CHARTER OF CANUTE.

THE following Charter affords a most important illustration of the policy of Canute with regard to his English subjects, and of the general spirit of his legislation after his rule was universally admitted. It probably belongs to the year 1020, in which the king returned from Denmark, as the earl Thureyl, to whom it is addressed, was outlawed the following year. The laws of Edgar had been chosen by the Danes and English at Oxford in 1018. The document is published for the first time.

Canute, the king, greets his archbishops and his suffragan bishops, and Thurcyl the earl, and all his earls and all his people, twelfhynde and twyhynde, clerk and lay, in England, friendly; and I do you to wit that I will be kind lord and unfailing to God's rights and to right secular law. I took to my remembrance the writing and the word that archbishop Lyfing brought me from Rome from the pope, that I should everywhere maintain the glory of God and put down wrong, and work full peace by the might that God would give me. Now I shrank not from my cost whilst hostility was in hand among you; now I with God's help took away at my cost that of which men told me that it threatened us with more harm than well pleased us; and then went I myself into Denmark, with the men that went with me, from whence most harm came to you; and that have I with God's help taken precautions for that never henceforth should enmity come to you from thence whilst ye men rightly hold, and my life lasteth. Now I thank God Almighty for his help and mercy, that I have so allayed the great harms that threatened us, that we need expect from thence no harm, but to full peace and to deliverance if need be. Now I will that we all reverently thank God Almighty for the mercy that he has done for our help. Now I beseech my archbishops and all my suffragan bishops that they all be attentive about God's right, every one in his district which is committed to him; and also my ealdormen I command that they help the bishops to God's right and to my royal authority and to the behoof of all the people. If any be so bold, clerk or lay, Dane or English, as to go against God's law and against my royal authority, or against secular law, and be unwilling to make amends, and to alter according to my bishops' teaching, then I pray Thurcyl my earl, and also command him, that he

bend that unrighteous one to right if he can; if he cannot, then will I with the strength of us both that he destroy him in the land or drive him out of the land, be he better, be he worse; and also I command all my reeves, by my friendship and by all that they own, and by their own life, that they everywhere hold my people rightly and judge right judgments by the shire bishops' witness, and do such mercy therein as the shire bishop thinks right, as a man may attain to; and if any harbour a thief, or neglect the pursuit, be he answerable to me as the thief should, unless he can clear himself towards me with full purgation. And I will that all people, clerk and lay, hold fast Edgar's law, which all men have chosen and sworn to at Oxford, for that all the bishops say that it right deeply offends God, that a man break oaths or pledges; and likewise they further teach us that we should with all might and main, alike seek, love, and worship the eternal merciful God, and eschew all unrighteousness; that is, slaying of kinsmen, and murder, and perjury, and witchcraft and enchantment, and adultery, and incest; and also we charge in the name of God Almighty, and of all his saints, that no man be so bold as to marry a hallowed nun or mynchen; and if any have done so, be he outlaw towards God, and excommunicated from all Christendom, and answerable to the king in all he has, unless he quickly alter and deeply make amends to God; and further still, we admonish that men keep Sunday's festival with all their might, and observe it from Saturday's noon to Monday's dawning; and no man be so bold that he either go to market or seek any court on that holy day; and all men, poor and rich, seek their church, and ask forgiveness for their sins, and keep earnestly every ordained fast, and earnestly honour the saints that the mass priests shall bid us, that we may altogether through the mercy of the everlasting God and the intercession of his saints come to the joy of the kingdom of heaven, and dwell with Him who liveth and reigneth for ever without end. Amen.

[York Gospel Book, MS.]

A. D. 1043-1066. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR (as recorded by the wise men of the shires under William, and edited by Glanvill in the next century, with the legal language adapted to the later period).

IX. De illis qui judicium faciunt aquae vel ferri calidi. Adsit ad judicium minister episcopi cum clericis suis, et Justitia regis

cum legalibus hominibus provinciae illius, ut videant et audiant quod omnia aeque fiant; et quos salvaverit Dominus per misericordiam Suam et justitia eorum, quieti sint et liberi abscedant; et quos iniquitas et injustitia sua condemnaverit, Justitia regist de ipsis fieri faciat justitiam. Barones autem qui curias suas habent de hominibus suis, videant ut ita agant de eis quatenus erga Deum reatum non incurrant, et regem non offendant. Et si placitum de hominibus aliorum baronum oritur in curiis suis, adsit ad placitum Justitia regis, quoniam absque eo fieri non debet. Et si barones sint qui judicia non habeant, in hundredo ubi placitum habitum fuerit, ad propinquiorem ecclesiam ubi judicium regis erit, determinandum est, salvis rectitudinibus baronum ipsorum.

XIII. Divisiones schirarum et hundredorum. Divisiones scirarum regis proprie cum judicio iiii. chiminorum regalium sunt. Divisiones hundredorum et wapentagiorum, comitibus et vicecomitibus, cum judicio comitatus.

XX. De Frithborgis. Alia pax maxima est, per quam omnes firmiori statu sustentantur: scilicet fidejussionis stabilitate, quam Angli vocant frithborgas, praeter Eboracenses qui vocant eam tenmanne tale, hoc est, numerum x. hominum. Et hoc est, quod de omnibus villis totius regni sub decennali fidejussione debeant omnes esse, ita quod si unus ex decem forisfecerit, novem eum haberent ad rectum. Quod si aufugeret, et dicerent quod non possent eum habere ad rectum, daretur eis ad minus a Justitia regis spatium xx. dierum et unius diei; et si possent eum invenire, adducerent eum ad Justitiam. Ipse quidem de suo restauret damnum quod fecerat, et de corpore suo fiat justitia, si ad hoc forisfecerit. Si autem infra supradictum terminum inveniri non poterit, quia in omni frithborge unus erat capitalis quem ipsi vocabant frithborge heved, ipse capitalis acciperet duos de melioribus in suo frithborge, et de tribus frithborgis propinquioribus vicinis suis accipiat de unoquoque capitalem; et similiter duos de melioribus, si poterit eos habere, et se duodecimo expurget se et frithborgum suum si facere poterit, de forisfacto et fuga supradicti malefactoris. Quod si facere non poterit, restauraret damnum quod ipse fecerat de proprio forisfactoris quantum duraverit, et de suo; et erga Justitiam emendent secundum quod legaliter judicatum fuerit eis. Et tamen sacramentum quod non potuerunt complere per vicinos, per se ipsos novem jurent se esse immunes. Et si aliquem potuerint recuperare, adducent eum ad Justitiam, si potuerint, aut dicent Justitiae ubi sit.

XXI. Descriptio libertatum diversarum. Archiepiscopi, episcopi, comites, barones et milites suos et proprios servientes suos, scilicet dapiferos, pincernas, camerarios, coquos, pistores, sub suo frithborgo habebant; et ipsi suos armigeros vel alios servientes suos sub suo frithborgo; quod si ipsi forisfacerent, et clamor vicinorum insurgeret de eis, ipsi haberent eos ad rectum in curia sua, si haberent sacham et socham, tol et theam, et infangenethef.

XXII. Quid sit Soche, et Sache, et Tol, et Theam, et Infangenthef. SOCHE est, quod si aliquis quaerit aliquid in terra sua, etiam furtum, sua est justitia si inventum fuerit an non. SACHA, quod si aliquis aliquem nominatim de aliquo calumniatus fuerit, et ipse negaverit, forisfactura probationis vel negationis, si evenerit, sua erit. ToL, quod nos vocamus theloneum, scilicet libertatem emendi et vendendi in terra sua. THEAM, quod si aliquis aliquid interciebatur super aliquem, et ipse non poterat warantum suum habere, erit forisfactura, et justitia similiter de calumniatore si deficiebat, sua erit. DE INFANGENETHEF:-Justitia cognoscentis latronis sua est de homine suo, si captus fuerit super terram suam. Et illi qui non habent consuetudines quas supradiximus, ante Justitiam regis faciant rectum etiam in hundredo, vel in wapentagiis, vel in schiris.

XXVIII. Quare Frithborgi constituti sunt. Cum autem viderunt quod aliqui stulti libenter forisfaciebant erga vicinos suos, sapientiores ceperunt consilium inter se, quomodo eos reprimerent, et sic imposuerunt justitiarios super quosque x. frithborgos, quos decanos possumus dicere, Anglice autem tyenthe-heved vocati sunt; hoc est caput x. Isti autem inter villas, inter vicinos tractabant causas, et secundum quod forisfacturae erant, emendationes et ordinationes faciebant, videlicet de pascuis, de pratis, de messibus, de certationibus inter vicinos, et de multis hujusmodi quae frequenter insurgunt.

XXIX. Cum autem majores causae insurgebant, referebant eas ad alios majores justitiarios quos sapientes supradicti super eos constituerant, scilicet, super x. decanos, quos possumus vocare centenarios quia super centum frithborgos judicabant.

PART III.

SELECT CHARTERS AND EXCERPTS; Norman Period.

A.D. 1066-1087. WILLIAM I.

Archbishops of Canterbury. Stigand, 1052-1070; Lanfranc, 10701089.

Justices. Odo of Bayeux and William Fitz-Osbern, 1067; William de Warenne and Richard Fitz-Gilbert, 1073; Lanfranc of Canterbury, Geoffrey Bishop of Coutances, and Robert Count of Mortain, 1078. Chancellors. Herfast, afterwards Bishop of Elmham, 1068; Osbern, afterwards Bishop of Exeter, 1070-1074; Osmund, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, 1074-1078; Maurice, afterwards Bishop of London, 1078-1083; William de Beaufeu, afterwards Bishop of Thetford, 10831085; William Giffard, 1086-1087.

WILLIAM the Conqueror having, at the battle of Hastings, wrested the kingdom of England from Harold, was elected by the witan, and crowned after making the usual compact with the nation. He showed himself prepared to rule as the West Saxon line of kings before him had done, and found the forfeited demesnes and jurisdictions of the family of Godwin sufficient to satisfy for the moment the demands of his servants and allies. But the tyranny of Odo of Bayeux and William Fitz-Osbern, who were left behind as justices regent on the occasion of his first visit to Normandy, produced a resistance which was not extinguished until a very large portion of the native landowners had suffered forfeiture, and a very large substitution of Norman nobles in both lands and jurisdictions followed. This substitution had the twofold effect of producing a gradual change in the institutions of the country, from the highest to the lowest, towards the Norman or properly feudal type, and of thus