The name is absent

or noble’s at twelve 13,14, compared with § 10,
15, 16, 17), and the ceorl’s or simple freeman’s at
six 15, 25, 88). Thus the three classes stand in
the relation of fifty, twelve and six ; or taking the
ceorl as unity, their respective values are 8⅜, 2 and
1 : that is,

Ceorl : eorl : : 1 : 2.

Ceorl : king ::1: 8⅜.
Eorl : king ::1: 4⅜.

Now the medume Ieodgeld of the ceorl is stated to
be one hundred shillings 7), and if Grimm and
Thorpe were right in translating this the half wer-
gyld, we should have the very improbable sums of
200, 400 and 1666⅜ Kentish shillings. Meduma
however does not signify half but middling, mode-
rate : the enactment in ÆSelberht’s law amounts
in fact to this: If a man slay another, he is to
pay his wergyld ; but not so, if the slayer happen
to be the king’s armourer or messenger ; in that
case he is to pay only a moderated wergyld of one
hundred shillings. It was an exemption in favour
of two most important officers of the royal house-
hold ; and shows partly the growing encroach-
ment of prerogative, partly the value set upon the
talents of the officers themselves¹. The common
wergyld then was above one hundred, and I think
it can be shown that it was below two hundred,
shillings. The case of a wergyld paid for a king,

¹ The royal messengers were often of the highest rank. The heroic
character of the weapon-smith or armourer appears throughout the
traditions of the North, and indeed in the epic poetry of all nations.

though rare, is by no means unexampled¹. In
the year 687, Mul 2E∕8elweard, a scion of the royal
race of Wessex, invaded Kent, and having incau-
tiously suffered himself to be surprised by the
country-people, was burnt to death in a house where
he had taken refuge with a few comrades. Seven
years later the men of Kent made compensation to
Ini for Mill’s death. The sum given is very vari-
ously stated. William of Malmesbury says it was
thirty thousand mancuses² ; which, calculated at
eight mancuses to the pound, would be three thou-
• sand, seven hundred and fifty pounds, and this
is the sum mentioned by Florence of Worcester³.
Æ’Selweard, the oldest Latin chronicler, but still
removed four centuries from the time, makes it
amount to thirty thousand solidi or shillings, each
of which is to be calculated at sixteen pence⁴. Some
manuscripts of the Saxon Chronicle read thirty
thousand pounds⁵, “ Jnittig J>usend punda,”—others,

¹ In the year 679 a battle was fought between EcgfritS of Northum-
berland and ÆtSilræd of Mercia. “Anno régis Ecgfridi nono, Conserto
gravi praelio inter ipsum et Aedilredum regem Merciorum, iuxta flu-
vium Treanta, occisus est Aelfuini, frater regis Ecgfridi, iuvenis circiter
decem et octo annorum, utrique provinciae multum amabilis. Nam et
sororem eius quae dicebatur OstSryd, rex Aedilred habebat uxorem.
Cumque materies belli acrioris et inimicitiae Iongioris inter reges po-
pulosque feroces videretuτ exorta, Theodorus, deo dilectus antistes,
divino functus auxilio, salutifera exhortations coeptum tanti periculi
funditus exstinguit incendium : adeo ut pacatis alterutrum regibus ac
populis, nullius anima Iiominis pro interfecto regis fraire, sed débita
Solummodo mιdta pecuniae régi ιdtori daretur. Cuius foedera pacis
multo exinde tempore inter eosdem reges eorumque régna durarunt.
In praefato autem praelio, quo occisus est Rea: Aelfuini,” etc. Beda,
H. Eccl. iv. 21, 22.

² Will. Malm. Gest. Reg. lib. i.         ³ Flor. Wigorn. an. 694.

⁴ ÆtSelw. Chron. ii. cap. 10.             ^s Chron. Saxon, an. 694,

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