pened at the time to be held, enjoyed an advantage over freemen
coming from a distance. Alfred ordained that the witan should meet in
London for purposes of legislation twice a year.(71) Athelstan, Edmund and
Edgar had held gemots in London, the last mentioned king holding a great
gemot (_mycel gemot_) in St. Paul's Church in 973.

(M47)

During the reign of Edward the Confessor, at least six meetings of the
witan took place in London; the more important of these being held in 1051
and the following year. By the gemot of 1051, which partook of the nature
of a court-martial, Earl Godwine was condemned to banishment; but before a
twelve-month had elapsed, he was welcomed back at a great assembly or
_mycel gemot_ held in the open air without the walls of London.(72) The
nation had become disatisfied owing to the king's increasing favour to
Norman strangers, but the earl desired to learn how stood the City of
London towards him, and for this purpose made a stay at Southwark. He was
soon satisfied on this point. "The townsfolk of the great city were not a
whit behind their brethren of Kent and Sussex in their zeal for the
national cause. The spirit which had beaten back Swend and Cnut, the
spirit which was in after times to make London ever the stronghold of
English freedom, the spirit which made its citizens foremost in the
patriot armies alike of the thirteenth and of the seventeenth centuries,
was now as warm in the hearts of those gallant burghers as in any earlier
or later age. With a voice all but unanimous, the citizens declared in
favour of the deliverer; a few votes only, the votes, it may be, of
strangers or of courtiers, were given against the emphatic resolution,
that what the earl would the city would."(73) Having secured the favour of
London his cause was secure. That the citizens heartily welcomed the earl,
going forth in a body to meet him on his arrival, we learn also from
another source;(74) although, one at least of the ancient chroniclers
strongly hints that the favour of the citizens had been obtained by bribes
and promises.(75) The earl's return was marked by decrees of outlawry
against the king's foreign favourites, whose malign influence he had
endeavoured formerly to counteract, and who had proved themselves strong
enough to procure the banishment of himself and family.

(M48)

The last gemot held under Edward was one specially summoned to meet at
Westminster at the close of the year 1065, for the