Historical Essays in connexion with the Land, the Church, etc

Front matter

HISTORICAL ESSAYS. Edinburgh: Printed by Thomas and Archibald Constable, FOR EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS. LONDON !.'.'. .** . . \ . . HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. : 2 3FE 72 ) CAMEEIDGE /_. . • . * . .^,1 . . MACM1LLAN AND CO. OLASGOW --Z^i-< . ■ . JAMES MACLEHOSE. HISTORICAL ESSAYS IN CONNEXION WITH THE LAND, THE CHUKCH &c. BY E. WILLIAM ROBERTSON AUTHOR OF "SCOTLAND UNDER HER EARLY KINGS." EDINBUEGrH: EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS 18 72. CONTENTS. PACE PREFACE, . V INTRODUCTION, vii STANDARDS OF THE PAST IN WEIGHT AND CURRENCY— PABT THE FIBST. I. THE ROMAN AND BYZANTINE POUNDS, . . . 1 II. TALENTS OF THE CLASSICAL ERA, .... 4 III. THE ROMAN CURRENCY, . . . . .11 IV. THE STIPENDIUM, . . . . . .14 V. EARLY BYZANTINE CURRENCY, . . . .18 NOTE A, . . . . . . .24 NOTE B, ....... 29 APPROXIMATE STANDARDS, ..... 32 TABLE OF WEIGHTS .36 PART THE SECOND.

I. EARLY SUBSTITUTES FOR A COINAGE, . . . 37 II. CURRENCY OF THE EARLY FRANKS AND THE HOUSE OF CAPET, ' . . . . . . .41 NOTE A, ....... 45 NOTE B, ....... 46 III. EARLY GERMANIC AND FRISON CURRENCY, . . 49 IV. NORWEGIAN AND IRISH CURRENCY, .... 52 V. MORABETIN AND EARLY SPANISH CURRENCY, . . CONTENTS. IV PAGE VI. EARLY ENGLISH CURRENCY AND STANDARDS, • «0 NOTE C, -07 NOTE D, .....-• 68 MEDIÆVAL STANDARDS, ..... 70 THE YEAR AND THE INDICTION, . . 76 THE LAND— I. THE ACRE, ........ 88 EL THE HIDE, ........ 92 III. THE LAND-GAVEL, ...... 102 IV. THE SHIRE, ....... 112 V. SCOTTISH MEASUREMENTS, . . . . .133 VI. IRISH MEASUREMENTS, ...... 143 VII. IRISH LAND-TENURE, ...... 152 VIIL THE TOSHACH AND THE THANE, . . . .100 CHAPTERS OF ENGLISH HISTORY BEFORE THE CONQUEST— I. THE KING'S WIFE, . . . . 166 II.

HANDFASTING, . . . . .. 172 in. THE KING'S KIN, . . . . . , .177 IV. DUNSTAN AND HIS POLICY, . . . . .189 NOTE A, ....... 200 NOTE B, ....... 202 V. THE CORONATION OF EDGAR, ..... 203 KOME, 216 NOTE A 253 NOTE B, 256 NOTE C 26st NOTE D, .261

Preface

. In the following pages I have attempted to throw some light upon various features of the past; and though obsolete Land Customs and Measurements, and Standards of Weight and Currency that have long ceased to be in use, possess but few attractions for the general reader, a certain familiarity with them may be of advantage in investigating the past. The use to which I have occasionally put them will appear further on. Some acquaintance, also, with other questions upon which I have touched, may be of assistance in enabling us, in the present age, to form a clearer conception of the differences separating us from our predecessors in the olden time, as well as of the similarities that unite us with them. Thus the community of a certain period, which is occasionally appealed to as a precedent, differed in many essential particulars from the popular conception formed of it.

It could never be revived in its original form, whether that were free or servile, without resuscitating serfdom (or something like it) in the latter case, or again reverting to the tie of kindred by which it was bound together, as long as its members continued to be full-free and independent. The theory that every man is born into the world with equal rights may, or may not, be correct, but it is a theory that would have been repudiated by every member of a free community, whether Adaling or Friling, with contempt. The equal division of a landed inheritance amongst the heirs again, in the modern acceptation of such a division, never could have existed in an age in which individual right in land was comparatively unknown ; for the heir who succeeded to his portion in the division could not have parted with it to a man of alien blood without

PREFACE.

. VI the consent of every member of his kindred who had a claim upon it as a joint heir. The right of the heir was not an individual right, with absolute " dominion," — a property in fee-simple, — but a joint-right, and liable to all the contingencies of a joint-right. An equal division of a landed inheritance between the heirs into separate properties, with absolute dominion, may, or may not, be right in principle, but it should be advocated on its own merits ; for it is little in accordance with the practice of the past, that would have ignored or discouraged the idea of a landed property in fee-simple, and entailed, as it were, the land, as a sort of common and inalienable property, upon the kindred. In the present volume I have confined myself to " the Land ; " further on I hope to touch upon " the Church," with which so much of the early history of our -islands is closely connected.

The sketch thrown together under the heading of " Rome" is necessarily very incomplete and imperfect, but its present form seemed to me to be preferable to distributing the conclusions at which I had arrived amongst a number of separate notes. Nethersealb Hall, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 15th Oct. 1871.