Part 35

For a while the state approves all this. The dangerous person is, not the lord, whose wide lands are some security for his good behaviour, but the lordless man of whom no right can be had. Somehow or another theft must be suppressed. This is the determination of our strongest kings, of our wisest 'witan.' That they are raising up over against the state another power, the power of seignorial justice, they do not see. And, after all, these 'witan' both laymen and clerks are themselves great lords, and the king is the lordliest of them all. Thus the foundation for a feudal jurisdiction is laid. Still between the lord's duty of producing his men and his right to hold a court of and for his men there is to our eyes a great gulf. We have seen above that this gulf had not been bridged even in the Confessor's, even in the Conqueror's day[1006]. Nor to our thinking would it have been bridged but for the creation of 'immunities' upon a grand scale. The first origin of the immunity we have sought in the efforts of the clergy to obtain lands which should be utterly exempt from 'all earthly burdens,' 'all worldly business.' But this effort unites with the stream of tendency that we have now been watching. The state will be grateful to the church if it will 'hold all the men of God to right' and do judgment between them and upon them.

[Sidenote: The _land-ríca_ as immunist.]

There is also a long series of dooms going back as far as Æthelstan's reign which give certain fines and forfeitures to one who is described as the _land-hláford_ or the _land-ríca_. Remarkable they are, for they seem to assume that wherever a crime is committed there will be forthcoming some-one who will answer to the title 'the land-lord' or 'the territorial magnate.' In some sense or another they presuppose that there is _Nulle terre sans seigneur_. But who is this 'landlord'? According to our thinking, he is the lord of the hundred or else the lord who has a charter of immunity comprehending the land in question, and, if there be no person answering to this description, then he is the king. In the first place, in certain dooms relating to London we are told that, when a thief is caught and slain, his property is to be divided into two parts, of which his wife takes one, while the other is divided between the king and 'the association' (perhaps we may say 'the gild') which was engaged in the pursuit and capture; 'but if it be book-land or bishop's-land, the landlord takes half with the association in common[1007].' This seems to mean that there will be a lord to share in the proceeds of the forfeiture if, but only if, the scene of the capture be land that is within an immunity. It is assumed, not without warrant in the land-books, that the man who has book-land always, or almost always, enjoys an immunity, while as to the bishop's-land, whether the bishop be holding it in demesne or have granted it out to his thegns, that no doubt will be protected by an ample charter. So again, in another law 'the lord' receives the thief's _wer_ 'if he [the lord] is worthy of his wite[1008]': that is to say, the lord receives it if he is in enjoyment of an immunity which confers upon him a right to 'wites.' Then again, in several cases we find that the land-lord or _land-ríca_ shares the proceeds of a fine with the hundred or wapentake[1009]. This, as we think, points to the fact that the hundreds and wapentakes are passing into private hands. These laws are severe laws against criminals. They urge all men to the pursuit of the flying thief and they hold out a reward to those who are active in this duty. The men of the hundred are to have half the thief's property, while the lord (who in many cases will be the lord of the hundred) is to have the other half. He is to have no more, even though his charter may seem to give him more. So again, in certain cases an accused person must find security that he will stand a trial, and the gage is to be given 'half to the _land-ríca_, half to the wapentake[1010].' This _land-ríca_ is the lord of the wapentake. In another instance the gage must be given half to the _land-ríca_ and half to the king's port-reeve[1011]. Then there are cases in which the 'land-lord' is to take possession of cattle that have been irregularly acquired and are presumably stolen, and is to preserve them until their true owner shall make his appearance[1012]. These provisions, which seem the foundation of the 'franchise of waif and stray,' suggest that the 'land-lord' is the president of the court into which the owner must go when he wishes to prove his title; were this not so, the king's reeve would be the person who would have the custody of the unclaimed beasts. Certainly our explanation of these passages assumes that a hundred is often in private hands and it assumes that, when this is not the case, then the king is regarded as the lord of the hundred. But in so doing it merely assumes that the state of things revealed by Domesday Book is about a century old. When in that record we read that the soke of four and a half hundreds in Oxfordshire 'belongs to' the royal manor of Bensington, that the soke of two hundreds 'belongs to' the royal manor of Headington, that the soke of other two hundreds 'belongs to' the royal manor of Bampton, we see that the king is the lord, the proprietor, of those hundreds which have no other lord[1013]. From the laws now before us we infer that this is no very new arrangement. But of course it is possible that those laws have divers cases in view. It may be that within the hundred there is an immunity, a privileged township or manor, and that a thief is caught there. Who is to have the profits which arise from the crime and condemnation? The answer is: Half shall go to the hundred, half to the _land-ríca_, that is to say, half goes to the doomsmen, or perhaps to the lord, of the hundred court, half to the immunist. The lord under the general words of his charter might perchance claim the whole; but, in order that all the hundredors may have an interest in the pursuit of thieves, it is otherwise decreed. But where is justice to be done, in the hundred court or in the court of the immunist? That is a question of secondary importance to which our laws do not address themselves. Very probably justice will be done in the hundred court, or again it is not impossible that a mixed tribunal consisting partly of the men of 'the franchise,' partly of the men of 'the geldable' will meet upon the boundary of the immunist's land[1014]. Our main point must be that the land-lord or _land-ríca_ of these laws is an immunist, or is the king, who, where there is no immunity, occupies the position of an immunist.

[The immunist's rights over free men.]

We see too that the immunist's rights extend over free men and over free landowners. If a man is guilty of heathenry he must, if he be a king's thegn, pay ten half-marks, half to Christ and half to the king, but if he be another 'landowning man' then he pays six half-marks, half to Christ and half to the _land-ríca_[1015]. The landowner normally has a land-lord above him. We see also that the lord is made liable for the payment of dues which are ultimately exigible from those who are dwelling within his territory. 'If a king's thegn or other _land-ríca_ makes default in paying Peter's pence, he must pay ten half-marks, half to Christ and half to the king; if a "towns-man" makes a similar default, the _land-ríca_ must pay the penny and take an ox from the defaulter, and if the _land-ríca_ neglects to do this, then Christ and the king shall receive the full _bót_ of twelve ores[1016].' Such is the manner in which the lord's power is consolidated. He begins to stand between his free men and the state, between his free men and the church.

[Delegation of justiciary rights.]

Another consequence of the argument in which we have been engaged is that, at least a century before the Conquest, the great immunists were granting immunities to their dependants. From this consequence we shall not flinch. Bishop Oswald, for example, was an immunist on a splendid scale, and when he loaned land to a knight and said that the land was to be 'free from all secular service' save the _trinoda necessitas_, he loaned not merely land, but immunity and jurisdiction. On one occasion, adopting a formula that has lately come before us, he said that nothing was to go out of the land by way of _wite_[1017]. By this we understand that he gave to his thegn any wites which might thereafter be incurred by the inhabitants of the manses which were comprised in the loan, and further that he gave him the right to hold a court. Domesday Book requires us to believe that such transactions had not been uncommon[1018].

[Number of immunists.]

Will our attempt to explain the land-books create too many holders of sake and soke? We do not think so, for we do not think that the number of land-books should be indefinitely multiplied by our imaginations. If we look in Domesday Book at the counties which lie south of the Thames, we shall indeed see that the total amount of land of which the churches are tenants in chief is very large. But the number of these landowning churches is small. When we have named seven episcopal and a dozen abbatial minsters we have disposed of by far the greater bulk of the church lands in this district, and these minsters are as a general rule just those which have transmitted to us in cartularies and chronicles the story of their acquisitions. To churches that were destroyed by the Danes we may allot some charters; but we should have no warrant for the supposition that royal diplomata have perished by the hundred and left no trace behind. In the shires of York, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby we might allow sake and soke to every English prelate who appears as a tenant in chief and yet not raise to twelve[1019] the number of the ecclesiastical immunists who had lands in this wide region. As to the lay holders of sake and soke, they were not very many though they held broad lands; also they belonged for the more part to an exalted class[1020]. However, here as elsewhere we must admit that every attempted explanation discloses new problems.

NOTE.

_The Ángild Clause._

As we have said above, (p. 274), there are certain charters in which the clause of immunity makes mention of the _ángild_ (_pretium pro pretio, singulare pretium_). We will here collect the obscure texts in which this difficult term occurs.

First, however, we will call attention to a passage in Domesday's account of Worcestershire (D. B. i. 175 b), which throws some light on the matter. Westminster Abbey holds 200 hides and Pershore Abbey holds 100 hides. 'The county says that the church of Pershore is entitled to church-scot from all the 300 hides [its own 100 and Westminster's 200], to wit, from every hide on which a free man dwells one load of corn on St. Martin's day, (if he has more hides than one, they are free), and if that day be infringed [i.e. if payment be not made thereon], he who has kept back the corn must pay elevenfold, but first must pay what is due [i.e. he altogether pays twelve loads--"God's property and the church's twelve-fold" (Æthelb. 1.)]; and the Abbot of Pershore will have a wite (_forisfactura_) from his own 100 hides, such as he ought to have from his own land; but from the other 200 hides he will have the multifold payment of the corn that is due (_habet summam et persolutionem_) and the Abbot of Westminster has the wite (_forisfacturam_).' For _solvere et persolvere_, see Laws of William (Select Charters) c. 5; for _solta et persolta_, see Dial. de Scac. ii. 10.

If then, a Westminster tenant fails to pay church-scot to Pershore, he must make _bót_ (very ample _bót_) to Pershore, but his _wite_ will go to his own lord; nothing is to 'go out to _wite_' from the Westminster land. We will now turn to the land-books. We take them to be saying in effect that in such a case as that put by Domesday the grantee of the immunity is to have his man's wite, though the restitutory _bót_ will go to another.

(i) A.D. 767. Uhtred of the Hwiccas. K. 117 (i. 144); B. i. 286: 'interdicimus ut si aliquis in hac praenominatam terram aliquid foras furaverit alicui solvere aliquid nisi specialiter pretium pro pretio ad terminum ad poenam nihil foras.' We should place a stop after _terminum_. Then the last clause means 'nothing shall go out to wite.' The mention of the _terminus_ suggests a payment at the boundary of the immunist's land.

(ii) [Questionable]. A.D. 799. Cenwulf. K. 176 (i. 213); B. i. 411: 'de partibus vero et de causis singulare solvere pretium et nihil aliud de hac terra.'

(iii) A.D. 799-802. Pilheard. K. 116 (i. 142); B. i. 284: 'ut ab omnium fiscalium redituum operum onerumque seu etiam popularium conciliorum vindictis nisi tantum pretium pro pretio liberae sint in perpetuum.'

(iv) A.D. 814. Cenwulf of Mercia for the church of Worcester. K. 206 (i. 259); B. i. 489: 'exceptis his, expeditione et pontis constructione, et singulare pretium foras, nihilque ad poenam resolvat.'

(v) Cenwulf of Mercia for the church of Worcester. K. 215 (i. 271); B. i. 507: 'exceptis his, arcis et pontis constructione et expeditione et singulare pretium foras adversum aliud; ad poenam vero neque quadrantem minutam foras resolvat.'

(vi) A.D. 822. Ceolwulf of Mercia for Archbishop Wilfred. K. 216 (i. 272); B. i. 508: 'liberata permaneat in aefum nisi is quattuor causis quae nunc nominabo, expeditione contra paganos ostes, et pontes constructione sui [=seu] arcis munitione vel destructione in eodem gente, et singulare pretium foras reddat, secundum ritam gentes illius, et tamen nullam penam foras alicui persolvat.'

(vii) A.D. 831. Wiglaf of Mercia for the archbishop. K. 227 (i. 294); B. i. 556: 'nisi his tantum causis, expeditione et arcis munitione pontisque constructione et singulare pretium contra alium.'

(viii) A.D. 835. Egbert of Wessex for Abingdon. K. 236 (i. 312); B. i. 577: 'de illa autem tribulatione que witereden nominatur sit libera, nisi tamen singuli pretium solverit ut talia accipiant. Fures quoque quos appellant weregeldðeofas si foras rapiautur, pretium eius dimidium illi aecclesiae, et dimidium regi detur, et si intus rapitur totum reddatur ad aecclesiam.'

(ix) A.D. 849. Berhtwulf of Mercia for his thegn Egbert. K. 262 (ii. 34); B. ii. 40: 'Liberabo ab omnibus saecularibus servitutibus ... nisi in confinio rationem reddant contra alium.'

(x) A.D. 855. Burhred of Mercia for the church of Worcester. K. 277 (ii. 58); B. ii. 88: 'nisi tantum quattuor causis, pontis et arcis, et expeditione contra hostes, et singulare pretium contra alium, et ad poenam nihil foras resolvat.

(xi) A.D. 883. Æthelred of Mercia for Berkeley. K. 313 (ii. 110); B. ii. 172: 'and þæt ic þæt mynster fram æghwelcum gafolum gefreoge þe to þiode hlafarde belimpeð, littles oððe micles, cuðes ge uncuðes, butan angilde wið oþrum and fæsten gewerce and fyrd socne and brycg geweorce ... æghwelces þinges to freon ge wið cyning, ge wið ealdorman, ge wið gerefan æghwelces þeodomes, lytles and micles, butan fyrd socne and fæsten geworce and brycg geworce and angylde wið oðrum and noht ut to wite.'

(xii) A.D. 888. Æthelred of Mercia for a thegn. K. 1068 (v. 133); B. ii. 194: 'liberam hanc terram describimus ab omnibus causis nisi singulare pretium contra aliud ponat et modum ecclesiae.' Is the _modus_ [or _modius_] of the church the church-scot?

In a few other cases the immunity mentions penal causes, 'witeræden,' and no express exception is made of the _ángild_. Thus:--

(xiii) A.D. 842. Æthelwulf for a thegn. K. 253 (ii. 16); B. ii. 13: 'ut regalium tributum et principali dominacione et vi coacta operacione et poenalium condicionum furis comprehensione ... secura ... permaneat.'

(xiv) [Questionable]. A.D. 844. Æthelwulf for Malmesbury; one of the documents reciting the famous 'donation.' K. 1048 (v. 93); B. ii. 26; H. & S. iii. 630: 'ut sit tutus et munitus ab omnibus saecularibus servitutis, fiscis regalibus, tributis maioribus et minoribus, quod nos dicimus witereden.'

(xv) A.D. 877. Bp. Tunbert. K. 1063 (v. 121); B. ii. 163: 'a taxationibus quod dicimus wite redenne.'

The most detailed and at the same time the most hopelessly obscure information that we get is such as can be obtained from two Abingdon charters.

A.D. 821. Cenwulf. K. 214 (i. 269); B. i. 505; H. & S. iii. 556: 'Si pro aliquo delicto accusatur homo Dei aecclesiae ille custos solus cum suo iuramento si audeat illum castiget. Sin autem ut recipiat aliam iusticiam huius vicissitudinis conditionem praefatum delictum cum simplo praetio componat.'

A.D. 835. Egbert. K. 236 (i. 312); B. i. 577; H. & S. iii. 613. The same clause, but with _alienam_ instead of _aliam_. Also the following:--'De illa autem tribulatione que witereden nominatur sit libera nisi tamen singuli [_corr._ singulare?] pretium solverit ut talia accipiant [accipiat?].'

This is very dark. Our best guess as to its meaning is this:--If a man of God, that is, a tenant of the church, is accused of crime, the _custos_ of the church (this may mean the abbot, but more probably points to his reeve) may by his single oath purge the accused. But if he dare not do this, then he (the abbot or reeve) may pay the _bót_ that is claimed, and by performing this condition he may obtain a transfer (_vicissitudo_) of the cause and do what other justice remains to be done, i.e. he may exact the _wite_. So in the second charter the abbot may pay the _bót_, the _singulare pretium_, and so obtain a right to exact the wite:--he makes the payment _ut talia_ [i.e. _witereden_] _accipiat_. In guessing that _vicissitudo_ points to a transfer of a suit, we have in mind the manner in which the Leges Henrici, 9 § 4, speak of the 'transition' of causes from court to court. The case that is being dealt with by these charters we take to be one in which an outsider in a 'foreign' court sues one of the abbot's tenants. The abbot can swear away the charge, or if he dares not do this, can obtain cognizance of the cause (in the language of a later day _potest petere curiam suam_) and therewith the right to the _wite_, but must in this case pay the restitutory _bót_, or rather, perhaps, find security that this shall be paid to the plaintiff in case he is successful. The clause may also imply that a multiple _bót_ can not be exacted from the immunist's men, e.g. such a _bót_ as we saw the Abbot of Pershore exacting from the Westminster men; but this is a minor question.

FOOTNOTES:

[934] Adams, The Anglo-Saxon Courts of Law (Essays in Anglo-Saxon Law, p. 1). Hallam, Middle Ages (ed. 1837), vol. ii. p. 416, says that of the right of territorial jurisdiction 'we meet frequent instances in the laws and records of the Anglo-Saxons, though not in those of early date.' The one charter older than Edward the Confessor that he cites is one of the Croyland forgeries. Kemble's opinion seems to have fluctuated; Saxons, i. 177 note, ii. 397, Cod. Dipl. i. xliv-xlvii. K. Maurer, Krit. Ueberschau, ii. 57, thinks that the existence of the private court is proved for Cnut's reign, but not for any earlier time. Dr Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 119, seems to doubt whether it can be traced far beyond the days of Cnut. Zinkeisen, Die Anfänge der Lehngerichtsbarkeit in England (1893, a Berlin doctoral dissertation), criticizes Mr Adams's theory.

[935] Essays, pp. 43-4.

[936] See above, p. 84.

[937] K. 853 (iv. 208); E. 343.

[938] The clearest instance is in the Waltham charter, K. 813 (iv. 154), but some details of this are not beyond suspicion. See also the writs for Westminster, K. 828 (iv. 191), 857 (iv. 213); Ordn. Facs. vol. ii. pl. 9.

[939] Charter for St. Edmund's, K. 1346 (vi. 205). See the account of Bury St. Edmunds in D. B. ii. 372: 'et quaudo in hundreto solvitur ad geltum 1 lib. tunc inde exeunt 60 den. ad victum monachorum.'

[940] First printed from a copy in the MacDurnan Gospels by J. O. Westwood in Palaeographia Sacra, with a facsimile, plate 11. Accepted by Kemble and printed by him in Archaeological Journal, xiv. 61; Earle, 232; Freeman, Norman Conquest, ii. 52.

[941] See the writ for St. Paul's, K. 1319 (vi. 183). Mr Adams (p. 44) stigmatizes this as an evident forgery; but the reasons for this severe judgment are not apparent. See also K. 1321 (vi. 190), and the Latin writ of Harthacnut K. 1330 (vi. 192), which may have a genuine basis.

[942] Cnut, II. 12 (Schmid, p. 276).

[943] Thus if a statute requires written and signed evidence of an agreement, a letter in which the writer says, 'True, I made such and such an agreement, but I am not going to keep it,' may be evidence enough; see _Bailey_ v. _Sweeting_, 9 C. B. N. S. 843.

[944] Brunner, Carta und Notitia (Commentationes in honorem T. Mommsen); Brunner, Zur Rechtsgeschichte der Röm. u. Germ. Urkunde.

[945] Both the Angevin charter and the Angevin letters patent are in what we call 'writ-form.' The main formal difference is that the charter professes to be witnessed by a number of the king's councillors, while _Teste Meipso_ does for letters patent. This distinction is coming to the front about the year 1200.

[946] K. 731 (iv. 9); T. 308.

[947] K. 642 (iii. 203); compare D. B. i. 41.