which fifty shall be white loaves; one wey of bacon and cheese, one old CHAP. XV. ox, four wethers, one swine or six wethers, six goose-fowls, ten hen fowls, thirty tapers, if it be winter, a sesterful of honey, a sesterful of Thorpe's Dip., butter, a sesterful of salt. And Heregyth enjoins the men who succeed 473. to the land after her, in the name of God, that they be full well mindful that they perform this which is appointed in this writ for the convent at Christchurch: and that there be ever a table-gathering for the convent after a twelvemonth. And let the man who succeeds to the land give to her administrator xiii. pounds of pennies; and she will give fifteen pounds, in order that this refection may be the better provided." Indorsed in a more modern hand, anno 835 "Here is made known, by this writing, how Wulfgyth gives her things Ib., p. 563. after her decease, which the Almighty God has granted her in life to enjoy. That then is first: To my lord his rightful heriot." [Then follows a devise of land at Stistede, and the testatrix proceeds]:-" And I give to Ælgyth, my daughter, the land at Chartacre and at Essetsford, and the wood which I added thereto. And I give to Earl Godwine and Earl Harold, Fritton. And I give to Christchurch, for Christ's altar, one little golden rood, and one seat-cover. And I give to St. Eadmund two polished horns. And I give to St. Ethelthryth one woollen kirtle. And I give to St. Osyth a half pound of money [and let my children give that*]. And I give to St. Augustine one seat-cover. And whosoever shall bereave my bequest, which I have now bequeathed, in the witness of God, be he bereft of this earthly joy, and may the Almighty Lord, who hath created and wrought all creatures, sever him from the community of all his saints on doomsday; and be he delivered to Satan the devil and all his accursed companions, in the ground of hell, and there suffer torment with God's deniers without cessation, and never molest my heirs. Of this are witness, King Eadward and many others." The interest attached to all these very ancient records is increased from the fact that the names of the parties concerned, and the places referred to, are familiar to Kentish readers. A supposed interpolation of a later period. CHAP. XVI. Bede, Hist. Tacitus, Germania, c. vii. Sax. Chron. Matt. Westminster. CHAPTER XVI. ANGLO-SAXON RANKS AND INSTITUTIONS. BEFORE EFORE we part company with our Anglo-Saxon ancestors I propose to notice briefly their gradations of rank, the property they possessed, and their institutions and habits, concluding with a short account of the state of the Forest of Andred when William of Normandy landed in its neighbourhood. And first of the King. It would appear from early history, that the Saxon invading hosts originally had no regular constituted king, but their numerous chiefs in time of war drew lots for a leader. The war ended, the chiefs again became equals. In process of time continual wars removed these petty chieftains; and at the commencement of the seventh century, eight independent kingdoms existed in England, when three of them acknowledged the supremacy of Ethelbert of Kent. Still the office remained elective; not, however, from the whole body of the people, but from the nobility and clergy; no hereditary right was acknowledged; and we have seen the younger son preferred to the elder, and the brother of the deceased monarch to his son. This right of suffrage in times of emergency appears to have been extended to the whole people, as Edward the Confessor is said to have owed his election to the nation at large. The meaning of the term king, however, was then something different to what we attach to the word. The notion of territorial influence is never involved in it. The kings Sax. in Eng., were originally kings of tribes and peoples, but never of CHAP. XVI. the land they occupied-kings of the Kentings, but not of Kent; and to the revival of this idea, which the feudal system had banished, is due the titles of "Emperor of the French," or "King of the Belgians," now in use. One with the people from whom he sprang and by whose power he reigned, the king was not recognized as the Lord paramount of all the land in his kingdom; and one estate did not owe allegiance to another, as in the feudal system, but a certain quantity of land went with the crown, distinct from any private estates that the ruler might possess. The main distinction between the king and his people consisted in the wergyld, or higher value set on the king's life. I have referred to the wergyld paid by the men of p. 103. Kent to Ina for burning to death his kinsman Mul and his companions, in a house where they had taken refuge, A. 687. The Queen was crowned as well as the King, until the reign of Egbert, when the honour was taken from her. The crimes of the preceding Queen (Eadburga) caused a suspension for awhile of the practice; but it was soon restored. Her name was joined with the cynings in some Turner, charters; and it is not unusual to find them signed by her. Vol. III., We learn from them that she sat at times in the Witenagemote, even after she became Queen Dowager. She had her separate property, for in a gift of land of Ethelswitha (Alfred's Queen), she calls it part of the land in her own power. She had officers of her household who were called her nobles. The Ethelings (nobles) were the sons of a king, or in default of them, the relations next entitled to the succession. For the present we will pass over the Clergy. I have already referred to the Ealdormen and Dukes. The number of these officers appears to have been increased They may have been subsequently executed at the king's festal board, and in the presence of the members of his court and household.— Kemb., Vol. II, p. 198. p. 153. p. 106. CHAP. XVI. p. 26. Larking's Co. Litt., 94 b. Elton, p. 25. as the circuit of each particular kingdom extended. Thus, to speak only of our own county, in the reign of Cenulph A. 804 there were three in Kent who attended a Witenagemot at the same time, and who probably ruled over East and West Kent, and Romney Marsh. Their revenues arose from the lands appertaining to the office, profits of courts, fines, &c. Next in order were the Thanes (Taini or Tegni). Sir Henry Spelman considers there were two kinds of Thanes, viz., those who served the King* and those who served under Dukes, Earls, and the great dignitaries of the Church, who were called the lesser Thanes. Wilkins concurs in this, while Kelman and other writers are of opinion that there were three classes, the thani regis, thani minores, and thani inferiores: the first equal in dignity to the Norman barons, who succeeded them; the second, the territorial Lords who became the Lords of Manors with a limited jurisdiction; and the third, freeholders of an inferior degree. Mr. Elton (the author of the "Tenures of Kent") adopts the same classification. The Thane was originally a military follower; and in later times the rank appears to have been held by all great landholders; a ceorl possessing five hides of land, and a merchant who had made three voyages on his own account, were deemed worthy of Thane rights. Ten thanes held Otefod [Otford] during the reign of Edward the Confessor. Next were the tenants in Francalmoigne, an important body in Kent. Many of the charters we have quoted conferred gifts in Francalmoigne or free alms, by which lands and tenements were bestowed upon God, i. e., given to such people as were consecrated to his service; and one of the greatest privileges of the Kentish tenants in Francalmoigne, was the jurisdiction over the lesser Thanes. These lesser Thanes were called in Kent thegenes, and *The heriot of a King's Thane was half that of an Earl, which will enable one to form some opinion of his rank. He was also called Wight or Wit, and was a member of the Witenagemote. alloarii or allodiarii, and were afterwards turned into Knights, except on the manors of Christ Church. Then there were the soldiers [milites]* who rendered military service to the Sovereign, the Archbishops, Bishops, Ealdormen, and Thanes. CHAP. XVI. The sockmen [sochemanni] were an inferior class of landowners who held lands in the soc of the King or some civil or ecclesiastical dignitary. Though called sockmen they did not take their name from the plough, for it rarely appears that they held by plough service. The services rendered by the sockmen differed in different places, consisting of husbandry and other work, and some sockmen were less free than others. The sockmen in Kent in the reign of Edward the Confessor are chiefly to be met with as the owners and cultivators of the soil in Romney Marsh, and in the vicinity of the Weald. Thus, in Ham Hundred Larking's eleven sockmen held the district of Orlavestone [Orle- pp. 142, 143, Domesday, stone]; and in the hundreds of Blackburn and Newchurch, 145. and lath of Limowart, we find eighteen sockmen holding land of King Edward; and, without multiplying references, in the hundred of Longport, in the same lath, we find six other sockmen holding land of the same King. Now, these sockmen, or six-hind-men, could form their own borough or court, and it is not unreasonable to conclude that the services required from them was the drainage and embankment of the Marsh. There was also a class between servile and free, called Læti or Leti; they were Germans, and had settled in Kent. under the Roman government, and received lands (terra latica) to cultivate. Next in order were the Villani and Bordarii; and as Mr. Larking bestowed much time and consideration on both classes, I propose to insert here his closing and concise summary of them. "VILLANI. "1. The tenantry of the ut-lands of the manor or vill-that is, the Ib. p. 168. lands not held in demesne by the Lord-the 'Villenagium' lands. * Sir Henry Ellis says the word 'milites' does not appear to have acquired a precise meaning in the eleventh century. |