Archbishop Ælfríc, 996-1006, devised to the king, as his heriot, sixty helmets, sixty coats-of-mail, and his best ship with all her tackle and stores[[191]].
Ælfhelm paid four horses, two equipped, four shields, four spears, two swords, and one hundred mancuses of gold[[192]].
Wulfsige paid two horses, one helmet, one coat-of-mail, one sword, one spear twined with gold[[193]].
The majority of these cases belong to periods previous to Cnut’s accession, but they seem to imply an assessment very similar to his own. And in this view of the case, where the payment had become a settled amount due from persons of a particular rank, it became possible for women to be charged with it, which we accordingly find. In 1046 Wulfgýð commences her will by desiring that her right heriot may be paid to the king[[194]]: Æðelgyfu in 945 gave the king thirty mancuses of gold, two horses and all her dogs[[195]]: Ælflǽd left him by will her lands at Lamburnan, Ceólsige and Readingan, four rings worth two hundred mancuses of gold, four palls, four cups, four drinking-horns and four horses[[196]]: and lastly queen Ælfgyfu in 1012 left the king, six horses, six shields, six spears, one cup, two rings worth one hundred and twenty mancuses each, and various lands[[197]]. Taken in connection with the case of Wulfgýð, these bequests appear very like heriots. The heriots mentioned in Domesday agree with the details given above, and serve to show that the right had undergone no material alteration till the time of the Confessor[[198]]. That the Best-head or Melius catallum was paid to the king by his unfree tenants, as well as to other lords, is probable, but we have no instance of it[[199]]. By the law of Cnut, the widow was to have a reasonable time for payment of the heriot, and it was altogether remitted to the family of him who fell bravely fighting in the field before the presence of his lord.
It appears from what has been said in this chapter that the kings were provided very sufficiently with the means of maintaining their dignity: the benefactions which they were enabled to make out of the folcland relieved their private estates from the burthen of supporting the thanes, clerical and lay, who flocked to their service. Still there must have been a constant drain upon their possessions; and many of the regalia became lost to the crown by successive alienations. It is true that they were generally purchased at a high price, but in this case the king who sold them was the only gainer: he secured considerable sums for himself, but he impoverished all his successors to a much greater amount. The loans for which we occasionally find him indebted to his prelates, show how completely at times the crown had been pillaged, as well as who were the principal sharers in the plunder. The attempt to draw in lands and privileges which had once been alienated, was questionable in policy and harsh to the innocent holders; but it does not always seem to have been viewed impartially even by those least concerned; we may however now express our conviction that in many cases the alienations themselves had been made improperly and without sufficient authority; and, that if it was hard upon an abbot or bishop to lose what his predecessor had gained, it was very hard upon a king to be without what his predecessor had unjustly and often illegally squandered.
[27]. The names by which the King is commonly known among most of the Germanic nations are indicative of his position. From Þeód, the people, he is called þeóden: from his high birth (cyne nobilis, and cyn genus, i.e. generosus a genere), he is called Cyning: from Dryht, the troop of comites or household retainers, he is Dryhten: and as head of the first household in the land, he is emphatically Hláford: his consort is seó Hlǽfdige, the Lady. His poetical and mythical names need not be investigated on this occasion.
[28]. Be Wergyldum, Norðleóda laga, § 1. Myrcna laga, § 1. Thorpe, i. 186, 190: “Se wer gebirað magum ⁊ seó cynebót ðám leódum.”
[29]. Æðelred about 980, gives the following reasons for a grant made by him to Abingdon. During the lifetime of Eádgar, this prince had given to the monastery certain estates belonging to the appanage of the princes of the blood, “terras ad regios pertinentes filios:” these, on Eádgar’s death and Eádweard’s accession, the Witena gemót very properly claimed and obtained, handing them over to Æðelred, then prince royal: “quae statim terrae iuxta decretum et praeceptionem cunctorum optimatum de praefato sancto coenobio violenter abstractae, meaeqae ditioni, hisdem praecipientibus, sunt subactae: quam rem si iuste aut iniuste fecerint, ipsi sciant.” All the crown lands thus fell to Æðelred, he having no children at his brother Eádweard’s death: “et regalium simul, et ad regios filios pertinentium, terrarum suscepi dominium.” Having now scruples of conscience about interfering with his father’s charitable intentions, he gave the monastery an equivalent out of his own private property,—“ex mea propria haereditate.” Cod. Dipl. No. 3312.
[30]. Germ. xv.