ds all appointed by the king; as we learn from Ingulph, a
writer contemporary with the conquest. [g] Hist. Eliensis, lib. 2
cap. 40.]

It is certain, that, whatever we may determine concerning the
constituent members of the Wittenagemot, in whom, with the king, the
legislature resided, the Anglo-Saxon government, in the period
preceding the Norman conquest, was become extremely aristocratical;
the royal authority was very limited; the people, even if admitted to
that assembly, were of little or no weight and consideration. We have
hints given us in historians, of the great power and riches of
particular noblemen: and it could not but happen, after the abolition
of the Heptarchy, when the king lived at a distance from the
provinces, that those great proprietors, who resided on their estates,
would much augment their authority over their vassals and retainers,
and over all the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. Hence the
immeasurable power assumed by Harold, Godwin, Leofric, Siward, Morcar,
Edwin, Edric, and Alfric, who controlled the authority of the kings,
and rendered themselves quite necessary in the government. The two
latter, though detested by the people, on account of their joining a
foreign enemy, still preserved their power and influence; and we may
therefore conclude, that their authority was founded, not on
popularity, but on family rights and possessions. There is one
Athelstan, mentioned in the reign of the king of that name, who is
called Alderman of all England, and is said to be half-king; though
the monarch himself was a prince of valour and abilities [h]. And we
find, that in the latter Saxon times, and in these alone, the great
office went from father to son, and became in a manner hereditary in
the families [i].
[FN [h] Hist. Rames. Sec. 3, p. 387. [i] Roger Hoveden, giving the
reason why William the Conqueror made Cospatric Earl of
Northumberland, says, NAM EX MATERNO SANGUINE ATTINEBAT AD EUM HONOR
ILLIUS COMITATUS. ERAT ENIM EX MATRE ALGITHA, FILIA UTHREDI COMITIS.
See also Sim. Dun. p. 205. We see in those instances the same
tendency towards rendering offices hereditary, which took place,
during a more early period, on the continent, and which had already
produced there its full effect.]

The circumstances attending the invasions of the Danes would also
serve much to increase the power of the principal nobility. Those
freebooters made unexpected inroads on all quarters; and there was a