Note 82 — Chapter III · THE CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND IN THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES.[82]

I cannot, in this Chapter, lay claim to the same originality which I hope I may fairly claim in the narrative parts of this history. The early political and legal antiquities of England have been treated of by so many eminent writers that there is really little more to be done than to test their different views by the standards of inherent probability and of documentary evidence, and to decide which has the best claim to adoption. Among many other works two stand out conspicuously, Sir Francis Palgrave’s History of the English Commonwealth and Mr. Kemble’s Saxons in England. My readers will easily see that I have learned much from both, but that I cannot call myself an unreserved follower of either. Another most important work is Dr. Reinhold Schmid’s Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen (2nd ed. Leipzig, 1858). The most valuable part is the Antiquarian Glossary, the principal articles of which swell into essays on the most important subjects suggested by the Old-English Laws, supported by the most lavish array of references for every detail. On the whole I think I shall be commonly found maintaining the same constitutional views as Mr. Kemble, except on the point of the Imperial character of the Old-English monarchy, an aspect of it which Mr. Kemble has rather unaccountably slurred over. This point, one which closely connects itself with other studies of mine, is perhaps the one which I have thought out more thoroughly for myself than any other. Sir Francis Palgrave, with his characteristic union of research, daring, and ingenuity, was the first to call attention to the subject; but I must confess that many of his views on the matter seem to me not a little exaggerated.

[I let this note stand as it was first written about eleven years ago; since then the great Constitutional History of Professor Stubbs has gathered together all knowledge on these subjects in a wonderfully short compass. My special obligations to him are recorded in my Fifth Volume. I have also, since this Chapter was written, studied the great work of Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungs Geschichte, and other German constitutional writers, some for the first time, others more carefully than I had read them before. I am glad that I do not find more to change than I do. I have not thought it needful to recast the Chapter; but I have changed whatever seemed either inaccurate or misleading, and I have added some fresh illustrations and references, chiefly to Waitz and Sir Henry Maine.]