Thus the position which his nobility, his power and his wealth secured to the ealdorman was a brilliant one. In fact the whole executive government may be considered as a great aristocratical association, of which the ealdormen were the constituent members, and the king little more than the president. They were in nearly every respect his equals, and possessed the right of intermarriage with him[344]: it was solely with their consent that he could be elected or appointed to the crown, and by their support, co-operation and alliance that he was maintained there. Without their concurrence and assent, their license and permission, he could not make, abrogate or alter laws: they were the principal witan or counsellors, the leaders of the great gemót or national inquest, the guardians, upholders and regulators of that aristocratical power of which he was the ultimate representative and head. The wergyld and oath of an ealdorman were in proportion to this lofty position: at first no doubt, he ranked only with the general class of nobles in this respect, and the Kentish law does not distinguish him from them: but at a later period, when the aristocratical hierarchy had somewhat better developed itself, we find him rated on the same level with the bishop, and above the ordinary nobles. From the chapter concerning wergylds[345], we find that the Northumbrian law rated the ealdorman at something more than thirty times the value of the ceorl, while in Mercia we hear only of thanes or twelve-hynde men, worth six times the ceorl or two-hynde man: and in Kent the eorl seems to have exceeded the ceorl by three times only. ----- Footnote 344: This would follow from their original nobility, which made them of equal birth with the king: but there is a case which seems to show that the rank itself of ealdorman sufficed to give this privilege. Eádríc ealdorman of Mercia, who is said to have been of low extraction, married a sister of Cnut; and Eádweard the Confessor had a daughter of earl Godwine to wife. The other case was common: “And Æðelflǽd æt Domerhamme, Ælfgáres dohtor ealdormannes, wæs ðá his cwen,” _i. e._ Eádmund’s. Chron. Sax. an. 946. “Eádgár cyning genam Ælfðrýðe him tó cwene; heó wæs Ordgáres dohtor ealdormannes.” Chron. Sax. 965. The Anglosaxon kings were in fact very rarely married to foreign princesses, though several of their beautiful daughters found husbands on the continent. Footnote 345: Thorpe, i. 187. An ealdorman or bishop = 8000 thryms: a ceorl only 266. -----