(_For the Mirror_.)
Robberies and iniquities of all kinds were so uncommon in the reign of
Alfred, that it is said, he hung up golden bracelets near the highways,
and no man dared to touch them.
Earl Godwin, in order to appease Hardicanute, (whose brother he had been
instrumental in murdering,) made him a magnificent present of a galley
with a gilt stern, rowed by fourscore men, who wore each of them a golden
bracelet on his arm, weighing sixteen ounces, and were clothed and armed
in the most sumptuous manner. Hardicanute pleased with the splendour of
the spectacle, quickly forgot his brother's murder, and on Godwin's
swearing that he was innocent of the crime, allowed him to be acquitted.
The cities of England appear by _Domesday Book_, to have been at the
conquest little better than villages; York itself, though it was always
the second, at least the third city in England, contained only 1,418
families; Norwich contained 738 houses; Exeter, 315; Ipswich, 538;
Northampton, 60; Hertford, 146; Bath, 64; Canterbury, 262; Southampton, 84;
and Warwick, 225.
As the extreme ignorance of the age made deeds or writings very rare, the
county or hundred courts were the places where the most remarkable civil
transactions were finished. Here testaments were promulgated, slaves
manumitted, bargains of sale concluded; and sometimes for greater security,
the most remarkable of these deeds were inserted in the blank leaves of
the parish Bible, which thus became a register too sacred to be falsified.
It was not unusual to add to the deed an imprecation on all such as should
be guilty of that crime.
The laws of Alfred enjoin, that if any one know that his enemy or agressor,
after doing him an injury, resolves to keep within his own house and his
own lands, he shall not fight him till he require compensation for the
injury. If he be strong enough, he may besiege him in his house for seven
days without attacking him, and if the agressor be willing, during that
time to surrender himself and his arms, his adversary may detain him
thirty days; but is compelled afterwards to restore him safe to his
friends, and _be content with the compensation_.
The price of the King's head or his weregild, as it was then called, was
by law, 30,000 thrismas, near £1,300. of our present money. The price of
the prince's head was 15,000 thrismas; a bishop's or _alderman's_ HEAD
(quere, ought not the STOMACH to have been the part thus valued?) was
valued at 8,000; a sheriff's, 4,000; a thane's, or clergy-man's, 2,000; a
ceorles, or husband-man's, 266. It must be understood that when a person
was unwilling, or unable to pay the fine, he was outlawed, and the kindred
of the deceased might punish him as they thought proper.
Gervase, of Tilbury, says, that in Henry the First's time, bread
sufficient for 100 men, for a day, was rated at THREE SHILLINGS, or a
shilling of that age.
By the laws of Ethelbert, any one who committed adultery with his
neighbour's wife, was obliged to pay him a fine, AND BUY HIM ANOTHER WIFE.
The tenants in the King's demesne lands, in the reign of Henry II., were
compelled to supply, GRATIS, the court with provisions and carriages, when
the King went into any of the counties. These exactions were so grievous,
and levied in so licentious a manner, that at the approach of the court,
the farmers often deserted their houses, and sheltered themselves and
families in the woods, from the insults of the King's retinue.
John Baldwin held the manor of Oterasfree, in Aylesbury, of the King, in
soccage, by this service of finding litter for the King's bed, viz. in
summer, _grass or herbs_, and two grey geese; and in winter, _straw_, and
three eels, throughout the year, if the King should come thrice in the
year to Aylesbury.
Prince Henry, son of William I. disgusted at the little attention his
brothers, Robert and William, paid to him in an accommodation respecting
the succession to the throne, retired to St. Michael's Mount, in Normandy,
and infested the neighbourhood with his forces. Robert and William, with
their joint forces, besieged him in this place, and had nearly reduced him
by the scarcity of water; when the elder hearing of his distress,
permitted him to supply himself, and also sent him some pipes of wine for
his own table. Being reproved by William for his ill-timed generosity, he
replied, "_What, shall I suffer my brother to die of thirst? Where shall
we find another when he is gone_?"