The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon : a history of the early inhabitants of Britain, down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, illustrated by the ancient remains brought to light by recent research / by Thomas Wright.

  • Wright, Thomas, 1810-1877.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon : a history of the early inhabitants of Britain, down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, illustrated by the ancient remains brought to light by recent research / by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    490/568 (page 446)
    promises and persuasions, the men who had the care of the body of Alfey were prevailed upon to assist in the plot, and, whilst the attention of the citizens was called to the disturbances at the gates, the sacred deposit was carried by stealth to the river and there placed in a boat, which was rowed in all haste beyond the limits of the capital, and then landed in Kent. The king stood on the bank of the Thames, and watched its progress with anxious eye, for he was afraid of the citizens* When the latter discovered the trick which had been played upon them, they sent out a party in pursuit of the fugitives, who, however, had reached a place of safety before they were overtaken.f This anecdote gives us a curious glance at London manners at the beginning of the eleventh century. About half a century after, at the entry of the Normans, we find the citizens of London again holding the same bold position; and the conqueror of Hastings was obliged to make conditions with them before they would acknowledge him as king. It is not necessary to enter into their subsequent history; but it must be stated to their glory that, if we begin with their defence against the Danes, in the tenth century, the citizens of London have been, through at least nine centuries, the constant, powerful, and unflinching—perhaps, sometimes, turbulent—champions of the liberties of Englishmen. To return again to the more general subject, we trace by various allusions during the Anglo-Saxon period, that in these corporate towns there was, independent of the municipal oflicers, an officer of the king, or king’s reeve, who took certain tolls or dues which were reserved for the king on sales, manumissions, judicial executions, &c., and which the king had obtained in the transmission of the municipal system from the Roman to the Saxon government. Thus at Exeter, as we learn from the entries on the fly-leaves of the now well-known “ Codex Exoniensis,” such duties w^ere regularly paid to an officer “for the king’s hand,” to use the phrase of the original; as, for instance, Alfric Hals took the toll in Tovie’s house “ for ])8es kynges hand ” et ripas fluminis aniiati obsideant, ne exeuntes eos cum corpore sancti Lundanus populus prapcdirc valoat. * Tiniebat namqiie civium intermptioncs. t Translatio S. Klphegi, by Osborn, ap. Act. SS. Ordinis Benedict, sax;. VI. part. i. pp. 124—126. Osborn received bis aceount from people wbo were present, see p. 125.