That this is a just view of the powers of the witan in respect to the folcland, further appears from instances where the king and the witan, on one part, as representatives of the nation for that purpose, make grants to the king in his individual capacity. In 847, a case of this kind occurred: Æðelwulf of Wessex obtained twenty hides of land at Ham, as an estate of inheritance, from his witan[566]. The words used are very explicit: “I Æðelwulf, by God’s aid king of the Westsaxons, with the consent and licence of my bishops and my princes, have caused a certain small portion of land, consisting of twenty hides, to be described by its boundaries, to me, as an estate of inheritance.” And again: “These are the boundaries of those twenty hides which Æðelwulf’s senators granted to him at Ham.” We learn that Offa, king of the Mercians, had in a similar manner caused one hundred and ten hides in Kent to be given to him and his heirs as an estate of bócland[567], which he had afterwards left to the monastery at Bedford. And this is a peculiarly valuable record, because it was only by conquest that Offa and his witan could have obtained a right to dispose of lands beyond the limits of his own kingdom. Between 901 and 909 the witan of the Westsaxons booked a very small portion of land to Ælfred’s son Eádweard, for the site of his monastery at Winchester[568]. In 963 we have another instance: Eádgár caused five hides to be given him at Peatanige as an estate of inheritance. The terms of the document are unusual: he says, “I _have_ a portion of land,” etc., but he frees it from all burthens but the three, and renders it heritable. The rubric says: “This is the charter of five hides at Peatanige, which are Eádgár’s the king’s, during his day and after his day, to have, or to give to whom it pleaseth him best[569].” Again in 964, the same prince gave to his wife Ælfðrýð ten hides at Aston in Berkshire, as an estate of inheritance, “consilio satellitum, pontificum, comitum, militum[570].” It is obvious that in all these cases the grants were made out of public land, and were not the private estates of the king. ----- Footnote 566: Cod. Dipl. No. 260. Footnote 567: Ibid. No. 1019. Footnote 568: Ibid. No. 1087. Footnote 569: Cod. Dipl. No. 1246. “Aliquam terrae particulam [h]abeo, id est quinque mansas ... æt Peatanige, quatinus bene perfruar, ac perpetualiter possideam, vita comite, et post me cuicunque voluero perhenniter haeredi derelinquam in aeternam haereditatem,” etc. Footnote 570: Cod. Dipl. No. 1253. ----- 11. _The witan possessed the power of adjudging the lands of offenders and intestates to be forfeit to the king._