Note 473 — Chapter VI · THE WITENA GEMÓT.

The Acts, if we may so call them, of an Anglosaxon parliament, are a series of treaties of peace, between all the associations which make up the state; a continual revision and renewal of the alliances offensive and defensive, of all the free men. They are universally mutual contracts for the maintenance of the frið or peace. Those who chose to do so, might withdraw from this contract, but they must take the consequence. The witan had no money to vote, except in very rare and extreme cases; consequently their business was confined to regulating the terms on which the frið could be maintained.