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Witenagemot (or Witan)

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Witenagemot (or Witan)

(Anglo-Saxon, witena, of wise men, from witan, to know, and genmot, assembly), the great national council of the Saxons, by which the king was guided in all his main acts of government. Each kingdom had its own witan before the union of the heptarchy, in 827, after which there was a general one for the whole country. Its members are all spoken of as men of rank, and most probably included bishops, abbots, ealdormen of shires, and thanes. In 934 there were present at one of these assemblies king Athelstane, four Welsh princes, two archbishops, seventeen bishops, four abbots, twelve dukes, and fifty-two thanes. Every measure of national importance was debated here, the laws received its sanction, and the succession of the crown depended upon its approval. It could make new laws and treaties; it regulated military and ecclesiastical affairs, and levied taxes; without its consent the king had no power to raise forces by sea or land; and it was the supreme court. of justice, civil and criminal. The voice of the Church was never absent from its deliberations, so that the right of British prelates to sit and vote in the national assembly was one of the principles of the earliest regular form of government, not derived from Norman laws, but from that time, long before, when the Saxon archbishop, bishop, and abbot took their seats three times a year (at Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas) in the Saxon witan. The witenagemot was abolished by William the Conqueror and its powers only in part transmitted to parliament. See Hill, English Monasticism, page 202; Hallam, Middle Ages, chapter 8; Palgrave, Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth; Kemble, Saxons in England.