witenagemot

The East Saxons, as early as the 6th century, were settled about Hertford, which in 673 was sufficiently important to be the meeting-place of a synod convened by Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, while in 675 the Witenagemot assembled at a place which has been identified with Hatfield.

It may have been in the hope of checking the spread of the new cult in England that the witenagemot, the same that ratified Canute's legislation, canonised the imperious Archbishop who had governed the English Church two generations earlier.

Witan, wit′an, n.pl. members of the Witenagemot.

Witenagemot, wit′e-na-ge-mōt′, n. the supreme council of England in Anglo-Saxon times, composed of the bishops, the ealdormen of shires, and a number of the king's friends and dependents, the king's thanes.

Witenagemot, The, xxv, 94, 95, 116, 151 n.,