These racial peculiarities also marked the early Saxon invaders, though there were no foreign witnesses to note them with surprise. The native writers took them too much as a matter of course to consider them worth noting. It is only indirectly that we can glean the state of affairs from public records. Samuel Heywood, in his “Ranks of the People among the Anglo-Saxons,” says (p. 2), “The word Cwen[[1]] originally signified a wife in general, but was by custom converted into a title for the wife of a king.... It was customary for Saxon monarchs to hold their courts with great solemnity three times a year. The Queen Consort, at these assemblies, wore her crown also, and was seated on a throne near the King. When an assembly of the nobles met at Winchester to adjust the complaints of the secular clergy against St. Dunstan, the King presided, having his Queen seated by his side (“Eadmer de Vita St. Dunstan,” 2 Aug. Sacra., 219)....”
[1]. “Cwen” originally meant a wife, but it also meant a companion or peer, hence in old French Histories we see it used instead of Count, as “Thibaut Cwens de Champagne.” In a roll in the Tower of London, Simon de Montfort is called “Quens of Leycester” (Selden’s “Titles of Honour”).
“The Queen Consort had her separate household and attendants....” “It is highly probable that in ancient as well as modern times the Queen Consort was considered as feme sole in all legal proceedings. Sir Edward Coke being called on to prove that this was the common law before the Conquest, produced a charter made by Ethelswurth, Queen of the Mercians, in the lifetime of her husband, giving away the lands in her own power, her husband being only an attesting witness. We find Queens Consort acting in all other respects as femes soles in tenure, management, and alienation of real property. Emma, Ethelred’s Queen, gave a munificent grant to St. Swithins, Winchester. Alswythe, the Queen of King Alfred, began to erect a house for nuns at Winchester, finished by her son Edward. Queens attested their husband’s grants, and recorded their assents to acts done and engagements made. Queens Dowager were also present, and subscribed their names to Royal grants as being content with them.”
Though, of course, the Royal rank increased the woman’s power, the law and custom for Queens was but the reflex of the common law and custom of the time for all women. Selden says, “Ladies of birth and quality sat in the Saxon Witenagemot,” and Gurdon, in his “Antiquities of Parliament,” vol. i., p. 164, adds, “Wightred, the next Saxon legislator, summoned his Witas to the Witenagemot at Berghamstead, where his laws were made with the advice and consent of his Witas (which is a general term for the nobility), for the laws were signed by the King, Werburg his Queen, the Bishops, Abbots, Abbesses, and the rest of the Witas” (see “Sax. Chron.,” 48). In Spelman’s “Concilia Britannica,” p. 190, we find also that Wightred’s council at Beconceld (694) included women, for the Queen and Abbesses signed the decisions along with the King and the Abbots (p. 192). The charter to Eabba the Abbess is granted by Wightred and his Queen (p. 486).
The charter to Glastonbury is signed, after the name of the King, “Ego Eilfgiva ejusdem Regis Mater cum gaudio consensi” (p. 533). In the “Diploma Comiti, Regis Angliæ,” after the King’s name, “Ego Emma Regina signo crucis confirmo.”
The second charter of Edward the Confessor to St. Peter’s at Westminster contains not only the signature of the sainted King, but “Ego Editha Regina huic donationi Regiæ consentiens subscripsi” (p. 631). And at the council summoned to consider the Bull of Nicholas the Pope to Edward the Confessor, after the King, signs “Ego Edgida Regina omni alacritate mentis hoc corroboravi.” The different expressions used, show that the signatures were no mere accident, no vapid formality.
In the council held to grant privileges to the Church “præsentibus etiam clarissimis Abbattissis, hoc est, Hermehilda, Truinberga and Ataba reverenda, ut subscriberent rogavi” (p. 198).
“King Edgar’s charter to the Abbey of Crowland (961) was signed with the consent of the nobles and abbesses, for many Abbesses were formerly summoned to Parliament” (Plowden’s “Jura Anglorum,” p. 384. Also William Camden’s “Antiquity of Parliament”).
“Ego Ælfrith Regina” signs the Charter that the King of Mercia grants to the Abbey of Worcester. “Ethelswith Regina” subscribes with Burghred, King of Mercia or Mercland, in the Register of Worcester.
Edward the Confessor’s charter to Agelwin is confirmed by his wife, “Ego Edgith Regina consentio.”