The Writings

The literature is religious; paraphrases of parts of the Bible, pious legends, saint’s lives and spiritual fantasies. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles is one exception. There is also “Beowulf,” the only complete survivor of the Germanic epics of the early Middle Ages. It relates many things which would not otherwise be known about the life of kings and of their followers. “Beowulf” portrays a society of heroic barbarians: courage, military prowess, loyalty and generosity are the qualities most powerfully illustrated. Personal loyalty and kinship are the main bonds; loyalty above all. It is an aristocratic society: a society of chiefs and kings, each with his hall, in which a company of followers can gather. “Beowulf” is dated to belong in the early eighth century, which would place just before the time of King Egbert.

The religious writings describe the ordinary people and their lives but it is from an outsider’s point of view. To better understand the common people, the physical remains of their lives have to be studied, and the oral stories and songs composed for the people, for minstrels to recite in the great halls of kings and lords. These stories and songs were passed down from minstrel to minstrel, refined and corrupted in the ways of human memory. Only a small proportion of them were ever committed to parchment, and only a part of those survives. Most people outside the clergy were not interested in book-learning. Kings were usually illiterate, but there were exceptions.

The Government

The king was not free of all restraint. He was expected to consult his counselors. Custom was supported by oaths made by a king at his accession, and sometimes by a solemn charter given by the king in exchange for his subjects’ support and allegiance. In days before standing armies or regular police forces, with no means of communication faster than a galloping horse, when roads were poor and could be impassable, a king had to rely on his people’s support if his government was to be effective.

England was the most governed country in Europe in the central Middle Ages because it had the most highly developed system of local government. In the hundred court and shire court, which were developed by King Egbert, royal officials met the local notables, and they decided the problems of a basic nature. The strength of local government is illustrated by the fact that the boundaries of the English shires were well established by the tenth century. The men whom King Egbert had as consultants were a small proportion of the population. It was only by consulting his witan and shire officials that he could hope to rule as well as to reign; only by visiting different parts of the country that he could hope to gain and hold his subjects’ loyalty.

The witenagemot, or witan, (Old English, “meeting of the wise men”) was a group of counselors who met to advise the king of judicial and administrative matters. Originally a gathering of all the freemen of a tribe, it eventually became an assembly of the ealdormen, or local chieftains, the bishops, other high civil and ecclesiastical officials, and sometimes friends and relatives of the king, but neither an elected nor a representative body. The witan deliberated on all new laws, made treaties, served as a supreme court of justice, authorized the levying of taxation and the granting of land, and raised military forces. Each of the several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had its own witan until the supremacy of King Egbert. Thereafter the witan of Wessex developed into an assembly for the whole country.

During King Egbert’s reign the kingdom of Wessex, and the other kingdoms in his domain, had been subdivided into shires. Meetings of the shire court were held under the leadership of an ealdorman, who held considerable administrative and judicial responsibilities. He led the shire levies in times of war and enjoyed a social status which was essentially equal to a bishop. The sheriff acted as the vital link between the king and the local authorities. He became the king’s chief officer in local affairs and would attend as the king’s agent within the territories, even of the greatest landed estates.

Local affairs came within the jurisdiction of the shire court, and at a lower level still were the monthly meetings of the hundred court. The hundred court was the ordinary local criminal court of the country. Its meetings were held once every four weeks in the open air. It had an immediate impact upon the common people more so than the shire court which met only twice a year. The hundred was mainly concerned with catching thieves and recovery of stolen property, especially cattle. King Egbert’s shire system and the courts, along with the witan, filled the needs of local government so well that these groups were still institutions of government after the Norman Conquest.

Security against attacks of warlike neighbors was a constant concern of King Egbert, and matters of defense and military expeditions would be discussed with his witan. The maintenance of an army, the apportionment of land, the payment of tribute from a defeated enemy, and the payment of tribute to Egbert, were important issues. With the written records came greater formality to a witan, and this happened because of the Church. Although the synod was a church council concerned only with the church’s affairs, their use of written records showed the advantages of writing decisions in a formal document.

Matters affecting the king’s lands and the land’s revenues were of great concern. The charters recording land grants are only part of documents which show the concern of the king’s council. The transfer of land to the Church reduced the royal revenues by exempting such lands for churches and monasteries. The defense of the kingdom might itself have been endangered because of the lack of land to endow the sons of nobility. The many remaining Anglo-Saxon charters deal either with gifts of land or with disputes about its ownership, and it is a certainty that this was one of the major concerns of the witan.

Winchester was the chief city for King Egbert and his dynasty. London had been the chief city of England since the Roman conquest, but neither was the “capital” of England. Government traveled with the king to his many residences, and the witan met where he summoned them. To the ordinary man kingship meant the person of the king, as he met him on his travels, in the hunting field, in solemn pageant and procession. When the ordinary man thought of the government he thought of the royal household where ever it was at the time.

The Royal Household

There is no precise list of those in the royal household in the time of King Egbert. In a later time clerks drew up a catalogue of the officials in the royal household. This document indicates that the number of household officials was carefully watched, and their wages only paid if they were performing their duties. It gives the impression that the king had a tight grip on the cost, and on the functions, of his household. This was a household of at least a hundred, ranging from the head of the departments, to the laundress.

The chancellor was head of the chapel and the writing office. Two stewards, called cupbearers, were in charge of the pantry and the kitchen. The butler supervised the buttery and cellar. The master chamberlain and treasurer between them controlled the royal chamber and the royal treasury, and for the audit department there was the exchequer. The constables looked after the royal army and the king’s horses. The chancellor was usually a leading cleric. The treasurer was sometimes a cleric, sometimes a layman. The other heads of departments were all leading nobles. The butler performed the ceremonial work of his office, but not the menial tasks. Each of these men had a staff that did the real work of their offices. The largest of all the departments was that of the hunting staff: four horn-blowers, twenty sergeants, various keepers of greyhounds and falcons, keepers of the royal pack, knight-huntsmen, ordinary huntsmen, a leader and a feeder of the hounds, huntsmen of the “trained pack,” and keepers of the small hounds, wolf-hunters, and archers. King Egbert’s household staff may have been smaller, but quite similar to what was included in this list.

King Egbert’s court was mobile, so the household included a tent-keeper for the royal pavilion. It was large, but had to be prepared for frequent travel on horse-back, with a train of wagons and packhorses. It was the center of government. It was the magnificent household of a great lord whose splendor must impress his visitors. It was also a domestic organization with chamber, pantry, buttery and kitchen. It was the headquarters of a war-lord, with constables and marshals to organize the troops.

Personal Allegiance

The most powerful bond in this new society was the principle of personal allegiance. It is the most dominant characteristic of early Anglo-Saxon society. Saxon chieftains and their retainers were so closely united in bonds of loyalty that any who sought safety by running from battle after the death of their chieftain would find lifelong reproach and infamy. The oath of allegiance which they had sworn to their lord required them not only to defend and protect him (even after he had fallen), but also to give to him the glory won by their own exploits.