In the days of heathenism, it must be remembered that England was
partitioned into several kingdoms, the size of which was regulated by
the might of their respective kings. Each tribe, or kingdom, was ruled
by a tribal chief, or folk-king. He was chosen by the tribe, and the
king-ship became in time practically hereditary. To maintain his power
he had to respect and keep the customs of his people. Without their
consent he could pass no law; he could touch no freeman's life or
heritage without consent of law, which gave the freeman the right of
defending his cause before his fellow-freemen; he presided, at regular
annual intervals, at the folk-moot, or tribal assembly, and at the great
feasts and sacrifices. Counsellors and wise men assisted the king with
advice. His marriages were the result of favourable and pacific
negotiations with other tribes. He was called upon to travel throughout
his kingdom and see that justice was properly administered and evil and
oppression suppressed. He was almost regarded as a demi-god, and his
crimes were supposed to be punished by the gods, who denied good seasons
and brought about other calamities. The king was allowed a little army,
or comitatus as it was called, of paid retainers, to maintain adequate
discipline, and to form his bodyguard. These kings, chosen by the people
at the tribal-moot, in heathen times were throned on the holy stone and
carried about on a shield, and in Christian times were consecrated. In
accordance with the extension of the West Saxon kingdom, which became
the kingdom of the English, the court increased. At the time of the
Conquest, a treasurer, a chancellor, and other officials looking after
the king's plate, clothes, and horses were added to the royal
household. When in addition to these were added the bishops, abbots, and
the aldermen, who had succeeded the tribal kings in the several "folks,"
or "shires," on their absorption into the West Saxon kingdom, the king
was recognised as the head of the Witema-gemot, or Concilium Sapientium,
as the "meeting of wisemen" was called. In the tenth century the king no
longer went about to get the consent of each folk-moot to a certain law,
but convened the heads of each shire-moot at some convenient central
spot. This convening of moots, or Mycel-gemot, became the Magnum
Concilium of the Normans, and in the thirteenth century developed into
the High Courts and Parliament. Beneath the shire-moots came the
"hundred-moots," and later on the "hall-moots." The origin of the
"hundred" appears, by some authorities, to be based on the military
organisation. It is supposed, in the first instance, to be a grouping of
a sufficient number of free homesteads to furnish at least one hundred
and twenty fully-armed freemen for war service, and to supply
full-qualified jurors for the cases of the district. This hundred-moot
was presided over by a lord or an hundred-elder, and discharged the
duties for the district much in the same way as the shire-moot did for
the county. It was a criminal and civil court with its grand jury,
and enforced the attendance of persons from each manor within the
hundred. When the king was absent from the shire-moot, the "ealdorman"
(alderman) of the shire presided, and to watch the royal interests was
nominated the "shire-reeve," or sheriff (scirgerefa), chosen from the
better class of the freeholders. We are told that the laws of England
were far in advance of those in France. In fact, the English had written
laws at the time of the Conquest, and the Normans had none. It hardly
seems credible that the conquered were, in some respects, more civilised
than their conquerors.
[Illustration: WELLS