Next comes Eádgár, whose law commences in these words: “This is the ordinance which Eádgár the king, with the counsel of his witan, ordained, to the praise of God, his own honour, and the benefit of all his people[[524]].”
In like manner, Æðelred informs us that his law was ordained, “for the better maintenance of the public peace, by himself and his witan at Woodstock, in the land of the Mercians, according to the laws of the Angles[[525]].” In precisely similar terms he speaks of new laws made by himself and his witan at Wantage[[526]]. In a collection of laws passed in 1008, under the same prince, we find the following preamble[[527]]: “This is the ordinance which the king of the English, with his witan, both clerical and lay, have chosen[[528]] and advised;” and every one of the first five paragraphs commences with the same solemn words, viz. “This is the ordinance of our lord, and of his witan,” etc.
But far more strongly is this marked in the provisions of the council of Enham, under the same miserable prince. These are not only entitled, “ordinances of the witan[[529]],” but throughout, the king is never mentioned at all, and many of the chapters commence, “It is the ordinance of the witan,” etc. If it were not for one or two enactments referring to the safety of the royal person, and the dignity of the crown, we might be almost tempted to imagine that the great councillors of state had met, during Æðelred’s flight from England, and passed these laws upon their own authority, without the king. The laws of 1014 commence again with the words so often repeated in this chapter[[530]], and such also usher in the very elaborate collection which Cnut and his witan compiled at Winchester[[531]].
Now I think that any impartial person will be satisfied with these examples, and admit that whoever the witan may have been, they possessed a legislative authority, at least conjointly with the king. Indeed of two hypothetical cases, I should be far more inclined to assert that they possessed it without him, than that he possessed it without them: at least, I can find no instance of the latter; while I have shown that there was at least a probability of the former: and even Æðelred himself says, twice: “Wise in former days were those secular witan[[532]] who first added secular laws to the just divine laws, for bishops and consecrated bodies; and reverenced for love of God holiness and holy orders, and God’s houses and his servants firmly protected.” Again[[533]]: “Wise were those secular witan who to the divine laws of justice added secular laws for the government of the people; and decreed bót to Christ and the king, that many should thus, of necessity, be compelled to right.”
Is it not manifest that he, like Ælfred, really felt the legislative power to reside in the witan, rather than in the king?
3. The witan had the power of making alliances and treaties of peace, and of settling their terms.
The defeat of the Danes by Ælfred, in 878, was followed, as is well known, by the baptism of Guðorm Æðelstán, and the peaceful establishment of his forces in portions of the ancient kingdoms of Mercia, Essex, Eastanglia and Northumberland. The terms of this treaty, and the boundaries of the new states thus constituted were solemnly ratified, perhaps at Wedmore[[534]]; the first article of this important public act, by which Ælfred obtained a considerable accession of territory, runs thus[[535]]: “This is the peace that Ælfred the king, and Gyðrum the king, and the witan of all the English nation, and all the people that are in Eastanglia, have all ordained and confirmed with oaths, for themselves and for their descendants, born and unborn, who desire God’s favour or ours. First, concerning our land-boundaries,” etc. In like manner the treaty which Eádweard entered into with the same Danes, is said to have been frequently (“oft and unseldan”) renewed and ratified by the witan[[536]].
We still have the terms of the shameful peace which Æðelred bought of Olafr Tryggvason and his comrades in 994. The document, which was probably signed at Andover[[537]], commences with the following words: “These are the articles of peace and the agreement which Æðelred the king and all his witan have made with the army which accompanied Anlaf, and Justin and Guðmund, the son of Stegita[[538]].”
Many other instances might be cited, as for example the entry in the Chronicle, anno 947, where it is stated that Eádred made a treaty of peace with the witan of Northumberland at Taddenes scylf, which was broken and renewed in the following year: but further evidence upon this point seems unnecessary[[539]].
4. The witan had the power of electing the king.