Witenagemot

Witenagemot (pronounced wit-n-uh-guh-moht)

(1) The Anglo-Saxon parliament, the assembly of the witan; the national council attended by the king, aldermen, bishops, and nobles which assembled on several occasions between the sixth and eleventh centuries, initially as a number of bodies which claimed only regional authority, later (and with representative membership), assuming a national jurisdiction.

(2) Any one session of any of these assemblies.

(3) In casual use, other deliberative bodies (obsolete since the late nineteenth centuries).

1585–1595: From the Old English, the construct being witena, (genitive plural of wita (councillor; man of knowledge) + gemōt (assembly, meeting, council), gemōt the source of the Modern English moot.  A learned borrowing the from Old English witena ġemōt, the literal translation was “assembly of the wise”).  The spelling (and capitalization) of Witenagemot was never standardised.  In Modern English, witenagemot was the most common form but historically, more frequently used (in order) were wittenagemot, wittenagemote, wittena-gemote and wittena-gemot, but all of those variations had declined by the early twentieth century and, except in historic citation, are now extinct.  Also long obsolete is the (always rare) use of Witenagemot to describe any institution other than the Anglo-Saxon assembly.  Witenagemot is a noun; the plural is witenagemots.

Anglo-Saxon England.

The Witenaġemot, often in casual conversation spoken of as “the Witan” (which, technically was title granted to the membership), was an embryonic parliament which assembled periodically in England between the late sixth and mid-eleventh centuries.  As an aggregation, it formed by a process of gradual absorption of earlier assemblies with purely regional jurisdiction (Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex and Wessex) before eventually asserting national jurisdiction.  The closest modern counterparts of its composition and function were probably the colonial legislative councils; political institutions devoted to the deliberative and empowered to advise the executive (the king and his court).  The Witenagemot’s membership reflected the practice many such assemblies and was restricted to the nobility, the landed gentry and senior clergy.  Historians consider the Witenagemot a particularly English development and adaptation of the old (and more widely representative) Germanic assemblies or folkmoots.  In late sixth century England, these folkmoots had assumed a more aristocratic identity as convocations of the most important, influential and powerful in the land.  Although local, regional and local matters were discussed when the Witenagemot convened, it was a body without legislative authority; it was empowered only to “warn, counsel and advise” the king.

William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, stabbing King Harold of England at the Battle of Hastings while fighting on horseback.  Painting held by the British Library Board, Cotton Vitellius A. XIII.

One of the Witenagemot’s final acts concerned the royal succession in 1066.  Because Edward the Confessor (circa 1003-1066; King of England 1042-1066) died without an heir, it was a resolution of Witenagemot which confirmed Edward's successor to be his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson (circa 1022-1066; King Harold II of England, Jan-Oct 1066) as king.  With no royal blood and fearing rival claims from the Duke of Normandy and the King of Norway, Harold had himself crowned in Westminster Abbey on 6 January 1066, the day after Edward's death.  In September, a Norwegian army, aided by Harold's alienated brother Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, did invade but at the Battle of Stamford Bridge his force was routed so decisively by Harold that barely two-dozen vessels of the invasion fleet of three-hundred were required to ferry home the survivors.  Meanwhile, the Duke of Normandy, claiming Harold had two years earlier acknowledged him as Edward's successor, landed in Sussex.  Harold rushed his seven-thousand strong army south where, on 14 October 1066, he was defeated by the Normans, falling in battle on the field of Senlac near Hastings; after being struck in the eye by an arrow, he was cut down by Norman swords.  Harold was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England.