152
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book x.
which we attach to the word : one principal differ-
ence lies indeed in this, that the notion of territo-
rial influence is never for a single moment involved
in it. The kings are kings of tribes and peoples,
but never of the land they occupy,—kings of the
Westsaxons, the Mercians or the Kentings, but not
of Wessex, Mercia or Kent. So far indeed is this
from being the case, that there is not the slight-
est difficulty in forming the conception of a king,
totally without a kingdom :
“ Solo rex verbo, sociis tamen imperitabat” ɪ
is a much more general description than the writer
of the line imagined. The Norse traditions are full
of similar facts 2. The king is in truth essentially
one with the people ; from among them he springs,
by them and their power he reigns ; from them he
receives his name ; but his land is like theirs, pri-
vate property ; one estate does not owe allegiance
to another, as in the feudal system : and least of
all is the monstrous fiction admitted even for a
moment, that the king is owner of all the land in a
country.
The Teutonic names for a king are numerous
and various, especially in the language of poetry ;
many of them are immediately derived from the
words which denote the aggregations of the people
themselves : thus from Jteod, we have the Anglo-
saxon Jteoden; from folc, the Old Norse Fylkr;
but the term which, among all the Teutons, pro-
1 Abbo de BelIo Paris. Civit. Pertz, ii. 779.
2 Langebek. ii. 77. Dahlmann, Gesch. d. Danen, p. 51.
CH. ViJ
THE KING.
163
perly denotes this dignity, is derived from the fact
which Tacitus notices, viz. the nobility of the king :
the Anglosaxon cyning is a direct derivative from
the adjective супе, generosus, and this again from
суп, genus1.
The main distinction between the king and the
rest of the people lies in the higher value set upon
his life, as compared with theirs : as the wergyld
or life-price of the noble exceeds that of the free-
man or the slave, so does the life-price of the king
exceed that of the noble. Like all the people he
has a money value, but it is a greater one than is
enjoyed by any other person in the state2. So
again his protection (mund) is valued higher than
that of any other: and the breach of his peace
(cyninges handsealde fri,δ) is more costly to the
wrong-doer. He is naturally the president of the
Witena-gemot and the ecclesiastical synod, and the
supreme conservator of the public peace.
To the king belonged the right of calling out the
national levies, the posse comitatus, for purposes of
attack or defence ; the privilege of recommending
grave causes at least to the consideration of the
tribunals; the reception of a certain share of the
fines legally inflicted on evil-doers, and of voluntary
gifts from the free men ; and as a natural and rapid
consequence, the levy of taxes and the appointment
of fiscal officers. Consonant with his dignity were
The Old High Dutch word is Chuninc ; the Old Norse Konungr :
the Gothic equivalent has not been found, but certainly was Kuniggs.
ɪn Kent, Mercia and Wessex, the king’s wergyld was 120 pounds :
alf belonged to his family, half to his people.