ns in England_; F. Palgrave, _History of the
English Commonwealth_; Stubbs, _Constitutional History of England_,
i.; Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_, i.; H. Brunner,
_Zur Rechtsgeschichte der romisch-germanischen Urkunde_ (1880); Sir
F. Pollock, _The King's Peace_ (Oxford Lectures); F. Seebohm; _The
English Village Community_; Ibid. _Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law_;
Marquardsen, _Haft und Burgschaft im Angelsachsischen Recht_;
Jastrow, "Ueber die Strafrechtliche Stellung der Sklaven," Gierke's
_Untersuchungen_, i.; Steenstrup, _Normannerne_, iv.; F.W. Maitland,
_Domesday and Beyond_ (Cambridge, 1897); H.M. Chadwick, _Studies on
Anglo-Saxon Institutions_ (1905); P. Vinogradoff, "Folcland" in
the _English Historical Review_, 1893; "Romanistische Einflusse im
Angelsaechsischen Recht: Das Buchland" in the _Melanges Fitting_, 1907;
"The Transfer of Land in Old English Law" in the _Harvard Law Review_,
1907.

(P. Vi.)

ANGLO-SAXONS. The term "Anglo-Saxon" is commonly applied to that
period of English history, language and literature which preceded the
Norman Conquest. It goes back to the time of King Alfred, who seems
to have frequently used the title _rex Anglorum Saxonum_ or _rex
Angul-Saxonum_. The origin of this title is not quite clear. It is
generally believed to have arisen from the final union of the various
kingdoms under Alfred in 886. Bede (_Hist. Eccl._ i. 15) states
that the people of the more northern kingdoms (East Anglia, Mercia,
Northumbria, &c.) belonged to the Angli, while those of Essex, Sussex
and Wessex were sprung from the Saxons (_q.v._), and those of Kent
and southern Hampshire from the Jutes (_q.v._). Other early writers,
however, do not observe these distinctions, and neither in language
nor in custom do we find evidence of any appreciable differences
between the two former groups, though in custom Kent presents most
remarkable contrasts with the other kingdoms. Still more curious is
the fact that West Saxon writers regularly speak of their own nation
as a part of the _Angelcyn_ and of their language as _Englisc_, while
the West Saxon royal family claimed to be of the same stock as that
of Bernicia. On the other hand, it is by no means impossible that the
distinction drawn by Bede was based solely on the names Essex (East
Seaxan), East Anglia, &c. We need not doubt that the Angli and the
Saxons were different nations originally; but from the evidence at our
disposal it seems