vi
PREFACE.
lightened will that must command our gratitude.
And with the blessing of the Almighty, they will
long continue to preserve them ; for our customs
are founded upon right and justice, and are main-
tained in a subjection to His will who hath the
hearts of nations as well as of kings in His rule
and governance.
It cannot be without advantage for us to learn
how a State so favoured as our own has set about
the great work of constitution, and solved the
problem, of uniting the Completest obedience to
the law with the greatest amount of individual free-
dom. But in the long and chequered history of
our State, there are many distinguishable periods :
some more and some less well known to us. Among
those with which we are least familiar is the oldest
period. It seems therefore the duty of those whose
studies have given them a mastery over its details,
to place them as clearly as they can before the eyes
of their fellow-citizens.
There have never been wanting men who en-
joyed a distinct insight into the value of our
earliest constitutional history. From the days of
Spelman, and Selden and Twisden, even to our
own, this country has seen an unbroken succession
of laborious thinkers, who, careless of self-sacrifice,
have devoted themselves to record the facts which
were to be recovered from the darkness of the past,
and to connect them with the progress of our poli-
tical and municipal laws. But peculiar advantages
over these men, to whom this country owes a large
debt of gratitude, are now enjoyed by ourselves.
PREFACE.
vii
It is only within eight years that the “ Ancient
Laws and Ecclesiastical Institutes ” of the Anglo-
saxons have been made fully accessible to usɪ:
within nine years only, upwards of fourteen hun-
dred documents containing the grants of kings
and bishops, the settlements of private persons, the
conventions of landlords and tenants, the technical
forms of judicial proceedings, have been placed in
our hands2; and to this last quarter of a century
has it been given to attain a mastery never before
attained over the language which our Anglosaxon
ancestors spoke. To us therefore it more particu-
larly belongs to perform the duty of illustrating
that period, whose records are furnished to us so
much more abundantly than they were to our pre-
decessors ; and it seemed to me that this duty was
especially imposed upon him whom circumstances
had made most familiar with the charters of the
Anglosaxons.
The history of our earliest institutions has come
down to us in a fragmentary form : in a similar way
‘ Ancient Laws and Institutes of England ; comprising Laws en-
acted under the Anglosaxon Kings from ÆtSelbirht to Cnut, with an
English translation of the Saxon : the Laws called Edward the Con-
fessor’s ; the Laws of William the Conqueror, and those ascribed to
HenrytheFirst; also Monumenta Ecclesiastica Anglicana, from the
seventh to the tenth century : and the ancient Latin version of the
Anglosaxon Laws. With a copious Glossary, etc. (By B. Thorpe, Esq.).
Printed by command of his late Majesty, King William the Fourth,
under the direction of the Commissioners on the Public Records of the
Kingdom. MDCCCXL.
2 Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici. Opera J. M. Kemble, M.A.,
vol. i. London, 1839 ; vol. ii. 1840 ; vol. iii. 1845; vol. iv. 1846; vol. v.
1847 ; vol. vi. 1848. Published by authority of the IIistoncal Society
of England.