Charlemagne held Reichstage or Parliaments twice a year, in May and again in the autumn, for the general arrangement of the public business. The earlier of these was attended by the principal officers of state, the ministers as we should call them, both lay and clerical, the administrators of the public affairs in the provinces, and other persons engaged in the business of government. These, who are comprehended under the titles of Maiores, Seniores, Optimates, may possibly have had the real conduct of the deliberations; but there is no doubt that the freemen were also present, first because the general armed muster or Hereban took place at the same time,—the well-known Campus Madius or Champ de Mai,—and partly because we know that all new capitularies added to the existing law were subjected to their approval[[476]]. We may therefore conclude that they were still possessed of a share in the business of legislation, although it may have only amounted to a right of accepting or rejecting the propositions of others. The king had his particular curia, court or council, the members of which were chosen (“eligebantur”), though how or by whom we know not, from the laity and the clergy: probably both the king and the people had their share in the election. The Seniores, according to Hincmar, were called “propter consilium ordinandum,” to lead the business; the Minores, “propter idem consilium suscipiendum,” to accept the same; but also “interdum pariter tractandum,” sometimes to take a part also in the discussions, “and to confirm them, not indeed by any inherent power of their own, but by the moral influence of their judgment and opinion.”
The second great meeting comprised only the seniores and the king’s immediate councillors[[477]]. It appears to have been concerned with questions of revenue as well as general policy. But its main object was to prepare the business and anticipate the necessities of the coming year. It was a deliberative assembly[[478]] in which questions afterwards to be submitted to the general meeting were discussed and agreed upon. The members of this council were bound to secrecy. When the public business had been concluded, they formed a court of justice and of appeal, for the settlement of litigation in cases which transcended the powers or skill of the ordinary tribunals[[479]].
The general councils were held, in fine weather, in the open air, or, if occasion required, in houses devoted to the purpose. The ecclesiastics and the magnates, for so we may call them, sat apart from the multitude; but even they had separate chambers, in which the clergy could deliberate upon matters purely ecclesiastical, the magnates upon matters purely civil: but when the object of their enquiry was of a mixed character, they were called together[[480]]. Before these chambers the questions were brought which had been prepared at the preceding meeting, or arose from altered circumstances: the opinion of the members was taken upon them, and when agreed to they were presented to the king, who agreed or disagreed in turn, as the case might be. While the new laws or administrative regulations were under discussion, the king, unless especially invited to be present at the deliberations, occupied himself in mixing with the remaining multitude, receiving their presents, welcoming their leaders, conversing with the new comers, sympathizing with the old, congratulating the young, and in similar employments, both in spirituals and temporals, says Hincmar[[481]]. When the prepared business had been disposed of, the king propounded detailed interrogatories to the chambers, respecting the state of the country in the different districts, or what was known of the intentions and actions of neighbouring countries; and these having been answered or reserved for consideration, the assembly broke up. When any new chapters, hence called Capitula, had been added to the ancient law or folkright, special messengers (missi) were dispatched into the provinces to obtain the assent and signatures of the free men, and the chapters thus ratified became thenceforth the law of the land. Is it unreasonable to suppose that the proposals of the princes were also presented to the assembled freemen, the reliqua multitudo, in arms upon the spot, and that in the old German fashion they carried them by acclamation?
While the district whose members attend the folkmoot is still small, there is no great inconvenience in this method of proceeding. In the empire of Charlemagne attendance upon the Campus Madius, whether as soldier or councillor must have been a heavy burthen. Nor can we conceive it to have been otherwise here, as soon as counties became consolidated into kingdoms, and kingdoms into an empire. In a country overrun with forests, intersected with deep streams or extensive marshes, and but ill provided with the means of internal communication, suit and service even at the county-court must have been a hardship to the cultivator; a duty performed not without danger, and often vexatiously interfering with agricultural processes on which the hopes of the year might depend. Much more keenly would this have been felt had every freeman been called upon to attend beyond the limits of his own shire, in places distant from, and totally unknown to him: how for example would a cultivator from Essex have been likely to look upon a journey into Gloucestershire[[482]] at the severe season of Christmas[[483]], or the, to him, important farming period of Easter? What moreover could he care for general laws affecting many districts beside the one in which he lived, or for regulations applying to fractions of society in which he had no interest? for the Saxon cultivator was not then a politician; nor were general rules which embraced a whole kingdom of the same moment to him, as those which might concern the little locality in which his alod lay. Or what benefit could be expected from his attendance at deliberations which concerned parts of the country with whose mode of life and necessities he was totally unacquainted? Lastly, what evil must not have resulted to the republic by the withdrawal of whole populations from their usual places of employment, and the congregating them in a distant and unknown locality? If we consider these facts, we shall find little difficulty in imagining that any scheme which relieved him from this burthen and threw it upon stronger shoulders, would be a welcome one, and the foundation of a representative system seems laid à priori, and in the nature of things itself. To the rich and powerful neighbour whose absence from his farms was immaterial, while his bailiffs remained on the spot to superintend their cultivation; to the scírgeréfa, the ealdorman, the royal reeve, or royal thane, familiar with the public business, and having influence and interest with the king; to the bishop or abbot, distinguished for his wisdom as well as his station; to any or all of these he would be ready to commit the defence of his small, private interests, satisfied to be virtually represented if he were not compelled to leave the business and the enjoyments of his daily life[[484]].
On the other hand, to whom could the king look with greater security, than to the men whose sympathies were all those of the ruling caste; many of whom were his own kinsmen by blood or marriage, more of whom were his own officers; men, too, accustomed to business, and practically acquainted with the wants of their several localities? Or how, when the customs and condition of widely different social aggregations were to be considered and reconciled, could he do better than advise with those who were most able to point out and meet the difficulties of the task? Thus, it appears to me, by a natural process did the folkmót or meeting of the nation become converted into a witena gemót or meeting of councillors. Nor let it be imagined by this that I mean the king’s councillors only: by no means; they were the witan or councillors of the nation, members of the great council or inquest, who sought what was for the general good, certainly not men who accidentally formed part of what we in later days call the king’s council, and who might have been more or less the creatures of his will: they were leódwitan, þeódwitan, general, popular, universal councillors: only when they chanced to be met for the purpose of advising him could they bear the title of the cyninges þeahteras or cyninges witan. Then no doubt the Leódwitan became ðæs cyninges witan (the king’s, not king’s, councillors) because without their assistance he could not have enacted, nor without their assistance executed, his laws. Let it be borne in mind throughout that the king was only the head of an aristocracy which acted with him, and by whose support he reigned; that this aristocracy again was only a higher order of the freemen, to whose class it belonged, and with many of whose interests it was identified; that the clergy, learned, active and powerful, were there to mediate between the rulers and the ruled; and I think we shall conclude that the system which I have faintly sketched was not incapable of securing to a great degree the well-being of a state in such an early stage of development as the Saxon Commonwealth. At what exact period the change I have attempted to describe was effected, is neither very easy to determine nor very material. It was probably very gradual, and very partial; indeed it may never have been formally recognised, for here and there we find evident traces of the people’s being present at, and ratifying the decisions of the witan. Much more important is it to consider certain details respecting the composition, powers and functions of the witena gemót as we find it in periods of ascertained history. The documents contained in the Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici enable us to do this in some degree. In that collection there are several grants which are distinctly stated to have been made in such meetings of the witan, by and with their consent, and the signatures to which may be assumed to be those of members present on the occasion. Among these we find the king, frequently the æðelings or princes of the blood, generally the archbishops and all or some of the bishops and abbots; all or some of the dukes or ealdormen; sometimes priests and deacons; and generally a large attendance of milites, ministri or thanes, many of whom must unhesitatingly be asserted to be royal officers, geréfan and the like, in the shires[[485]]. From one document it is evident that the sheriffs of all the counties were present[[486]]: and in a few cases we meet with names accompanied by no special designation. Now it appears that a body so constituted would have been very competent to advise for the general good; and I do not scruple to express my opinion that under such a system the interests of the country were very fairly represented; especially as there were then no parliamentary struggles to make the duration of ministries dependent upon the counting up of single votes; and contests for the representation of counties or boroughs would have been as much without an object in those days, as they are important in our own; above all, since there was then no systematic voting of money for the public service.
Among the charters from which we derive our information as to the constituent members of the gemót, one or two appear to be signed by the queen and other ladies, always I believe, ecclesiastics of rank and wealth. I do not however, on this account, argue that such women formed parts of the regular body. In many cases it is clear that when a grant had been made by the king and his witan, the document was drawn up, and offered for attestation to the principal persons present or easily accessible. When the queen had accompanied her consort to the place where the gemót was held, or when, as was usual, the gemót attended the king at one of his own residences to assist in the hospitalities of Christmas and Easter, it was natural that the first lady of the land should be asked to witness grants of land, and other favours conferred upon individuals: it was a compliment to herself, not less than to him whom she honoured with her signature. But I know no instance where the record of any solemn public business is so corroborated; nor does it follow that the document which was drawn up in accordance with the resolution of a gemót should necessarily be signed in the gemót itself. It may have been executed subsequently at the king’s festal board, and in presence of the members of his court and household. The case of abbesses, if not disposed of by the arguments just advanced, must be understood of gemóts in which the interests of the monastic bodies were concerned. Here it is possible that ladies of high rank at the head of nunneries may have attended to watch the proceedings of the synod and attest its acts. Again, where the gemót acted as a high court of justice, which often was the case, a lady who had been party to a cause might naturally be called upon to sign the record of the judgment. The instances however in which the signatures of women occur are very rare.
Although the members of the gemót are called in Saxon generally by the name of witan[[487]], they are decorated with very various titles in the Latin documents. Among these the most common are Maiores natu, Sapientes, Principes, Senatores, Primates, Optimates, Magnates, and in three or four charters they are designated Procuratores patriae[[488]], which last title however seems confined to the thanes, geréfan or other members below the rank of an ealdorman. In the prologue to the laws of Wihtrǽd they are called ða eádigan, for which I know no better translation than the Spanish Ricos hombres, where the wealth of the parties is certainly not the leading idea. But whatever be their titles they are unquestionably looked upon as representing the whole body of the people, and consequently the national will: and indeed in one charter of Æðelstán, an. 931, the act is said to have been confirmed “tota plebis generalitate ovante,” with the approbation of all the people[[489]]; and the act of a similar meeting at Winchester in 934, which was attended by the king, four Welsh princes, two archbishops, seventeen bishops, four abbots, twelve dukes, and fifty-two thanes, making a total of ninety-two persons, is described to have been executed “tota populi generalitate[[490]].” On one occasion a gemót is mentioned of which the members are called the king’s heáhwitan, or high councillors[[491]]: it is impossible to say whether this is intended to mark a difference in their rank. If it were, it might be referred to the analogy of the autumnal meetings in Charlemagne’s constitution, but nothing has yet been met with to confirm this hypothesis, which, in itself, is not very probable.
The largest amount of signatures which I have yet observed is 106, but numbers varying from 90 to 100 are not uncommon, especially after the consolidation of the monarchy[[492]]. In earlier times, and smaller kingdoms, the numbers must have been much less: the gemót which decided upon the reception of Christianity in Northumberland was held in a room[[493]], and Dunstan met the witan of England in the upper floor of a house at Calne[[494]]. Other meetings, which were rather in the nature of conventions, and were held in the presence of armies, may have been much more numerous and tumultuary,—much more like the ancient armed folkmoot or the famous day which put an end to the Merwingian dynasty among the Franks[[495]].
That the members of the witena gemót were not elected, in any sense which we now attach to the word, I hold to be indisputable: elective witan ceased together with elective scírgeréfan or ealdormen[[496]]. But in a system so elastic as the Saxon, it is conceivable that an ealdorman, bishop or other great wita may have occasionally carried with him to the gemót some friend or dependent whose wisdom he thought might aid in the discussions, or whom the opinion of the neighbourhood designated as a person well calculated to advise for the general good,—a slight trace, but still a trace, of the ancient popular right to be present at the settlement of public business. To this I attribute the frequent appearance of priests and deacons, who probably attended in the suite of prelates, and would be useful assessors when clerical business was brought before the council. Generally, I imagine, the witan after having once been called by writ or summons, met like our own peers, as a matter of course, whenever a parliament was proclaimed; and that they were summoned by the king, either pro hac vice, or generally, can be clearly shown. Æðelstán, speaking of the gemóts at Greatanleá, Exeter, Feversham and Thundersfield, says that the consultations were made, before the archbishop, the bishops, and the witan present, whom the king himself had named: “Swá Æðelstán cyng hit gerǽed hæfð, ⁊ his witan, ǽrest æt Greátanleá, ⁊ eft æt Exanceastre, ⁊ syððám æt Fæfreshám, ⁊ feorðan síðe æt Ðunresfelda, beforan ðám arcebiscope, ⁊ eallum ðám bisceopan, ⁊ his witum, ðe se cyng silf namode, ðe ðǽron wǽron[[497]].” How these appointments took place is not very material, but as the witan were collected from various parts of England, it is not unreasonable to suppose that it was by the easy means of a writ and token, gewrit and insigel. The meeting was proclaimed some time in advance, at some one of the royal residences[[498]].
The proper Saxon name for these assemblies was witena gemót[[499]], literally the meeting of the witan; but we also find, micel gemót, the great meeting; sinoðlíc gemót, the synodal meeting; seonoð, the synod. The Latin names are concilium, conventus, synodus, synodale conciliabulum, and the like. Although synodus and seonoð might more properly be confined to ecclesiastical conventions, the Saxons do not appear to have made any distinction; probably because ecclesiastical and secular regulations were made by the same body, and at the same time. But it is very probable that the Frankish system of separate houses for the clergy and laity prevailed here also, and that merely ecclesiastical affairs were decided by the king and clergy alone. There are some acts in which the signatures are those of clergymen only, others in which the clerical signatures are followed and, as it were, confirmed by those of the laity; and in one remarkable case of this kind, the king signs at the head of each list, as if he had in fact affixed his mark successively in the two houses, as president of each[[500]].