[51]. The principal cases will be found in the following passages of the Laws: Eádw. § 1. Æðelst. i. § 20, 22, 26; iii. § 7; iv. §1, 7; v. § 11. Eádm. iii. § 2, 6, 7. Eádg. i. § 4; ii. § 7, etc.
[52]. Hloðh. § 9, 11, 12, 13, 14. Ælf. § 37. Æðelst. i. § 1; iii. § 4; v. § 5.
[53]. Æðelst. iii. § 3; iv. § 1.
[54]. Eád. Gúð. § 13. Eádm. ii. § 1, 6, 7.
[55]. Eád. Conf. § 12. Cross roads and small streams are not in the king’s peace, but that of the county.
[56]. This peace was called the King’s Handsell, “cyninges handsealde gríð.” The extent to which his peace extended around his dwelling, that is, within the verge of the court, has been noticed in the fourth chapter of the First Book. The right subsisted throughout the Middle Ages and yet subsists, though differently motived and measured. The king’s handsealde gríð was by Æðelred’s law made bótless, that is, had no settled compensation. Æðelr. iii. § 1.
[57]. Eádw. Conf. § 13.
[58]. “Æðelingawudu, Colmanora and Geátescumbe belong to these twenty hides, which I myself, now rode, now rowed, and widely divided off, for myself, my predecessors, and those that shall come after me, for an eternal separation, before God and the world.” Eádred. an. 955. Cod. Dipl. No. 1171. “Now I greet well my relative Mygod of Wallingford, and command thee in my stead [on mínre stede] to ride round the land to the saint’s hand.” Eádw. Conf., Cod. Dipl. No. 862. The force of the word berídan is very difficult to convey in words, but still perfectly obvious. Another difficulty arises from the word stede, which is properly masculine, but here given as a feminine. I think it impossible that it should mean stéde, a mare (i. e. on my mare), and prefer the supposition either that stede had changed its gender, or that the copy of the charter is an incorrect one.
[59]. There are cases nevertheless which seem to favour the supposition that a similar power was ultimately lodged in the king and, at least occasionally, exercised.
[60]. I may here say once for all, that I see no reason to doubt the authenticity of Asser’s Annals, or to attribute them to any other period than the one at which they were professedly composed.