34 George E. Hoxvard, 



years of age to take an oath " not to be a thief or a receiver 

 of such";^ and under severe penalty commanded every one 

 who discovers a thief to raise the hue and cry, and all who 

 hear the cry, to join in the chase.^ 



But the most noteworthy law of this monarch relating to 

 the peace is one which, besides enforcing the system of sure- 

 ties as in the laws of Eadgar, provides that every freeman of 

 whatever condition (heorthfaest or folgere), over twelve years 

 of age, shall be in a hundred and in a tithing, in order to enjoy 

 the protection of the law.^ This probably refers, suggests 

 Bishop Stubbs, "to the obligation of the hundred and the 

 tithing to pursue and do justice on the thief." * The police 

 regulation of Canute just mentioned has given rise to a great 

 deal of controversy. Many regard it as the origin of the 

 fritJiborJi or frankpledge. But the weight of authority is 

 against this view.^ The confusion results largely from a 

 similarity of names ; but the regulation of Canute may have 

 been a stage in the development of the frankpledge. " The 

 laws of Eadward the Confessor, a compilation of supposed 

 Anglo-Saxon customs issued in the twelfth century, contain 

 a clause on which the later practice of frankpledge is founded, 

 but which seems to originate in the confusion of the two 

 clauses of the law of Canute. By this article, which describes 

 itself as a comparatively recent enactment, all men are bound 

 to combine themselves in associations of ten, to which the 

 name of frithborh is given in the South and that of tenmati- 

 netale in the North of England. Each association has a 

 headman, a 'capital pledge,' borJis-ealdor ox fritJi-borge-Jiead, to 

 manage the business of the ten. Thus constituted, they are 

 standing sureties for one another : if one break the law, the 

 other nine shall hold him to right ; if they cannot produce 

 him, the capital pledge with two of his fellows, and the head- 



1 Canute, II, 21 : Schmid, Gesetze, 283. ^ Canute, II, 29 : Schmid, Gesetze, 286. 



3 Canute, II, 20: Schmid, Gesetze, 280-1. * Stubbs, Const. Hist., I, 87. 



^ For the literature on the question of Gesaiiimthurgschaft, see Konrad Maurer, 

 Krit. Ueb., I, 87 f. See also Glasson, Histoh-e dii Droit et des InstitHtio7is de 

 UAngelterre, I, 62-75. 



268 



