In the following statement, collected from the several sections of King Alfred’s Laws for purposes of comparison and future reference, the amounts are stated in Wessex scillings of five pence.

Borh-bryce and mund-byrdBurh-bryceFightwite
(s. 3)(s. 40)
Of the king(5 lbs) 240 s.120 s.(s. 7) (in the king’s doom)
Of the archbishop(3 lbs) 144 s. 90 s.(s. 15) 150 s.
Of other bishops and ealdorman(2 lbs) 96 s. 60 s.(s. 15) 100 s.
Of do. in his ‘gemot’(s. 38) 120 s.
Of the twelve-hyndeman 30 s.(s. 39) 36 s.
Of the six-hyndeman 15 s.(s. 39) 18 s.
Of the ceorlisc man or twy-hyndeman 5 s.(s. 39) 6 s.

II. THE DIALOGUE OF EGBERT, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK A.D. 732-766. ECCLESIASTICAL OATHS AND WERGELDS.

There is a gulf of nearly two centuries in the West-Saxon evidence between the laws of Alfred and the ‘Dooms’ of Ine.[245]

We are taken at a leap, not only beyond all thought of the Northmen’s invasions, but also half a century behind another great epoch of European importance.

The Empire of Charlemagne formed a kind of watershed in Anglo-Saxon as in European history, and was marked, as we have seen, by a permanent change in the currency of the Western world.

Position of Northumbria before the time of Charlemagne.

The Courts of Offa and Egbert were intimately connected with the Imperial Court of Charlemagne, and the transition from the early Anglo-Saxon currency of sceatts to that of the heavier pence was a typical result of the influence of the Empire. It may be that the supremacy of Wessex under Egbert was indirectly another result of it.

The kingdom of Egbert did not extend over Northumbria, and Northumbria had its own independent connection with the Court of Charlemagne. It had its own mode of monetary reckoning in ‘thrymsas,’ and from the Northumbrian fragments already examined we have gained some glimpses into its ancient customs.