BOOK THE CHAP. V. Their Official Dignities. HE EALDORMAN was the highest officer in the kingdom. In rank he was inferior to an etheling; for when an etheling's were geld was fifteen thousand thrymias, an ealdorman's was but eight thousand'. He was the chief of a fhire, and he loft this dignity if he connived at the escape of a robber, unless the king pardoned him. He was one of the witan, who attended the witena-gemot 3. He prefided with the bishop at the fcire-gemot, which he was ordered to attend, and the folcgemot. He ranked with a bishop', but was fuperior to the thegn'. He had great civil powers in administering justice, and also enjoyed high military authority; he is mentioned as leading the fhire to battle against the enemy. To draw weapons before him incurred a penalty of one hundred fhillings; and to fight before him in a gemot incurred a fine to him of one hundred and twenty fhillings, befides other punishments 10. The ealdorman is a title which occurs perpetually in the Saxon Chronicle. THE EORLE is a dignity recognized in our earliest laws. It appears in those of Ethelbert, who died 12 V. in 616, where offences in the tune and against the CHA P. birele of an eorle are expressly punished ". He is alfo mentioned in a charter, dated 680 ". The mund of his widow is highly estimated 13. He is also noticed in the laws of Alfred, Edward, Ethelftan, and Edgar 14. 14 AN eorle's heriot was four horfes faddled and four horfes not faddled, four helms, four mails, eight spears and fhields, four fwords, and two hundred mancufa of gold, which was twice a thegn's heriot ". To be an eorle was a dignity to which a thegn might arrive, and even a ceorle 1. IN 656 Wulfer, in his charter, mentions the eorls. "I Wulfer, kyning, with the king and " with eorles, and with herotogas, and with thegnas, the witneffes of this gift 18." The perfons who fign this, with the king and clergy, call themselves ealdormen. The title of eorl occurs. again in a grant in 675 9, and afterwards 20. 66 In the fragment of poetry in the Saxon Chronicle to the year 975, Edward, the son of Edgar, is called the eorla ealder; the ruler of eorls 21. ; IN 966 Oflac is ftated to have received his ealdordome. In 975 he is called fe mære eorl, the great earl; and is ftated to have been banifhed 22 he is alfo called ealdorman 23, This fame Oflac is mentioned in the laws of Edgar as an earl." Then BOOK" let Oflac eorl promote it, and all the army that IV. "in this ealdordom remaineth 24." Thefe paffages induce a belief that eorle and ealdorman were but different denominations of the fame official dignity. Yet when we find in the Chronicle fuch diftinctions in the fame paragraph, as "Ealfrice ealdorman, and Thorode eorl 25," we are led to imagine that there must have been fome peculiar traits by which they were difcriminated. But it is obvious from the Saxon Chronicle that eorldome 25 expreffed the fame thing that ealdordome has been applied to fignify. In the latter part of the Anglo-Saxon period the title ealdorman feems to have been fuperfeded by that of eorl 27. The iarl of the Northmen was the fame title. 28 THE term heretoch implies a leader of an army, and hold is mentioned as a dignity in Ethelitan's laws, whofe were was higher than that of a thegn Many perfons with this title are mentioned in the Chronicle 29 in the years 905, 911. THE GEREFAS were officers appointed by the executive power, and in rank inferior to the eorle or ealdorman. They were of various kinds. The heh-gerefa is mentioned, whofe were was four thou fand thrymfas 30. Alfo the wic gerefa, before whom purchases of the Kentifhmen in London were to be made, unless they had good witneffes 31. And the porte-gerefa, or the gerefa of the gate, who was to 24 Wilk. Leg. Sax. 82. 25 Gax. Chron. 127. 29 Sax. Chron. 101. 103. V. witness all purchases without the gate, unless other CHA P. unimpeachable perfons were prefent 32. 32 THE gerefas were in every byrig 33. They were judicial officers 34, and were ordered to judge according to right judgment, and the dom-bec, or book of judgment. They delivered over offenders to punishment 35. They were prefent at the folcgemot 3, where they were to do juftice. They were ordered to convene a gemot every four weeks to end law-fuits 37. They took bail or fecurity in their respective fhires for every one to keep the peace; and if they omitted to take the bail, and neglected their duty, they loft their office, and the king's friendship, and forfeited to him one hundred and twenty fhillings 38. IN cafes of robbery application was to be made to the gerefa in whose district it was, and he was to provide as many men as were fufficient to apprehend the thief, and avenge the injury 39. If any one became "untrue" to every one, the king's gerefa was to go and bring him under bail, that he might be brought to justice to answer his accufer. If the offender could find no bail, he was to be killed. He was to supply such prifoners with food who had no relations that could fupport them 4. He was to defend the abbots in their neceffities 42. THEY were made responsible for their official conduct. If they neglected their duty, it was ordered in the laws of Ethelftan, that they fhould be fined for 32 Wilk. Leg. 48. 34 Ib. 9. 12. 48, 49. 37 lb. 50. 40 Ib. 103. 1 IV. BOOK their delinquency, and be displaced, and the bishop was to announce it to the gerefa in hisprovince. If they broke the law they had to pay five pounds the first time, the price of their were the fecond, and for the third offence they loft all their property 43. If they took a bribe to pervert right, they were punished as feverely →. THE THEGNS of the Anglo-Saxons were in rank below the eorles and caldormen. They formed a fpecies of nobility peculiar to thofe ancient times; and though, at this diftant period, they cannot be delineated accurately, yet, from the circumftances which we can collect, we fhall find them a very curious and interefting order of men. IT has been already mentioned, that it was a rank attainable by all, even by the fervile, and that the requifites which conflituted the dignity are stated in the laws to have been the poffeflion of five hides of his own land, a church, a kitchen, a bell-house, a judicial feat at the burgh gate, and an appropriate office in the king's hall. BUT it was effential to a thegn that he should be a landed proprietor, for though a ceorl had a helm, mail, and a gold-handled fword, yet if he had no land, the laws declare that he muft ftill remain a ceorl 45. THE thegns were of two defcriptions. The inferior fort was called thegn, and the fuperior were diftinguished as king's thegns. The laws recognise thefe two defcriptions. A king's thegn accufed of homicide was to acquit himself of guilt by twelve king's thegns; a thegn of leffa maga with eleven 43 Wilk. Leg. 61. 44 Ib. 62. 45 lb. 709 |