BOOK СНАР. VII. Their Denominations of Land. N the charters we find various names for the quantities of land conveyed. These are, hidæ, cassati, mansæ, manentes, aratrum, sulunga. The cassati, mansæ, the manentes, the aratrum, and the sulunga, appear to have expressed the same meaning which the word hide signified. That the cassati and the mansæ were the same, appears from several grants; thus, ten mansas are in another part of the same grants called ten cassatos;' and thirty mansas, thirty cassatos. So ten cassatos, when mentioned again, are styled ten mansos or mansas.3 4 In other grants, hides are stated as synonymous with cassatos. Thus, ten cassatos are, in the same grant, called ten hides, and twenty cassatos twenty hides.' In other grants, the land, which, in the first part of the document, is enumerated as hides, is afterwards termed cassatos. Thus, fifty hides, fifty cassatos; seven hides, seven cassatos;' five hides, five cassatos. 66 The grants also identify the expressions mansæ and mansi with hide. A charter of 947 conveys twenty mansæ, quod "anglice dicitur twenty hides." In another, seven hides are also called seven mansæ. One mansa is one hide," and five mansæ five hides." 10 In one grant, the expressions fourteen mansiunculæ, and forty jugeribus, are identified with fourteen hides and forty CHAP. All these authorities prove, that the hide, the cassatus, and the mansa, were similar designations of land. In one ancient MS. there is a note in the margin, in the same hand-writing with the body, thus, "No. qd. hide cassati et manse idem Other grants identify the sulunga with the preceding. Thus, one conveys sex mansas quod Cantigenæ dicunt six sulunga." Another mentions the land of three aratrorum as three sulong." Another says twelve mansas "quod Cantigenæ dicunt twelf "sulunga." 17 Two cassati are also called two sulunga.18 acres. The hide seems to have contained one hundred and twenty In one historical narration of ancient grants, an hide is so defined: "unam hydam per sexies viginti acras;""9 two hides are afterwards mentioned as twelve times twenty arable In Domesday-book we find hides and carucatæ mentioned." Carucata implies so much land as a single plough could work during a year." This ancient survey also contains acres, leucæ, and quarantenæ, among its terms for expressing the quantities of land. The following measures of land occur in the Anglo-Saxon laws: 3 mila, 3 furlong, 3 æcera bræde, 9 fota, 9 scefta munda, 9 bere corna," express the extent to which the king's peace was to reach. VII. THE HISTORY OF THE ANGLO-SA X ON S. воок X. The Government of the Anglo-Saxons. CHAP. I. The King's Election and Coronation. I. IN treating of the Anglo-Saxon Government, it will be CHAP. proper to begin with the cyning, or king, who, though he did not concentrate in himself the despotism of an eastern monarch, was yet elevated far above the rest of the nation in dignity, property, and power. The witena-gemot may then be considered, and afterwards the official dignities respected by the nation. Our subject will be closed by a review of the contributions levied from the people. The first cynings of the Anglo-Saxons seem to have been their war-kings, continued for life; and the crown was not hereditary, but elective. Many authors, both in the AngloSaxon times and afterwards, when speaking of their accessions, express. them in terms which signify election. Thus, BOOK the contemporary author of Dunstan's life says of Edwin, "after him arosc Eadwig, son of king Edmund, in age a X. 66 youth, and with little of the prudence of reigning; elected, "he filled up the number and names of the kings over both people." It proceeds afterwards to mention, that, abandoning Eadwig, they chose (eligere) Eadgar to be king.' 66 It was the witena-gemot who elected the cyning. The council, in 785, directs, that "lawful kings be chosen by "the priests and elders of the people." The author of the life of Dunstan says, "when at the time appointed he was "by all the chiefs of the English, by general election, to be "anointed and consecrated king." Ethelred recites himself, in a charter, that all the optimates had unanimously chosen his brother Edward to rule the helm of the kingdom.* Alfred is stated to have been chosen by the ducibus et presulibus of all the nation.' Edward and Athelstan are also described as a primatis clectus." Sometimes the election is mentioned as if other persons besides the witan were concerned in it. Thus, the Saxon Chronicle says, that after Ethelred's death all the witan who were in London, and the citizens, chose Edmund to cinge.' It says afterwards, that when Canute died there was a gemot of all the witan at Oxford; and earl Leofric, and most of the thegns north of the Thames, and the lithsmen at London chose Harold. The earl Godwin, and all the yldestan men in West Saxony, opposed it as long as they could." But, from the comparison of all the passages on this subject, the result seems to be, that the king was elected at the witenagemot held on the demise of the preceding sovereign. That the accession of the Anglo-Saxon sovereigns was not governed by the rules of hereditary succession, is manifest from their history. The dynasties of Wessex were more steady MS. Cleop. B. 13. p. 76. 78. 2 Spelm. Concil. p. 296. 3 MS. Cleop. p.76. MS. Claud. C. 9. p. 123. 5 Simeon. Dunel. 126, 127. 8 lbid. 154. |