About the same time the chronicles testify that the “five burghs” occupied by the Danes in the heart of England, together with large districts both in the east and north, were subject to Danish laws. The Anglo-Saxon king Edgar (959-975) says, in a passage of his laws (cap. 12), which shows his partiality for the Danes, “Then will I that with the Danes such good laws stand as they may best choose, and as I have ever permitted to them, and will permit so long as life shall last me, for their fidelity, which they have ever shown me.” He likewise says in the next chapter, where mention is made of a fixed punishment: “Let the Danes chuse, according to their laws, what punishment they will adopt.” From this state of things, it happened that four different sorts of law were in force in four different parts of the kingdom. Farthest towards the west, where the remnant of the ancient Britons dwelt, the Welsh law was in force; among the West Saxons, the West-Saxon law; in Mercia, the Mercian law; and in the so-called Danelag, or country to the north-east of Watlinga-Stræt, the Danish law. Of these four systems of law, the Danish, beyond comparison, most prevailed. Its decrees were in later times constantly recognised, not only by Ethelred (not to speak of the Danish kings), but by Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror, whose laws usually treat of the “Danes-law” (Dene-lahe), with its fines, or “_lah-slit_,” in marks and ores. Even in the laws promulgated by Henry the First (1100-1135), it is stated (vi. § 1), that England is divided into three parts, Wessex, Mercia, and the province of the Danes. (“Regnum Anglie trifariam dividitur in regno Britannie, in Westsexiam, et Mircenos, et Danorum provinciam.”) And it is further said (§ 2), that the law of England falls into three parts, according to the above division, viz., the West Saxon, the Mercian, and the Danish law, or Denelaga. (“Legis eciam Anglice trina est particio, ad superiorem modum; alia enim Westsexie, alia Mircena, alia Denelaga est.”) A cursory view of these different laws will soon show, both that Scandinavian words and juridical terms were employed in the _Danelag_, and that by degrees, but mostly in the time of Canute the Great and William the Conqueror, they were introduced into the common laws of England: as, for instance, “hor-qwene” (Hoerquinde; _Eng._, adultress), “nam,” “halsfang,” “heimillborch,” (Hjemmelborg), “husting,” and others. For the rest, it is natural that most traces of the old Scandinavian institutions should be found in the districts to the north-east of Watlinga-Stræt.