This peace was called the King’s Handsell, “cyninges handsealde gríð.” The extent to which his peace extended around his dwelling, that is, within the verge of the court, has been noticed in the fourth chapter of the First Book. The right subsisted throughout the Middle Ages and yet subsists, though differently motived and measured. The king’s handsealde gríð was by Æðelred’s law made bótless, that is, had no settled compensation. Æðelr. iii. § 1. Footnote 57: Eádw. Conf. § 13. Footnote 58: “Æðelingawudu, Colmanora and Geátescumbe belong to these twenty hides, which I myself, now rode, now rowed, and widely divided off, for myself, my predecessors, and those that shall come after me, for an eternal separation, before God and the world.” Eádred. an. 955. Cod. Dipl. No. 1171. “Now I greet well my relative Mygod of Wallingford, and command thee in my stead [on mínre stede] to ride round the land to the saint’s hand.” Eádw. Conf., Cod. Dipl. No. 862. The force of the word _berídan_ is very difficult to convey in words, but still perfectly obvious. Another difficulty arises from the word _stede_, which is properly masculine, but here given as a feminine. I think it impossible that it should mean _stéde_, a mare (i. e. on my mare), and prefer the supposition either that _stede_ had changed its gender, or that the copy of the charter is an incorrect one. ----- But the great machinery for keeping peace between man and man, is the establishment of courts of justice, and a system by which each man can have law, by the consent and with the co-operation of his neighbours, without finding it necessary to arm in his own defence. It has been shown in the First Book, that such means did exist in the Mark and Gá courts; and that for nearly all the purposes of society, it is sufficient and advisable that justice should be done within the limits and by the authority of the freemen. A centralized system however brings modifications with it, even into the administration of justice. If, as I believe, the original king was a judge, who superinduced the warlike upon his peaceful functions, we can easily see how, with the growth of the monarchy, the judicial authority of the king should become extended. I cannot doubt that, in the historical times of the Anglosaxons, the king was the fountain of justice; by which expression I certainly do not mean that every suit must be commenced in one of the superior courts, or by an original writ, issuing out of the royal chancery[59], but that the king was looked upon as the authority by whom the judges were supported and upheld, who was to be appealed to, if no justice could be got elsewhere, and who had the power to punish malversation in its administration by his officers. ----- Footnote 59: There are cases nevertheless which seem to favour the supposition that a similar power was ultimately lodged in the king and, at least occasionally, exercised. -----