Ethelwulf’s Second Charter of Grants.
Recital of the grant of Ethelwulf, king of the West-Saxons, to the Church of England, of a tenth of lands, etc. Grant by the same to Huntsige, the thane of land at Worthy, county of Hants, Easter, 22 April, 854.
Charter B.—“Wherefore I, Ethelwulf, by the grace of God, king of the West-Saxons, in the holy and most solemn feast of Easter, for the health of my soul and prosperity of my kingdom and of all the people by Almighty God committed to my care, with my bishops, earls and all my nobles, have resolved on a salutary counsel, that I have not only given the tenth part of the lands through our kingdom to Holy Church, but also have granted to our ministers placed in the same to enjoy them in perpetual liberty; so that such grant shall remain firm and immutable, freed from all royal services, and from all other secular services whatsoever.”
Here follows a statement that it had pleased Ælthstan, bishop of Sherborne, and Swithun, bishop of Winchester, with all those serving God, to agree that on every Saturday in each church five psalms shall be sung, and every presbyter shall sing two masses—one for King Ethelwulf and the other for the bishops and nobles, etc.
Then follows the date. “This charter was written in the year of the incarnation of our Lord 854, in the second Indiction, on Easter Day, in our Palace at Wilton.”
Charter B.—“Quapropter ego Æthelwulf gratia Dei Occidentalium Saxonum rex, in sancta ac celeberrima Paschale sollempnitate, pro meæ remedio animæ et regni prosperitate et populi ab omnipotente Deo michi conlati consilium salubre cum episcopis, comitibus, et cunctis optimatibus meis perfeci ut decimam partem terrarum per regnum nostrum non solum sanctis æcclesiis darem verum etiam et ministris nostris in eodem constitutis in perpetuam libertatem habere concessimus. Ita ut talis donatio fixa incommutabilisque permaneat ab omni regali servitio et omnium sæcularium absoluta servitute.”
“Scripta est autem hæc cartula, Anno Dominicæ incarnationis DCCCLIIII.; Indictione ii. die vero Paschali in palatio nostro quod dicitur Wiltun.”
Then follow the names of the king, two of the king’s sons, bishops Alhstan and Swithun, six dukes, two abbots, sixteen thanes.
This is found in Kemble’s “Codex Diplomaticus,” No. 1054, and he takes his text from the Codex Wintoniensis, MS. Brit. Mus., Add. 15,350, fol. 89.
Mr. Kemble marks this charter as doubtful, but Haddan and Stubbs remark: “This doubt lies on a very large portion of the charters contained in the Codex Wintoniensis. The above is, however, the best specimen of the class of charters which it represents.”[102]
Mr. Kemble thinks that Ethelwulf’s first grant in 844 does not refer to tithing in the legal sense of the term. The passages found in the ancient chronicles, as quoted above, refer, in his opinion, to two several transactions; one which took place in 854 (844?) before the king’s visit to Rome; the second in the year 857, after his return to England. “Ethelwulf,” Mr. Kemble says, “being humbled and terrified by the distress of wars and the ravages of barbarous and pagan invaders, devised as a useful remedy thus: he determined to liberate from all those various exactions and services, which went by the general name of ‘Witereden,’ the tenth part of the estates which, though hereditary tenure had grown up in them, were still subject to the general obligations of folcland, whether they were in the hands of laics or clergy; that when the estate amounted to ten hides, one was to be free; when it was a very small quantity, at all events a tenth was to be enfranchised; and as the greater part of this land was either in the hands of the clergy, or was very likely ultimately to come there, he granted this act of enfranchisement that on these estates the holders might be the better able to devote themselves to the services of God, all other services being discharged except indeed the inevitable three.”[103]
Mr. Kemble further adds, “Ethelwulf did three distinct things at different times:—
“(1) He first released from all payments, except the inevitable three, a tenth part of the folclands or unenfranchised lands, whether in the tenancy of the Church or of his thanes. In this tenth part of the lands, so burdened in his favour, he annihilated the royal rights, regnum or imperium, and as the lands receiving this privilege were secured by charter, the chronicle can justly say that the king booked them to the honour of God.[104]
(2) “The second thing he did was his giving a tenth part of his own private estates of book-land to various thanes or clerical establishments.[105]
(3) “And, lastly, upon every ten hides of his own land, he commanded that one poor man, whether native born or stranger, that is, whether of Wessex or some other kingdom, should be maintained in food or clothing.”[106] This is remarkable as the beginning of secular provision for the poor, a proof that there were poor in Anglo-Saxon times, which some deny, in order to show there was no need of a provision for them out of the tithes!
“Mr. Kemble’s views,” say Haddan and Stubbs, “of the several cartularies, and his interpretation of them, may be regarded as provisionally satisfactory.”[107]
Charter C.—Here is an abridgment of the charter given by William of Malmesbury, with altered date A.D. 855, November 5th, written at Winchester. I give only the grant, so that it may be compared with Charters A and B.
“Wherefore I, Ethelwulf, king of the West Saxons, with the consent of my bishops and princes, resolved on a salutary counsel and also a uniform remedy; viz., to give a certain portion of my land to God, the blessed Mary and all the saints, possessing it by a perpetual right; viz., the tenth part of my land, so as to be safe, protected and free from all secular services, and also from royal tributes, the greater and less, or from the taxes which we call ‘Witereden,’”[108] etc. Attention is drawn to the words in italics.