From the collocation of names among the witnesses to a very important charter of 1052-1054, we may infer that the Stealleras or Marshals were the commanding officers of the Húscarlas[296]. We cannot doubt that they did really exercise an important personal influence in England, although they filled no recognized position under the law: it is probable that they were reckoned as thanes or ministers, as far as their wergyld and heriot were concerned; but we have no evidence of this, and I should not dispute the assertion that from first to last they had a law of their own,—a personal right,—that they were not generally or originally landowners, and that their institution was a modified revival of the system of the Comitatus in its strictest form. But upon these points we cannot decide. It is very rarely that we find the Húscarlas acting as witnesses to charters, which perhaps may lead to the inference that they were not members of the Witena gemót[297]: but in 1041 we are told that Hardacnut sent two of his Húscarlas, Feader and Turstan, to collect an unpopular tax, and that a sedition was raised against them in Worcester, which was not suppressed till the force of several counties, under the most celebrated leaders of the day, was brought against the city[298]. Footnote 296: Cod. Dipl. No. 956. After the testimonies of the king, queen, archbishops, bishops, earls, and abbots, we have, “And on Esgáres stealres, and on Raulfes stealres, and on Lifinges stealres, and on ealra ðæs kynges húscarlan.” Then follow the subscriptions of chaplains and others. Footnote 297: But Wulfnoð a húscarl is mentioned, Cod. Dipl. No. 845, and Urk, a húscarl in No. 871, both as grantees. So again Þurstán húscarl, a holder of land in Middlesex. Cod. Dipl. No. 843. Footnote 298: Flor. Wig. an. 1041. ----- In a charter of the Confessor, we find the word Húscarl translated by “praefectus palatinus[299],”—a title which scarcely seems applicable to all the members of a body numbering six, or even three, thousand men: but, however this may be, we must not confound these _praefecti palatini_ with the other, earlier _praefecti_ who occur in Anglosaxon history[300]: these are clearly only geréfan or reeves, and have nothing to do with the especial body of household troops. ----- Footnote 299: Cod. Dipl. No. 843. Footnote 300: Cod. Dipl. Nos. 746, 751, 762, 767. -----