Æðelw. lib. iii. “Exactor regis, iam morans in oppido, quod Dorceastre nuncupatur.” Gaimar calls him a “un senescal al rei:” l. 2069. ----- In 897 again we hear of the death of Lucemon, in battle against the Danes: the Chronicle calls him “ðæs cyninges geréfa:” but Henry of Huntingdon, “praepositus regalis exercitus[435],” which may merely mean the officer appointed to lead the _royal_ force, that is a king’s reeve in the sense which I have attempted to establish on a preceding page. Other king’s reeves mentioned, are Ælfweard, (Chron. Sax. an. 1011), and Ælfgár (Cod. Dipl. No. 693). ----- Footnote 435: Hen. Hunt. lib. v. ----- It may admit of doubt whether in the parts of England which were subject to Danish rule, and only re-annexed to the Westsaxon crown by conquest, the same institutions prevailed as in the rest of the country. In the laws of Æðelred[437] we hear of a king’s reeve in the Wapentake and in the community of the Five Burgs. These are not sheriffs; the former rather resembling the Hundred-man; the latter a Burhgeréfa, but with extended powers, perhaps approaching those of a sheriff, or the Northumbrian heáhgeréfa already alluded to in this chapter. ----- Footnote 437: Æðelr. iii. § 1, and iii. § 3. Thorpe, i. 292, 294. ----- THE BURHGERÉFA.—In a fortified town, which I take to be the strict meaning of _burh_, there was an officer under this title. We know but little of his peculiar powers; but there is every reason to conclude that they were similar to those of other geréfan, according to the circumstances in which he was placed. If the town were free, it is possible that he may have been the popular officer, a sort of sheriff where the town is itself a county. But this is improbable, and it is much more likely that the burhgeréfa was essentially a royal officer, charged with the maintenance and defence of a fortress. Such a one I take Badoheard to have been in Dorchester; similarly we hear of Godwine, praepositus civitatis Oxnafordi[438], Æðelwig praepositus in Bucingaham[439], and Wynsige also praepositus in Oxnaforda[439], Osulf and Ylcærðon both praepositi in Padstow[440]; and finally Ælfred, the reeve of Bath[441]. It was this officer’s duty to preside in the burhgemót, which was appointed to be held thrice in the year[442], and he was most likely the representative of the towns-people, so far as these were unfree, in the higher courts. It is also probable that he was their military leader, and that he was expected to be present at sales and exchanges in order to be able to warrant transactions, if impeached. Lastly he was to see that tithes were duly rendered from his fellow-citizens[443]. From a very interesting document just now cited[444], it may be inferred that he possessed considerable power in his district, and that persons of rank and wealth were clothed with the office. We there find the reeves of Buckingham and Oxford granting the