The Witenagemot
group · 3 works · 3 mentions · 3 anchored passages
Witenagemot · Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot · Pares Curiae · the Imperial Witenagemot
spoken of as
1 expressionWitenagemot1 mention
Ancient Law (English)
Of this nature was the criminal jurisdiction of the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot.
in the texts
Ancient Law
Anglo-Saxon assembly credited with a criminal jurisdiction of its own.
Of this nature was the criminal jurisdiction of the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot.
An Essay on the Trial by Jury
The Anglo-Saxon great council whose limited legislative and judicial authority is described at length.
“The Imperial Witenagemot was not a legislative assembly, in the strict sense of the term, for the whole Anglo-Saxon empire.
In the Anglo-Saxon commonwealth, therefore, the legislative functions of the Witenagemot were of far less importance than the other branches of its authority.
And we may view the assembly (the Witenagemot) as partaking of the character of a political congress, in which the liegemen of the crown, or the communities protected by the ‘Basileus,’ (sovereign,) were asked or persuaded to relieve the exigenoes of the state, or to consider those measures which might be required for the common weal.
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John
The Anglo-Saxon assembly credited by Freeman, perhaps excessively, with a right to elect the king.
Professor Freeman pushed to excess the supposed right of the Witenagemot to elect the King, and transferred it to the Norman Curia.