Edward Freeman - The Growth of the English Constitution

Οὔτ' ἄρα Νυμφάων ταί τ' ἄλσεα καλὰ νέμονται,

Καὶ πηγὰς ποταμῶν, καὶ πίσεα ποιήεντα.

Besides the presence of the Nymphs in the divine Mycel Gemót , something might also be said about the important position of Hêrê, Athênê, and other female members of the inner council.

We find the mortal Assembly described at length in the second book of the Iliad, and indeed by implication at the very beginning of the first book.

We hear the applause of the assembly in i. 23 and ii. 333, and in the Trojan Assembly, xviii. 313.

On the whole nature of the Homeric ἀγορή see Gladstone’s Homer and the Homeric Age, iii. 14. Mr. Gladstone has to my thinking understood the spirit of the old Greek polity much better than Mr. Grote.

There is no need to go into any speculations as to the early Roman Constitution, as to the origin of the distinction of patres and plebs , or any of the other points about which controversies have raged among scholars. The three elements stand out in every version, legendary and historical. In Livy, i. 8, Romulus first holds his general Assembly and then chooses his Senate. And in c. 26 we get the distinct appeal from the King, or rather from the magistrates acting by his authority, to an Assembly which, whatever might be its constitution, is more popular than the Senate.

It is hardly needful to show how the Roman Consuls simply stepped into the place of the Kings. It is possible, as some have thought, that the revolution threw more power into patrician hands than before, but at all events the Senate and the Assembly go on just as before.

Tacitus, de Moribus Germaniæ, c. 7-13:

“Reges ex nobilitate; Duces ex virtute sumunt. Nec Regibus infinita aut libera potestas; et Duces exemplo potius quam imperio: si prompti, si conspicui, si ante aciem agant, admiratione præsunt… De minoribus rebus Principes consultant; de majoribus omnes; ita tamen ut ea quoque quorum penes plebem arbitrium est apud Principes pertractentur… Ut turbæ placuit, considunt armati. Silentium per Sacerdotes, quibus tum et coercendi jus est, imperatur. Mox Rex, vel Princeps, prout ætas cuique, prout nobilitas, prout decus bellorum, prout facundia est audiuntur, auctoritate suadendi magis quam jubendi potestate. Si displicuit sententia, fremitu adspernantur; sin placuit, frameas concutiunt. Honoratissimum adsensûs genus est, armis laudare. Licet apud concilium adcusare quoque et discrimen capitis intendere… Eliguntur in iisdem conciliis et Principes, qui jura per pagos vicosque reddant. Centeni singulis ex plebe comites, consilium simul et auctoritas, adsunt. Nihil autem neque publicæ neque privatæ rei nisi armati agunt.”

For a commentary, see Zöpfl, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtsinstitute , p. 94. See also Allen, Royal Prerogative, 12, 162.

See Norman Conquest, i. 95. The primitive Constitution lasted longest at the other end of the Empire, in Friesland. See Eichhorn, Deutsche Staats-und Rechtsgeschichte , ii. 265, iii. 158. Zöpfl, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtsquellen , p. 154.

Τὰ ἀρχαῖα ἤθη κρατείτω is an ecclesiastical maxim; rightly understood, it is just as true in politics.

See my papers on “the Origin of the English Nation” and “the Alleged Permanence of Roman Civilization in England” in Macmillan’s Magazine, 1870.

See Schmid, Gesetze der Angel-Sachsen , on the words “ wealh ” and “ wylne .” Earle, Philology of the English Tongue, 318. On the fact that the English settlers brought their women with them, see Historical Essays, p. 36.

On Eorlas and Ceorlas I have said something in the History of the Norman Conquest, i. 80. See the two words in Schmid, and the references there given.

On the Barons of Attinghausen, see Blumer, Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte der schweizerischen Demokratien , i. 122, 214, 272.

I cannot at this moment lay my hand on my authority for this curious, and probably mythical, custom, but it is equally good as an illustration any way.

This custom is described by Diodôros, i. 70. The priest first recounted the good deeds of the King and attributed to him all possible virtues; then he invoked a curse for whatever has been done wrongfully, absolving the King from all blame and praying that the vengeance might fall on his ministers who had suggested evil things (τὸ τελευταῖον ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀγνοουμένων ἀρὰν ἐποιεῖτο, τὸν μὲν βασιλέα τῶν ἐγκλημάτων ἐξαιρούμενος, εἰς δὲ τοὺς ὑπηρετοῦντας καὶ διδάξαντας τὰ φαῦλα καὶ τὴν βλαβὴν καὶ τὴν τιμωρίαν ἀξιῶν ἀποσκῆψαι). He wound up with some moral and religious advice.

Tacitus (Germ. 25) distinguishes “eæ gentes quæ regnantur” from others. And in 43 he speaks of “erga Reges obsequium” as characteristic of some particular tribes: see Norman Conquest, i. 579.

On the use of the words Ealdorman and Heretoga , see Norman Conquest, i. 581, and the references there given.

See Norman Conquest, i. 583, and the passages in Kemble and Allen there referred to.

See Kemble’s Saxons in England, i. 152, and Massmann’s Ulfilas, 744.

See the words driht , drihten in Bosworth’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.

To say nothing of other objections to this derivation, its author must have fancied that ing and not end was the ending of the Old-English participle. The mistake is as old as Sir Thomas Smith. See his Commonwealth of England, p. 12.

See Norman Conquest, i. 583, and the passages there quoted. I am afraid of meddling with Sanscrit, but it strikes me that the views of Allen and Kemble are not inconsistent with a connexion with the Sanscrit Ganaka . As one of the curiosities of etymology, it is worth noticing that Mr. Wedgwood makes the word “probably identical with Tartar chan .”

We read in the Chronicles, 449, how, on the first Jutish landing in Kent, “heora heretogan wæron twegen gebroðra Hengest and Horsa.” It is only in 455, on the death of Horsa, that “æfter Þam Hengest feng to rice and Æsc his sunu”; and in 488, seemingly on the death of Hengest, “Æsc feng to rice and was xxiiii wintra Cantwara cyning .” So among the West-Saxons, in 495, “coman twegen ealdormen on Brytene, Cerdic and Cynric his sunu.” It is only in 519 that we read “her Cerdic and Cynric West-Sexena rice onfengun.”

The distinction between Kings and Jarls comes out very strongly in the account of the battle of Ashdown (Æscesdune) in the Chronicles in 871. The Danes “wæron on twam gefylcum, on oþrum wæs Bagsecg and Healfdene, þa hæðenan cingas and on oðrum wæron þa eorlas .” It may be marked that in the English army King Æthelred is set against the Danish Kings, and his brother the Ætheling Ælfred against the Jarls. So in the Song of Brunanburh we read of the five Kings and seven Jarls who were slain.