Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/193

Rh occasion on which this charter was signed was a very important one, and many of the Mercian ealdormen were probably assembled. In another charter of the same King in 816, granting certain lands to the Bishop of Worcester, there are also eleven witnesses who are styled dux or ealdorman. Some of these may have been the viceroys of more than one of the areas of administration or states, afterwards called shires or counties, but that eleven men of this rank should be witnesses of charters of the Mercian King shows that he had many of them, and as each had an area of administration, perhaps more than one, this number points to the existence in Mercian territory of more states than existed in Wessex. The greatest number of ealdormen who appear to have witnessed any charter by a King of Wessex is nine, and the occasion was the grant of land at Droxford in Hampshire in 826 by Egbert. He had, however, at that time become the overlord of much more of England than Wessex. Several of his charters concerning land in Wessex are witnessed by three ealdormen only, and important ones by Ethelwulf, his son, are witnessed by only six. Although territorial changes were in some cases made, it is certain that the Old English counties arose from the primitive states.

One of the most important of the Old English local organizations connected with the shires and hundreds was that for defence. All freemen were under three general obligations. which were apparently of ancient date at the time when we first meet with them in records—viz.: (1) They were obliged to take their part in military service for the defence of their state or the kingdom of which it formed part, the levies being made in each state, afterwards known as the county; (2) they were under the obligation to assist in maintaining the local fortifications; and (3) they were similarly obliged to assist in the maintenance of bridges. The liability 12—2