The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part A. · David Hume
THE ANGLO-SAXON GOVERNMENT AND MANNERS.
The feudal law, if it had place at all among the Anglo-Saxons, which is doubtful, was not certainly extended over all the landed property, and was not attended with those consequences of homage, reliefs,[*******] wardship, marriage, and other burdens, which were inseparable from it in the kingdoms of the continent. As the Saxons expelled, or almost entirely destroyed, the ancient Britons, they planted themselves in this island on the same footing with their ancestors in Germany, and found no occasion for the feudal institutions,[********] which were calculated to maintain a kind of standing army, always in readiness to suppress any insurrection among the conquered people. [* Du Cange, in verbo Crux.] [** Spel in verbo Ordealium. Parker, p. 155. Lindenbrog. p, 1299] [*** LL. Inæ, sect. 77.] [**** Sometimes the person accused walked barefoot over a red hot iron] [***** Spel in verbo Ordealium.] [****** Spel in verbo Corsned. Parker, p. 156. Text. Roffens. p. 33.] [******* On the death of an alderman, a greater or lesser thane, there was a payment made to the king of his best arms; and this was called his heriot; but this was not of the nature of a relief. See Spel. of Tenures, p. 2. The value of this heriot was fixed by Canute’s laws, sect. 69.] [******** Bracton de Acqu. Rer. Domin. ii. cap. 16. See more fully Spel of Feus and Tenures, and Q aigius de Jure Feud, lib. i. dieg.]
The Saxon pound, as likewise that which was coined for some centuries after the conquest, was near three times the weight of our present money. There were forty-eight shillings in the pound, and five pence in a shilling;[********] consequently a Saxon shilling was near a fifth heavier than ours, and a Saxon penny near three times as heavy.[*********] [* Spel. Concil. vol. i. p. 256.] [** Inæ, sect. 51.] [*** Spel. of Feus and Tenures, p. 17.] [**** Spel. Concil. vol. i. p. 195.] [***** Spel. Concil. vol. i. p. 340.] [****** Chron. Sax. p. 128.] [******* LL. Edw. Conf. sect. 12.] [******** LL. Ælf. sect. 40.] [********* Fleetwood’s Chron. Pretiosum, p. 27 28, etc.] As to the value of money in those times, compared to commodities, there are some though not very certain, means of computation. A sheep, of the laws of Athelstan, was estimated at a shilling; that is, fifteen pence of our money. The fleece was two fifths of the value of the whole sheep,[*] much above its present estimation; and the reason probably was, that the Saxons, like the ancients, were little acquainted with any clothing but what was made of wool. Silk and cotton were quite unknown: linen was not much used. An ox was computed at six times the value of a sheep; a cow at four.[**] If we suppose that the cattle in that age, from the defects in husbandry, were not so large as they are at present in England, we may compute that money was then near ten times of greater value. A horse was valued at about thirty-six shillings of our money, or thirty Saxon shillings;[***] a mare a third less.
In the Saxon times, land was divided equally among all the male children of the deceased, according to the custom of gavelkind. The practice of entails is to be found in those times.[*] Land was chiefly of two kinds, bockland, or land held by book or charter, which was regarded as full property, and descended to the heirs of the possessor; and folkland, or the land held by the ceorles and common people, who were removable at pleasure, and were, indeed, only tenants during the will of their lords. The first attempt which we find in England to separate the ecclesiastical from the civil jurisdiction, was that law of Edgar by which all disputes among the clergy were ordered to be carried before the bishop.[**] The penances were then very severe; but as a man could buy them off with money, or might substitute others to perform them, they lay easy upon the rich.[***] With regard to the manners of the Anglo-Saxons, we can say little, but that they were in general a rude, uncultivated people, ignorant of letters, unskilled in the mechanical arts, untamed to submission under law and government, addicted to intemperance, riot, and disorder. Their best quality was their military courage, which yet was not supported by discipline or conduct. Their want of fidelity to the prince, or to any trust reposed in them, appears strongly in the history of their later period; and their want of humanity in all their history. Even the Norman historians, notwithstanding the low state of the arts in their own country, speak of them as barbarians, when they mention the invasion made upon them by the duke of Normandy.[****] The conquest put the people in a situation of receiving slowly, from abroad, the rudiments of science and cultivation, and of correcting their rough and licentious manners. [* LL. Ælf. sect. 37, apud Wilkins, p. 43.] [** Wilkins, p. 83.] [*** Wilkins, p. 96, 97. Spel. Concil. p. 473.] [**** Gul, Pict. p. 202.]
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