Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/15

Rh settled down in families and tribes in their place. The new-comers did not like walled towns and cities—but preferred to live in open villages and till the soil, either destroying the towns of the Britons or allowing them to fall into ruins.

2. Social and Political Condition of the English.—The English, as these tribes came to be called, were not a nation as we understand the word; but were a number of free and independent tribes that under their chiefs had come over to Britain to conquer and plunder. After the Britons were expelled, they settled down from their roving sea-life in separate village communities, and began to till the soil. There were three kinds of people in these communities. First of all, we have the Eorl, a man of higher birth and greater wealth than the rest. Then came the Ceorl or churl, a freeman of lower birth, who nevertheless had his own house and tilled his own piece of land. Last of all we have the slaves, either Britons or men who had sold or lost their freedom, and who might be sold out of the country by their masters. Only freemen were allowed to take part in the village moot or meeting, where all questions in dispute were settled. A man found guilty by his fellows of a crime usually could escape by paying a fine. He could prove his innocence by getting his neighbours to swear he was an honest man. This was called “compurgation.” Otherwise he had to undergo the ‘‘ordeal,” which consisted in walking blindfold with bare feet over hot ploughshares, or in dipping the hand into boiling hot water. If unhurt after this ‘‘ordeal” he was declared innocent.

The villages were some distance from each other; but when any important matter of peace or war had to be considered, men from several villages met in what was called the “Folkmoot,” or meeting of the tribe. Here they chose their aldermen from the Eorls, to lead them to battle, or to speak and act for them in the great meeting of the wise men of the tribes known as the “Witangemot.” After a time the Witangemot began to choose one man from the aldermen to lead—and he was the “king.” He was always elected, and could not appoint his successor; but the custom was to choose the king from the same family on account of its supposed descent from Woden, their god of war.

3. The English become Christians.—When the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came to England they were heathens, and believed in