within the lands granted to the community, which it is to possess ‘under
all immunity’. The third form is a grant of ‘royal immunity’ to a bishop,
so that no ‘public judge’ shall operate within the episcopal lands; and
the essence of the fourth, a ‘confirmation of immunity’, is likewise
exemption of church lands from public jurisdiction.^12
Though some of the royal charters are grants from the king’s own
estates, the booking of land—that is the setting-down of rights over it in
what would come to be called ‘land-books’ in the contemporary Anglo-
Saxon kingdoms—was essentially a political act. The grants of land and
immunity in the first part of Marculf’s formulary stand along with
orders to bishops to promote worthy men to be the archpriests of
towns, which the king issues in his function of ministering to and
governing everything; and with royal appointments to the judicial
dignity of count, duke, or patrician, who are bidden to rule the people
in their pagi, Franks, Romans, Burgundians, or people of other nations,
according to their own laws and customs.^13 In this first part we are also
shown how a man becomes a royal ‘antrustion’ and has allotted to him
the appropriate wergild which must be paid for his killing; how a royal
servant is protected from law-suits while away on the king’s business;
and how royal protection (mundeburdium) is granted to a particular
church and all its property and servants.^14
An edict of Chlothar II in 614 makes clear that grants of immunity
or ‘liberty’ conferred or confirmed landlords’ positive responsibility to
impose peace and discipline within their lands, and the authority thus
granted to the most favoured ecclesiastical landlords was the more
permanent for including the right to dispose of the lands they received
to their best advantage.^15 In these charters kings were attempting to
shore up their kingship. So, communities of monks were endowed by
the king, and the communities which his predecessors had established
were preserved ‘in quiet order’ (quieto ordine), in order that they might
pray ‘for the stability of the kingdom’.^16 For this reason, too, it was seen
as a royal duty to preserve for all time coming what in England was
called ‘book-right’ (since it was conveyed by ‘land-books’).^17 The king
14 Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Justice
(^12) Formulae, 39–45 (I, nos. 1–4); for other grants of immunity, see 53–5, 201; and
Diplomata Merovingica, 19–20, 30 (no. 31), 35 (38), 36 (40).
(^13) Formulae, 46–8, 52–3 (Marculf, I, 6–8, 14–15).
(^14) Ibid. 55, 57–8 (Marculf, I, 18, 23, 24).
(^15) Capitularia Regum Francorum, ed. A. Boretius and V. Krause, MGH Legum Sectio 2, 2
vols., (Hanover, 1883–90), i. 22. 25 ; M. Kroell, L’Immunité franque(Paris, 1910), 76–8, 206;
A. C. Murray, ‘Immunity, Nobility, and the Edict of Paris’, Speculum, 69 (1994).
(^16) Formulae, 151. 3 , 307. 5 ; Diplomata... Merowingica, 4, 20. 25 , 29. 10 and 35 , 30. 49 ,
- 25 ; Pippini, Carlomanni, Caroli Magni Diplomata, ed. A. Dopsch, J. Lechner, M. Tangl,
and E. Muhlbacher, MGH Diplomata Karolinorum 1 (Berlin, 1906), 20. 20 , 175, 204. 15 and
35 , 245. 1 ; Wallace-Hadrill, The Long-Haired Kings, 241 ff.
(^17) Formulae, 18. 15 , 54. 25 , 97. 5 , 137. 20 , 148. 5 , 208. 15 , 275. 1 , 289. 5 , 305. 15 , 306. 5 ;
Diplomata... Merowingica, 4, 6. 20 , 20, 21. 25 , 22. 10 , 25. 40 , 29. 10 and 35 , 30. 45 , 35. 25 ,