Now I think that any impartial person will be satisfied with these examples, and admit that whoever the witan may have been, they possessed a legislative authority, at least conjointly with the king. Indeed of two hypothetical cases, I should be far more inclined to assert that they possessed it without him, than that he possessed it without them: at least, I can find no instance of the latter; while I have shown that there was at least a probability of the former: and even Æðelred himself says, twice: “Wise in former days were those secular witan[532] who first added secular laws to the just divine laws, for bishops and consecrated bodies; and reverenced for love of God holiness and holy orders, and God’s houses and his servants firmly protected.” Again[533]: “Wise were those secular witan who to the divine laws of justice added secular laws for the government of the people; and decreed bót to Christ and the king, that many should thus, of necessity, be compelled to right.” ----- Footnote 532: Woroldwitan. Æðelr. vii. § 24. Thorpe, i. 334. Footnote 533: Æðelr. ix. § 36. Thorpe, i. 348. ----- Is it not manifest that he, like Ælfred, really felt the legislative power to reside in the witan, rather than in the king? 3. _The witan had the power of making alliances and treaties of peace, and of settling their terms._ The defeat of the Danes by Ælfred, in 878, was followed, as is well known, by the baptism of Guðorm Æðelstán, and the peaceful establishment of his forces in portions of the ancient kingdoms of Mercia, Essex, Eastanglia and Northumberland. The terms of this treaty, and the boundaries of the new states thus constituted were solemnly ratified, perhaps at Wedmore[534]; the first article of this important public act, by which Ælfred obtained a considerable accession of territory, runs thus[535]: “This is the peace that Ælfred the king, and Gyðrum the king, and the witan of all the English nation, and all the people that are in Eastanglia, have all ordained and confirmed with oaths, for themselves and for their descendants, born and unborn, who desire God’s favour or ours. First, concerning our land-boundaries,” etc. In like manner the treaty which Eádweard entered into with the same Danes, is said to have been frequently (“oft and unseldan”) renewed and ratified by the witan[536]. ----- Footnote 534: Chron. Sax. an. 878. Asser, _in anno_. Footnote 535: Thorpe, i. 152. Footnote 536: Thorpe, i. 166. ----- We still have the terms of the shameful peace which Æðelred bought of Olafr Tryggvason and his comrades in 994. The document, which was probably signed at Andover[537], commences with the following words: “These are the articles of peace and the agreement which Æðelred the king and all his witan have made with the army which accompanied Anlaf, and Justin and Guðmund, the son of Stegita[538].” ----- Footnote 537: Chron. Sax. an. 994. Footnote 538: Thorpe, i. 284. -----