among a number of independent tribes, who had ceased to be nomadic and occupied fixed seats in settled communities.

The whole land of the settlement belonged to the community. (the Mark,1 or Vicus), who annually allotted the arable land among the freemen, while the pasture land was both held and used in common.

An aggregate of communities (vici) of the same tribe constituted the pagus (the Gau); and an aggregate of pagi made up the civitas, or populus.

In their political life the monarchic, aristocratic, and democratic elements were clearly marked; but the ultimate sovereignty seems to have resided in a free and armed people.

Some of the tribes had kings selected from particular families; others had not. But the king had only a limited power,3 and was rather the representative of the unity of the tribe than its ruler.

In the Vici and Pagi justice was administered by principes, elected by the nation in its popular assembly, and assisted in each district by a hundred companions or assessors.*

They had also Duces, their leaders in war, elected probably

1 "La constitution de la Marche paraît dans Tacite. Il la désigne évidem- The Mark ment dans son xxvi. chapitre par le mot ager, qu'il oppose à arva [arva system. per annos mutant, et superest ager], et quand il dit que les barbares aimaient à entourer leurs habitations et leurs champs de vastes terrains vides [suam quisque domum spatio circumdat, c. 16] pouvant leur servir de défense. Or l'usage de la Marche est le signe d'une transition entre l'état nomade et l'état agricole, entre le régime del'entière communauté de la terre et celui où commence à se montrer la propriété foncière privée. En effet la Marche est un vaste territoire indivis qui s'étend au delà des cultures-un vrai boulevard." Geffroy, op. cit. p. 185. On the Mark system in its social, judicial, and political aspects, see Kemble, Saxons in England; G. L. von Maurer, Gesch. der Marken-Verfassung, &c. Schmid, Gesetze der AngelSachsen; Nasse; Agricultural Community of the Middle Ages (by Ouvry); Stubbs, Const. Hist., vol. i.; Maine, Village Communities, Lects. i. and iii. [Cf. also, Garsonnet, Hist. des Locations Perpétuelles, 1879, Germ. Mark, P. 40 seq.; do. Merovingian and Carlovingian, p. 469, seq.; Seebohm, Village Community in England, 1883; Hearn, The Aryan Household, 1879; Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte (Kiel, 1880); LappenbergPauli, Geschichte von England, and Sohm, Fränk. Reichs- und GerichtsVerfassung." Hannis Taylor, Origin of Eng. Const., pp. 7-8; Gneist, Hist. Eng. Const., p. 2. "Mark" is the old German word for boundary," and hence comes to mean boundary land, and further " any area of land having defined boundaries." See Thudicum, Die Gau und MarkenVerfassung in Deutschland (Erlangen, 1856).—ED.]

2 De minoribus rebus principes consultant, de majoribus omnes; ita tamen ut ea quoque quorum penes plebem arbitrium est, apud principes pertractentur.-Tac. Germ., c. xi.

The well-known words of Montesquieu, speaking of the English Constitution, "Ce beau système a été trouvé dans les bois," have reference to the existence of this triple constitution among the Germans.

3 Nec regibus infinita aut libera potestas.-Tac. Germ., c. vii.

4 Eliguntur in iisdem consiliis et principes qui jura per pagos vicosque reddunt. Centeni singulis ex plebe comites consilium simul et auctoritas Id. c. xii.

adsunt.

from among the principes, but wnose authority was based, not like that of the kings, on noble birth, but on personal valour..! Each district contributed its hundred fighting men to the national host.

The principes were attended by bands of retainers (comites), who protected the person of their lord in war and upheld his state in peace,2 receiving in return such presents as their leader could confer.

The power of all the chiefs, whether reges, duces, or principes, was greatly limited. All important State affairs were discussed and determined in the national assemblies, held at stated times, and attended by all the freemen of the tribe. Questions of minor importance were settled by the principes, meeting as a separate body, and this body also appears to have taken the initiative in bringing matters before the large assembly.

Below the freemen was a class of men intermediate between the slave and the freeman. They were not slaves, but they had no political rights. They were the cultivators of the soil which they held under the freemen, to whom they rendered a part of its produce as rent. Last of all came the mere slaves, chiefly made up of prisoners of war and of freemen who had been degraded for some crime.

Among the freemen there were differences of rank and social status; some were of noble blood and some were not; but this distinction carried with it no inequality of political rights. Military valour was shared by the Germans with all the northern nations; but one of their national traits was remarkable from the earliest times-the respect paid by them to the women of their race, who on their side were celebrated for an exceptional chastity. The tie of kindred was strong and all-pervading; it formed the basis of social organisation, and entered into the military, the legal, and the territorial arrangements. Side by side with it may be discerned the germ of Feudalism in the relation existing between the princeps and his comites, though it was as yet unconnected with the tenure of land.

Such were the general features of the Political and Social system which our Teutonic forefathers brought with them to their new

1 Reges ex nobilitate, duces ex virtute sumunt.-Tac. Germ., c. vii.

2 In pace decus, in bello praesidium. Id. c. xiii.

3 [On the position of women in early Teutonic settlements cf. Georg Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungs-Geschichte (Kiel, 1880), vol. i. pp. 48, 67-69. -ED.]

4 See Tacitus, op. cit. for the importance of the family tie; its bearings on the host, c. 7; feuds, c. 21; inheritance, c. 20; the kin of the unfaithful wife, c. 19; exogamy unusual, c. 4. Geffroy (op. cit. p. 207) says: Il est facile de distinguer dans les récits de César et de Tacite l'existence de petits groupes d'autant mieux constitués que les cercles en sont plus étroits, et qu'on se rapproche d'avantage du groupe le plus simple et le moins nombreux, celui de la famille.

island home. But the process of migration and conquest necessarily produced certain modifications and developments of the primitive institutions. One of the earliest of these developments was the institution of Royalty.

assume the

According to the Saxon Chronicle, the chieftains of the first The Teutosettlers were only distinguished by the title of Ealdorman, or nic leaders Heretoga, the former word expressing the civil, the latter the Regal title. military, aspect of the same office. But the successful leader soon won for himself a position much stronger than that of any chief in the old land, and, in most cases, assumed the regal title, as more accurately denoting his altered relation to his followers. The word Cyning, or King,2 [probably] connected [in Teutonic thought] with Cyn, or Kin, marked out the bearer of the title as the representative of the race, the head and leader of the people, not the lord of the soil. His reputed descent from Woden, the God from whom all the English kings professed to descend, invested with a semi-sacred character the authority which his own prowess and the will of the people had conferred upon him.

lish to

The conversion of the English to Christianity exercised an Conversion important influence upon the national development. The of the EngChurch not only introduced a higher civilisation, mitigated the Christianity original fierceness of the heathen conquerors, softened their (597-681) pride of birth and race, and exalted the power of the intellect above that of brute force, but also supplied a new and powerful bond of union to a divided people. Once within the pale of the universal Christian Church, the English, moreover, were necessarily brought into relations with the general political society of Europe; and in the highly organised system of ecclesiastical synods they found a pattern by which to regulate the procedure of their own political assemblies. From the first the Church National entered into the closest alliance with the State, and while paying character of respectful deference to the Roman See, grew up with a distinctly marked national character. Theodore of Tarsus, enthroned Archbishop of Canterbury in 668, reduced the whole ecclesiastical organisation of the various kingdoms into one National Church.3 Henceforward the Church existed as a united, central, and national institution, in spite of the separation and frequent hostility of the states to which the clergy individually belonged.

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1 S. a. 449 (of the Jutes): Heora heretogan . . . Hengest and Horsa. S. a. 495 (of the West Saxons): Her comen twegen ealdormen on Brytene, Cerdic and Cynric.-A.-S. Chron. ; cf. Freeman, Norm. Conq., i. 77. 2 [King, possibly old German "Chuning," "Kunig," 'race," but cf. Germ. kur " (as in Kurfürst) choice; election. Gneist, Eng. Const., cap. 2, p. 14, note, remarks that the etymology of "King is dubious; Lappenberg, i. p. 566, seq.; On the rise of the Anglo-Saxon Monarchy; and Hannis Taylor, Origin and Growth of the Eng. Const., p. 109.—ED.] 3 Isque primus erat in archiepiscopis cui omnis Anglorum aecclesia manus dare consentiret.-Bede, Hist. Ecc., iv. 2; Kemble, Saxons in England, ii. 364.

the Church.

The Bretwaldas.

Thus the Ecclesiastical unity preceded and pointed tased, nhe way to the Civil unity of the nation. After the first missionar, valou prelates had passed away, the highest spiritual dignities were fitiona led by Englishmen, members, for the most part, of noble and poweriul families. The tie thus created between the clergy and the State was strengthened by the union of secular and spiritual functions. The bishops were prominent members of the Witenagemot, and frequently acted as the chief ministers of the king. They also shared with the ealdormen in the local judicial administration. The Church thus entered into close combination with the Civil organisation, gradually intertwining itself with all the feelings and customs of the people, and acquiring in the process its exceptionally national character.

During the whole period commonly called the Heptarchy,1 the land was full of petty kings or princes, some one of whom, from time to time, obtained a forcible predominance over his neighbours. Bede enumerates seven who are said to have enjoyed such a predominance or leadership over nearly the whole island; and the Saxon Chronicle speaks of Egbert as "the eighth king who was Bretwalda."2 What were the exact nature and extent of the dominion of these Bretwaldas is very doubtful; but we may accept as a fact that each of the seven had acquired and exercised some kind of supremacy over all his neighbours. The existence of the Bretwaldas would seem to indicate certain earlier attempts at a union of the whole English race, which was ultimately carried out by the West Saxon kings in the ninth and tenth centuries.3

The three Kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria at length became predominant. Egbert, King of the West Saxons, not only added to his dominions the dependent Kingdoms of Kent and Essex, but compelled the extensive States of Mercia and Northumbria to acknowledge his supremacy. Still the Mercians, East Anglians, and Northumbrians retained each their ancient

1 There were at least nine, if not ten, independent states founded by the invaders; and there was never a confederate government composed of the different states as members. The word Heptarchy, therefore, is not accurate, but it is convenient if taken to denote the greater prominence of seven states out of the number.

2 Bede, Hist. Eccles., ii. 5; Chron. Ang.-Sax., ann. 827. Mr. Kemble points out that of six manuscripts in which the passage quoted occurs, only one reads " Bretwalda," four have Bryten-walda, and one Bretenanweald. "The true meaning of this word, which is compounded of wealda, a ruler, and the adjective bryten, is totally unconnected with Bret or Bretwealh, the name of the British aborigines . . . Bryten is derived from breotan, to distribute . . . disperse it is a common prefix to words denoting wide or general dispersion, and when coupled with wealda means no more than an extensive, powerful king-a king whose power is widely extended."-Saxons in England, i. 20. [Cf. Lappenberg, i. p. 203, and Gneist, Const. Hist., p. 35, and note.—ED.]

3 Freeman, Norm. Conq., i. 28.

e of kings, and neither Egbert nor his five immediate successors ssumed any other title than that of King of the West Saxons. This is the only style used by Alfred in his will.

787-1070.

The consolidation of the various Kingdoms into one was Invasions of hastened by the invasions of the Danes, by which the three minor the Danes, kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia were overwhelmed, and even that of the West Saxons was brought to the brink of destruction. Led by their famous Sea-kings, these "Slayers of the North" ravaged almost every European coast during the ninth and tenth centuries. They were closely akin to the English, and spoke another dialect of the same common Teutonic speech. Their institutions exhibited a striking similarity to those of the English, and even where differing in detail were generally governed by identical principles. The first recorded descent of the Danes upon the shores of England occurred toward the end of the eighth century. They re-appeared again and again, and at length, instead of making mere predatory excursions, began to form permanent settlements in the island. The genius and heroism of Alfred alone rescued the English from their imminent peril. Yet he was never able to expel the Danes from England, or to become its sole master. By the treaty of Alfred and Guthrum (A.D. 879), the limits of the Danish occupation southward were defined up on the Thames, and then up on the Lea, along the Lea unto its source, then right to Bedford, then up on the Ouse unto Watling Street." To the North it extended as far as the Tyne, and on the West to the mountain districts of Yorkshire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. Throughout this district-the Denalagu, or region where the Danish law was in force the armies, as the Saxon Chronicle expressly terms them, of the Danes continued to occupy the land, governing, as a military aristocracy, the subject Anglian population. The victorious arms of Alfred's three able and energetic successors, Edward, Athelstan, and Edmund, succeeded in reducing the Danes to something like real submission, and also in obtaining an acknowledgment of supremacy over the bordering nations of the isle of Britain. At length, in 959, Edgar, having outlived the last Danish King of Northumbria, received the Crown as King of all England, uniting in his person, as the elect of all three provinces of England, the threefold sovereignty of the West Saxons, Mercians, and Northumbrians.2 The English and the Anglo-Danes gradually coalesced, the English language and institutions maintaining the ascendency, though appreciably influenced by contact with the foreign element in their midst. After the death of Edgar the Peaceable (viz., in 975), the minority and feeble character of Ethelred the Unready provoked 1 Thorpe, Anc. Laws and Inst., ann. 879.

2 E. W. Robertson, Hist. Essays, p. 203; Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. 191.