MARTIA,
Surnamed Proba, or the Jast, was, according to Hollinshed, "the widow of Gutiline, Bang of the Britons, and was left protectress of the realm during the minority of her son. Perceiving much in the conduct of her subjects which needed reformation, she devised sundry wholesome laws, which the Britons, after her death, named the Martian statutes. Alfred caused the laws of this excellently-learned princess, whom all commended for her knowledge of the Greek tongue, to be established in the realm." These laws, embracing trial by jury and the just descent of property, were afterwards collated and further improved by Edward the Confessor. Thus there are good reasons for believing that the remarkable code of laws, called the common law of England, usually attributed to Alfred, were by him derived from the laws first established by a British queen, a woman.