EÁDWEARD, A.D. 1052, 1053.—A gemót, place unknown[[751]].
EÁDWEARD, A.D. 1055.—A gemót in London[[752]].
EÁDWEARD, A.D. 1065.—There was a great gemót at Northampton[[753]], Another was held at Oxford on the 28th of October[[753]], and lastly at Christmas in London[[753]]. At this Eádweard dedicated Westminster Abbey, and dying on the 5th of January, 1066, the assembled witan elected Harald king.
Having now completed this list, which must be confessed to be but an imperfect one, I do not scruple to express my belief that every charter in the Codex Diplomaticus, which is not merely a private will or private settlement, is the genuine act of some witena gemót: and that we thus possess a long and interesting series of records, enabling us to follow the action of the Saxon Parliaments from the very cradle of our monarchy.
[472]. This is not hypothetical or imaginary. The settlements in Iceland were positively made upon this principle, and by it the subsequent divisions of the land were regulated.
[473]. The Acts, if we may so call them, of an Anglosaxon parliament, are a series of treaties of peace, between all the associations which make up the state; a continual revision and renewal of the alliances offensive and defensive, of all the free men. They are universally mutual contracts for the maintenance of the frið or peace. Those who chose to do so, might withdraw from this contract, but they must take the consequence. The witan had no money to vote, except in very rare and extreme cases; consequently their business was confined to regulating the terms on which the frið could be maintained.
[474]. Germ. xi. xii. xiii.
[475]. What follows is abstracted from Hincmar, Epistola de ordine Palatii, as cited and commented upon by Dönniges, p. 74, etc.
[476]. “Ut populus interrogetur de capitulis quae in lege noviter addita sunt. Et postquam omnes consenserint, subscriptiones suas in ipsis capitulis faciant.” Pertz, iii. 115, § 19.