"Witan" Quotes from Famous Books
... Thwaite, from Anglo-Sax. [thorn]witan, to cut, is found chiefly in Cumberland and the adjacent region in such compounds as Braithwaite (broad), Hebbelthwaite, Postlethwaite, Satterthwaite. The second of these is sometimes corrupted into Ablewhite as Cowperthwaite is ... — The Romance of Names • Ernest Weekley
... witan Edmund and Egbert at once left the army with their followers, and for some months the young ealdorman devoted himself to the work of restoring the shattered homes of his people, aiding them with loans from the plunder he had gained on the seas, Alfred having at ... — The Dragon and the Raven - or, The Days of King Alfred • G. A. Henty
... remarkable clearness the struggle of the various ideas that prevailed in his day as to the origin of criminal jurisdiction. It will be seen that Alfred attributes it partly to the authority of the Church and partly to that of the Witan, while he expressly claims for treason against the lord the same immunity from ordinary rules which the Roman Law of Majestas had assigned to treason against the Caesar. "After this it happened," he writes, "that many nations received the faith of Christ, and there were many ... — Ancient Law - Its Connection to the History of Early Society • Sir Henry James Sumner Maine |