548 ANNALS OF ROGER DE HOTEDEN. A.D. 1180. then he was to be delivered up to the king's justice, on which they were to haTe back the forty-six marks that had been deposited with the king's treasurer. But if he could not be apprehended within the said time, then the relations of the murdered person were to have six marks and the king the remaining forty. If his relations could not be found, then his superior lord was to receive them, and if he had no lord, then his fellow,6 3 that is to say, the person who was tied to him by bonds of fidelity. But if there were none of these, in such case, the king of the realm, under whose safeguard and protection they all live, was to take back the six marks together with his own forty. " The law of murder was first enacted in the time of Canute, the Danish king, who, after gaining possession of England, and reducing it to a state of peace, at the request of the English barons, sent his army back to Denmark. The said barons, however, became surety to the king, that as many of his people as he should wish to retain with himself should enjoy assured protection in all respects ; and that if any of the English should happen to slay one of them, and could not defend himself against the charge, by the judgment of God, that is to say, by judgment of water or of iron, justice should be executed upon him ; and that if he should take to flight, then payment was to be made as mentioned above. Of the Duties of the King. "The king, as being the viceregent of the Supreme King, is appointed for the purpose of shewing due respect to and protecting the worldly kingdom, and the people of God, and, above all things, His Holy Church, and of ruling and defending it from those who would injure it, and of removing from it, and crushing and utterly dispersing all evil-doers ; and if he does not do so, then the name of king wiB not belong to him, pope John truly testifying that he loses the name of king who does not act as king. [On Pepin84 and his son ι Charles, who were not yet kings, but only princes under the king of the Pranks, hearing this definite opinion, pronounced as truthfully as prudently on the name of a king, quoted by William the Bastard, king of England, they foolishly wrote to the pope to enquire if on those terms the kings of the Franks 83 64 " Felagus." Probably an interpolation. It is more full in lloveden than in the text of Wilkins.