The Anglo-Saxon Home: a history of the domestic institutions and customs of England, from the fifth to the eleventh century

Preface

. The materials which exist for a history of the social life of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers would not be abundant, even if they were all trustworthy ; but unhappily a large proportion of them cannot be so considered. We have a very valuable codection of laws, the bulk of which are of undoubted authenticity ; and we have an immense number of charters, of which a considerable proportion are known to be forgeries, and a still greater number are regarded with suspicion. We also possess numerous chronicles and histories which were written at a very early period ; but the majority of them have been more or less discredited by modern criticism. They nevertheless afford a great amount of valuable information, though the numerous errors they contain, particularly as to names and dates, prove that they cannot always be im pbcitly relied upon.

These inaccuracies, however, are of more importance to the historian and biographer than to the student of social history. This may be explained by an dlustration. Let us suppose that we find in the legislation of a particular century numerous laws punish ing the crime of stabbing men when drinking, and that we find in the chronicles of the same period three or

PREFACE.

. four accounts of kings or princes who were stabbed when drinking by a step-mother, brother, or courtier, at times and places which are mentioned. In each of these stories a critic might possibly point out an error as to a date, place, or person. This would much inconvenience a writer of biography ; but to the student of the history of society, who values the story solely as a confirmation of what be had already learnt from other sources, viz., that a particular vice was remarkably prevalent in a particular century, the errors of detail are of minor consequence. The chronicles may therefore often be used as evidence of general customs, when they cannot be relied on to prove particular facts. In those instances in which the chronicler lived at the period of which he wrote, and was generally believed and respected by his cotemporaries and immediate suc cessors (as was the case with Bede), it is comparatively immaterial, for the purpose of forming an opinion as to the manners of the time, whether his anecdotes are true or false.

It is enough that they were so consistent with what was then deemed probable, that no one at that time doubted their truth. We also possess some Anglo-Saxon poetry. One poem, that of Beowulf, throws light on the customs of an almost pre-historic period ; and some of the shorter poems (published in the Codex Exoniensis), such as The Scoffs Tale, and The Fortunes of Men, are useful to the student of social history. The illustrations of MSS. have proved of great service to writers on domestic manners, architecture, furniture, costume, and sports and pastimes ; and a very important

PREFACE.

. III amount of information has been derived from the numerous collections of antiquities which have been formed in various places ; but where, as in these pages, the main object of the writer is to trace the history of domestic civilisation, laws and legal documents are by far the most trustworthy and valuable evidence. The work most frequently referred to in such of the following chapters as discuss the relative position of hus band and wife, parent and child, master and servant, differences of rank, and vices and virtues, is The Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, published by the Becord Commissioners. Next in value, I am inclined to place The Codex Diplomaticus Anglo-Saxonum, edited by the late Mr. Kemble. The Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, also published by the Becord Commissioners, is a work of great value.

These works relate exclusively to England, and they furnish us with a more valuable amount of knowledge than can be derived from any other source. They do not, however, contain a full exposition of the laws and customs of England. They are merely fragments, and on many important matters their teaching is scanty and obscure. I have occasionally endeavoured to supply from the laws of the Northmen (or Danes), and from those of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians of the continent, some of the information which is not con tained in our own ; but I have only clone so in those cases in which our own and continental customs were substantially the same. It was by the Danes that the eastern and northern

PREFACE.

. IV parts of this country were conquered, and permanently occupied, and Danish monarchs for many years sat on the throne of England. The Danish settlers preserved and most jealously defended their native laws and customs, and were governed by the Dane-lagh, and not by the English law, down to, if not after, the time of the Norman Conquest. The other tribes named, though the laws of all were substantially the same, retained their local customs in the different districts in which they settled ; and through many centuries we read of the laws of Wessex, Kent, Northumbria, and Mercia, as distinguished from one an other. When, therefore, our knowledge of the customs of the Danish and Teutonic colonists who settled here is scanty or obscure, we may fairly endeavour to supply the deficiency by a reference to the institutions of the countries whence they came.

In addition to the codes of the tribes already named, we possess the laws of several cognate nations, includino those who formed the empire of Charlemagne, of the Franks, the Lombards, the Wisigoths, and others. Ad these codes are curiously alike, though they differ in matters of detad, and occasionady, though very rarely, in matters of great importance.1 I will add but one other observation on this subject. The whole of the ancient laws of all these nations and tribes, though usually enacted by the kings and public l I think that the most important bards and others relating to the differences are the laws of the Saliau judicial combat. Neither of these Franks restricting the inheritance of laws ever prevailed in An»-lo-Saxon women, aud the laws of the Lorn- England.

PREFACE.

. V assemblies, were reduced into writing by the clergy, who in so doing modified them very considerably; and this they always did with a view to reduce them to accord ance with the civd law of Borne, and the canon law of the church. They also borrowed their legal phraseology from these sources. As the ecclesiastical regulations introduced into this country by the Christian clergy were ad based on the teaching of the catholic church, no apology is necessary for a reference to foreign councils as evidence of their meaning. To the chapters devoted to the main topic of this work, viz., the history of domestic civilisation, I have added a few others to complete the picture of domestic life in England from the fifth to the eleventh century. I should have added a chapter on domestic manners and architec ture, but this subject has been lately treated at length by my friend Mr. Thomas Wright.1 I avail myself of the opportunity which a preface affords, to express my obligations to him for his careful perusal of the following pages prior to their publication, for many valuable sug gestions, and for the assistance he has afforded me in passing them through the press.

I have in the appendix given a glossary of the few technical terms with which I have been unable to dispense. J. T. 7, Warwick Square, S.W. April 21, 18G2. 1 Histonj of Domestic Manners and Sentiments of England during the Middle Aijes, by Thomas Wright, F.S.A.' CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction ...... 1

Chapter 1

Tub Wipe. Sentiment . . . . . .19 The mode of seeking and obtaining a wife . . 21 Restrictions on marriage . . . . .28 Marriage ceremonies . . . . .42 Espousals . . . . . . .45 The marriage contract . . . . .50 Divorce . . . . . . .62 Matrimonial rights . . . . .68 2. The Child. Infanticide ....... 77 Baptism . . . . ... 87 Imposition of names . . . . .89 Education ....... 92 The parent's authority ..... 106 Liabilities of infants ..... 109 3. The Slave . . 118 b CONTENTS. VIII 4. The Freeman ....••• 1^1 Private war ...••• '■'*" The lord and his man . . . • .155 Guilds . . . . • ■ -160 Public lands . . . • • .169 Political rights . . . . • .170 The hair symbolical of freedom . . . .173 5. The Noble . . . . . ■ .178 6. The Priest ....... 193 7. The Monk . . . . . . .205 8. The Nun . . . . . . .225 9.

The Pilgrim . . . . . . .236 10. Penances . . . . . . .253 11. Superstitions. Primitive creed ...... 261 Conversion ...... 265 Mixed superstitions and observances . . . 267 Magic and witchcraft ..... 269 Ordeals ....... 278 12. Vices and Virtues. Honesty . . ... . . . 285 Temperance ...... 293 Hospitality .... . 302 Valour ....... 310 Cruelty ....... 315 Chastity . . . . , . .318 13. Poetry. The primitive poetry . . . 322 Development of poetry . . qoq CONTENTS. ix 14. Music. Ecclesiastic music ...... 336 Secular music ...... 340 15. The Gleeman ....... 346 16. Sports and Pastimes. Hunting . . . . . . .361 Hawking . ... . . ... 373 Fishing ....... 375 Swimming, skating, and boating .... 378 Domestic animals ...... 379 Dancing and tumbling ..... 384 In-door amusements ..... 386 Facetiæ ....... 391 17. Burial . . . . . . . .397 Glossary ........

Introduction

It is the object of the following pages to give a true picture of the domestic fife of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, and in so doing to trace the gradual development among them of the domestic affections and of the morals and manners of private life. / There are numerous works by distinguished writers on the history of the Anglo-Saxon Church, and on its theological opinions. There are also many, by scholars of no less eminence, exclusively devoted to the political state of our ancient commonwealth. The literature of the period has been examined and idustrated with the greatest learning and abdity ; and its civil and military annals have been traced and criticised in ad the most famous histories of England. There is not, however, to the best of my belief, any work devoted to the history of the Anglo-Saxon home.

It is true that, in most of the standard histories of the Anglo-Saxons, a chapter will be found giving an account of their " manners and customs " ; but as this is merely accessory to the main object of the work, it is naturady very brief and generady very scanty. There is usuady some account of what is called the social condition of the B Anglo-Saxons, but no attempt has been made to point out the different eras of civilization through which the morals and manners of the people • passed. There is, in fact, no history of their social development; yet there was as much difference between the morals and manners of the time of Hengist and Horsa and those of the reisn of Edward the Confessor, as between the cus toms of England under Henry VII and those of the present day. To describe them generally, without refer ence to any particular period, is to pourtray a social state, which, existing partly in one age and partly in another, had as a whole no existence at all.

Some slight perception of this difficulty appears to have occurred to the mind of the anonymous author of a de servedly popular history ; as he states, in effect, that it is unnecessary to attempt to trace the social advance of the Anglo-Saxon people, seeing that they never made any such advance worthy of notice. If, however, we bear in mind that they passed from a state of society in which women were bought by their husbands, and had no legal protection of life or limb, to one in which the sex occupied a position of freedom and security, not inferior to that which it enjoys at the present day ; from an age when infanticide was lawful and chddren might be legady sold, to one in which they were nearly as carefully tended as they are now ; from a state of barbarism in which domestic servants could be slain at pleasure, and when every man had a right to wage private war on whom he pleased, to a period when the lives and property even of slaves were duly protected, and when law and morality had put an end to wdiat was at first a state of incessant bloodshed : it is difficult to comprehend how it can be said that there was no social progress. And if to these considerations we add, that we can follow the religious history of the Anglo-Saxon from

INTRODUCTION.

. 3 the time of his being an ignorant and bloodthirsty heathen to his state of demi-conversion, and thence untd he be came an enlightened Christian, there can be no doubt of the fact that an immense advance in civilization, morality, and religion, took place during the six centuries which elapsed between the arrival of Hengist the Saxon and that of William the Norman.1 In tracing the social progress made during this long period, it may be convenient to divide it into three eras, and briefly to point out the characteristics which distinguished each of them. It must be admitted that we can not fix the exact limit when any of them commenced or ended, yet their duration may be easdy explained in general terms. The first may be caded the early Saxon, the second the Saxon-Danish, and the third the Saxon- Norman period.

The first of these periods would occupy the time when the colonists from the mouth of the Elbe were arriving in ever increasing numbers on the southern and eastern coasts, and were gradually reducing the natives under their subjection. This period would extend from the arrival of Hengist and Horsa in the middle of the fifth century to the youth of king Egbert or the end of the eighth. The second era would embrace the years that elapsed between the habitual invasions of the Danes and their final and peaceful settlement in the country, or from a.d. 787 to the reign of Cnut. The third or Norman period of Anglo- Saxon history would be that comprised between the time of Cnut's death and the Norman conquest. 1 " ' Saxons' is another vague word, which has probably concealed as much ignorance as any word except Druids.

It generally means con fusedly all Englishmen who lived be tween 445 and 1066 — that is, during a space as long as that which separates us from Henry III. Most peo ple seem to believe that ' all the Saxons,' like ' all the ancients,' lived at once, and that Hengist and Harold may have been most intimate friends." — Saturday Review, April 27, 1861. b2 These three eras were marked by decided differences in manners and morals, and by equally marked distinctions in laws and language. The exact period at which the inhabitants of Northern Germany and the islands at the mouth of the Elbe first began to colonise this country is not known ; but it is certain that long before the famous migration under the leadership of Hengist and Horsa, the Teutonic peoples had formed settlements on the northern and eastern coasts of England and in the northern parts of France.

It is probable that their visits first took place at least three or four hundred years prior to this era, and that at their earbest coming they arrived either in single famibes or in smad numbers. There is no reason for supposing that they were then otherwise than welcome guests. There were in the south and east of England hundreds of mdes of uncleared forest, there were boundless marshes which any one might use fudy drain, and broad and fertile plains which no one occupied. To these the stranger was welcome, for in taking them he deprived no man of anything ; and his labours in clearing and cultivating the soil tended to the good of the community. He might also have been wel come in the Boman towns, where the number of Boman colonists was rapidly decreasing, and in need of recruits from abroad.

At that time the arrival of the Saxon was rather a benefit than a disadvantage, and there can be no doubt that the Anglo-Boman and Anglo-Saxon races at first intermingled in a friendly spnit.1 But the number of the emigrants constantly and rapidly increased, and they came in larger companies, while the quantity of 1 At Canterbury, Colchester, Roburial ground at Osengal in the Isle Chester, and other places, we find of Thanet, a Roman interment in a Roman and Saxon interments in the leaden coffin was met with. Wright's same cemetery ; and in an extensive Celt, Roman, and Saxon, p. 392?

INTRODUCTION.

. 5 unoccupied land as rapidly diminished ; and visits, that were at first innocuous, soon became not only unwel come, but aggressive. The Saxon came hither to settle, peaceably if he could ; but if not, still to settle. It was absolutely necessary that he should possess land, and if he could not obtain it by amicable means, he must take it by force. The necessities of this position immediately placed him in a state of antagonism to the previous in habitants, and in one of open warfare with their Boman governors.1 It is, therefore, not surprising to find that long before the abandonment of this country by the Bomans, these immigrants had given the Imperial Go vernment so much trouble, that a mditary officer of high rank had been specially appointed, with the title of "count of the Saxon shore" in Britain, for the protection of the eastern and southern coasts and the control of the Saxon system of forcible colonization.

The period during which this system was carried on is, however, for the purposes of social history, almost pre historic ; for we have no materials for a description of the social fife of the inhabitants of these realms prior to the middle of the fifth century. At that time vast numbers of persons migrated from the coasts of the German ocean, from the mouths of the Elbe, the Eider, and the Bhine, and from Holstein, Hodand, Zealand, Westphalia, Saxony, and countries even further north, to these shores. All these, though composed of different tribes, were of cognate origin ; and after their arrival received the general designation of Anglo-Saxons.2 The three most powerful bodies, of which they were composed, were the old Saxons, who inhabited the southern parts of Holstein ; the Angles from the Baltic 1 Zosimus, lib. vi, c. 6. saex, sœx, saks, a sort of long knife 3 They are said, by some writers, or sword, which they always carried to have been called Saxons from sax, on their persons. shores of the same duchy ; and the Jutes from Jutland.

It is sometimes pretended that these tribes were distin guished by many and marked differences of laws and customs, but the instances quoted are rather diversities of language or dialect than of pobtical or social institutions.1 On then* settlement in this country the Angles are sup posed to have taken possession of the northern and eastern counties, the Jutes to have settled in Kent and the Isle of Wight, and the Saxons to have selected the southern and south-western shores ; but of whatever tribes they were, and in whatever part they settled, they systematically paved the way for the arrival of more numerous and powerful bodies of their race. When the followers of Hengist and Horsa landed in Kent they found a Teutonic population ready to receive them, and had no difficulty in founding in that country the first of the kingdoms of the Octarchy.

Hengist (for Horsa was kided soon after his arrival)2 became king of Kent in a.d. 473, and about twenty years afterwards, according to the traditions handed down to us by the Anglo-Saxon annalists, Ella founded the Saxon kingdom of Sussex. The tide of invasion seems to have swept along the southern coast ; and the next kingdom in order of date was Wessex, destined to be the division of the conquered territory which, through Cerdic, and his descendants, Ecgbert, Alfred the Great, and Athelstan, gave to the 1 The fact so much insisted on, that Kent is divided into "lathes" while other English shires were di vided into " hundreds " or wapen takes, does not seem to me very ma terial, as they were all originally divisions for military purposes. The existence of the Jutish law of gavel kind in Kent, whereby the land descends to all the sons equally, in lieu of to the eldest son, and whereby the heir becomes of age at fifteen instead of at twenty-one, is instanced by Dr. Lappenberg : and this would have been important evidence had it not been the universal law of Eng land prior to the Conquest. Selden, Analect, 1. ii, c. 7. 2 Nennii Historia Britannorum, c.

INTRODUCTION.

. whole of England a series of kings, from whom the reigning monarch of this country derives her title to the British crown. Having, according to these same traditions, occupied nearly the whole of the southern coasts, the invaders attacked the eastern shores, where they also found large bodies of their fellow countrymen. In Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Ely, was founded the kingdom of East Anglia ; and about the same time that of the East Saxons in Middlesex, Essex, and Hertfordshire. A few years afterwards the Angles possessed themselves of the eastern coast between Newcastle and Edinburgh, and formed the kingdom of Bernicia ; and immediately afterwards that of Deira in Yorkshire and part of Lancashire. These two subsequently formed the kingdom of Northumbria. It was not tdl about a hundred and forty years after their acquisition of Kent, that the Angles spread them selves over the centre of England, and founded (a.d. 586) the kingdom of Mercia, which was for many years the most prosperous and powerful of the Anglo-Saxon states.

It is not to be supposed that the previous inhabitants tamely surrendered their country to the invader. For fifty years they bravely defended themselves, under leaders whose fame has been shadowed in romance and poetry, under such names as Aurelius, Uther Pendragon, and Arthur. The struggle was hardly ended tdl the beginning of the eighth century, when the Britons had either become amalgamated with the invaders, reduced to serfdom, or driven into the fastnesses of Wales and Corn wad.1 1 Archæology of Wales, vol. i, 4, William of Newb., Hist. proem, ip. 13; 13, and 57. The Britons for many Will. Malmesb., De Gestis Reg. An centuries disbelieved in the death gliœ, lib. i, c. 1 ; Johannes de For of king Arthur, or at least expected dun, Scott. Chron., 1. iii, c. 25 : him to return alive and deliver Nennii Historia Britannorum, cc, them from Saxon domination. — lxii et It was but a few years after the estabbshment of the kingdom of Mercia that the most important event in the annals of the Saxons occurred.

In a.d. 595, St. Augustine, sent hither by pope Gregory the Great, converted Ethelbert king of Kent to the Christian faith; and his conversion was rapidly fodowed by that of his subjects. After this period the whole country became gradually converted to a species of Christianity. It is not possible to give to the religion at first adopted by the Saxons a higher title, because it did not put an end to the pubbc worship of idols, or restrain the erecting in the same church of an altar to our Lord and Saviour and of another to Woden or Friga ; nor did it prevent the offering up of the Eucharist and a sacrifice to devds in the same edifice, almost at the same time, and through the agency of the same ministers.1 Gregory the Great had desired that the heathen temples should not be pufled down, but purified and appbed to Christian purposes; and that the new converts should not be required to abandon their savage modes of wor ship, but to change the object of them.

They were to be induced gradually to modify their heathen practices, so that by degrees their evd tendencies might evaporate, and their ceremonies, without being destroyed, become imbued with a Christian feeling.2 The result of this teaching, or of an injudicious application of it, was an era in which the nation professed and practised a curious combination of improved heathendom and debased Christianity. The fifty or sixty years which succeeded the arrival of Saint Augustine in England are sometimes spoken of in these pages as the era of Saint Augustine, and form a second subdivision of the first Saxon era. 1 Henr. Huntind., 1. iii ; Bede,/7ist*. ment are Bede, Hist. Eccles., 1. i, c. Eccles., 1. ii, c. 15. 29 ; Opera Gregorii Papæ, iv, 387 j 3 The authorities for this stateand. Henr. Huntind., 1.

INTRODUCTION.

. 9 The period that immediately followed it was one of the most brilliant in Anglo-Saxon annals. It was adorned by men of the highest character for learning and ability, and had reason to be proud of archbishops Theodore and Ecgbert, of the venerable Bede, of Aldhelm, Wdfrid, St. Boniface, and many others, whose names are idustrious even at the present day. During this period not only the canon but the civil law of Borne was ex tensively taught in England ; schools were established and numerously attended, in which classical literature was successfudy cultivated ; libraries were formed, and a con stant communication maintained with the learned of France, Germany, and Italy. Written codes of law were compiled and promulgated, and justice systematicady ad ministered. Very numerous and extensive monasteries were budt, and monastic discipline was adopted and strictly observed by a very large and energetic body of men.

Of this period I shad sometimes speak as the era of archbishop Theodore. If it be taken (as it may be) as extending from his time to the death of Ecgbert archbishop of York (a.d. 766), it witnessed not only the success of monastic institutions in England, but the be ginning of their corruption and decay. The terrible results to England of their too great extension, and the abandonment within their wads of ad that really constituted monasticism, whde they were crowded with unwar like kings and idle nobles, wfll be dwelt on fufly hereafter. It was but a few years after the death of the great archbishop of York, that an event occurred which was second in its national importance to none in Anglo-Saxon history save the conversion of the nation to the Christian faith. In the middle of the eighth century, according to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, but probably at an earlier date, the systematic invasion of this country by the Danes commenced.

At first the Danes were merely pirates, who came in the summer to plunder, burn, and slaughter, and departed at the approach of winter, laden with booty and slaves ; but the transitory character of their visits was not destined to be of long duration. At the time of their first appearance king Ecgbert was a young man, but during his lifetime the character of their forays rapidly changed. Year after year the fre quency of their inroads and the strength of their fleets increased; and unhappily for the Saxons the duration of their stay increased also. In the year 851 they for the first time wintered in the Isle of Thanet, the dearest territory of the men of Kent, and from that time to their final amalgamation with the Saxon, the country was sub jected to the horrors of constant foreign invasion and civil war.

During the whole of the ninth century the Danish fleets surrounded England " as with a net," and the most energetic monarchs were unable to hurry from north to south, and from east to west, with sufficient rapidity to repulse the innumerable hordes that poured like a deluge from ad sides and involved the country in universal ruin. The result of such a state of misery soon became evident in the social condition of the people. The numerous monasteries which Theodore and others had erected or endowed were plundered and burnt, their libraries were destroyed, their scholars were dispersed, and the clergy and the monks were put to the sword. Learning, piety, and morality disappeared, and the nation became ignorant, unjust, cruel, and rapacious; and yet when peace was partiady restored, at the conclusion of the reign of Alfred, some benefits were found to have arisen from the fiery trials to which the country had been subjected. The centuries of warfare which had passed had dealt the death

INTRODUCTION.

. 11 blow to all that remained of the patriarchal system of the primitive Anglo-Saxon. In such a time neither individuals nor famdies could stand alone, and a far more close and extensive mditary and political organisation became necessary. The responsibilities and independence of famdies were rapidly lost in those of tythings, hundreds, or " weapon-takes," and the rights of these were soon merged in the more important combinations of counties ; while the counties themselves were formed into divisions under one executive authority. Numerous petty king doms altogether disappeared from the scene, and the larger kingdoms of the Heptarchy, after absorbing all minor powers, were themselves blended together, and shortly afterwards, under king Athelstan, became England. The same necessities which controlled political society coerced individuals.