28 English and Continental Backgrounds
that were in any special way connected with the king were
likely to be considered as falling within his peace. It was
a serious matter to break the king's peace; deeds of vio-
lence against the king's officers or servants or committed
in the king's house or on the king's highway were subject
to a severer penalty than those against ordinary persons
or in ordinary places. Thus there were two kinds of
peace in the country: the king's peace which was limited
in its scope, and the general peace of the local courts.1
But taking into full account all the efforts of the Anglo-
Saxon kings, through the sheriffs or otherwise, to extend
their authority in the localities, still the lack of co-ordina-
tion between the central and local governments remained
great, and the local government, such as it was, would
probably have gone on without serious difficulty if the
king had ceased to be. As kings grew strong and the
country more united under the West Saxon dynasty,
there was a broadening of the scope of the king's peace;
it took in more territory and covered more persons. It
was coming close to, if it had not already reached, its
recognised second stage, in which it applied generally,
but had to be claimed in proper form by the injured party
in order that he might reap its benefits in court. It was
left to Norman and Angevin kings to hasten it to its third
stage in which the courts took it for granted.
c. Origin and Early History of Boroughs.—In England,
the urban community, the municipality, is called a
borough, the term city being applied to those boroughs
which have, or have had, a cathedral church. The be-
ginning of boroughs was the beginning of a special form
of government for the inhabitants of places so called, by
which they were placed in an exceptional position, and
were more or less cut off from the ordinary local organisa-
_llt is probable that this second form of peace was never thus con-
sciously taken account of at the time, whereas the king's peace was matter
of frequent mention. Indeed the whole question of the older peace is a
vexed one. Was it recognised and backed up by the king? And what is
the relation of all this to, or its evolution out of, the old private vengeance
idea?