Anglo-Saxon Supremacy and Conversin lo

ChristK

THE WITAN

A weakness in Anglo-Saxon govemment was the

lack of any fixed principie of royal succession. The
Crown was usually inherited, but in practice the
leading noblemen selected the new king from any
member of the royal family. Most of these nobles',
along with influential bishops and court officials,
were members of the witan, which was an advisory
council selected by the king. The witan served as
the highest court in the land and assisted the king
in framing decrees. Since only a royal summonscould cali the witan into session, it could not serve
as a regular restraint on the power of the king.
However, the kings consultation with this body
helped set a precedent for the demands of
consultative bodies in later centuries.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT

In the later Anglo-Saxon period most of England

was divided into administratiye districts known as
shires. These began first in the kingdom of Wessex.
As Wessex, under Alfred; expanded its authority
into Mercia and the Danelaw, these districts were
also established on the Wessex model. Four levis
of local govemment evolved.
Shire. The shire (called county aerthe
Norman Gonquest) was the largest unit. Some
shires marked the boundaries of early kingdoms,
such as Kcnt; others took the ame of the town
which administered their areas, as VVorcestershire.
The chief official in the shire was the ealderman,
who was originally the kings representative, but his
office later became hereditary nnd more
autonomous. A more direct agent of the king was
the shire reeve (slicriff), who collected rents from
the crown lands. When the kings powers grew
under the Normans, so did the sheriffs, at the
expense of the local earl (ii noblcman of high
rank). The bishop was the third important official of
Ihc shire.
Hundreds. Each shire was divided into several
hundreds. Their bound- iiiles may have been based
originally on one hundred hides or men. One
ImiIi' conimonly consisted of an estte sufficient to
support the family of an Individual warrior, Each

hundred, like the shire, had its own assembly or

mnol, nnd was presided over by*the hundred reeve.
Freemen elected the Iriulri'i ni ilic hundred and
participated in the sessions of the hundredmoot
wlilcli lumdlnd the bulk of local court cases.
I im l lii- lun or agricultural village was
the next
1
level of local govem- innil, Iliban lil was not
characteristic of the Anglo-Saxons, and the
inwirililp wa . more of an agricultural community
than a modem town. Vlllngi' 11 il mi >i t ni ii s
inct to draw lots for land tillage, but handled little
legal m iHilItlcnl builneu.
IIoiiiii||Ii. Tlm la.st divisin was the borough. In the
later Anglo-Saxon |n iiuil ilu klnjis htlilt Ibrtresses
in strategic or populous areas for security ni ilu 111|
lahli I1III!. nnd in these centers a market and a borough
court ofjus tice