"The statutes of England cannot thus arise, since they are not from the will of the prince, but by the assent of the whole kingdom." "They are not made by the prudence of one man; or of an hundred counsellors; but of more than three hundred chosen men; as those who know the form of the parliament of England, and the order and manner of its convocation." "Nor can the King, by himself, or his ministers, impose talliages or subsidies, or any other burthens on his liege people; or change their laws, or establish new ones, without the concessions and assent of all his kingdom, expressed in parliament.” It is in the same spirit, and obviously implying the same principles which these lawyers of Henry the Third, Edward the First, and Henry the Sixth, have expressed more at large, that the still more ancient Glanville, under Henry the Second, in his very short treatise, takes also occasion to say, "It will not seem absurd that those English laws should be called LAWS, although not written, which have been promulgated on doubtful things, and in council determined by the advice of the proceres, and acceding authority of the prince." From this passage we perceive that these unwritten laws were not mere customs, as the common law of England has been sometimes erroneously called, but the actual enactments of the national council of England; and as these principles, from which the ancient interpreters of the law deduced their statements of the royal and parliamentary power in England, are not likely to have originated after the Norman conquest, we may consider them as describing to us some important features of the Anglo-Saxon cyning, and of the Anglo-Saxon witena-gemots. We will now proceed to collect more distinctly some of the chief traits of the dignity and prerogatives of the cyning, which the Anglo-Saxon remains have preserved for our curiosity. The authorities already adduced on the nature of the government of the Saxons on the continent, lead us to infer, that when Hengist, Ella, Cerdic, and Ida invaded Britain, they and the other chiefs who succeeded in establishing themselves in the island, came with the rank of war-kings, whose power was to continue while hostilities existed. But to rule a territory extorted by violence from angry natives, who were perpetually struggling to regain it, could scarcely admit of any deposition of the kingly office. The same power and dignity which were requisite to obtain victory were equally wanted, while the hostility lasted, to preserve its conquests. It is, therefore, probable that the first Anglo-Saxon chieftains and their successors were, from necessity and utility, continued on the throne till the kingly dignity became an established, a legal, and a venerated institution. a Fortescue, p. 40. • Ibid. P Ibid. p. 84. a Glanville Prologus. The circumstance, that these war-kings and their associates invaded and conquered the dominions of petty British kings, was also favourable to the establishment of continued royalty. When the British king fell, or retreated before the Saxon war-king, all his advantages became the spoil of his conquerors. The Saxon chief naturally succeeded to the British, the Saxon nobles to the British nobles, and the other invading warriors to the possessions of the free part of the native community. It is certain, that in the earliest periods of the Anglo-Saxon history, we find the cyning, or king, and all the four orders of noble, free, freed, and servile. Their conversion to Christianity introduced another class, of monks and clergy. The power and prerogatives of the Anglo-Saxon cyning were progressively acquired. As the nation had no written constitution, their government was that of ancient custom, gradually altered from its original features by the new circumstances which occurred. In the course of time, the augmentation of the power of the cyning became indispensable to the happiness of the nation. What could arrange the contentions of right, property, and power, between equal nobles, or between them and the free, and afterwards between them and the church; what could protect the infant state from British hostility, ever jealous, ever bickering, and ever to be mistrusted, but such an institution as continued royalty as a cyning, raised in dignity and power above all the other chieftains; who could see the laws of the society executed, and their various rights adjusted; to whom every rank could effectually appeal, and who was the protector of every order of the state from violence and wrong? We have seen that the land swarmed with independent land proprietors of various denominations, whose privileges were not uniform; but whose jurisdictions were generally peculiar and independent. What but a king could, in their age, and with their customs, have rescued the nation from a New Zealand state of general warfare? The institution of the cyning was, therefore, an admirable device, adapted to promote the common interest. It maintained peace between the turbulent chieftains. It insured to every order the enjoyment of its immunities. It was the source whence legal justice was administered to all; and perhaps no single incident tended more to accelerate the Anglo-Saxon civilization, than the character and prerogatives of the cyning, moderated by the continuance of the witena-gemots, and the free spirit of the people. It is extremely difficult to describe accurately his privileges and his power. It is remarked by Tacitus, as peculiar to the German nations, that the power of their kings was neither unlimited nor free; and that the chieftains governed rather by influence than Nec regibus infinita; nec libera potestas. Mor. Germ, s. 7. command. They could neither punish, fetter, nor lash: priests only had these powers, and these severities were submitted to from them as the inflictions of their gods. The ancient Saxons having no king but in war time, his power could be but temporary; and when it became more permanent, must have been much restricted. As the supreme chief of many other chieftains, whose rights were as sacred as his dignity may have been popular, his authority must have been circumscribed by others. Much of his power at first depended on his personal character and talents. Thus Eadbald had less authority in Kent than his father; while Edwin, in Northumbria, attained to such power, that he had the banner carried before him, not only in battle, but also in his excursions with his ministers through his kingdom, which seems to have been an assumption of dignity and state unknown before." So Oswin was so beloved for his amiable conduct, that the noblest men of his provinces came from every part to attend and serve him." The growth of the kingly prerogatives was favoured not only by the energy and talents of the prosperous sovereigns, but also by the natural tendency of such a power to accumulate. The crown was a permanent establishment, which it was the interest of every one but the superior nobles to maintain and to aggrandize, till its power became formidable enough to be felt in its oppressions. Its domains were increasing by every successful war, and its revenue, privileges, and munificence, were perpetually adding to its wealth and influence. When the zeal of the popes had completed the conversion of the island, and a hierarchy was established, the kingly power received great support and augmentation from the religious veneration with which the clergy surrounded it. That the church, in its weakness, should support the crown, which was its best protector, was a circumstance as natural as that it should afterwards oppose it, when its aggressions became feared. The laws of Ethelbert, the first Christian king of Kent, who was converted about 600, are the most ancient specimens of the Anglo-Saxon legislation which remain to us. In these the cyning appears already distinguished by a superior rank and privileges. While the mundbyrd of a ceorl was valued at six scillinga, the king's was appointed at fifty. The mulct on homicide in an eorle's residence was twelve scillinga; in a king's fifty. A double penalty was inflicted for injuries done where the cyning was drinking. An offence with his female was punished by a fine of fifty scillinga; while the eorle's occasioned only twelve, and a ceorl's but six. So, though a freeman's theft from a freeman in Mor. Germ. s. 7. u Ibid. c. 16. w Wilk. Leg. Sax. p. 1-7. t Bede, lib. ii. c. 6. ▾ Ibid. c. 14. curred a treble satisfaction, his purloining the king's property was to be nine times compensated. Another impressive and profitable token of superiority was, that some of the mulcts on offences were paid to him. Thus, if any harm was done to the leode, or people, when the king called them together, the compensation was to be double, and fifty scillinga were to be paid to the king. If any one killed a freeman, the king had a similar sum as his lord. If a freeman stole from others of the same condition, the penalty was to be the king's. If a pregnant woman was forced away, the king had fifteen scillinga. In the laws of Ina, we see cyning mentioned in a style of authority very much resembling that of subsequent sovereigns. He says, "I, Ina, by the grace of God, king of the West Saxons." He uses the phrase "my bishops." He calls the nobles "my ealdormen," and "the oldest sages of my people." He adds, "I was consulting on the health of our soul and the establishment of our kingdom, that right laws, and right cyne domas (kingly judgments), through our people, might be settled and confirmed, and that no ealdorman, and none of our subjects should violate our laws." The laws then are introduced with "We command.” One of the provisions in these laws shows the king in the same authoritative and dignified features. "If any one fight in the king's house, he shall forfeit all his property, and it shall remain for the king's decision whether he shall have his life or not."y The difference between this offence and quarrels elsewhere was very great; for a battle in the church, and in an ealdorman's house, was punished by a fine of 120 scillinga only. The epithets given by the pope to the first Christian king of the Anglo-Saxons were, "the glorious," and "the most glorious." In several of their letters, the phrase "your glory" is used as synonymous with our expression of "your majesty." The same epithet of "most glorious" is applied by Aldhelm to the king of Cornwall, and, by an abbot, to the Frankish king. But this epithet was rather the complimentary language of the day, than a phrase appropriated to royalty; for Alphuald, king of East Anglia, writing to Boniface, styles the mitred missionary, "Domino gloriosissimo." A pope, in 634, addresses the king of Northumbria as "your excellency." Boniface, to the king of Mercia, says, "We intreat the clemency of your highness." On another occasion, his superscription is more rhetorical: "To Ethelbald, king, my dearest lord, and in the love of Christ to be preferred to other kings, governing the illustrious sceptre of the empire of the Angles.' Another address of the same sort in * Wilk. Leg. Sax. p. 14. * Bonif. Letters, 16 Mag. Bib. 65, 85. ▾ Ibid. p. 16. Saxon occurs in a monk's dedication of a saint's life: "To my most loved lord above the earthly kings of all other men, Alfwold, king of the East Angles, ruling his kingdom with right and with dignity." The titles which the ancient Saxon kings assumed in their charters may be briefly noticed:-"I, Æthelbald, by the divine dispensation, king of the Mercians." The powerful Offa simply writes, "Offa, king of the Mercians." Another: "Kenulph, by God's mercy, king of the Mercians." Witlaf's, Burtulph's, and Beorred's, are as unassuming. In the same spirit, Ethelwulph calls himself merely Rex West Saxonum. The style in which Edgar chose to be mentioned is usually very pompous and rhetorical. Alfred's exordium to his laws is as dignified as Ina's: "I, Alfred, cyning, gathered together and have commanded to be written many of those things that our forefathers held which pleased me; and, many of those things that liked me not I have thrown aside, with the advice of my witan, and other things have commanded to be holden." The subsequent kings, in the same manner, promulged the laws in their own name, with the advice of their witan. The prerogatives and influence in society of the cyning were great. He was to be prayed for, and voluntarily honoured; his word was to be taken without an oath; he had the high prerogative of pardoning in certain cases; his mundbyrd and his were were larger than those of any other class in society; his safety was protected by high penalties for offences committed in his presence or habitation, or against his family; he had the lordship of the free; he had the option to sell over sea, to kill, or to take the were of a freeman thief; also to sell a theow over sea, or take a penalty; he could mitigate penalties; and could remit them; he had a sele, or tribunal, before whom thieves were brought he had a tribunal in London; his tribunal was the last court of appeal; he was the executive superintendant of the general laws, and usually received the fines attached to crimes.P The Jews were his property; the high executive officers, the ealdormen, the gerefas, the thegns, and others, were liable to be displaced by him. He convoked the councils of the witan, and summoned the people to the army, which he commanded. .m In the Saxon book of constitutions, he is thus spoken of: "The king should be in the place of a father to his people; and, in vigi b MS. Vita S. Guthlaci. a lbid. p. 10. * Ibid. 71, 72. j Ibid. 12. Wilk. Leg. Sax. 8. P Heming. Chart. 1, p. 265. • Ibid. 109. Cott. Lib. • Ibid. p. 11. h Ibid. 22. * Ibid. 77. n Ibid. p. 10. a Wilk. Leg, Sax. 203. c Wilk. Leg. Sax. p. 34. f Ibid. p. 20, 65. i Ibid. 2. 1 Spelm. Conc. p. 485. • Domesday, in loc. Ibid. 109, 122. |