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We have still the text of the two documents which together contain Alfred and Guthrum's peace, or the treaty of Wedmore; the first and shorter being probably the articles hastily agreed on before the capitulation of the Danish army at Chippenham; the latter the final terms settled between Alfred and his witan, and Guthrum and his thirty nobles, after mature deliberation and conference at Wedmore, but not formally executed until some years later.
According to him, Harold formally laid the matter before the Witan, and they unanimously voted that the oath more, in his version, than a mere oath of homage was not binding. It is not likely that such a vote was ever formally passed, but its terms would only express what every Englishman would feel.
Ethelwolf fell under the displeasure of Hardicanute, perhaps because he was more Saxon than Danish; and though that savage king did not dare openly to arraign him before the Witan, he gave secret orders by which he was butchered on his own hearthstone, in the arms of his wife, who died shortly afterwards of grief and terror.
He, too, first took refuge in the Weald when deposed by his witan. He fled away and was pursued, we read, by Cynewulf, so that he took refuge in the forest of Andred where he was safe from pursuit by many men, being killed at last at Privet near Petersfield in Hampshire by a swineherd in revenge for his master's death.
One could see that he was planning what to say, as if things had not gone as he expected. Maybe he hoped to put off the matter by talk of asking the Witan, and so to gain time, for we had certainly taken him unawares. At last he said, "How am I to know that you are here with full power to speak for Goldberga? For this is a weighty matter."
In that famous council of Salisbury of 1086, which was summoned immediately after the making of the Domesday survey, we learn from the Chronicle that there came to the King "all his witan, and all the landholders of substance in England whose vassals soever they were, and they all submitted to him, and became his men and swore oaths of allegiance that they would be faithful to him against all others."
Every hour of delay damps the ardour. Are we sure that it will swell the numbers? What I dread most is not the sword of the Norman Duke, it is his craft. Rely upon it, that if we meet him not soon, he will march straight to London. He will proclaim by the way that he comes not to seize the throne, but to punish Harold, and abide by the Witan, or, perchance, by the word of the Roman pontiff.
The Witan might then deal as they thought good with a recommendation so unusual as to choose to the kingship of England a man who was neither a native nor a conqueror of England nor the descendant of any English king. When the time came, Edward did make a recommendation to the Witan, but it was not in favour of William.
"What thou offerest," said the Earl, fortifying himself with the resolution of the previous night, and compressing his lips, livid with rage, "is beyond my deserts, and all that the greatest chief under royalty could desire. But England is not Edward's to leave, nor mine to give: its throne rests with the Witan." "And the Witan rests with thee," exclaimed William sharply.
When I looked to London for the peaceful Witan, what saw I? The largest armament that had been collected in this reign that armament headed by Norman knights. Was this the meeting where justice could be done mine and me? Nevertheless, what was my offer?
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