itan »s advice. But he knew that it might be dangerous to do so. For the Witan «s authority was based on its right to choose kings and to agree the use of the king» s laws. Without its support the king's own authority was in danger. [1, p.47] (Old English, «meeting of the wise men») was an assembly of councilors in Anglo-Saxon England that met to advise the king of judicial and administrative matters. Originally a gathering of all the freemen of a tribe, it eventually became an assembly composed of the ealdormen (Old English, «aldermen»), or local chieftains, the bishops, other high civil and ecclesiastical officials, and sometimes friends and relatives of the king. The witenagemot may have had the power to elect a king, especially if succession was disputed, and it deliberated on all new laws, made treaties, served as a supreme court of justice, authorized the levying of extraordinary taxation and the granting of land, and raised military forces. Each of the several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had its own witenagemot until the subjugation of them all by Egbert, king of Wessex, between 825 and 829. Thereafter the witenagemot of Wessex gradually developed into a single assembly for the whole country. After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the witenagemot was superseded by the Great Council, an advisory body to the Anglo-Norman kings.
1.2 The King's Feudal Council - Curia Regis
Regis, in European medieval history, was a court, or group of persons who attended a ruler at any given time for social, political, or judicial purposes. Its composition and functions varied considerably from time to time and from country to country during a period when executive, legislative, and judicial functions were not as distinct as they were later to become. In general, the curia took care of the ruler «s personal needs (chamberlains, stewards, butlers), directed the affairs of government (chancellors, treasurers, secretaries, military leaders), or simply provided the ruler with companionship. The ruler and curia made policy decisions either ordinary or major (as on war, treaties, finances, church relations) and, under a powerful ruler? a king, duke, or count? often became active as a court of law. Indeed, curiae became so loaded down with judicial work that the work gradually came to be delegated to special groups of judges, such as the Court of King »s Bench in England or the Parliament in France; such judicial courts in medieval times were at first considered instruments of the curia, however, not independent bodies. The curia similarly turned over the growing burden of financial affairs to such bodies as the English Exchequer and the French Curia in Compotis («Curia of Accounts»), which too remained instruments of the curia.evolution of the medieval curia is well illustrated in England «s Curia, also known as the Curia Regis, or Aula Regis (« King »s Court«). It was introduced at the time of the Norman Conquest (1066) and lasted to about the end of the 13th century. The Curia Regis was the germ from which the higher courts of law, the Privy Council, and the Cabinet were to spring. It was, at first, the general council of the king, or the commune concilium (ie, the feudal assembly of the tenants-in-chief); but it assumed a more definite character during the reign of Henry I (1100-1135), when its members, fewer in number, were the officials of the royal household and other ...
