Wulfgár pincerna, 1000[[236]].

Wigod regis pincerna, 1062[[237]].

The queen, as she had a dapifer, had also a pincerna: in 1062, Herdingus is reported to have held that office[[238]].

There can be no doubt that these offices were entirely Palatine or domestic, that is that they were household dignities, and did not appertain to the general administration. Only when the spirit and feeling of the comitatus had completely prevailed over the older free organization, did they rise into an importance which, throughout the course of mediæval history, we find continually on the increase. They were the grades in the comitatus of which Tacitus himself speaks, which depended upon the good pleasure of the prince: and with the power of the prince their power and dignity varied. The functionaries who held them were the heads of different departments to which belonged all the vassals, leudes or fideles of the king: and as by degrees the freemen perished away, and every one gladly rushed to throw himself into a state of thaneship, the trusted and familiar friends of the prince became the most powerful agents of his administration: till the feudal system having seized on everything, converted these court-functions also into hereditary fiefs, and rendered their holders often powerful enough to make head against the authority of the crown itself. As long as a vestige of the free constitution remained, we hear but little of the court offices: what they became upon its downfall is known to every reader of history. It seems to me improbable that Godwine, or Harald, or Leófríc or Sigeward should ever have filled them: these men were ealdormen or dukes, geréfan, civil and military administrators; but not officers of the royal household, powerful and dignified as these might be. It is probable that the first and most important of their duties was the administration of justice to the king’s sócmen in their various departments; from which in later times were clearly derived the extensive powers and attributions of the several royal courts: but as the intimate friends and cherished counsellors of the king, they must have possessed an influence whose natural tendency was to complete that great change in the social state, which causes of a more general nature,—increasing population, commerce and the disturbance of foreign and civil discord,—were hurrying relentlessly onward.

In various situations of trust and authority, either by the side of these officers, or subordinated to them, we find a number of other persons under different titles. Among these are the clergymen who acted as clerks or notaries in the imperial chancery. The Frankish court numbered among its members a functionary of the highest rank, and always a clergyman, from the very necessity of the case, who went by the name of Apocrisiarius, Archicapellanus, Capellanus[[239]], or at an earlier period, of Referendarius[[240]]; at a later again, of Archicancellarius, because he had a subordinate officer or deputy commonly called the Cancellarius. He was the head of those whose business it was to prepare writs and other legal instruments, and who went by the general names of Notarii or Tabelliones[[241]]. In a state which admitted of what are now called Personal laws, that is, where each man might be judged, not according to the law of the place in which he was settled, but that of his parents, that under which he was born,—where Frank, Burgundian, Alaman and Roman might claim each to be tried and judged by Frankish, Burgundian, Alamanic or Roman law respectively, whatever might be the prevalent character of the territory in which he was domiciled,—such an officer was indispensable. The administration of the customary, unwritten law of the Teutonic tribes might have been left to Teutonic officers; but what was to be done when a Provincial claimed the application to his case of the maxims and provisions of Roman jurisprudence? What was to be done when a collision of principles and a conflict of laws took place, and must be provided for? A clergyman, whose own nation, whatever it might be, merged in the Roman per clericalem honorem[[242]], must necessarily become a principal officer of a state which numbered both Romans and clergymen among its subjects; and hence the Apocrisiarius had a seat in the Carolingian parliament[[243]], as well as in the Council of the Household, and ultimately became the principal minister for the affairs of the clergy[[244]]. But no such necessity existed in England, where there was no system of conflicting laws, and where the use of professional notaries was unknown[[245]], and I therefore see no à priori probability of there having been any such officer as the Referendarius or Apocrisiarius in our courts. Nor till the reign of Eádweard the Confessor is there the slightest historical evidence in favour of such an office[[246]]: under this prince however, whose predilection for Norman customs is notorious, it is not improbable that some change may have taken place in this respect, and that a gradual approximation to the continental usage may have been found. The occurrence therefore of a Cancellarius, Sigillarius and Notarius among his household does not appear matter of great surprise, and may be admitted as genuine, if we are only careful not to confound the first officer with that great functionary whom we now call the Lord High Chancellor of the realm. We are told that, among his innovations, Eádweard attempted to introduce the use of seals; the uniform tenor of his writs certainly renders it not improbable that he had also notaries or professional clerks, and I can therefore admit the probability of his having appointed some faithful chaplain to act as his chancellor, that is, to keep his seal,—though not yet used for public instruments,—and to manage the royal notarial establishment. There are many persons named as royal chaplains; some, whose successive appointments to bishoprics appeared to our simple forefathers to encroach too much upon the proper and canonical mode of election. Among them are the following:—

Eádsige capellanus, 1038[[247]]
Stigandus capellanus, 1044[[248]].
Heremannus capellanus, 1045[[249]].
Wulfwig cancellarius,Eádweard,1045[[250]].
Reginboldus sigillarius,...... [[251]].
Reginboldus cancellarius,Eádweard,1045[[252]].
Ælfgeat notarius,...... [[253]].
Petrus capellanus,...... [[254]].
Baldwinus capellanus,...... [[255]].
Osbernus capellanus,...... [[256]].
Rodbertus capellanus,...... [[257]].
Heca capellanus, 1047[[258]].
Ulf capellanus, 1049[[259]].
Cynesige capellanus, 1051[[260]].
Wilhelmus capellanus, 1051[[261]].
Godmannus capellanus, 1053[[262]].
Gisa capellanus, 1060[[263]].

Eádweard’s queen Eádgyfu and her brother Harald had also their chaplains; Walther, afterwards bishop of Hereford[[264]], and Leófgár who preceded him in the same see[[265]], and who, being probably of the same mind as his noble and warlike lord, was no sooner a bishop than “he forsook his chrism and rood, his spiritual weapons, and took to his spear and sword,” and so going to the field against Griffin the Welsh king, was slain, and many of his priests with him. The establishment of chaplains in the royal household is, of course, of the highest antiquity; it is probable that they were preceded there by Pagan priests, and formed a necessary part of the royal comitatus in all ages[[266]].

Among the royal officers was also the Pedissequus or as he is sometimes called Pedessessor, whose functions I cannot nearer define, unless he were a king’s messenger. The following instances occur:—Æðelheáh pedessessor, who appears to have been a duke[[267]]: Bola pedisecus[[268]]: Ælfred pedisecus[[269]]. Eástmund pedisecus[[270]]. In Beówulf, Hunferð the orator is said to sit at the king’s feet, “ðe æt fótum sæt freán scyldinga.” (l. 994.)

In the year 1040, Hardacnut’s carnifex or executioner is described as a person of great dignity[[271]]. Other titles are also enumerated, some of which appear to denote offices in the royal household: thus we find Radulfus aulicus[[272]], Bundinus palatinus[[273]], Deórmód cellerarius[[274]], Wiferð claviger[[275]], Leófsige signifer[[276]], Ælfwine sticcere[[277]], Æðelríc bigenga[[278]]. It is uncertain whether the following are to be considered as regular members of the court, or whether their presence was merely accidental, on a particular occasion: Brihtríc and Ælfgár, consiliarii[[279]], Ælfwig[[280]] and Cyneweard[[281]] praepositi, Godricus tribunus[[282]], Aldred theloniarius[[283]]. Nor is it absolutely demonstrable that those who claimed consanguinity with the king formed part of his household, although they probably made their connexion valid as a recommendation to royal favour. “The king’s poor cousin[[284]]” seems at all events to have taken care that his light should shine before men, as we learn from the signatures, Ælfhere ex parentela regis[[285]], Leófwine propinquus regis[[286]], Hesburnus regis consanguineus[[287]], Rodbertus regis consanguineus[[288]], and similar entries.

But no such doubt applies to the household troops, or immediate body-guard of the king. These are commonly called Húscarlas, by the Anglosaxon writers, and continued to exist under that name after the Norman conquest. Lappenberg has very justly looked upon them as a kind of military gild, or association, of which the king was the master[[289]]. I doubt whether they were organized as a separate force before the time of Cnut; but it is certain that under that prince and his Danish successors they attained a definite and settled position. It is probable that this resulted from the circumstances under which he obtained the crown of England, and that the institution was not known to his Saxon predecessors: as an invader, not at all secure of his tenure, and surrounded by nobles whose previous conduct offered but slight guarantee of their fidelity, it became absolutely necessary to his safety to organize his own peculiar force in such a way as to secure the readiest service if occasion demanded it. This was the object of the Witherlags Ret, by which the privileges and duties of the Húscarlas were settled. Of this law Lappenberg observes:—“With greater probability may be reckoned among the earlier labours of Cnut, the composition of the Witherlags Ret, a court- or gild-law, framed for his standing army, as well as for the body-guards of his jarls. As the greater part of his army remained in England, the Witherlags Ret was there first established, and as the introduction of strict discipline among such a military community must precede all other ameliorations in the condition of the country, the mention of this law in its history ought not to be omitted[[290]]. The immediate military attendants of a conqueror always exercise vast influence, and these originally Danish soldiers (thingamenn, thingamanna lith, by the English called Húscarlas) have at a later period, both as bodyguards of the king and of the great vassals, acted no unimportant part in the country. They were armed with axes, halberds and swords inlaid with gold, and in purpose, descent and equipment corresponded to the Warangian guard (Wæringer), in which the throne of the Byzantine emperors found its best security. In Cnut’s time the number of these mercenaries was not very great,—being by some reckoned at three thousand, by others at six thousand[[291]]—but they were gathered under his banner from various nations, and consequently required the stricter discipline. Even a valiant Wendish prince, Gottschalk, the son of Udo, stayed long with Cnut in England, and gained the hand of a daughter of the royal house[[292]]. Cnut himself appears rather as a sort of grand-master of this military gild, than as its commander, and it is said that, having in his anger slain one of the brotherhood in England, he submitted himself to its judgment in their assembly (stefn) and paid a ninefold compensation[[293]]. The degrading epithet of ‘nithing’ applied to an expelled member of the gild, is an Anglosaxon word, which at a later period occurs in a way to render it extremely probable that the gild-law of the royal house-carls was in existence after the Norman conquest[[294]].”