Edward F. Rimbault.
IS THE DOMBEC THE DOMESDAY OF ALFRED?
I beg to propose the following "Query":—Is the Dombec, a work referred to in the Laws of Edward the Elder, the same as what has been called the Domesday or Winchester Book of Alfred the Great? I incline to think that it is not, and shall be much obliged to any of your correspondents, learned in the Anglo-Saxon period of our history, who will give himself the trouble of resolving my doubts.
Sir Henry Spelman, in his Glossary voce Dombec, calls it the Liber Judicialis of the Anglo-Saxons; and says it is mentioned in the first chapter of the laws of Edward the Elder, where the king directs his judges to conduct themselves in their judicial proceedings as on [Old English: thaere dom bec stand], that is, as is enjoined in their Dome Book.—"Quod," he continues, "an de præcedentium Regum legibus quæ hodie extant, intelligendum sit: an de alio quopiam libro hactenus non prodeunte, incertum est."
But this uncertainty does not seem to have attached itself to the mind of Sir William Blackstone; for in the third section of the Introduction prefixed to his Commentaries on the Laws of England, he informs us that our antiquaries "tell us that in the time of Alfred, the local customs of the several provinces of the kingdom were grown so various, that he found it expedient to compile his Dome Book, or Liber Judicialis, for the general use of the whole kingdom." This book is said to have been extant so late as the reign of King Edward IV., but is now unfortunately lost. It contained, we may probably suppose, the principal maxims of the common law, the penalties for misdemeanors, and the forms of judicial proceedings. Thus much may be at least collected from that injunction to observe it, which we find in the Laws of King Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred.—"Omnibus qui reipublicæ præsunt etiam atque etiam mando, ut omnibus æquos se præbeant judices, perinde ac in judiciali libro (Saxonice, [Old English: dom bec]) scriptum habetur: nec quidquid formident quin jus commune (Saxonice, [Old English: folcrihte]) audactes libereque dicant."
But notwithstanding this, it appears to me by no means conclusive, that the Dombec referred to in the Laws of Edward the Elder and the Liber Judicialis of Alfred are the same; on the contrary, Alfred's Liber Judicialis seems to have been known not under the name of Dombec, but under that of the Winchester Roll, from the circumstance of its having been principally kept at Winchester: and Sir Henry Spelman says, the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror was sometimes called Rotulus Wintoniæ, a similitudine antiquoris, from its resemblance to an older document preserved at Winchester. And he quotes Ingulphus Abbot of Croyland, who says, "Iste rotulus (i.e. the Domesday Book of William) vocatus est Rotulus Wintoniæ, et ab Anglicis pro sua generalitate, omnia tenementa totius terræ integre continente Domesday cognominatur." And the he proceeds, "Talem rotulum et multum similem; ediderat quondam Rex Alfredus, in quo totam terram Angliæ per comitatus, centurias, et decurias descripserat, sicut prænotatur. Qui quidem Rotulus Wintoniæ vocatus est, quia deponebatur apud Wintoniam conservandus," &c.
Here is nothing said of this work being called [Old English: dom bec]: neither does Spelman, in his enumeration of the works of Alfred, give the least intimation that any one of his collections of laws was called [Old English: dom bec].
We know, indeed, that Alfred compiled a code of laws for his subjects; but whether any part of them has been preserved, or how much of them is embodied in subsequent codes, cannot now be determined. Asser mentions that he frequently reprimanded the judges for wrong judgments; and Spelman, that he wrote "a book against unjust magistrates," but any complete body of laws, if such was ever framed by Alfred, is now lost; and that attributed to him in Wilkin's Leges Anglo-Saxon, is held in suspicion by most writers.
For these reasons, and considering that Sir William Blackstone's knowledge of English history was rather superficial, I incline to the belief, that the [Old English: dom bec] referred to in the laws of Edward the Elder, was some collection of laws made prior to the time of Alfred: this might clearly be the case, as Sharon Turner informs us that the Saxon laws were committed to writing as early as the commencement of the 7th century.