The new Constitution introduced by Cnut reduced the ealdorman to a subordinate position: over several counties was now placed one eorl, or earl, in the northern sense a jarl, with power analogous to that of the Frankish dukes. The word ealdorman itself was used by the Danes to denote a class, gentle indeed, but very inferior to the princely officers who had previously borne that title: it is under Cnut, and the following Danish kings that we gradually lose sight of the old ealdormen; the king rules by his earls and his Húscarlas, and the ealdormen vanish from the counties. From this time the king’s writs are directed to the earl, the bishop and the sheriff of the county, but in no one of them does the title of the ealdorman any longer occur; while those sent to the towns are directed to the bishop and the portgeréfa or præfect of the city. Gradually the old title ceases altogether except in the cities, where it denotes an inferior judicature, much as it does among ourselves at the present day.
[302]. In this sense the Sax. Chron. translates the word duces applied by Beda to Hengest and Hors, by heretogan: an. 448.
[303]. It occurs however in the document called “Institutes of Polity:” Thorpe, ii. 319: but these can hardly be considered authority for a strict legal use of words.
| Beorht ealdorman. Chron. an. | 684. | Dux. Beda, iv. 26. Flor. 684. |
| 699. | ||
| Æðelhun | 750. | Dux. Æðelw. ii. Flor. 750. Consul. H. Hunt. iv. |
| Beorhtfríð | 710. | Præfectus. Flor, 710. |
| Cumbra | 755. | Dux. Æðelw. ii. 17. Flor. 755. Consul. H. Hunt. iv. |
| Ósríc | 755. | Dux. Æðelw. ii. 17. Flor. 784. |
| Beorn | 780. | Patricius. Sim. D. 780. Consul et justiciarius. H. Hunt. iv. |
| Æðelheard | 794. | |
| Wor | 800. | |
| Æðelmund | 800. | Dux. Flor. 800. Consul. H. Hunt. iv. |
| Weohstán | 800. | Dux. Flor. 800. Consul. H. Hunt. iv. |
| Heábyrht | 805. | Comes. Flor. 805. |
| Eádbyrht | 819. | |
| Burghard | 822. | Dux. Flor. 822. |
| Muca | 822. | Dux. Flor. 822. |
| Wulfheard | 823. | Dux. Flor. 823. Consul. H. Hunt. iv. |
| Ealdormen | 825. | Duces. Flor. 825. |
| Dudda | 833. | |
| Ósmód | 833. | |
| Wulfheard | 837. | Dux. Flor. 837. |
| Æðelhelm | 837. | Dux. Flor. 837. |
| Herebyrht | 838. | Dux. Flor. 838. |
| Eánwulf | 845. | Dux. Flor. 845. |
| Ósríc | 845. | Dux. Flor. 845. |
| Ceorl | 851. | Comes. Flor. 851. |
| Ealhhere | 851, | 853. Comes. Flor. 851, 853. |
| Æðelheard | 852. | |
| Hunberht | 852. | Comes. Flor. 852. |
| Huda | 853. | Comes. Flor. 853. |
| Ósríc | 860. | Comes. Flor. 860. |
| Æðelwulf | 860, | 871. Comes. Flor. 860, 871. |
| Æðelred | 886. | Comes. Flor. 886. Dux. Flor. 894. |
| Æðelhelm | 886, | 894, 898. Dux. Flor. 894. |
| Beocca | 888. | Dux. Flor. 889. |
| Æðelwold | 888. | Dux. Flor. 889. |
| Æðelred | 894. | Dux. Flor. 894. |
| Æðelnóð | 894. | Dux. Flor. 894. |
| Ceólwulf | 897. | Dux. Flor. 897. |
| Beorhtwulf | 897. | Dux. Flor. 897. |
| Wulfred | 897. | |
| Æðelred | 901. | |
| Æðelwulf | 903. | Dux. Flor. 903. |
| Sigewulf | 905. | Dux. Flor. 905. |
| Sigehelm | 905. | Comes. Flor. 905. |
| Æðelred | 912. | Dominus et subregulus. Flor. 912. |
| Ælfgár | 946. | |
| Ordgár | 965. | Dux. Flor. 964. |
| Ælfhere | 980, | 983. Dux. Flor. 979. |
| Æðelmǽr | 982. | Dux. Flor. 982. |
| Eádwine | 982. | Dux. Flor. 982. |
| Ælfríc | 983, | 985, 992, 993. Dux. Flor. 983. |
| Birhtnóð | 991. | Dux. Flor. 991. |
| Æðelwine | 992. | Dux. Flor. 992. |
| Æðelweard | 994. | Dux. Flor. 994. |
| Leófsige | 1002. | Dux. Flor. 1002. |
| Ælfhelm | 1006. | Dux. Flor. 1006. |
| Eádríc | 1007, | 1009, 1012, 1015, 1016. Dux. Flor. in an. |
| Æðelmǽr ealdorman | 1013. | Comes. Flor. 1013. |
| Ælfríc | 1016. | Dux. Flor. 1016. |
| Godwine | 1016. | Dux. Flor. 1016. |
| Æðelwine | 1016. | Dux. Flor. 1016. |
The same thing is observable in the charters: thus Óswulf Aldormon, Cod. Dipl. No. 226, but “Dux et princeps Orientalis Canciae,” No. 256. Again the nobleman who in the body of the charter No. 219 is called Eádwulf ealdorman, signs himself among the witnesses, Eádwulf Dux.
[305]. The Roman Senatus, the Greek γερουσία, the ecclesiastical πρεσβύτεροι are all examples of a like usage.
[306]. Chron. Sax. an. 978.
[307]. I refer generally here to the doctrines of Eichhorn, Staats- und Rechtsgesch. i. 460. etc.; and to the works of the great German authors who have treated this subject and others connected with it, more especially to Dönniges, Deutsches Staatsrecht, p. 96 seq.