A History and Defence of Magna Charta/Chapter 5
CHAP. V.
Concerning the firſt Founder of the Yearly Folkmote of the Kalends of May.
Before I proceed any further, I muſt clear one point; and that is, that we find the author and founder of our yearly Folkmote mentioned in the laws of Edward the Confeſſor, (which were recited and confirmed by K. William I.) under the title de greve, chap. xxxv. which may poſſibly leave a ſuſpicion, that this yearly Folkmote of the kalends of May was a greve’s court. Now what court ſhould this be belonging to a greve, or any count or viſcount, or preſident whatſoever; for greve is an ambiguous word; Is it not a Burghmote, for that is three times a year by the Saxon laws. It is not a county-court; for that, by Edward the ſenior’s laws, N. 11. was in theſe words[1]: “I will that each greve have a gemot at about four weeks.” So that there were twelve in the year. It was not the ſheriff’s turn, or le turne del vicount; for that was twice a year, tƿa scirgemot on ger, by the laws of King Edgar, cap. v. it is not the gemot for the view of weapons or arms, which every freeman in England was charged with, and was bound to ſhew once every year, and, as was wiſely contrived, all in one. day throughout all England; but that day was not in our kalends of May, but the morrow after Candlemas, Craſtino Purificationis B. M. And therefore I cannot, for my life, make any thing elſe of an univerſal anniverſary full Folkmote, which is but ſemel in anno, ſcilicet in capite kal Maii, but a ſtationary parliament: eſpecially conſidering how they were, and what they did.
The next thing to be conſidered, is the author or founder of this antient conſtitution, which we have in the aforeſaid chap. de greve, num. 35. amongſt the laws of good King Edward[2].
“This law of the anniverſary Folkmote Arthur invented, who was heretofore the moſt renowned King of the Britons, and thereby he conſolidated and confederated together the whole realm of Britany for ever as one.”
It is good to honour the founders of all uſeful conſtitutions; and I believe that King Arthur was the inventor of this as to this realm, becauſe theſe laws of King Edward ſay ſo; and ſo was Cadmus, the inventor of letters in Greece, though we can trace them out of Phœnicia; and the letters ſpeak for themſelves. For if it be Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth in one place, and in the ſame order it is Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, in the other place; then we are ſure there has been an underſtanding and communication. For it is impoſſible to be otherwiſe, when the alphabets are ſettled on both ſides, by being their numeral letters; as it was plainly in King David’s time by the octonaries of the 119th Pſalm, as it ſtands in the middle of of the Bible; and as it was in Homer’s time in Greece: or elſe the old ſcholiaſts have deceived me, who ſay that Homer purpoſely couched the number of all his books in the firſt words of his Iliads Μνιν ἄειδε θεά, which numerals ſtand for 48. The Greeks likewiſe taught the Welch to tell twenty, and I believe they taught the Romans too. Now by the ſame rule, if there was a very antient Folkmote in the neighbouring kingdom of France upon every kalends of May, then, perhaps, King Arthur borrowed from them, and it is good to look upon their kalends, becauſe it is poſſible they may give light to our’s.
The French kalends of May lie thus in Radulphus de Diceto, the famous dean of St. Paul’s in K. John’s time, whoſe hiſtory was thought ſo authentic, that the Engliſh parliament, in Edward the firſt’s time, relied upon his teſtimony, amongſt ſome others, in no leſs a point than the claim of the King of England to the ſupreme dominion of the realm of Scotland[3].
I will render the ſenſe of it into Engliſh as near as I can; however, the Latin lies before every man to tranſlate it for himſelf. “From hence-forward the French Kings degenerating from the valour and learning which they uſed to have, the power of the kingdom was adminiſtered by the maſters of the palace, the Kings themſelves being upon the matter only titular; whoſe cuſtom it was to come to the crown indeed; according to their deſcent, and neither to act nor order any thing, but to eat and drink unconſcionably, and to live at home, and upon the kalends of May to preſide in an aſſembly of the whole nation, and there to be addreſſed, to receive their allegiances, and aids or benevolences, and to remercy them, and ſo to retire to the ſame life again till another May came.”
This French kalends of May, is ſo much a picture of our’s, that I know not which is the copy, nor which the original. Their’s was an aſſembly of the whole nation, ſo was our’s: annual and anniverſary, ſo was our’s. It was tota gens kal. Maii. in France: our Folkmote looks extremely like it in thoſe two ſtrokes; Statutum eſt enim quod ibi debent populi omnes, & gentes univerſæ ſingulis annis, ſemel in anno ſcilicet convenire, ſcilicet in capite kal. Maii[4]. For it was appointed by ſtatute, that all the people and counties, univerſal, ſhould meet together at the Folkmote each year, namely, once in the year, to wit, in the beginning of the kalends of May. The King uſed to have fine ſpeeches made to him in France; ſo had we. They ſwore allegiance, to him; ſo did our Folk. They gave him gifts, (it was not New-year’s-tide) aids, benevolences, call them what you will; and our people at the ſame time, as Sir Henry Spelman ſaid above, conſulted of peace and war: which cannot be managed without ways and means of raiſing money, which is the ſinew of war, as laws are of the peace. The word rependere at laſt in the French kalends looks ſo like our French form of the royal aſſent given to a money-bill, de Roi remercie ſes loyal ſubjects, that I knew not how to render the word rependere any otherwiſe than I did, by the word remercie.
I know that the year 662 was below King Arthur’s time; but it appears, that when the French government was utterly ſpoiled in the Merovingian family, as to the other points, ſtill they retained the old cuſtom of the kalends of May; ſo that it was of much greater ſtanding.
FINIS.
- ↑ Ie ƿille ꝥ ælc gerefa hæbbe gemot a ymb feoþer ruean.
- ↑ Hanc degem invenit Arthurus, qui quondam ſuit inclytiſſimus Rex Brytonum, & ita conſolidavit & confœderavit regnum Britanniae univerſum ſemper in unum.
- ↑ As to our preſent buſineſs, he has theſe words, abbreviat. chronicorum, page 439. Abbinc Francorum regibus a ſolita fortitudine & ſcientia degenerantibus, regni potentia diſponebatur per majores domus, regibus ſolo nomine regnantibus; quibus moris erat principari quidem ſecundum genus, & nil agere vel diſponere praeterquam irrationabiliter edere & bibere domique morari, & kal. Maii praeſidere coram tota gente & ſalutari, obſequia & dona accipere & rependere, & ſic ſecum uſque ad alium Maium permanere.
- ↑ L. L. Edw. Conf. cap. 35. de Greve.