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in the battle-stead

at the conflict of banners

meeting of spears,

concourse of men,

traffic of weapons ;

that they on the slaughter-field

with Edward's

offspring played.

The North-men departed

in their nailed barks;
bloody relic of darts,
on roaring ocean
o'er the deep water
Dublin to seek,

again Ireland,

shamed in mind.

So too the brothers,

both together
king and etheling,
their country sought,
West-Saxons' land,
in the war exulting.
They left behind them,
the corse to devour,
the sallowy kite
and the swarthy raven
with horned nib,
and the dusky' pada,'
erne white-tailed,
the corse to enjoy,
greedy war-hawk
and the grey beast,

wolf of the wood.

Carnage greater has not been

in this island

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ever yet

of people slain,
before this,

by edges of swords,

as books us say,

old writers,

since from the east hither,

Angles and Saxons
came to land,

o'er the broad seas

Britain sought,
mighty war-smiths,
the Welsh o'ercame,

earls most bold,

this earth obtained.

The Saxon Chronicle (translated by J. A. Giles, London, 1847), 375-377.

The accom

panying document is

entitled the

"Rectitudines

Singularum
Person-

arum," or
"The Ser-
vices due

from Various Persons."

The Saxon

9.

Dues and Services from the Land in the
Tenth Century

Thane's Law

The thane's law is that he be worthy of his boc-rights, and that he do three things for his land, fyrd-færeld, burhbot, and brig-bot. Also from many lands more land-services version dates are due at the king's bann, as deer-hedging at the king's probably ham, and apparel for the guard, and sea-ward and headward and fyrd-ward and almsfee and kirkshot, and many other various things.

from the tenth century, and the Latin from the twelfth. It gives a description of the services

due from the thane to the

Geneat's Services

The geneat's services are various as on the land is fixed. On some he shall pay land-gafol and grass-swine yearly, and

ride, and carry, and lead loåds; work and support his lord, and reap and mow, cut deer-hedge and keep it up, build, and hedge the burh, make new roads for the tun: pay kirkshot and almsfee: keep head-ward and horse-ward: go errands far or near wherever he is directed.

Cottier's Services

On

lord,

The cottier's services are what on the land is fixed. some he shall each Monday in the year work for his and three days a week in harvest. He ought not to pay land-gafol. He ought to have five acres in his holding, more if it be the custom on the land, and too little it is if it be less because his work is often required. He pays hearth-penny on Holy Thursday, as pertains to every freeman, and defends his lord's inland, if he is required, from sea-ward and from king's deer-hedge, and from such things as befit his degree. And he pays his kirkshot Martinmas.

Gebur's Services

at

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tribute. Cottier = a

class of

geneats with

small holdings.

Inland = demesne or land reserved by the lord to his own use. Gebur Villain

=

proper, hav

ing a holding

of about

thirty acres.

The Gebur's services are various, in some places heavy, in others moderate. On some land he must work at weekwork two days at such work as he is required through the year every week, and at harvest three days for week-work, and from Candlemas to Easter three. If he do carrying he has not to work while his horse is out. He shall pay on Michaelmas Day x. gafol-pence, and on Martinmas Day xxiii. sesters of barley and two hens; at Easter a young sheep or two pence; and he shall lie from Martinmas to Easter at his lord's fold as often as he is told. And from the time that they first plough to Martinmas he shall each week plough one acre, and prepare himself the seed in his lord's barn. Also iii. acres bene-work, and ii. to grass- Bene-work: yrth. If he needs more grass then he ploughs for it as he special work.

=

is allowed. For his gafol-yrth he ploughs iii. acres, and sows it from his own barn. And he pays his hearth-penny. Two and two feed one hound, and each gebur gives vi. loaves to the swineherd when he drives his herd to mast. On that land where this custom holds it pertains to the gebur that he shall have given to him for his outfit ii. oxen and i. cow and vi. sheep, and vii. acres sown on his yard-land. Wherefore after that year he must perform all services which pertain to him. And he must have given to him tools for his work, and utensils for his house. Then when he dies his lord takes back what he leaves.

This land-law holds on some lands, but here and there, as I have said, it is heavier or lighter, for all land services are not alike. On some land the gebur shall pay honey-gafol, on some meat-gafol, on some ale-gafol. Let him who is over the district take care that he knows what the old landcustoms are, and what are the customs of the people. Rectitudines Singularum Personarum (cited in Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and English, F. Seebohm, The English Village Community, London, 1890, 129–133).

By ETHEL

RED II,

or ETHEL

RED THE
UNREADY
(†1016).
This oath was

taken at the
bidding of
Dunstan.

No. II shows how little it was kept.

10. Coronation Oath of Ethelred II (979)

In the name of the Holy Trinity, three things do I promise to this Christian people, my subjects; first, that I will hold God's church and all the Christian people of my realm in true peace; second, that I will forbid all rapine and injustice to men of all conditions; third, that I promise and enjoin justice and mercy in all judgements, in order that a just and merciful God may give us all His eternal favor, who liveth and reigneth.

Reliquiæ Antiquæ, II, 194 (cited in English translation by Kemble,
Saxons in England, London, 1849, II, 36).

II. King Ethelred and the Danes
(1006–1010)

A. 1006. . . . And then, after mid-summer, then came the great fleet to Sandwich, and did all as they had been before wont; they ravaged, and burned, and destroyed, wherever they went. Then the king commanded all the people of Wessex and of Mercia to be called out; and then they lay out all the harvest in the field against the army. But it availed nothing the more than it oft before had done: but for all this the army went wheresoever itself would, and the forces did every kind of harm to the inhabitants; so that neither profited them, nor the home army nor the foreign army. When it became winter, then went the forces home; and the army then came, over St. Martin's-mass, to their quarters in the Isle of Wight, and procured themselves there from all parts that which they needed. And then, at mid-winter, they went to their ready store, throughout Hampshire into Berkshire, to Reading: and they did their old wont; they lighted their war-beacons as they went. Then went they to Wallingford, and that all burned, and were then one day in Cholsey and they went then along Ashdown to Cuckamsley-hill, and there abode, as a daring boast; for it had been often said, if they should reach Cuckamsley-hill, that they would never again get to the sea: then they went homewards another way. Then were forces assembled at Kennet and they there joined battle, and they soon brought that band to flight, and afterwards carried their booty to the sea. But there might the Winchester-men see an army daring and fearless, as they went by their gates towards the sea, and fetched themselves food and treasures over fifty miles from the sea. Then had the king gone over Thames into Shropshire, and there took his abode during the midwinter's tide. Then became the dread of the army so great,

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