Hey, I talked a bit here about the dangers of talking about the Witan rather than a Witan. That is to say that, despite Victorian attempts to turn it into some kind of proto-Parliament, a witan is just a collection of local nobles and notables from wherever the king happened to be on the ongoing circuit of semi-intinerant Early Medieval English kingship. When Alfred of Wessex is at Malmesbury (S356, undated), for example, his witan is the bishop Wulfric, the dukes Æthelhelm and Æthelnoth, his sons Æthelwald and Eadward, and eight men listed simply as Beorhtnoth, Ælfhere, Deormod, Beorhthelm, Ceolwulf, Wulfric, Wærwulf and Ecgwulf. These men are perhaps king's thegns, 'ministers' like the Dudig to whom Alfred is bequeathing land, or perhaps thegns in service to the two dukes. They may be members of the abbey at Malmesbury, from whose land the bequest was made, or they might simply be reeves or even Hundredmen or Tythingmen from within Malmesbury and the surrounding villages. At a council in London with his daughter and son-in-law in 889 (S346), on the other hand, Alfred's Witan consists of his daughter Æthelflæd and son-in-law Æthelred (Procuratrix and Patricius Merciorum), Bishop Wærferth of Worcester, and the bishops Wulfred, Alhard, Wærfriđ, Denewulf and Wulfsige.

When Alfred's grandson Æthelstan is at Malmesbury some two or three decades later in the wake of the Battle of Brunanburh (S454), we do see royal offices in his Witan, namely the cancellarii (Chancellor), a 'Master Wolsin', and Odo, the king's thesaurarii or treasurer, alongside his brother Eadmund. Also there, however, is a Godwine qui fert uexillum regis... in conflictu meo contra Daneos, and who, we are told, is a representative or petitioner on behalf of the burgesses of Malmesbury, or more specifically, the men of Malmesbury who fought in the Wiltshire fyrd as part of the West Saxon contingent of the English army at Brunanburh. It could be the case that Godwine is a figurative bannerman, and was in fact the tythingman, hundredman or thegn who led the Malmesbury contingent and is thus also petitioning on their behalf, or he could be a very literal standard-bearer, a 'mere' fyrdman or sokeman chosen by his peers to represent their interests before the king, perhaps due to his bravery at Brunanburh.

The point I'm driving at here is that we almost have to consider the Witan - or rather any Witan - as having almost the opposite power structure as a modern parliament. That is to say that, unlike a modern MP being chosen as a minister following their election to Parliament, an individual wouldn't be given an office because they were a member of a Witan, but rather would be expected to be part of a Witan because they held an office.

The reign of Edward the Confessor is particularly useful for seeing the kind of royal officers who would be expected to attend a late Witan. A council at Westminster in 1066, for example (S0143) is attended by Edward and Eadgiđa, as well as both archbishops Stigand and Ealdred (of Canterbury and York), his cancellarius Reinbald, the Dux Harold (Godwinson) of Wessex and his brothers Leofwine and Gyrđ, and Eadwine of Mercia, a wide array of bishops (Walter, Leofric, Willielmus, Herreman, Wulfstan, Siward, Wulfwin, Gyso of Wells, Ælfwine, another Leofric, Ægelsius, Eadwine, and Wulfwold), a number of abbots, and six 'ministers' (king's thegns). On a separate occasion (S1042), his Witan still includes Stigand, Ealdred, Harold, Gyrđ, Leofwine and Eadwine, and a similar collection of bishops, but also includes Tostig, Earl Waltheof of Northumbria, the procurators Bundi, Raulf, Esgar and Hrođbehrt (likely royal officers, perhaps reeves of the treasury), the pincerna Heardyng (a member of the royal household, possibly a 'butler but more likely 'cup-bearer' and thus close personal confidant), the cubicularius Winsi (head of the royal household), and the Princeps Brihtric, Ælfgar and Ælfstan (these are probably a local equivalent of thegns or ealdormen, some kind of 'clan' chief or subordinate sub-king of groups like the Magonsaete.