ur Saxon ancestors, as appears from Edward the
Confessor's laws, the military force of this kingdom was in the hands
of the dukes or heretochs, who were constituted through every province
and county in the kingdom; being taken out of the principal nobility,
and such as were most remarkable for being "_sapientes, fideles, et
animosi_." Their duty was to lead and regulate the English armies,
with a very unlimited power; "_prout eis visum fuerit, ad honorem
coronae et utilitatem regni_." And because of this great power they
were elected by the people in their full assembly, or folkmote, in the
manner as sheriffs were elected; following still that old fundamental
maxim of the Saxon constitution, that where any officer was entrusted
with such power, as if abused might tend to the oppression of the
people, that power was delegated to him by the vote of the people
themselves. So, too, among the ancient Germans, the ancestors of our
Saxon forefathers, they had their dukes, as well as kings, with an
independent power over the military, as the kings had over the civil
state. The dukes were elective, the kings hereditary; for so only can
be consistently understood that passage of Tacitus, "_reges ex
nobilitate, duces ex virtute sumunt_"; in constituting their kings,
the family or blood royal was regarded; in choosing their dukes or
leaders, warlike merit; just as Caesar relates of their ancestors in
his time, that whenever they went to war, by way either of attack or
defense, they elected leaders to command them. This large share of
power, thus conferred by the people, tho intended to preserve the
liberty of the subject, was perhaps unreasonably detrimental to the
prerogative of the crown; and accordingly we find ill use made of it
by Edric, Duke of Mercia, in the reign of King Edmund Ironside, who,
by his office of duke or heretoch, was entitled to a large command in
the king's army, and by his repeated treacheries at last transferred
the crown to Canute the Dane.

It seems universally agreed by all historians, that King Alfred first
settled a national militia in this kingdom, and by his prudent
discipline made all the subjects of his dominion soldiers; but we are
unfortunately left in the dark as to the particulars of this his so
celebrated regulation; tho, from what was last observed, the dukes
seem to have been left in possession of too large and independent a
power; which enabled Duke Harold on the death of Edward the Confess