I have made use of the copy of Ingulphus, published by Savile in his Scriptores post Bedam, not being apprised till too late that there was any other edition of his work to be referred to. In general I have endeavoured to avoid the introduction of Latin or Saxon words into the text, but have made copious quotations from both those languages in the notes. I have relied chiefly upon Wilkins's Latin translation, not merely on account of my own ignorance of the Saxon language, but because it could not be expected to be familiar to the bulk of my readers. And for a similar reason, the Saxon quotations are printed in common Roman letters.

ERRAT A.

Page 8, line 28, for second read first

line 29, dele of the first

last line, for Claud. c. 9, read Claud. C. 9, 11, last line, for Claud. c. 9, read Claud. C. 9, 12, line 26, for Claud. c. 9, read Claud. C. 9, 13, last line, for Claud. c. 9, read Claud. C. 9, 28, line 10, for villains read villans

32, line 2, after all add of

43, line 21, for (ceorlise read (ceorlisc

59, last line but two, for Gibson read Wilkins 70, line 14, for places read place

94, last line but one, for gestibus read gestis 98, last line but one, for gestibus read gestis 117, line 7, for Poicters read Poictiers

198, line 15, for had read have

200, line 21, for wite, read white,

258, line 14, for and read or

345, line 13, for he read one of them

And, same line, for the devil, read devils,

OF THE

RANKS OF THE PEOPLE

- UNDER THE

ANGLO-SAXON GOVERNMENTS.

CHAP. I.

OF THE QUEEN, AND ROYAL FAMILY.

WHETHER among the Saxons, in their

own country, the people were divided into three or four classes, does not seem to be perfectly agreed among historians. We are informed by one of them, that they had nobles, freemen, freedmen and slaves, and that the law punished with death any man who should presume to marry a wife out of a class superior to his own.

a Quatuor differentiis gens illa consistit, nobilium scilicet, et liberorum, libertorumque, atque servorum. Legibus firmatum ut nulla pars copulandis conjugiis propriæ sortis terminos transferat; sed nobilis nobilem ducat uxorem, et liber liberam, libertus conjugatur libertæ, et servus ancillæ. Si vero quispiam horum sibi non congruentem et genere præstantiorem duxerit uxorem, cum vitæ suæ damno componat. Einhard of the Saxons, cited 3 Seld. 14.

B