crabs, and other fish. Sometimes a whale was driven into an inlet by a
group of boats. Whale skins were used to make ropes.
The roads were not much more than trails. They were often so narrow
that two pack horses could hardly pass each other. The pack horses each
carried two bales or two baskets slung over their backs, which balanced
each other. The soft soil was compacted into a deep ditch which rains,
floods, and tides, if near the sea, soon turned into a river. Traveling
a far distance was unsafe as there were robbers on the roads. Traveling
strangers were distrusted. It was usual to wash one's feet in a hot tub
after traveling and to dry them with a rough wool cloth.
There were superstitions about the content of dreams, the events of the
moon, and the flights and voices of birds were often seen as signs or
omens of future events. Herbal mixtures were drunk for sickness and
maladies. From the witch hazel plant was made a mild alcoholic
astringent, which was probably used to clean cuts and sooth abrasions.
In the peaceful latter part of the 600s, Theodore, who had been a monk
in Rome, was appointed archbishop and visited all the island speaking
about the right rule of life and ordaining bishops to oversee the
priests. Each kingdom was split up into dioceses each with one bishop.
Thereafter, bishops were selected by the king and his witan, usually
after consulting the clergy and even the people of the diocese. The
bishops came to be the most permanent element of society. They had their
sees in villages or rural monasteries. The bishops came to have the same
wergeld as an eorldorman: 1200s., which was the price of about 500 oxen.
A priest had the wergeld as a landholding farmer [thegn], or 300s. The
bishops spoke Latin, but the priests of the local parishes spoke
English. Theodore was the first archbishop whom all the English church
obeyed. He taught sacred and secular literature, the books of holy writ,
ecclesiastical poetry, astronomy, arithmetic, and sacred music. Theodore
discouraged slavery by denying Christian burial to the kidnapper and
forbidding the sale of children over the age of seven. A slave became
entitled to two loaves a day and to his holydays. A slave was allowed to
buy his or his children's freedom. In 673, Theodore started annual
national ecclesiastical assemblies, for instance for the witnessing of
important actions. The bishops, some abbots, the king, and the
eorldormen were usually present. From them the people learned the
benefit of common national action. There were two archbishops: one of
Canterbury in the south and one of York in the north. They governed the
bishops and could meet with them to issue canons that would be equally
valid all over the land. A bishop's house contained some clerks,
priests, monks, and nun and was a retreat for the weary missionary and a
school for the young. The bishop had a deacon who acted as a secretary
and companion in travel, and sometimes as an interpreter. Ink was made
from the outer husks of walnuts steeped in vinegar.
The learned ecclesiastical life flourished in monastic communities, in
which both monks and nuns lived. Hilda, a noble's daughter, became the
first nun in Northumbria and abbess of one of its monasteries. There she
taught justice, piety, chastity, peace, and charity. Several monks
taught there later became bishops. Kings and princes often asked her
advice. Many abbesses came to run monastic communities; they were from
royal families. Women, especially from royal families, fled to
monasteries to obtain shelter from unwanted marriage or to avoid their
husbands. Kings and eorldormen retired to them.
Danish Vikings made several invasions in the 800s for which a danegeld
tax on land was assessed on everyone every ten to twenty years. The
amount was determined by the witan and was typically 2s. per hide of
land. (A hide was probably the amount of land which could support a
family or household for a year or as much land as could be tilled
annually by a single plough.) It was stored in a strong box under the
King's bed. King Alfred the Great, who had lived for awhile in Rome,
unified the country to defeat the invaders. He established
fortifications called "burhs", usually on hill tops or other strategic
locations on the borders to control the main road and river routes into
his realm. The burhs were seminal towns. They were typically walled
enclosures with towers and an outer ditch and mound, instead of the
hedge or fence enclosure of a tun. Inside were several wooden thatched
huts and a couple of churches, which were lit by earthen oil lamps. The
populace met at burhgemotes. The land area protected by each burh became
known as a "shire", which means a share of a larger whole. The shire or
local landowners were responsible for repairing the burh fortifications.
There were about thirty shires.
Alfred gathered together fighting men who were at his disposal, which
included eorldormen with their hearthbands (retinues of men each of whom
had chosen to swear to fight to the death for their eorldorman, and some
of whom were of high rank), the King's thegns, shire thegns (local
landholding farmers, who were required to bring fighting equipment such
as swords, helmets, chain mail, and horses), and ordinary freemen, i.e.
ceorls (who carried food, dug fortifications, and sometimes fought).
Since the King was compelled to call out the whole population to arms,
the distinction between the king's thegns from other landholders
disappeared. Some great lords organized men under them, whom they
provisioned. These vassals took a personal oath to their lord "on
condition that he keep me as I am willing to deserve, and fulfill all
that was agreed on when I became his man, and chose his will as mine."
Alfred had a small navy of longships with 60 oars to fight the Viking
longships.
Alfred divided his army into two parts so that one half of the men were
fighting while the other half was at home sowing and harvesting for
those fighting. Thus, any small-scale independent farming was supplanted
by the open-field system, cultivation of common land, more large private
estates headed by a lord, and a more stratified society in which the
king and important families more powerful and the peasants more
curtailed. The witan became mere witnesses. Many free coerls of the
older days became bonded. The village community tended to become a large
private estate headed by a lord. But the lord does not have the power to
encroach upon the rights of common that exist within the community.
In 886, a treaty between Alfred and the Vikings divided the country
along the war front and made the wergeld of every free farmer, whether
English or Viking, 200s. Men of higher rank were given a wergeld of 4
1/2 marks of pure gold. A mark was probably a Viking denomination and a
mark of gold was equal to nine marks of silver in later times and
probably in this time. The word "earl" replaced the word "eorldormen"
and the word "thegn" replaced the word "aetheling" after the Danish
settlement. The ironed pleats of Viking clothing indicated a high status
of the wearer. The Vikings brought combs and the practice of regular
hair-combing to England.
King Alfred gave land with jurisdictional powers within its boundaries
such as the following: "This is the bequest which King Alfred make
unequivocally to Shaftesbury, to the praise of God and St. Mary and all
the saints of God, for the benefit of my soul, namely a hundred hides as
they stand with their produce and their men, and my daughter AEthelgifu
to the convent along with the inheritance, since she took the veil on
account of bad health; and the jurisdiction to the convent, which I
myself possessed, namely obstruction and attacks on a man's house and
breach of protection. And the estates which I have granted to the
foundation are 40 hides at Donhead and Compton, 20 hides at Handley and
Gussage 10 hides at Tarrant, 15 hides at Iwerve and 15 hides at
Fontmell.
The witnesses of this are Edward my son and Archbishop AEthelred and
Bishop Ealhferth and Bishop AEthelhead and Earl Wulfhere and Earl
Eadwulf and Earl Cuthred and Abbot Tunberht and Milred my thegn and
AEthelwulf and Osric and Brihtulf and Cyma. If anyone alters this, he
shall have the curse of God and St. Mary and all the saints of God
forever to all eternity. Amen."
Sons usually succeeded their fathers on the same land as shown by this
lifetime lease: "Bishop Denewulf and the community at Winchester lease
to Alfred for his lifetime 40 hides of land at Alresford, in accordance
with the lease which Bishop Tunbriht had granted to his parents and
which had run out, on condition that he renders every year at the
autumnal equinox three pounds as rent, and church dues, and the work
connected with church dues; and when the need arises, his men shall be
ready both for harvesting and hunting; and after his death the property
shall pass undisputed to St. Peter's.
These are the signatures of the councilors and of the members of the
community who gave their consent, namely ..."
Alfred invented a graduated candle with spaces indicating one hour of
burning, which could be used as a clock. He used a ventilated cow's horn
to put around the top of the candle to prevent its blowing out, and then
devised a wooden lantern with a horn window. He described the world as
like a yolk in the middle of an egg whose shell moves around it. This
agreed with the position of Ptolemy Claudius of Alexandria, who showed
the curvature of the earth from north to south by observing that the
Polar Star was higher in the north and lower in the south. That it was
curved from east to west followed from the observation that two clocks
placed one west and one east would record a different time for the same
eclipse of the moon.
Alfred wrote poems on the worthiness of wisdom and knowledge in
preference to material pleasures, pride, and fame, in dealing with
life's sorrow and strife. His observations on human nature and his
proverbs include:
1. As one sows, so will he mow.
2. Every man's doom [judgment] returns to his door.
3. He who will not learn while young, will repent of it when old.
4. Weal [prosperity] without wisdom is worthless.
5. Though a man had 70 acres sown with red gold, and the gold grew like
grass, yet he is not a whit the worthier unless he gain friends for
himself.
6. Gold is but a stone unless a wise man has it.
7. It's hard to row against the sea flood; so it is against misfortune.
8. He who toils in his youth to win wealth, so that he may enjoy ease
in his old age, has well bestowed his toil.
9. Many a man loses his soul through silver.
10. Wealth may pass away, but wisdom will remain, and no man may perish
who has it for his comrade.
11. Don't choose a wife for her beauty nor for wealth, but study her
disposition.
12. Many an apple is bright without and bitter within.
13. Don't believe the man of many words.
14. With a few words a wise man can compass much.
15. Make friends at market, and at church, with poor and with rich.
16. Though one man wielded all the world, and all the joy that dwells
therein, he could not therewith keep his life.
17. Don't chide with a fool.
18. A fool's bolt is soon shot.
19. If you have a child, teach it men's manners while it is little. If
you let him have his own will, he will cause you much sorrow when he
comes of age.
20. He who spares the rod and lets a young child rule, shall rue it when
the child grows old.
21. Either drinking or not drinking is, with wisdom, good.
22. Relatives often quarrel together.
23. The barkless dog bites ill.
24. Be wise of word and wary of speech, then all shall love you.
25. We may outride, but not outwit, the old man.
26. Be not so mad as to tell your friend all your thoughts.
27. If you and your friend fall out, then your enemy will know what your
friend knew before.
28. Don't choose a deceitful man as a friend, for he will do you harm.
29. The false one will betray you when you least expect it.
30. Don't choose a scornful false friend, for he will steal your goods
and deny the theft.
31. Take to yourself a steadfast man who is wise in word and deed; he
will prove a true friend in need.
To restore education and religion, Alfred disseminated the Anglo- Saxon
Chronicles; the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English
Nation; the "Consolidation of Philosophy" by Roman philosopher Boethius,
which related the use of adversity to develop the soul, and described
the goodness of God and how the highest happiness comes from spiritual
values and the soul, which are eternal, rather than from material or
earthly pursuits, which are temporal; and Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care,
which he had translated into English and was the fundamental book on the
duty of a bishop, which included a duty to teach laymen; and Orosius'
History of the World, which he had translated into English. Alfred's
advice to pastors was to live as they had been taught from books and to
teach this manner of life to others. To be avoided was pride, the mind's
deception of seeking glory in the name of doing good works, and the
corruption of high office. Bede was England's first scholar, first
theologian, and first historian. He wrote poetry, theological books,
homilies, and textbooks on grammar, rhetoric [public speaking and
debating], arithmetic, and astronomy. He adhered to the doctrine that
death entered the world by the sin of Adam, the first man. He began the
practice of dating years from the birth of Christ and believed that the
earth was round. Over the earth was a fiery spherical firmament. Above
this were the waters of the heavens. Above this were the upper heavens,
which contained the angels and was tempered with ice. He declared that
comets portend downfalls of kingdoms, pestilence, war, winds, or heat.
This reflected the church's view that a comet was a ball of fire flung
from the right hand of an angry God as a warning to mankind, usually for
disbelief. Storms were begun by the devil.
A famous poem, the oral legend of Beowulf, a hero who led his men into
adventures and performed great feats and fought monsters and dragons,
was put into writing with a Christian theme. In it, loyalty to one's
lord is a paramount virtue. Also available in writing was the story of
King Arthur's twelve victorious battles against the pagan Saxons,
authored by Nennius.
There were professional story tellers attached to great men. Others
wandered from court to court, receiving gifts for their story telling.
Men usually told oral legends of their own feats and those of their
ancestors after supper.
Alfred had monasteries rebuilt with learned and moral men heading them.
He built a nunnery which was headed by his daughter as prioress. He
built a strong wall with four gates around London, which he had taken
into his control. He appointed his son-in-law, who was one of his
eorldormen, to be alderman [older man] to govern London and to be the
shire's earl. A later king built a palace in London, although Winchester
was still the royal capital town. When the king traveled, he and his
retinue were fed by the local people at their expense.
After Alfred's death, his daughter Aethelflared ruled the country for
seven years. She had more fortified burhs built and led soldiers to
victories.
Under the royalty were the nobles. An earl headed each shire as
representative of the King. The term "earl" came to denote an office
instead of a nobleman. He led the array of his shire to do battle if the
shire was attacked. He executed all royal commands. An earl received
grants of land and could claim hospitality and maintenance for himself,
his officers, and his servants. He presided over the shire court. He
received one-third of the fines from the profits of justice and
collected as well a third of the revenues derived from tolls and duties
levied in the boroughs of his shire. The office tended to be hereditary.
Royal representatives called "reeves" started to assist them. The reeve
took security from every person for the maintenance of the public peace.
He also tracked cattle thieves, brought suspects to court, gave
judgments according to the doom books, and delivered offenders to
punishment.
Under the earls were the thegns. By service to the King, it was
possible for a coerl to rise to become a thegn and to be given land by
the King. Other thegns performed functions of magistrates. A thegn was
later identified as a person with five hides of land, a kitchen, a
church, a bell house, a judicial place at the burhgemote [a right of
magistracy], and an appointment in the King's hall. He was bound to
service in war by virtue of his landholding instead of by his
relationship to the king. Nobility was now a territorial attribute,
rather than one of birth. The wergeld of a thegn was 1200s. when that of
a ceorl or ordinary freeman was 200s. The wergeld of an earl or bishop
was four times that of a thegn: 5800s. The wergeld of a king or
archbishop was six times that of a thegn: 7200s. The higher a man's
wergeld, the higher was his legal status in the scale of punishment,
giving credible evidence, and participation in legal proceedings. The
sokemen were freemen who had inherited their own land, chose their own
lord, and attended and were subject to their lord's court. That is,
their lord has soke [soc] jurisdiction over them. A ceorl typically had
a single hide of land. A smallholder rented land of about 30 acres from
a landlord, which he paid by doing work on the lord's demesne [household
or messuage] land, paying money rent, or paying a food rent such as in
eggs or chickens. Smallholders made up about two fifths of the
population. A cottager had one to five acres of land and depended on
others for his living. Among these were shepherds, ploughmen,
swineherds, and blacksmiths. They also participated in the agricultural
work, especially at harvest time.
It was possible for a thegn to become an earl, probably by the
possession of forty hides. He might even acquire enough land to qualify
him for the witan. Women could be present at the witanagemot and
shiregemote [meeting of the people of the shire]. They could sue and be
sued in the courts. They could independently inherit, possess, and
dispose of property. A wife's inheritance was her own and under no
control of her husband.
Marriage required the consent of the lady and her friends. The man also
had to arrange for the foster lean, that is, remuneration for rearing
and support of expected children. He also declared the amount of money
or land he would give the lady for her consent, that is, the morgengift,
and what he would bequeath her in case of his death. It was given to her
on the morning after the wedding night. The family of the bride was paid
a "mund" for transferring the rightful protection they possessed over
her to the family of the husband. If the husband died and his kindred
did not accept the terms sanctioned by law, her kindred could repurchase
the rightful protection. If she remarried within a year of his death,
she had to forfeit the morgengift and his nearest kin received the lands
and possessions she had. The word for man was "waepnedmenn" or weaponed
person. A woman was "wifmenn" or wife person, with "wif" being derived
from the word for weaving.
Great men and monasteries had millers, smiths, carpenters, architects,
agriculturists, fishermen, weavers, embroiders, dyers, and illuminators.
For entertainment, minstrels sang ballads about heroes or Bible
stories, harpers played, jesters joked, and tumblers threw and caught
balls and knives. There was gambling, dice games, and chasing deer with
hounds.
Fraternal guilds were established for mutual advantage and protection.
A guild imposed fines for any injury of one member by another member. It
assisted in paying any murder fine imposed on a member. It avenged the
murder of a member and abided by the consequences. It buried its members
and purchased masses for his soul.
Mercantile guilds in seaports carried out commercial speculations not
possible by the capital of only one person.
There were some ale houses, probably part of certain dwellings.
The danegeld tax of 1s. and later 2s. upon every hide of land came to
be imposed for maintaining forces sufficient to clear the British seas
of Danish pirates or to buy off the ravages of Danish invaders.
- The Law -
Alfred issued a set of laws to cover the whole country, which were
drawn from the best laws of each region. There was no real distinction
between the concepts of law, morals, and religion.
The importance of telling the truth and keeping one's word are
expressed by this law: "1. At the first we teach that it is most needful
that every man warily keep his oath and his wed. If any one be
constrained to either of these wrongfully, either to treason against his
lord, or to any unlawful aid; then it is juster to belie than to
fulfill. But if he pledge himself to that which is lawful to fulfill,
and in that belie himself, let him submissively deliver up his weapon
and his goods to the keeping of his friends, and be in prison forty days
in a King's tun: let him there suffer whatever the bishop may prescribe
to him..." Let his kinsmen feed him, if he has no food. If he escapes,
let him be held a fugitive and be excommunicate of the church.
The word of a bishop and of the king were incontrovertible without an
oath.
The Ten Commandments were written down as this law:
"The Lord spake these words to Moses, and thus said: I am the Lord thy
God. I led thee out of the land of the Egyptians, and of their bondage.
1. Love thou not other strange gods above me.
2. Utter thou not my name idly, for thou shalt not be guiltless towards
me if thou utter my name idly.
3. Remember that thou hallow the rest day. Work for yourselves six
days, and on the seventh rest. For in six days, Christ wrought the
heavens and the earth, the seas, and all creatures that are in them, and
rested on the seventh day: and therefore the Lord hallowed it.
4. Honor thy father and thy mother whom the Lord hath given thee,that
thou mayst be the longer living on earth.
5. Slay thou not.
6. Commit thou not adultery.
7. Steal thou not.
8. Say thou not false witness.
9. Covet thou not thy neighbor's goods unjustly.
10. Make thou not to thyself golden or silver gods."
If any one fights in the king's hall, or draws his weapon, and he be
taken; be it in the king's doom, either death, or life, as he may be
willing to grant him. If he escape, and be taken again, let him pay for
himself according to his wergeld, and make bot for the offense, as well
wer as wite, according as he may have wrought.
If a man fights before a king's ealdorman in the gemot, let him make
bot with wer and wite as it may be right; and before this 120s. to the
ealdorman as wite. If he disturbs the folkmote by drawing his weapon,
120s. to the ealdorman as wite. If any of this happens before a king's
ealdorman's junior, or a king's priest, 30s. as wite.
If any one fights in a ceorlish man's dwelling, let him make bot of 6s.
to the ceorl. If he draws his weapon but doesn't fight, let it be half
of that. If, however, either of these happens to a man with a wergeld of
600s., let it increase threefold of the ceorlish bot; and if to a man
with a wergeld of 1200s., let it increase twofold of the bot of the man
with a wergeld of 600s. Breach of the king's dwelling [breaking and
entering] shall be 120s.; an archbishop's, 90s.; any other bishop's, and
an ealdorman's, 60s.;. a 1200s. wergeld man's, 30s.; a 600s. wergeld
man's, 15s.; and a ceorl's 5s.
If any one plot against the king's life, of himself, or by harboring of
exiles, or of his men; let him be liable with his life and in all that
he has; or let him prove himself according to his lord's wer.
If any one with a band or gang of men slays an unoffending man, let him
who acknowledges the deathblow pay wer and wite. If the slain man had a
wergeld of 200s, let every one who was of the gang pay 30s. as gangbot.
If he had a wergeld of 600s., let every one pay 60s. as gangbot. If he
had a wergeld of 1200s., let every one pay 120s. If a gang does this,
and afterwards denies it on oath, let them all be accused, and let them
then all pay the wer in common; and all, one wite, such as shall belong
to the wer.