A certain amount of interest cannot fail to attach to Tofig as Harold’s forerunner in the foundation of Waltham. Of the Waltham history, “De Inventione Sanctæ Crucis,” I shall speak more at large when I come to Harold’s time (see vol. ii. Appendix RR). All that is known of Tofig is collected by Professor Stubbs in his edition of that tract. Nothing but local partiality could describe him as “Tovi le Prude, qui totius Angliæ post regem primus, stallere, vexillifer regis, monarchiam gubernabat.” (c. 7; cf. c. 14.) Professor Stubbs does not seem quite clear as to his being Staller, but he certainly was an important person. He appears in Florence as “Danicus et præpotens vir Tovius, Pruda cognomento.” He signs many charters of Cnut, one of them in 1033 (Cod. Dipl. iv. 44) distinctly as “Tovi Pruda.” He appears also with the same surname in Cod. Dipl. iv. 54, where he is sent by Cnut on a special mission into Herefordshire to attend a Scirgemót held by Bishop Æthelstan and Earl Ranig (see p. 520), the account of which, though not illustrating the life or character of Tofig, gives us one of the most living pictures of Old-English jurisprudence. Tofig’s surname was needed to distinguish him from two namesakes, “Tovi hwita” and “Tovi reada,” who sign in 1024. Cod. Dipl. iv. 31. “Tofig minister,” who signs under Eadward in 1054 (Cod. Dipl. iv. 135), and who was Sheriff of Somerset between 1061 and 1066 (see Cod. Dipl. iv. 171, 197, 199), must, if the Waltham narrative be at all accurate, be a different man.
In the name of Tofig’s son Æthelstan, as in that of Ranig’s son Eadwine (see p. 520), we see an instance of the tendency among the Danish settlers under Cnut to identify themselves with England and to give their children English names.
Tofig must have died soon after his marriage with Gytha (see De Inv. 14; “Tandem consummatus in brevi expleverat tempora multa, cui successit filius ejus Adelstanus”). There is, as Professor Stubbs (pp. 1, 13) remarks, some difficulty in reconciling the chronology of the Waltham writer with regard to the Invention of the Cross with the undoubted date of Tofig’s marriage. The Waltham writer places the Invention in the time of Cnut (“regnante Cnuto et Anglis imperante”), that is to say seven years at the least before the time of the marriage, whereas Gytha is represented in c. 13 as already Tofig’s wife and as a benefactress to the church. As Harthacnut died at the wedding, we cannot even suppose, what would otherwise be just possible, that by “Cnutus” we are to understand Harthacnut. The easiest explanation seems to be that gifts made by Gytha in her widowhood have been wrongly transferred to an earlier date. I have elsewhere (see vol. ii. Appendix MM) thrown out a hint that this Gytha may possibly be the same as Gytha the wife of Earl Ralph of Hereford.
The legend to which I have referred in the text has found a place in the text of Thierry (i. 179) and also in that of Mr. St. John (Four Conquests, ii. 127). According to Bromton (934) and Knighton (2326), the English, wearied with the oppressions of the Danes under Harthacnut (see above, p. 758), rose against them after his death, and drove them out by force. Knighton calls the leader of the revolt Howne, and his forces Howneher [Hunanhere]. Thierry makes Godwine the leader instead of Howne. M. de Bonnechose (Quatre Conquêtes, ii. 70–2), though seeing the general absurdity of the story, admits it so far as to accept an expulsion of the housecarls. Saxo (202, 203) has a more wonderful tale than all. He has nothing to say about Howne or about Godwine. Harold, the son of Godwine, is the deliverer (“Danicæ oppressionis simulque domesticæ libertatis auctor”). He causes the Danish forces throughout England to be invited to banquets in different places, so that they are all slain in one night. Of all this there is not a word in any trustworthy writer; the only passage which looks at all like it is a rhetorical expression in the Life of Eadward (“reducto diu afflictis Anglis barbarica servitute redemptionis suæ jubilæo”, p. 394), which however most likely refers only to the extinction of the foreign dynasty and the accession of a native King. Any one who has had any experience of the growth of mythical and romantic tales will soon see what is the origin of this legend. It is plainly nothing in the world but the massacre of Saint Brice moved still further out of its place than it had already been moved by Roger of Wendover (see above, p. 652), and further mixed up with the legend of the death of Ælfred, with which it is connected by both Bromton and Knighton. Knighton’s “Howne” is clearly Roger’s “Huna” over again. Everything in our authentic narrative makes us believe that the election of Eadward was perfectly peaceful. A general driving out or massacre of Danes is simply ridiculous; even an expulsion of the housecarls is supported by no kind of evidence. The housecarls of Harthacnut no doubt became the housecarls of Eadward, and the saintly King, if Godwine had not been at hand to restrain him, was as ready to send them against Dover as his half-brother had been to send them against Worcester.
A more marvellous version than all is to be found in the French Life of Eadward, 532–581 (Luard, pp. 40, 41). Here the Danes, after committing the usual atrocities, rebel against Harthacnut, who raises an English army against them, and, after much fighting, overcomes them. Such wild shapes did our history take when it fell into the hands of strangers.
1. On this subject I must refer, once for all, to the papers of Dr. Guest in the Archæological Journal and in the volumes of Transactions of the Archæological Institute, especially to the paper on the Early English Settlements in South Britain in the Salisbury Volume. On these questions I have little to do except to profess myself, in all essential points, an unreserved follower of that illustrious scholar. On the difference between historical, traditional, mythical, and romantic narratives see Historical Essays, 1st Series, p. 3.
2. It is really hardly worth while to dispute about the names of Hengest and Horsa. The evidence for their historical character seems to me at least as strong as the suspicion of their mythical character. But whether the chiefs who led the first Jutish settlers in Kent bore these names or any others does not affect the reality of the Jutish settlement. I must confess however that there are names in the Chronicles which strike me as far more suspicious than those of Hengest and Horsa. I mean names like Port and Wihtgar, who figure in the entries for 501 and 544. See Earle’s Parallel Chronicles, p. ix.
3. For all that is to be said on this side of the question, see the eleventh Chapter of Palgrave’s English Commonwealth and the first chapter of Kemble’s Saxons in England. On the other side see Dr. Guest’s paper in the Salisbury Volume.
4. See Guest, Salisbury Volume, p. 35.
5. The account in Ammianus (xxxvii. 8) of the exploits of the elder Theodosius does not speak of the Saxons or of any other Teutons as invaders of Britain, but only as invaders of Gaul. But there seems quite evidence enough to show that, at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth centuries, Britain was constantly ravaged by Saxon pirates. This is shown by the well-known phrases of Limes Saxonicus and Littus Saxonicum, for the true explanation of which I must again refer to Dr. Guest. The Saxon shore or march, like the Welsh march in England, like the Spanish, Slavonic, and other marches of the later Empire, was, not a district occupied by Saxons, but the march—in this case a shore—lying near to the Saxons and exposed to their ravages. Ammianus himself, in the passage just referred to, speaks of “Nectaridus comes maritimi tractus” as killed by the Picts at this time. The phrase is analogous to that of “Scythici limitis dux,” etc. in Vopiscus, Aurelian, 13. Claudian also constantly couples the Saxons with the Picts and Scots as among the invaders of Roman Britain who were repulsed by Theodosius and Stilicho;
So Sidonius Apollinaris, Carm. vii. 370 (cf. Epp. viii. 6);
Were our keels coracles, or was the British fashion transferred to the Saxon?
6. Yet even this view seems to be pretty well disposed of by Dr. Guest in his Salisbury paper.
7. I use the word “Saxon” throughout only in its correct sense, to express one only among several Teutonic tribes which settled in Britain. The name “Saxon” was never used by the people themselves to express the whole nation, which was called, sometimes “Anglo-Saxon,” but, far more commonly, simply “Angle” or “English.” I shall discuss this point more at length in the Appendix, Note A.
8. I use, as a technical term, this correct and old-fashioned description of the class of languages to which our own belongs. The English language is simply Low-Dutch, with a very small Welsh, and a very large Romance, infusion into its vocabulary. The Low-Dutch of the continent, so closely cognate with our own tongue, is the natural speech of the whole region from Flanders to Holstein, and it has been carried by conquest over a large region, originally Slavonic, to the further east. But, hemmed in by Romance, High-Dutch, and Danish, it is giving way at all points, and it is only in Holland that it survives as a literary language. It should always be borne in mind that our affinity in blood and language is in the first degree with the Low-Dutch, in the second degree with the Danish. With the High-Dutch, the German of modern literature, we have no direct connexion at all.
9. The proper Scots, as no one denies, were a Gaelic colony from Ireland, the original Scotia. The only question is as to the Picts or Caledonians. Were they another Gaelic tribe, the vestige of a Gaelic occupation of the island earlier than the British occupation, or were they simply Britons who had never been brought under the Roman dominion? The geographical aspect of the case favours the former belief, but the weight of philological evidence seems to be on the side of the latter. But the question is one which, as far as purely English history is concerned, may safely be left undetermined.
10. It seems certain that the English seldom occupied a Roman or British town at once. The towns were commonly forsaken for a while, though they were in many cases resettled by an English population. The only question is whether any of the towns preserved a sort of half independence after the conquest of the surrounding country. See Comparative Politics, 130, 422.
11. In Northern Gaul the name of the tribe is commonly preserved in the modern name of its chief town, the original name of the town itself being dropped. Thus Lutetia Parisiorum has become Paris. But in Aquitaine and Provence the cities commonly retain their original names, as Burdigala and Tolosa, now Bourdeaux and Toulouse.
12. Words like street and chester; this class is excessively small. See Max Müller, Science of Language, Second Series, p. 269.
13. Words like Mass, Priest, Bishop, Angel, Candle.
14. See Comparative Politics, 420.
15. I mean the extirpation of anything worthy to be called a nation, of any people who had reached the position which all the inhabitants of the Roman Empire had reached. The dying out of savage tribes before the arts and arms of highly civilized Europeans is another matter.
16. Yet the legend of Hengest’s daughter, as told by Nennius—her name Rowena is a later absurdity—absolutely worthless as a piece of personal history, seems to point to the fact that the invaders not uncommonly brought their women with them.
17. Prokopios, Bell. Goth. iv. 20. Βριττίαν δὲ τὴν νῆσον ἔθνη τρία πολυανθρωπότατα ἔχουσι, βασιλεύς τε εἷς αὐτῶν ἑκάστῳ ἐφέστηκεν· ὀνόματα δὲ κεῖται τοῖς ἔθνεσι τούτοις Ἄγγιλοί τε καὶ Φρίσσονες καὶ τῇ νήσῳ ὁμώνυμοι Βρίττωνες. Prokopios’ account of Britain is mixed up with a great deal of fable, but here at least is something clear and explicit.
18. See the Chronicles under the years 443 and 449, and compare 473, where Hengest and his Jutes are again called “Engle.”
19. It is necessary to make this limitation, because the Danish Kings, as well as Harold the son of Godwine and William the Conqueror, were none of them of the West-Saxon house. But all our earlier Kings were descended from Cerdic in the male line and all our later Kings in the female line.
20. I have given the boundaries somewhat roughly, as they do not always exactly answer to those of the present counties. For details I must refer to Dr. Guest’s paper already quoted, and to his two later papers in the Archæological Journal, vol. xvi. p. 105, and vol. xix. p. 193.
21. Yet some of the passages collected by Sir Francis Palgrave (English Commonwealth, i. 462) would seem to show that parties of independent Welshmen held out in the fen country till a very late date.
22. On the quasi-insular character of East-Anglia, see Dr. Stanley’s paper in the Norwich volume of the Proceedings of the Archæological Institute, p. 58.
23. The Chronicles, under the year 547, record the accession of Ida, and speak of him as the ancestor of the following line of Northumbrian Kings. But we are not told, as in the cases of Hengest, Ælle, and Cerdic, anything about his landing, and the phrase “Ida feng to rice” (cf. 519) implies that this was not the beginning of the settlement. I therefore cannot help suspecting that there is some truth in the legend preserved by Nennius (38), according to which settlers of the kindred of Hengest occupied Northumberland in the preceding century. William of Malmesbury (i. 7) follows the same account, with additional details, but he distinctly adds that no English chief in those parts took the title of King before Ida. See Comparative Politics, 419.
24. The date of Offa is given by Henry of Huntingdon (Mon. Hist. Brit. 714 A). But he had before (M. H. B. 712 A) said, speaking of the days of Cerdic, “Eâ tempestate venerunt multi et sæpe de Germaniâ, et occupaverunt East-Angle et Merce: sed necdum sub uno rege redacta erant. Plures autem proceres certatim regiones occupabant.” This marks the transition from Ealdormanship to Kingship, of which I shall speak in my next Chapter.
25. Crida or Creoda is mentioned in the Chronicles (593), but he is not said to have been the first King of the Mercians. That he was so is a conjecture of Henry of Huntingdon, M. H. B. 714 C.
26. Chronicles, 626. Cf. 654.
27. On the list of Bretwaldas and its historic value, see Appendix B.
28. Bæda, Hist. Eccl. i. 25, 26.
29. See Appendix C.
30. Prokop. Bell. Goth. iv. 20. οὐ πολλῷ πρότερον ὁ Φράγγων βασιλεὺς ἐπὶ πρεσβείᾳ τῶν οἱ ἐπιτηδείων τινὰς παρὰ βασιλέα Ἰουστινιανὸν ἐς Βυζάντιον στείλας ἄνδρας αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῶν Ἀγγίλων ξυνέπεμψε, φιλοτιμούμενος ὡς καὶ ἡ νῆσος ἥδε πρὸς αὐτοῦ ἄρχεται.
31. The Goths in the fourth century were the first Teutonic nation to embrace Christianity, but they were still a wandering tribe, while the conversion of England was a distinct territorial conquest. Armenia again, at the other end of the Roman world, was a territorial conquest more ancient than that of England; but Armenia lay far more open to Imperial influences than England did.
33. See the Laws of Ine, 23, 24, 32, 33, 46, 54, 74. (Thorpe, Laws and Institutes, i. 119–149; Schmid, pp. 30–55.) In the time of Ælfred the distinction, at least within the strictly English territory, seems to have died out.
34. Bæda, i. 34; Chron. 603, 605. The latter year is the date of his victory over the Welsh near Chester and the famous massacre of the monks of Bangor.
35. Bæda, ii. 5. See Appendix B.
37. Chron. 628. “Her Cynegils and Cwichelm gefuhtan wið Pendan æt Cirenceastre and geþingodon þa.” This I take to mean a cession of territory, most probably of the north-western conquests of Ceawlin. Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire must have been kept longer, as appears from the position of Dorchester as originally a West-Saxon bishopric.
38. See Appendix B.
39. See Appendix D.
40. See Appendix D.
41. For the chronology between the years 752–849 I follow the Northumbrian reckoning preserved by Simon of Durham. See Stubbs, Roger of Hoveden, i. pp. xci, et seqq.
42. Ecgberht’s titles commonly run, “Rex,” “Regali fretus dignitate,” “Occidentalium Saxonum rex,” once, in 820, “Rex Occidentalium Saxonum necnon et Cantuariorum” (Kemble, Cod. Dipl. i. 289), but in one charter of 828 (Cod. Dipl. i. 287) he appears as “Ecgberhtus gratiâ Dei Rex Anglorum.” In that year he had granted out Mercia to an Under-king and had reduced all the Welsh to submission.
43. One can hardly describe these relations between the different states without using such words as “homage,” “apanage,” and the like, though of course the words were unknown in England at the time.
44. A local invasion of the Hwiccas was repelled at Kempsford by the Wilsætas. The Hwiccas are the people of the old diocese of Worcester. They were therefore doubtless mainly of Saxon blood, yet they now act as Mercian subjects. The war however seems to have been quite local, carried on by the Ealdormen of the two shires.
45. I infer this from the description of the battle of Gafulford in 825, which is said to have been fought between the Welsh and the men of Devonshire, who must therefore have been English, or at least acting in the English interest. Yet Devonshire, and even the city of Exeter, remained partly Welsh as late as the time of Æthelstan.
46. Norð-Wealas in the Chronicles means the inhabitants of Wales in the modern sense, both North and South; they are opposed to the West-Wealas, the Welsh of Cornwall.
48. On the conquest of Northumberland, see Appendix KK.
49. It is hardly worth while to reckon the puppet Ceolwulf, not of the royal house, set up for a moment by the Danes after the expulsion of Burhred.
50. The exact boundary started from the Thames, along the Lea to its source, then right to Bedford and along the Ouse till it meets Watling-Street, then along Watling-Street to the Welsh border. See Ælfred and Guthrum’s Peace, Thorpe’s Laws and Institutes, i. 152. This frontier gives London to the English; but it seems that Ælfred did not obtain full possession of London till 886. See Earle’s Parallel Chronicles, p. 310.
51. See Appendix E.
52. The story which represents Ælfred as forsaken by his subjects on account of cruelties in the early part of his reign, and as being thus led to reformation, is part of the legend of Saint Neot, not of the history of Ælfred.
53. No one can blame Ælfred for hanging (see Chron. 897) the crews of some piratical Danish ships, who had broken their oaths to him over and over again. His general conduct towards his enemies displays a singular mildness.
54. “I then, Ælfred King, these [laws] together gathered, and had many of them written which our foregangers held, those that me-liked. And many of them that me not liked I threw aside, with my Wise Men’s thought, and on otherwise bade to hold them. Forwhy I durst not risk of my own much in writ to set, forwhy it to me unknown was what of them would like those that after us were. But that which I met, either in Ine’s days my kinsman, or in Offa’s the King of the Mercians, or in Æthelberht’s that erst of English kin baptism underwent, those that to me rightest seemed, those have I herein gathered and the others passed by. I then Ælfred, King of the West-Saxons, to all my Wise Men these showed, and they then quoth that to them it seemed good all to hold.” Ælfred’s Dooms, Thorpe’s Laws and Institutes, i. 58–59; Schmid, p. 69
55. Guthrum of East-Anglia was a nominal vassal all along. But the Northumbrians, whether Danes or English, seem not to have made submission till 893, in the prospect of the last Danish invasion of this reign. Their King Guthred had just died. See the two statements in Simeon of Durham, X Scriptt. pp. 133 (M. H. B. 685), 151, and Palgrave, ii. cccxv. Cf. Chron. and Fl. Wig. 894.
56. Ælfred was thus King of nearly all the Saxon part of England, of very little of the Anglian part. Hence doubtless the title of “Rex Saxonum” which he often uses. He was more than King of the West-Saxons; he was less than King of the English.
57. See Appendix F.
58. Between Eadwig and Eadgar in 957, between Eadmund and Cnut in 1016, between Harold and Harthacnut in 1035. All these arrangements were short-lived, and they were probably not meant to be more than temporary compromises.
59. Florence of Worcester (901) after a splendid panegyric on Ælfred, continues, “Huic filius successit Eadwardus, cognomento Senior, litterarum cultu patre inferior, sed dignitate, potentia, pariter et gloria superior; nam, ut in sequentibus clarebit, multo latius quam pater fines regni sui dilatavit,” &c. &c.
60. Ælfred was, according to custom, chosen in preference to the sons of his elder brother Æthelred, who were minors at the time of their father’s death. On Ælfred’s death one of these sons, Æthelwald, tried to obtain the crown, but the Witenagemót elected Eadward the son of Ælfred.
61. See Chron. 924, and Appendix G.
62. Ealdred the son of Ealdwulf, Lord of Bamburgh. His father had been among the chiefs who did homage to Eadward in 924. On this family, see Appendix KK.
63. See Earle, p. xix. It is much to be lamented that the prose entries in the Chronicles for this important reign are so meagre. On the other hand, William of Malmesbury evidently worked out the life of Æthelstan with unusual care, seemingly from lost sources, and, amidst a great deal of fable, we recover some truth.
64. I shall have to speak again of the foreign policy of Æthelstan in my Chapter on the Early History of Normandy.
65. Florence has some special epithet for each of the conquering Kings of this period—Eadward is “invictissimus,” Æthelstan “strenuus et gloriosus,” Eadmund “magnificus,” Eadred “egregius,” Eadgar “pacificus.”
66. The Imperial character of the English royalty at this time will be spoken of more largely in the next Chapter. See also Appendix B.
67. Leicester (Chron. 918), Stamford (922), and Nottingham (924) were all in possession of Eadward, who built fortresses at the latter two. Perhaps they had joined in the revolt of the Northumbrians in 941; but the words of the Chronicles may lead us to think that Eadward accepted the submission of the Confederation and built forts to keep the towns from rebellion, without interfering with their internal administration. A Danish civic aristocracy may therefore have gone on down to the deliverance by Eadmund, holding the former English inhabitants in more or less of subjection.
68. See Appendix H.
69. On the whole reign of Eadwig, see Mr. Allen’s Essay attached to his work on the Royal Prerogative.
70. The entries in the Chronicles just at this time are singularly meagre.
71. See Brut y Tywysogion, a. 965. With this seems to be connected the famous story of the tribute of wolves in William of Malmesbury, ii. 155.
An Irish campaign and victory of Eadgar (see the spurious charter of 964, Cod. Dipl. ii. 404) seem very doubtful.
72. Chron. 966.
73. With regard to Thanet, the Chronicles witness to the fact; Henry of Huntingdon (M. H. B. 748 A) guarantees its justice; it was done “quia jura regalia spreverant.” Roger of Wendover (i. 414) knows all about it, and says it was because the men of Thanet plundered certain merchants of York.
74. See the Pictish Chronicle, ap. Johnstone, Ant. Celt. Norm. 143.
75. The alleged cession of Lothian is surrounded with so many difficulties that I reserve the question for fuller discussion. See Appendix I.
76. This is Dr. Lingard’s probable conjecture. Hist. of England, i. 262.
78. The best of all authorities, the Chronicles (973), bear witness to the meeting of Eadgar with six kings at Chester, where they renewed their homage to him. Florence, the authority next in value, raises the number to eight; he also gives their names (Kenneth of Scotland, Malcolm of Cumberland, Maccus of the Isles, and five Welsh princes) and describes the ceremony on the Dee.
79. In the ballad in the Chronicles (958) the only fault found with Eadgar is his fondness for foreigners, who are said to have corrupted the morals of the English in divers ways.
80. The scandalous stories told of Eadgar’s private life are, with one exception, that of the abduction of the nun Wulfthryth, mere romances, without a shadow of authority.
81. As long as Man retained its separate Kings or even its separate Lords, it was strictly in the same position in which it was in the days of Eadgar. Even now, as retaining its own Legislature and not being represented in the Imperial Parliament, it is a dependency of the British Crown, like the Channel Islands, not an integral part of the United Kingdom, like England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
82. I cannot, in this Chapter, lay claim to the same originality which I hope I may fairly claim in the narrative parts of this history. The early political and legal antiquities of England have been treated of by so many eminent writers that there is really little more to be done than to test their different views by the standards of inherent probability and of documentary evidence, and to decide which has the best claim to adoption. Among many other works two stand out conspicuously, Sir Francis Palgrave’s History of the English Commonwealth and Mr. Kemble’s Saxons in England. My readers will easily see that I have learned much from both, but that I cannot call myself an unreserved follower of either. Another most important work is Dr. Reinhold Schmid’s Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen (2nd ed. Leipzig, 1858). The most valuable part is the Antiquarian Glossary, the principal articles of which swell into essays on the most important subjects suggested by the Old-English Laws, supported by the most lavish array of references for every detail. On the whole I think I shall be commonly found maintaining the same constitutional views as Mr. Kemble, except on the point of the Imperial character of the Old-English monarchy, an aspect of it which Mr. Kemble has rather unaccountably slurred over. This point, one which closely connects itself with other studies of mine, is perhaps the one which I have thought out more thoroughly for myself than any other. Sir Francis Palgrave, with his characteristic union of research, daring, and ingenuity, was the first to call attention to the subject; but I must confess that many of his views on the matter seem to me not a little exaggerated.
[I let this note stand as it was first written about eleven years ago; since then the great Constitutional History of Professor Stubbs has gathered together all knowledge on these subjects in a wonderfully short compass. My special obligations to him are recorded in my Fifth Volume. I have also, since this Chapter was written, studied the great work of Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungs Geschichte, and other German constitutional writers, some for the first time, others more carefully than I had read them before. I am glad that I do not find more to change than I do. I have not thought it needful to recast the Chapter; but I have changed whatever seemed either inaccurate or misleading, and I have added some fresh illustrations and references, chiefly to Waitz and Sir Henry Maine.]
83. [This was first written in the year 1866.]
84. On the change from Ealdormen or Heretogan to Kings, see Appendix K.
86. On all these points see Appendix K.
88. See above, p. 54, and Appendix F. Gneist, Englische Verwaltungsrecht, i. 47; “Nach dem Aussterben oder der Verdrängung der mediatisirten Häuptlinge aber treten nahe Verwandte des regierenden Hauses (Athelingi) oder verschwägerte oder sonst nahestehende Grossthane in die Stelling solcher Unterkönige ein, bis die fortschreitende Reichseinheit diese Statthalter allmälig auf dem Fuss blosser Reichsbeamten bringt.” Cf. K. von Maurer, Kritische Überschau, i. 86.