The majority of these cases belong to periods previous to Cnut’s accession, but they seem to imply an assessment very similar to his own. And in this view of the case, where the payment had become a settled amount due from persons of a particular rank, it became possible for women to be charged with it, which we accordingly find. In 1046 Wulfgýð commences her will by desiring that her right heriot may be paid to the king[194]: Æðelgyfu in 945 gave the king thirty mancuses of gold, two horses and all her dogs[195]: Ælflǽd left him by will her lands at Lamburnan, Ceólsige and Readingan, four rings worth two hundred mancuses of gold, four palls, four cups, four drinking-horns and four horses[196]: and lastly queen Ælfgyfu in 1012 left the king, six horses, six shields, six spears, one cup, two rings worth one hundred and twenty mancuses each, and various lands[197]. Taken in connection with the case of Wulfgýð, these bequests appear very like heriots. The heriots mentioned in Domesday agree with the details given above, and serve to show that the right had undergone no material alteration till the time of the Confessor[198]. That the Best-head or Melius catallum was paid to the king by his unfree tenants, as well as to other lords, is probable, but we have no instance of it[199]. By the law of Cnut, the widow was to have a reasonable time for payment of the heriot, and it was altogether remitted to the family of him who fell bravely fighting in the field before the presence of his lord. ----- Footnote 194: Ibid. No. 782. Footnote 195: Ibid. No. 410. Footnote 196: Ibid. No. 685. Footnote 197: Cod. Dipl. No. 721. Footnote 198: Domesd. Berks. “Tanias vel miles regis dominicus moriens pro relevamento dimittebat regi omnia arma sua, et equum unum cum sella, unum sine sella. Quod si essent ei canes vel accipitres, praesentabantur regi, ut si vellet, acciperet.” Footnote 199: