126: ‘Septem hundreda non habent fossas nisi apud Wy, et ideo habemus ij. denarios: Archiepiscopus tamen et Prior de novo trahunt homines suos ad fossas: Abbas de S. Augustino non habet.’
[996] c. 3, X. 5, 37: ‘Accepimus ... quod archidiaconi Conventrensis episcopatus ... in examinatione ignis et aquae triginta denarios a viro et muliere quaerere praesumunt.’
[997] Cnut II. 12–15.
[998] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 564.
[999] Beaudoin, op. cit. p. 94 ff.
[1000] Æthelstan, II. 2.
[1001] Konrad Maurer, Krit. Ueberschau, ii. 30 ff.
[1002] Æthelstan, II. 3. Observe how in the Latin version ‘se blaford the rihtes wyrne’ becomes ‘dominus qui rectum difforciabit.’
[1003] K. Maurer, Krit. Ueberschau, ii. 32, 40, 41. Ine, 22, is of great importance on account of its antiquity.
[1004] D. B. ii. 18 b: ‘inde vocat dominum suum ad tutorem.’ See above, p. 71.
[1005] Leg. Henr. 57, § 8; 82, §§ 4, 5, 6.
[1007] Æthelstan, VI. (Iudicia Civitatis Lundoniae), 1.
[1008] Æthelred, I. 1, § 7.
[1009] Edgar, I. 2, 3; III. 7; IV. 2, § 8; Æthelred, I. 1; III. 3, 4, 7.
[1010] Æthelred, III. 3, 4.
[1011] Æthelred, III. 7.
[1012] Edgar, IV..= 2, § 11; Æthelred, I. 3.
[1013] D. B. i. 154. See above, p. 92.
[1015] Northumbrian Priests’ Law, Schmid, App. II. 48–9.
[1016] Ibid. 57, 58. See also the texts which give the lord a share with the bishop in the penalty for neglect to pay tithe, viz. Edgar, II. 3; Æthelred, VIII. 8; Cnut, I. 8.
[1017] K. 498 (ii. 386).
[1019] The Archbishop of York, the bishops of Durham, Chester, Lincoln and (for one manor) Salisbury, the abbots of York, Peterborough, Ramsey, Croyland, Burton and (for one manor) Westminster.
[1020] D. B. i. 280 b; i. 337.
[1021] K. 729 (iv. 3).
[1022] It is noticeable that the verb syllan usually means ‘to give.’ Words such as vendere are avoided.
[1023] A.D. 941, K. 390 (ii. 234) condemned by Kemble: ‘amabili vassallo meo.’—A.D. 952, K. 431 (ii. 302): ‘cuidam vassallo.’—A.D. 956? K. 462 (ii. 338): ‘meo fideli vassallo.’—A.D. 967, K. 534 (iii. 11): ‘meo fideli vassallo.’—A.D. 821, K. 214 (i. 269): ‘expeditionem cum 12 vassallis et cum tantis scutis exerceant.’ After the Norman Conquest the word is very rare in our legal texts.
[1024] K. 179 (i. 216): ‘eo videlicet iure si ipse nobis et optimatibus nostris fidelis manserit minister et inconvulsus amicus.’
[1025] K. 408 (ii. 263): ‘eatenus ut vita comite tam fidus mente quam subditus operibus mihi placabile obsequium praebeat, et meum post obitum cuicunque meorum amicorum voluero eadem fidelitate immobilis obediensque fiat.’
[1026] The terms of the oath are given in Schmid, App. X.
[1029] K. 214 (i. 269); H. & S. iii. 556.
[1030] D. B. i. 172; see above, p. 159.
[1031] Cnut, II. 13, 77.
[1033] K. 1035 (v. 76). The charter is not beyond suspicion, but Kemble has received, and the editors of the Councils (H. & S. iii. 607) have refused to condemn it.
[1034] K. 1020 (v. 60); B. i. 409; H. & S. iii. 528.
[1035] See Brunner, Die Landschenkungen der Merowinger und der Agilolfinger, Forschungen, p. 6: ‘He who receives an order acquires in the insignia of the order which are delivered to him an ownership of an extremely attenuated kind. He can not give them away or sell them or let them out or give them in dowry. When he dies they go back to the giver.’ We are not aware of any English decision on such matters as these. In a charter for Winchester (B. ii. 238) Edward the Elder is represented as saying that the land that he gives to the church is never to be alienated. If, however, the monks must sell or exchange it, then they may return it ‘to that royal family by whom it was given to them.’
[1036] Brunner, Zur Rechtsgeschichte d. röm. u. germ. Urkunde, p. 190; Hist. Eng. Law, ii. 12.
[1037] See Brunner, Landschenkungen, Forschungen, p. 1. In this paper Dr Brunner appealed to our English law, in order that he might settle the famous controversy between Waitz and Roth as to the character of the gifts of land made by the Merovingians. On p. 5 he denies that our rule about ‘words of inheritance’ should be called feudal. Its starting point is the principle that the quality [an English lawyer would add—and the quantity also]of the ‘estate’ (Besitzrecht) can be determined by the donor’s words, by a lex donationis imposed by the donor on the land.
[1038] Brunner, Geschichte der Urkunde, p. 200.
[1039] Heming’s Cartulary, i. 259. ‘Post mortem autem eius, filius eius ... testamentum patris sui irritum faciens....’ Ibid. p. 263: ‘Brihtwinus ... eandem terram Deo et Sanctae Mariae obtulit, eundemque nepotem suum monachum fecit. Filius eius etiam, Brihtmarus nomine, pater ipsius iam dicti Edwini monachi, cum heres patris extitisset, ... ipsam ... villam monasterio dedit.’ Hist. Eng. Law, ii. 250.
[1040] Brunner, Forschungen, p. 22; Hist. Eng. Law, i. 292.
[1041] Crawford Charters (ed. Napier and Stevenson), pp. 23, 126. Early in cent. xi. a bishop in his testament declares how he gives ‘to each retainer his steed which he had lent him.’
[1042] See the wills collected by Thorpe; p. 501: Gift to the queen for her mediation that the will may stand. Ibid. p. 505: ‘And bishop Theodred and ealdorman Eadric informed me, when I gave my lord the sword that king Edmund gave me ... that I might be worthy of my testament (mine quides wirde). And I never ... have done any wrong to my lord that it may not so be.’ Ibid. p. 519: ‘And I pray my dear lord for the love of God that my testament may stand.’ See also pp. 528, 539, 543, 552, 576.
[1043] Thus ealdorman Alfred disposes (but with the consent of the king and all his witan) of his ‘heritage’ as well as of his book-land; Thorpe, 480. Lodge, Essays on A.-S. Law, p. 108, supposes a certain power of regulating the descent of ‘family land’ within the family.
[1044] K. 414 (ii. 273): ‘Ego Wulfricus annuente et sentiente et praesente domino meo rege ... concessi ... terram iuris mei ... quam praefatus rex Eadredus mihi dedit in perpetuam hereditatem cum libro eiusdem terrae.’—K. 1130 (v. 254): ‘Ego Eadulfus dux per concessionem domini mei regis ... concedo ... has terras de propria possessione mea quas idem ... rex dedit in perpetuam hereditatem.’—K. 1226 (vi. 25): ‘Ego Ælfwordus minister Regis Eadgari concedo ... annuente domino meo rege ... villam unam de patrimonio meo.’
[1045] Except in the cases, comparatively rare before the statute Quia Emptores, in which the feoffee is to hold of the feoffor’s lord.
[1046] Fustel de Coulanges, Les origines du système féodal; Brunner, D. R. G. i. 209–12.
[1047] K. 1058 (v. 115); B. ii. 89: ‘et nullus iam licentiam ulterius habeat Christi neque sancti Petri ... neque ausus sit ulterius illam terram praedictam rogandi in beneficium.’
[1048] K. 1089 (v. 166); B. ii. 281. See also K. 262 (ii. 33); B. ii. 40; Birhtwulf of Mercia takes a lease for five lives from the church of Worcester and assigns it to a thegn. The consideration for this lease is a promise that for the future he will not make gifts out of the goods of the church.
[1049] K. 1287 (vi. 124). The verb praestare was the regular term for describing the action of one who was constituting a precarium or beneficium. In K. 1071 (v. 138) Bp Werferth of Worcester obtains a lease for three lives having petitioned for it; ‘terram ... humili prece deprecatus fui.’
[1050] For commodare see K. v. pp. 166, 169, 171; for lǽnan, ibid. 162; for lǽtan, ibid. 164.
[1051] See Bp Oswald’s leases.
[1052] K. 91 (i. 109).
[1053] K. 165 (i. 201).
[1054] K. 279 (ii. 61).
[1055] K. 339 (ii. 149).
[1056] See the charter of Cenwulf for Winchcombe, H. & S. iii. 572 and the editors’ note at 575. See also K. 610 (iii. 157), 1058 (v. 115), 1090 (v. 169).
[1057] K. 262 (ii. 33) is a lease for five lives by the church of Worcester; but the lessee is a king.
[1058] Nov. 7, 3. See Brunner, Zur Rechtsgeschichte der röm. u. germ. Urkunde, 187. Theodore of Tarsus would perhaps have known this rule. It does not belong to the general western tradition of Roman law, but is distinctly Justinianic.
[1059] K. 165 (i. 201). The ‘limitation’ is not very plain; but we seem to have here a lease for two lives.
[1060] K. 182 (i. 220).
[1061] K. 262 (ii. 33); B. ii. 40: lease by church of Worcester to the king for five lives: ‘et illi dabant terram illam ea tamen conditione ut ipse rex firmius amicus sit episcopo praefato et familia in omnibus bonis eorum.’ K. 279 (ii. 61): lease by the same church to a dux and his wife with stipulation for amicitia.
[1062] These are preserved in Heming’s Cartulary; see K. 494–673.
[1063] In K. 498 (ii. 386) the aecclesiasticus census is two modii of clean grain; in K. 511 (ii. 400) the lessee must mow once and reap once ‘with all his craft’; in K. 508 (ii. 398) he must sow two acres with his own seed and reap it; in K. 661 (iii. 233) is a similar stipulation.
[1064] In many cases the clause of immunity has become very obscure owing to a copyist’s blunder. It is made to run thus: ‘Sit autem terra ista libera omni regi nisi aecclesiastici censi.’ Some mistake between rei and regi may be suspected. What we want is what we get in some other cases, e.g. K. 651, 652, viz. ‘libera ab omni saecularis rei negotio.’ The following forms are somewhat exceptional; K. 530 and 612, ‘butan ferdfare and walgeworc and brycgeworc and circanlade’; K. 623, 666, ‘excepta sanctae dei basilicae suppeditatione et ministratione’; K. 625, ‘exceptis sanctae dei aecclesiae necessitatibus et utilitatibus.’
[1065] Kemble gives it in Cod. Dipl. 1287 (vi. 124) and in an appendix to vol. i. of his history. Also he speaks of it in Cod. Dipl. i. xxxv., and there says that it is ‘a laboured justification’ by Bp Oswald of his proceedings. To my mind it is nothing of the kind. Oswald is proud of what he has done and wishes that a memorial of his acts may be carefully preserved for the benefit of the church. Of course, if regarded from our modern point of view, the form of the document is curious. The bishop seems engaged in an attempt to bind his lessees by his own unilateral account of the terms to which they have agreed. But his object is to have of the contract a record which has been laid before the king and the witan and which, if we are to use modern terms, will have all the force of an act of parliament, to say nothing of the anathema.