a
more stratified society in which the king and important families
more powerful and the peasants more curtailed. The witan became
mere witnesses. Many free coerls of the older days became bonded.
The village community tended to become a large private estate
headed by a lord. But the lord does not have the power to encroach
upon the rights of common that exist within the community.

In 886, a treaty between Alfred and the Vikings divided the
country along the war front and made the wergeld of every free
farmer, whether English or Viking, 200s. Men of higher rank were
given a wergeld of 4 1/2 marks of pure gold. A mark was probably a
Viking denomination and a mark of gold was equal to nine marks of
silver in later times and probably in this time. The word "earl"
replaced the word "eorldormen" and the word "thegn" replaced the
word "aetheling" after the Danish settlement. The ironed pleats of
Viking clothing indicated a high status of the wearer. The Vikings
brought combs and the practice of regular hair-combing to England.

King Alfred gave land with jurisdictional powers within its
boundaries such as the following: "This is the bequest which King
Alfred make unequivocally to Shaftesbury, to the praise of God and
St. Mary and all the saints of God, for the benefit of my soul,
namely a hundred hides as they stand with their produce and their
men, and my daughter AEthelgifu to the convent along with the
inheritance, since she took the veil on account of bad health; and
the jurisdiction to the convent, which I myself possessed, namely
obstruction and attacks on a man's house and breach of protection.
And the estates which I have granted to the foundation are 40
hides at Donhead and Compton, 20 hides at Handley and Gussage 10
hides at Tarrant, 15 hides at Iwerve and 15 hides at Fontmell.

The witnesses of this are Edward my son and Archbishop AEthelred
and Bishop Ealhferth and Bishop AEthelhead and Earl Wulfhere and
Earl Eadwulf and Earl Cuthred and Abbot Tunberht and Milred my
thegn and AEthelwulf and Osric and Brihtulf and Cyma. If anyone
alters this, he shall have the curse of God and St. Mary and all
the saints of God forever to all eternity. Amen."

Sons usually succeeded their fathers on the same land as shown by
this lifetime lease: "Bishop Denewulf and the community at
Winchester lease to Alfred for his lifetime 40 hides of land at
Alresford, in accordance with the lease which Bishop Tunbriht had
granted to his