Produced by Al Haines
Note: This is an updated edition of PG#13376.
Copyright (C) 2004 S. A. Reilly
OUR LEGAL HERITAGE
King AEthelbert - King George III, 1776
600 A.D. - 1776
By
S. A. Reilly, Attorney
175 E. Delaware Place
Chicago, Illinois 60611-7715
S-Reilly@att.net
Copyright (C) 2004
Preface
This book was written to appreciate what laws have been in existence
for a long time and therefore have proven their success in maintaining a
stable society. Its purpose is also to see the historical context in
which our legal doctrines developed. It includes the inception of the
common law system, which was praised because it made law which was not
handed down by an absolutist king; the origin of the jury system; the
meaning of the Magna Carta provisions in their historical context; and
the emergence of attorneys.
This book is a primer. One may read it without prior knowledge of
history or law, although it will be more meaningful to attorneys than to
others. It can serve as an introduction on which to base further reading
in English legal history. It defines terms unique to English legal
history. However, the meaning of some terms in King Aethelbert's code in
Chapter 1 are unknown or inexact.
In the Table of Contents, the title of each chapter denotes an
important legal development in the given time period for that chapter.
Each chapter is divided into three sections: The Times, The Law, and
Judicial Procedure.
The Times section sets a background and context in which to better
understand the law of that period. The usual subject matter of history
such as battles, wars, royal intrigues, periods of corruption, and
international relations are omitted as not helping to understand the
process of civilization and development of the law. Standard practices
are described, but there are often variations with locality. Also,
change did not come abruptly, but with vacillations, e.g. the change
from pagan to Christian belief and the change to allowance of loans for
interest. The scientific revolution was accepted only slowly. There were
often many attempts made for change before it actually occurred, e.g.
gaining Parliamentary power over the king's privileges, such as
taxation.
The Law section describes the law governing the behavior and conduct of
the populace. It includes law of that time which is the same, similar,
or a building block to the law of today. In earlier times this is both
statutory law and the common law of the courts. The Magna Carta, which
is quoted in Chapter 7, is the first statute of England and is listed
first in the "Statutes of the Realm" and the "Statutes at Large". The
law sections of Chapters 7 - 18 mainly quote or paraphrase almost all of
these statutes. Excluded are statutes which do not help us understand
the development of our law, such as statutes governing Wales after its
conquest and statutes on succession rights to the throne.
The Judicial Procedure section describes the process of applying the
law and trying cases, and jurisdictions. It also contains some examples
of cases.
For easy comparison, amounts of money expressed in pounds or marks
[Danish denomination] have often been converted to the smaller
denominations of shillings and pence. There are twenty shillings in a
pound. A mark in silver is two-thirds of a pound. Shillings are
abbreviated: "s." There are twelve pennies or pence in a Norman
shilling. Pence are abbreviated "d." Six shillings and two pence is
denoted 6s.2d. A scaett was a coin of silver and copper of lesser
denomination than a shilling. There were no coins of the denomination of
shilling during Anglo-Saxon times.
The sources and reference books from which information was obtained are
listed in a bibliography instead of being contained in tedious
footnotes. There is no index to pages because the electronic text will
print out its pages differently on different computers with different
computer settings. Instead, a word search may be done on the electronic
text.
Dedication and Acknowledgements
A Vassar College faculty member once dedicated her book to her
students, but for whom it would have been written much earlier. This
book "Our Legal Heritage" is dedicated to the faculty of Vassar College,
without whom it would never have been written. Much appreciation goes to
Professor James Curtin of Loyola Law School for his review and comments
on this book's medieval period: Chapters 4-10, and especially his
comment that "I learned quite a bit about life in those days from your
work." Thanks go to Loyola University Law School Professor George
Anastaplo for introducing me to Professor Curtin. Much appreciation goes
to Professor Lacey Baldwin Smith of Northwestern University's History
Department for his review and comments on this book's Tudor and Stuart
periods: Chapters 11-17, especially his comment that he learned a lot.
Thanks go to Northwestern University Law School Professor Steven Presser
for introducing me to Professor Smith. Finally, many thanks go to fellow
Mensan William Wedgeworth for proof-reading the entire book.
Table of Contents
Chapters:
1. Tort law as the first written law: to 600
2. Oaths and perjury: 600-900
3. Marriage law: 900-1066
4. Martial "law": 1066-1100
5. Criminal law and prosecution: 1100-1154
6. Common Law for all freemen: 1154-1215
7. Magna Carta: the first statute: 1215-1272
8. Land law: 1272-1348
9. Legislating the economy: 1348-1399
10. Equity from Chancery Court: 1399-1485
11. Use-trust of land: 1485-1509
12. Wills and testaments of lands and goods: 1509-1558
13. Consideration and contract Law: 1558-1601
14. Welfare for the poor: 1601-1625
15. Independence of the courts: 1625-1642
16. Freedom of religion: 1642-1660
17. Habeas Corpus: 1660-1702
18. Service of Process instead of arrest: 1702-1776
19. Epilogue: 1776-2000
Appendix: Sovereigns of England
Bibliography
- - - Chapter 1 - - -
- The Times: before 600 A.D. -
The settlement of England goes back thousands of years. At first,
people hunted and gathered their food. They wore animal skins over their
bodies for warmth and around their feet for protection when walking.
These skins were sewn together with bone needles and threads made from
animal sinews. They carried small items by hooking them onto their
belts. They used bone and stone tools, e.g. for preparing skins. Their
uncombed hair was held by thistlethorns, animal spines, or straight bone
hair pins. They wore conical hats of bound rush and lived in rush
shelters.
Early clans, headed by kings, lived in huts on top of hills or other
high places and fortified by circular or contour earth ditches and banks
behind which they could gather for protection. They were probably dug
with antler picks and wood spades. The people lived in rectangular huts
with four wood posts supporting a roof. The walls were made of saplings,
and a mixture of mud and straw. Cooking was in a clay oven inside or
over an open fire on the outside. Water was carried in animal skins or
leather pouches from springs lower on the hill up to the settlement.
Forests abounded with wolves, bears, deer, wild boars, and wild cattle.
They could more easily be seen from the hill tops. Pathways extended
through this camp of huts and for many miles beyond.
For wives, men married women of their clan or bought or captured other
women, perhaps with the help of a best man. They carried their unwilling
wives over the thresholds of their huts, which were sometimes in places
kept secret from her family. The first month of marriage was called the
honeymoon because the couple was given mead, a drink with fermented
honey and herbs, for the first month of their marriage. A wife wore a
gold wedding band on the ring finger of her left hand to show that she
was married.
Women usually stayed at home caring for children, preparing meals, and
making baskets. They also made wool felt and spun and wove wool into a
coarse cloth. Flax was grown and woven into a coarse linen cloth.
Spinning the strands into one continuous thread was done on a stick,
which the woman could carry about and spin at anytime when her hands
were free. The weaving was done on an upright or warp-weighted loom.
People of means draped the cloth around their bodies and fastened it
with a metal brooch inlayed with gold, gems, and shell, which were glued
on with glue that was obtained from melting animal hooves. People drank
from hollowed- out animal horns, which they could carry from belts. They
could tie things with rawhide strips or rope braids they made. Kings
drank from animal horns decorated with gold or from cups of amber,
shale, or pure gold. Men and women wore pendants and necklaces of
colorful stones, shells, amber beads, bones, and deer teeth. They
skinned and cut animals with hand-axes and knives made of flint dug up
from pits and formed by hitting flakes off. The speared fish with barbed
bone prongs or wrapped bait around a flint, bone, or shell fish hook. On
the coast, they made bone harpoons for deep-sea fish. The flint ax was
used to shape wood and bone and was just strong enough to fell a tree,
although the process was very slow.
The king, who was tall and strong, led his men in hunting groups to
kill deer and other wild animals in the forests and to fish in the
streams. Some men brought their hunting dogs on leashes to follow scent
trails to the animal. The men threw stones and spears with flint points
at the animals. They used wood clubs to beat them, at the same time
using wood shields to protect their bodies. They watched the phases of
the moon and learned to predict when it would be full and give the most
light for night hunting. This began the concept of a month. Circles of
stone like Stonehenge were built with alignments to paths of the moon.
If hunting groups from two clans tried to follow the same deer, there
might be a fight between the clans or a blood feud. After the battle,
the clan would bring back its dead and wounded. A priest officiated over
a funeral for a dead man. His wife would often also go on the funeral
pyre with him.
The priest also officiated over sacrifices of humans, who were usually
offenders found guilty of transgressions. Sacrifices were usually made
in time of war or pestilence, and usually before the winter made food
scarce.
The clan ate deer that had been cooked on a spit over a fire, and
fruits and vegetables which had been gathered by the women. They drank
water from springs. In the spring, food was plentiful. There were eggs
of different colors in nests and many hare to eat. The goddess Easter
was celebrated at this time.
Later, there was farming and domestication of animals such as horses,
pigs, sheep, goats, chicken, and cattle. Of these, the pig was the most
important meat supply, being killed and salted for winter use. Next in
importance were the cattle. Sheep were kept primarily for their wool.
Flocks and herds were taken to pastures. The male cattle, with wood
yokes, pulled ploughs in the fields of barley and wheat. The female goat
and cow provided milk, butter, and cheese. The chickens provided eggs.
The hoe, spade, and grinding stone were used. Thread was spun with a
hand-held spindle which one hand held while the other hand alternately
formed the thread from a mass and then wound it around the spindle. A
coarse cloth was woven and worn as a tunic which had been cut from the
cloth. Kings wore tunics decorated with sheet gold. Decorated pottery
was made from clay and used to hold liquids and for food preparation and
consumption. During the period of "lent" [from the word "lencten", which
means spring], it was forbidden to eat any meat or fish. This was the
season in which many animals were born and grew to maturity. Wood carts
with four wheels were used to transport produce and manure. Horses were
used for transportation of people or goods. Wood dug-out boats and
paddles were used to fish on rivers or on the seacoast.
Clans had settlements near rivers. Each settlement had a meadow, for
the mowing of hay, and a simple mill, with round timber huts, covered
with branches or thatch or turf supported by a ring of posts. Inside was
a hearth with smoke going up through a hole in the roof, and a cauldron
for cooking food. There was an upright loom in the darkness. The floor
was swept clean. At the door were spears or bags of slingstones ready
for immediate use. The King lived in the largest hut. Gullies outside
carried off excess water. Each hut had a garden for fruit and
vegetables. A goat or cow might be tied out of reach of the garden.
There was a fence or hedge surrounding and protecting the garden area
and dwelling. Buckets and cauldrons which had originated from the
Mediterranean were used. Querns with the top circular stone turned by
hand over the bottom stone were used for grinding grain. There were
ovens to dry and roast grain. Grain was first eaten as a porridge or
cereal. There were square wood granaries on stilts and wood racks on
which to dry hay. Grain was stored in concealed pits in the earth which
were lined with drystone or basket work or clay and made airtight by
sealing with clay or dung. Old pits were converted into waste dumps,
burials, or latrines. Outside the fence were an acre or two of fields of
wheat and barley, and sometimes oats and rye. Wheat and rye were sown in
the fall, and oats and barley in the spring. Sowing was by men or two
oxen drawing a simple scratch plough. The crops were all harvested in
the summer. In this two-field system, land was held by peasants in units
designed to support a single extended family. These fields were usually
enclosed with a hedge to keep animals from eating the crop and to define
the territory of the settlement from that of its neighbors. Flax was
grown and made into linen cloth. Beyond the fields were pastures for
cattle and sheep grazing. There was often an area for beehives. This was
subsistence level farming.
Pottery was given symmetry when formed with use of a wheel and heated
in increasingly hot kilns. From kilns used for pottery, it was noticed
that lumps of gold or copper ore within would melt and assume the shape
of what they had been resting on. These were the first metals, and could
be beaten into various shapes, such as ornaments. Then the liquid ore
was poured into moulds carved out of stones to make axes [small pointed
tool for piercing holes in leather, wood, or other soft materials] and
daggers, which were reheated and hammered to become strong.
Copper-tipped drills, chisels, punches and awls were also made.
The bodies of deceased were buried far away from any village in wood
coffins, except for kings, who were placed in large stone coffins after
being wrapped in linen. Buried with them were a few personal items, such
as copper daggers, flat copper axes, and awls. The deceased was buried
in a coffin with a stone on top deep in the earth to keep the spirit of
the dead from coming out to haunt the living.
It was learned that tin added to the copper made a stronger metal:
bronze. Stone hammers, and bronze and iron tools, were used to make
cooking pots, weapons, breast plates, and horse bits, which were formed
from moulds and/or forged by bronze smiths and blacksmiths from iron
extracted from iron ore heated in bowl- shaped hearths. Typically one
man operated the bellows to keep the fire hot while another did the
hammering. Bronze was made into sickles for harvesting, razors for
shaving, tweezers, straight hair pins, safety pins for clothes, armlets,
neck-rings, and mirrors. Weapons included bows and arrows, flint and
copper daggers, bronze swords and spears, stone axes, and shields of
wood with bronze mountings. The bows and arrows probably evolved from
spear throwing rods. Kings in body armor fought with chariots drawn by
two horses. The horse harnesses had bronze fittings. The chariots had
wood wheels, later with iron rims. When bronze came into use, there was
a demand for its constituent parts: copper and tin, which were traded by
rafts on waterways and the sea. When iron came into use, there were
wrought iron axes, saws, adzes [ax with curved blade used to dress
wood], files, ploughshares, harrows [set of spikes to break clods of
earth on ploughed land and also to cover seed when sewn], scythes,
billhooks [thick knife with hooked point used to prune shrubs], and
spits for hearths. Lead was mined. There was some glassmaking of beads.
Wrought iron bars were used as currency.
Hillforts now had wooden palisades on top of their banks to protect the
enclosed farmsteads and villages from stock wandering off or being taken
by rustlers, and from attacks by wild animals or other people. Later a
rampart was added from which sentries could patrol. These were supported
by timber and/or stone structures. Timbers were probably transported by
carts or dragged by oxen. At the entrances were several openings only
one of which really allowed entry. The others went between banks into
dead ends and served as traps in which to kill the enemy from above.
Gates were of wood, some hung from hinges on posts which could be
locked. Later guard chambers were added, some with space for hearths and
beds. Sometimes further concentric circles of banks and ditches, and
perhaps a second rampart, were added around these forts. They could
reach to 14 acres. The ramparts are sufficiently widely spaced to make
sling-shotting out from them highly effective, but to minimize the
dangers from sling-shotting from without. The additional banks and
ditches could be used to create cattle corridors or to protect against
spear-thrown firebrands. However, few forts had springs of water within
them, indicating that attacks on them were probably expected to be
short. Attacks usually began with warriors bristling with weapons and
blowing war trumpets shouting insults to the foe, while their kings
dashed about in chariots. Sometimes champions from each side fought in
single combat. They took the heads of those they killed to hang from
their belts or place on wood spikes at the gates. Prisoners, including
women and children, might become slaves. Kings sometimes lived in
separate palisades where they kept their horses and chariots.
Circles of big stones like Stonehenge were rebuilt so that the sun's
position with respect to the stones would indicate the day of longest
sunlight and the day of shortest sunlight. Between these days there was
an optimum time to harvest the crops before fall, when plants dried up
and leaves fell from the trees. The winter solstice, when the days began
to get longer was cause for celebration. In the next season, there was
an optimum time to plant seeds so they could spring up from the ground
as new growth. So farming gave rise to the concept of a year. Certain
changes of the year were celebrated, such as Easter, named for the
Goddess of the Dawn, which occurred in the east (after lent); May Day
celebrating the revival of life; Lammas around July, when the wheat crop
was ready for harvesting; and on October 31 the Celtic eve of Samhain,
when the spirits of the dead came back to visit homes and demand food or
else cast an evil spell on the refusing homes; and at which masked and
costumed inhabitants representing the souls of the dead paraded to the
outskirts of the settlements to lead the ghosts away from their homes;
and at which animals and humans, who might be deemed to be possessed by
spirits, were sacrificed or killed perhaps as examples, in huge bonfires
[bonefires] as those assembled looked out for spirits and evil beings.
There was an agricultural revolution from the two-field system in which
one field was fallow to the three-field system, in which there were
three large fields for the heavy and fertile land. Each field was
divided into long and narrow strips. Each strip represented a day's work
with the plough. One field had wheat, or perhaps rye, another had
barley, oats, beans, or peas, and the third was fallow. It had been
observed that legumes such as peas and beans restored the soil. These
were rotated yearly. There was a newly invented plough that was heavy
and made of wood and later had an attached iron blade. The plough had a
mould-board which caught the soil stirred by the plough blade and threw
it into a ridge alongside the furrow dug by the plough blade. This
plough was too heavy for two oxen and was pulled by a team of about
eight to ten oxen. Each ox was owned by a different man as was the
plough, because no one peasant could afford the complete set. Each
freeman was allotted certain strips in each field to bear crops. His
strips were far from each other, which insured some very fertile and
some only fair soil, and some land near his village dwelling and some
far away. These strips he cultivated, sowed with seed, and harvested for
himself and his family. After the harvest, they reverted to common
ownership for grazing by pigs, sheep, and geese. As soon as haymaking
was over, the meadows became common grazing land for horses, cows, and
oxen. Not just any inhabitant, but usually only those who owned a piece
of land in the parish were entitled to graze their animals on the common
land, and each owner had this right of pasture for a definite number of
animals. The faster horse replaced the ox as the primary work animal.
Other farm implements were: coulters, which gave free passage to the
plough by cutting weeds and turf, picks, spades and shovels, reaping
hooks and scythes, and sledge hammers and anvils. Strips of land for
agriculture were added from waste land as the community grew. Waste
lands were moors bristling with brushwood, or gorse, heather and wanton
weeds, reed-coated marshes, quaking peat-bogs, or woods grown haphazard
on sand or rock. With iron axes, forests could be cleared to provide
more arable land.
Some villages had a smith, a wheelwright, and a cooper. There were
villages which had one or two market days in each week. Cattle, sheep,
pigs, poultry, calves, and hare were sold there. London was a town on
the Thames River under the protection of the Celtic river god Lud: Lud's
town. It's huts were probably built over the water, as was Celtic
custom. It was a port for foreign trade. Near the town was Ludhill. Each
Celtic tribe in England made its own coinage. Silver and bronze were
first used, and then gold. The metal was put into a round form and then
placed between two engraved dies, which were hit.
Flint workers mined with deer antler picks and ox shoulder blade
shovels for flint to grind into axes, spearheads, and arrowheads. Mine
shafts were up to thirty feet deep and necessitated the use of chalk
lamps fueled by animal fat with wicks of moss. The flint was hauled up
in baskets.
Common men and women were now buried in tombs within memorial burial
mounds of earth with stone entrances and interior chambers. A man's
weapons and shield were buried with him and a woman's spindle and
weaving baton, and perhaps beads or pottery with her. At times, mounds
of earth would simply be covered over piles of corpses and ashes in
urns. In these mass graves, some corpses had spear holes or sword cuts,
indicating death by violence. The Druid priests, the learned class of
the Celts, taught the Celts to believe in reincarnation of the soul
after death of one body into another body. They also threw prized
possessions into lakes and rivers as sacrifices to water gods. They
placed images of gods and goddesses in shrines, which were sometimes
large enough to be temples. They thought of their gods as supernatural
magicians.
With the ability to grow food and the acquisition of land by conquest
by invading groups, the population grew. There were different classes of
men. The freemen were eorls [noble freemen] or ceorls [ordinary free
farmers]. Slaves were not free. Freemen had long hair and beards.
Slaves' hair was shorn from their heads so that they were bald. Slaves
were chained and often traded. Prisoners taken in battle, especially
native Britons taken by invading groups, became slaves. A slave who was
captured or purchased was a "theow". An "esne" was a slave who worked
for hire. A "weallas" was a Welsh slave. Criminals became slaves of the
person wronged or of the king. Sometimes a father pressed by need sold
his children or his wife into bondage. Debtors, who increased in number
during famine, which occurred regularly, became slaves by giving up the
freeman's sword and spear, picking up a slave's mattock [pick ax for the
soils], and placing their head within a lord's or lady's hands. They
were called wite- theows. The original meaning of the word lord was
"loaf-giver". Children with a slave parent were slaves. The slaves lived
in huts around the homes of big landholders, which were made of logs and
consisted on one large room or hall. An open hearth was in the middle of
the earthen floor of the hall, which was strewn with rushes. There was a
hole in the roof to let out the smoke. Here the landholder and his men
would eat meat, bread, salt, hot spiced ale, and mead while listening to
minstrels sing about the heroic deeds of their ancestors. Richer men
drank wine. There were festivals which lasted several days, in which
warriors feasted, drank, gambled, boasted, and slept where they fell.
Physical strength and endurance in adversity were admired traits.
Slaves often were used as grain grinders, ploughmen, sowers, haywards,
woodwards, shepherds, goatherds, swineherds, oxherds, cowherds,
dairymaids, and barnmen. Slaves had no legal rights. A lord could kill
his slave at will. A wrong done to a slave was regarded as done to his
owner. If a person killed another man's slave, he had to compensate him
with the slave's purchase price. The slave owner had to answer for the
offenses of his slaves against others, as for the mischief done by his
cattle. Since a slave had no property, he could not be fined for crimes,
but was whipped, mutilated, or killed.
During famine, acorns, beans, peas, and even bark were ground down to
supplement flour when grain stocks grew low. People scoured the
hedgerows for herbs, roots, nettles, and wild grasses, which were
usually left for the pigs. Sometimes people were driven to infanticide
or group suicide by jumping together off a cliff or into the water.
Several large kingdoms came to replace the many small ones. The people
were worshipping pagan gods when St. Augustine came to England in 596
A.D. to Christianize them. King AEthelbert of Kent [much later a county]
and his wife, who had been raised Christian on the continent, met him
when he arrived. The King gave him land where there were ruins of an old
city. Augustine used stones from the ruins to build a church which was
later called Canterbury. He also built the first St. Paul's church in
London. Aethelbert and his men who fought with him and ate and lived in
his household [gesiths] became Christian. A succession of princesses
went out from Kent to marry other Saxon kings and convert them to
Christianity.
Augustine knew how to write, but King AEthelbert did not. The King
announced his laws at meetings of his people and his eorls would decide
the punishments. There was a fine of 120s. for disregarding a command of
the King. He and Augustine decided to write down some of these laws,
which now included the King's new law concerning the church.
These laws concern personal injury, killing, theft, burglary, marriage,
adultery, and inheritance. The blood feud's private revenge for killing
had been replaced by payment of compensation to the dead man's kindred.
One paid a man's "wergeld" [worth] to his kindred for causing his
wrongful death. The wergeld [wer] of a king was an unpayable amount of
about 7000s., of an aetheling [a king-worthy man of the extended royal
family] was 1500s., of an eorl, 300s., of a ceorl, 100s., of a laet
[agricultural worker in Kent, which class was between free and slave],
40-80s., and of a slave nothing. At this time a shilling could buy a cow
in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. If a ceorl killed an eorl, he paid three
times as much as an eorl would have paid as murderer. The penalty for
slander was tearing out of the tongue. If an aetheling was guilty of
this offense, his tongue was worth five times that of a coerl, so he had
to pay proportionately more to ransom it. The crimes of murder,
treachery to one's own lord, arson, house breaking, and open theft, were
punishable by death and forfeiture of all property.
- The Law -
"THESE ARE THE DOOMS [DECREES] WHICH KING AETHELBERHT ESTABLISHED IN
THE DAYS OF AUGUSTINE
1. [Theft of] the property of God and of the church [shall be
compensated], twelve fold; a bishop's property, eleven fold; a priest's
property, nine fold; a deacon's property, six fold; a cleric's property,
three fold; church frith [breach of the peace of the church; right of
sanctuary and protection given to those within its precincts], two fold
[that of ordinary breach of the public peace]; m......frith [breach of
the peace of a meeting place], two fold.
2. If the King calls his leod [his people] to him, and any one there do
them evil, [let him compensate with] a twofold bot [damages for the
injury], and 50 shillings to the King.
3. If the King drink at any one's home, and any one there do any lyswe
[evil deed], let him make twofold bot.
4. If a freeman steal from the King, let him repay nine fold.
5. If a man slay another in the King's tun [enclosed dwelling premises],
let him make bot with 50 shillings.
6. If any one slay a freeman, 50 shillings to the King, as drihtin beah
[payment to a lord in compensation for killing his freeman].
7. If the King's ambiht smith [smith or carpenter] or laad rine [man who
walks before the King or guide or escort], slay a man, let him pay a
half leod geld.
8. [Offenses against anyone or anyplace under] the King's mund byrd
[protection or patronage], 50 shillings
9. If a freeman steal from a freeman, let him make threefold bot; and
let the King have the wite [fine] and all the chattels [necessary to pay
the fine]. (Chattels was a variant of "cattle".)
10. If a man lie with the King's maiden [female servant], let him pay a
bot of 50 shillings.
11. If she be a grinding slave, let him pay a bot of 25 shillings.The
third [class of servant] 12 shillings.
12. Let the King's fed esl [woman who serves him food or nurse] be paid
for with 20 shillings.
13. If a man slay another in an eorl's tun [premises], let [him] make
bot with 12 shillings.
14. If a man lie with an eorl's birele [female cupbearer], let him make
bot with 12 shillings.
15. [Offenses against a person or place under] a ceorl's mund byrd
[protection], 6 shillings.
16. If a man lie with a ceorl's birele [female cupbearer], let him make
bot with 6 shillings; with a slave of the second [class], 50 scaetts;
with one of the third, 30 scaetts.
17. If any one be the first to invade a man's tun [premises], let him
make bot with 6 shillings; let him who follows, with 3 shillings; after,
each, a shilling.
18. If a man furnish weapons to another where there is a quarrel, though
no injury results, let him make bot with 6 shillings.
19. If a weg reaf [highway robbery] be done [with weapons furnished by
another], let him [the man who provided the weapons] make bot with 6
shillings.
20. If the man be slain, let him [the man who provided the weapons] make
bot with 20 shillings.
21. If a [free] man slay another, let him make bot with a half leod
geld [wergeld for manslaughter] of 100 shillings.
22. If a man slay another, at the open grave let him pay 20 shillings,
and pay the whole leod within 40 days.
23. If the slayer departs from the land, let his kindred pay a half
leod.
24. If any one bind a freeman, let him make bot with 20 shillings.
25. If any one slay a ceorl's hlaf aeta [loaf or bread eater; domestic
or menial servant], let him make bot with 6 shillings.
26. If [anyone] slay a laet of the highest class, let him pay 80
shillings; of the second class, let him pay 60 shillings; of the third
class, let him pay 40 shillings.
27. If a freeman commit edor breach [breaking through the fenced
enclosure and forcibly entering a ceorl's dwelling], let him make bot
with 6 shillings.
28. If any one take property from a dwelling, let him pay a three- fold
bot.
29. If a freeman goes with hostile intent through an edor [the fence
enclosing a dwelling], let him make bot with 4 shillings.
30. If [in so doing] a man slay another, let him pay with his own money,
and with any sound property whatever.
31. If a freeman lie with a freeman's wife, let him pay for it with his
wer geld, and obtain another wife with his own money, and bring her to
the other [man's dwelling].
32. If any one thrusts through the riht ham scyld [legal means of
protecting one's home], let him adequately compensate.
33. If there be feax fang [seizing someone by the hair], let there be 50
sceatts for bot.
34. If there be an exposure of the bone, let bot be made with 3
shillings.
35. If there be an injury to the bone, let bot be made with 4 shillings.
36. If the outer hion [outer membrane covering the brain] be broken, let
bot be made with 10 shillings.
37. If it be both [outer and inner membranes covering the brain], let
bot be made with 20 shillings.
38. If a shoulder be lamed, let bot be made with 30 shillings.
39. If an ear be struck off, let bot be made with 12 shillings.
40. If the other ear hear not, let bot be made with 25 shillings.
41. If an ear be pierced, let bot be made with 3 shillings.
42. If an ear be mutilated, let bot be made with 6 shillings.
43. If an eye be [struck] out, let bot be made with 50 shillings.
44. If the mouth or an eye be injured, let bot be made with 12
shillings.
45. If the nose be pierced, let bot be made with 9 shillings.
46. If it be one ala, let bot be made with 3 shillings.
47. If both be pierced, let bot be made with 6 shillings.
48. If the nose be otherwise mutilated, for each [cut, let] bot be made
with 6 shillings.
49. If it be pierced, let bot be made with 6 shillings.
50. Let him who breaks the jaw bone pay for it with 20 shillings.
51. For each of the four front teeth, 6 shillings; for the tooth which
stands next to them 4 shillings; for that which stands next to that, 3
shillings; and then afterwards, for each a shilling.
52. If the speech be injured, 12 shillings. If the collar bone be
broken, let bot be made with 6 shillings.
53. Let him who stabs [another] through an arm, make bot with 6
shillings. If an arm be broken, let him make bot with 6 shillings.
54. If a thumb be struck off, 20 shillings. If a thumb nail be off, let
bot be made with 3 shillings. If the shooting [fore] finger be struck
off, let bot be made with 8 shillings. If the middle finger be
struck off, let bot be made with 4 shillings. If the gold [ring] finger
be struck off, let bot be made with 6 shillings. If the little finger be
struck off, let bot be made with 11 shillings.
55. For every nail, a shilling.
56. For the smallest disfigurement of the face, 3 shillings; and for the
greater, 6 shillings.
57. If any one strike another with his fist on the nose, 3 shillings.
58. If there be a bruise [on the nose], a shilling; if he receive a
right hand bruise [from protecting his face with his arm], let him [the
striker] pay a shilling.
59. If the bruise [on the arm] be black in a part not covered by the
clothes, let bot be made with 30 scaetts.
60. If it be covered by the clothes, let bot for each be made with 20
scaetts.
61. If the belly be wounded, let bot be made with 12 shillings; if it be
pierced through, let bot be made with 20 shillings.
62. If any one be gegemed [pregnant], let bot be made with 30 shillings.
63. If any one be cear wund [badly wounded], let bot be made with 3
shillings.
64. If any one destroy [another's] organ of generation [penis], let him
pay him with 3 leod gelds: if he pierce it through, let him make bot
with 6 shillings; if it be pierced within, let him make bot with 6
shillings.
65. If a thigh be broken, let bot be made with 12 shillings; if the man
become halt [lame], then friends must arbitrate.
66. If a rib be broken, let bot be made with 3 shillings.
67. If [the skin of] a thigh be pierced through, for each stab 6
shillings; if [the wound be] above an inch [deep], a shilling; for two
inches, 2; above three, 3 shillings.
68. If a sinew be wounded, let bot be made with 3 shillings.
69. If a foot be cut off, let 50 shillings be paid.
70. If a great toe be cut off, let 10 shillings be paid.
71. For each of the other toes, let one half that for the corresponding
finger be paid.
72. If the nail of a great toe be cut off, 30 scaetts for bot; for each
of the others, make bot with 10 scaetts.
73. If a freewoman loc bore [with long hair] commit any leswe [evil
deed], let her make a bot of 30 shillings.
74. Let maiden bot [compensation for injury to an unmarried woman] be as
that of a freeman.
75. For [breach of] the mund [protection] of a widow of the best class,
of an eorl's degree, let the bot be 50 shillings; of the second, 20
shillings; of the third, 12 shillings; of the fourth, 6 shillings.
76. If a man carry off a widow not under his own protection by right,
let the mund be twofold.
77. If a man buy a maiden with cattle, let the bargain stand, if it be
without fraud; but if there be fraud, let him bring her home again, and
let his property be restored to him.
78. If she bear a live child, she shall have half the property, if the
husband die first.
79. If she wish to go away with her children, she shall have half the
property.
80. If the husband wish to keep them [the children], [she shall have the
same portion] as one child.
81. If she bear no child, her paternal kindred shall have the fioh [her
money and chattels] and the morgen gyfe [morning gift: a gift made to
the bride by her husband on the morning following the consummation of
the marriage].
82. If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay 50 shillings to
the owner, and afterwards buy [the object of] his will from the owner.
83. If she be betrothed to another man in money [at a bride price], let
him [who carried her off] make bot with 20 shillings.
84. If she become gaengang [pregnant], 35 shillings; and 15 shillings to
the King.
85. If a man lie with an esne's wife, her husband still living, let him
make twofold bot.
86. If one esne slay another unoffending, let him pay for him at his
full worth.
87. If an esne's eye and foot be struck out or off, let him be paid for
at his full worth.
88. If any one bind another man's esne, let him make bot with 6
shillings.
89. Let [compensation for] weg reaf [highway robbery] of a theow [slave]
be 3 shillings.
90. If a theow steal, let him make twofold bot [twice the value of the
stolen goods]."
- Judicial Procedure -
The King and his freemen would hear and decide cases of wrongful
behavior such as breach of the peace. Punishment would be given to the
offender by the community.
There were occasional meetings of "hundreds", which were 100
households, to settle widespread disputes. The chief officer was
"hundreder" or "constable". He was responsible for keeping the peace of
the hundred.
The Druid priests decided all disputes of the Celts.
- - - Chapter 2 - - -
- The Times: 600-900 -
The country was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. The French called it
"Angleterre", which means the angle or end of the earth. It was called
"Angle land", which later became "England".
A community was usually an extended family. Its members lived a village
in which a stone church was the most prominent building. They lived in
one-room huts with walls and roofs made of wood, mud, and straw.
Hangings covered the cracks in the walls to keep the wind out. Smoke
from a fire in the middle of the room filtered out of cracks in the
roof. Grain was ground at home by rotating by hand one stone disk on
another stone disk. Some villages had a mill powered by the flow of
water or by horses. All freeholders had the duty of watch [at night] and
ward [during the day], of following the hue and cry to chase an
offender, and of taking the oath of peace. These three duties were
constant until 1195.
Farmland surrounded the villages and was farmed by the community as a
whole under the direction of a lord. There was silver, copper, iron,
tin, gold, and various types of stones from remote lead mines and
quarries in the nation. Silver pennies replaced the smaller scaetts.
Freemen paid "scot" and bore "lot" according to their means for local
purposes.
Offa, the strongest of the Saxon kings, minted high-quality silver
pennies. He traded woolen coats for lava grindstones with Emperor
Charlemagne, who used a silver denarius coin. There were 12 denarii to
the solidus and 20 soldi to the pound of silver. These denominations
were taken by England as 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to
the pound. The pound sign, an "L" with a hash mark derived from the word
Libra, which meant weighing scales.
Everyone in the village went to church on Sunday and brought gifts such
as grain to the priest. Later, contributions in the form of money became
customary, and then expected. They were called "tithes" and were spent
for church repair, the clergy, and poor and needy laborers. Local custom
determined the amount. There was also church-scot: a payment to the
clergy in lieu of the first fruits of the land. The priest was the
chaplain of a landlord and his parish was coextensive with that
landlord's holding and could include one to several villages. The priest
and other men who helped him, lived in the church building. Some
churches had lead roofs and iron hinges, latches, and locks on their
doors. The land underneath had been given to the church by former kings
and persons who wanted the church to say prayers to help their souls go
from purgatory to heaven and who also selected the first priest. The
priest conducted Christianized Easter ceremonies in the spring and
(Christ's mass) ceremonies in winter in place of the pagan Yuletide
festivities. Burning incense took the place of pagan burnt animal
offerings, which were accompanied by incense to disguise the odor of
burning flesh. Holy water replaced haunted wells and streams. Christian
incantations replaced sorcerer's spells. Nuns assisted priests in
celebrating mass and administering the sacraments. They alone
consecrated new nuns. Vestry meetings were community meetings held for
church purposes. The people said their prayers in English, and the
priest conducted the services in English. A person joined his hands in
prayer as if to offer them for binding together in submission.
The church baptized babies and officiated or gave blessings at marriage
ceremonies. It also said prayers for the dying, gave them funerals, and
buried them. There were burial service fees, candle dues, and plough
alms. A piece of stone with the dead person's name marked his grave. It
was thought that putting the name on the grave would assist
identification of that person for being taken to heaven. The church
heard the last wish or will of the person dying concerning who he wanted
to have his property. The church taught that it was not necessary to
bury possessions with the deceased. The church taught boys and girls.
man carried a horn slung on his shoulder as he went about his work so
that he could at once send out a warning to his fellow villagers or call
them in chasing a thief or other offender. The forests were full of
outlaws, so strangers who did not blow a horn to announce themselves
were presumed to be fugitive offenders who could be shot on sight. An
eorl could call upon the ceorl farmers for about forty days to fight off
an invading group.
There were several kingdoms, whose boundaries kept changing due to
warfare, which was a sin according to the church. They were each
governed by a king and witan of wise men who met at a witanegemot, which
was usually held three times a year, mostly on great church festivals
and at the end of the harvest. The king and witan chose the witan's
members of bishops, eorldormen, and thegns [landholding farmers]. The
king and hereditary claims played a major part in the selection of the
eorldormen, who were the highest military leaders and often of the royal
family. They were also chief magistrates of large jurisdictional areas
of land. The witan included officers of the king's household and perhaps
other of his retinue. There was little distinction then between his
gesith, fighting men, guards, household companions, dependents, and
servants. The king was sometimes accompanied by his wife and sons at the
witanagemot. A king was selected by the witan according to his
worthiness, usually from among the royal family, and could be deposed by
it. The witan and king decided on laws, taxes, and transfers of land.
They made determinations of war and peace and directed the army and the
fleet. The king wore a crown or royal helmet. He extended certain
protections by the king's peace. He could erect castles and bridges and
could provide a special protection to strangers.
A king had not only a wergeld to be paid to his family if he were
killed, but a "cynebot" of equal amount that would be paid to his
kingdom's people. A king's household had a chamberlain for the royal
bedchamber, a marshall to oversee the horses and military equipment, a
steward as head of household, and a cupbearer. The king had income from
fines for breach of his peace; fines and forfeitures from courts dealing
with criminal and civil cases; salvage from ship wrecks; treasure trove
[assets hidden or buried in times of war]; treasures of the earth such
as gold and silver; mines; saltworks; tolls and other dues of markets,
ports, and the routes by land and by river generally; heriot from heirs
of his special dependents for possession of land (usually in kind,
principally in horses and weapons). He also had rights of purveyance
[hospitality and maintenance when traveling]. The king had private
lands, which he could dispose of by his will. He also had crown lands,
which belonged to his office and could not be alienated without consent
of the witan. Crown lands often included palaces and their appendant
farms, and burhs. It was a queen's duty to run the royal estate. Also, a
queen could possess, manage, and dispose of lands in her name. Violent
queens waged wars. Kingdoms were often allied by marriage between their
royal families. There were also royal marriages to royalty on the
continent.
The houses of the wealthy had ornamented silk hangings on the walls.
Some had fine white ox horn shaved so thin they were transparent for
windows. Brightly colored drapery, often purple, and fly nets surrounded
their beds, which were covered with the fur of animals. They slept in
bed clothes on pillows stuffed with straw. Tables plated with silver and
gems held silver candlesticks, gold and silver goblets and cups, and
lamps of gold, silver, or glass. They used silver mirrors and silver
writing pens. There were covered seats, benches, and footstools with the
head and feet of animals at their extremities. They ate from a table
covered with a cloth. Servants brought in food on spits, from which they
ate. Food was boiled, broiled, or baked. The wealthy ate wheat bread and
others ate barley bread. Ale made from barley was passed around in a
cup. Mead made from honey was also drunk.
Men wore long-sleeved wool and linen garments reaching almost to the
knee, around which they wore a belt tied in a knot. Men often wore a
gold ring on the fourth finger of the right hand. Leather shoes were
fastened with leather thongs around the ankle. Their hair was parted in
the middle and combed down each side in waving ringlets. The beard was
parted in the middle of the chin, so that it ended in two points. The
clergy did not wear beards. Great men wore gold-embroidered clothes,
gilt buckles and brooches, and drank from drinking horns mounted in
silver gilt or in gold. Well- to-do women wore brightly colored robes
with waist bands, headbands, necklaces, gem bracelets, and rings. Their
long hair was in ringlets and they put rouge on their cheeks. They had
beads, pins, needles, tweezers of bronze, and workboxes of bronze, some
highly ornamented. They were often doing needlework. Silk was affordable
only by the wealthy.
Most families kept a pig and pork was the primary meat. There were also
sheep, goats, cows, deer, hare, and fowl. Fowl was obtained by fowlers
who trapped them. The inland waters yielded eels, salmon, and trout. In
the fall, meat was salted to preserve it for winter meals. There were
orchards growing figs, nuts, grapes, almonds, pears, and apples. Also
produced were beans, lentils, onions, eggs, cheese, and butter. Pepper
and cinnamon were imported.