of war), Woden's day (Viking god of victory, master magician,
calmer of storms, and raiser of the dead), Thor's day (Viking god
of thunder), Frig's day (Viking goddess of fertility and growing
things), and Saturn's day (Roman god). Special days of the year
were celebrated: Christmas, the birthday of Jesus Christ; the
twelve days of Yuletide (a Viking tradition) when candles were lit
and houses decorated with evergreen and there were festivities
around the burning of the biggest log available; Plough Monday for
resumption of work after Yuletide; February 14th with a feast
celebrating Saint Valentinus, a Roman bishop martyr who had
married young lovers in secret when marriage was forbidden to
encourage men to fight in war; New Year's Day on March 25th when
seed was sown and people banged on drums and blew horns to banish
spirits who destroy crops with disease; Easter, the day of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ; Whitsunday, celebrating the descent
of the Holy Spirit on the apostles of Jesus and named for the
white worn by baptismal candidates; May Day when flowers and
greenery was gathered from the woods to decorate houses and
churches, Morris dancers leapt through their villages with bells,
hobby horses, and waving scarves, and people danced around a May
pole holding colorful ribbons tied at the top so they became
entwined around the pole; Lammas on August 1st, when the first
bread baked from the wheat harvest was consecrated; Harvest Home
when the last harvest load was brought home while an effigy of a
goddess was carried with reapers singing and piping behind, and
October 31st, the eve of the Christian designated All Hallow Day,
which then became known as All Hallow Even, or Halloween. People
dressed as demons, hobgoblins, and witches to keep spirits away
from possessing them. Trick or treating began with Christian
beggars asking for "soul cake" biscuits in return for praying for
dead relatives. Ticktacktoe and backgammon were played. There were
riddles such as:
I am a strange creature, for I satisfy women ...
I grow very tall, erect in a bed.
I'm hairy underneath. From time to time
A beautiful girl, the brave daughter
Of some fellow dares to hold me
Grips my reddish skin, robs me of my head
And puts me in the pantry. At once that girl
With plaited hair who has confined me
Remembers our meeting. Her eye moistens.
What am I?
An onion.
A man came walking where he knew
She stood in a corner, stepped forwards;
The bold fellow plucked up his own
Skirt by hand, stuck something stiff
Beneath her belt as she stood,
Worked his will. They both wiggled.
The man hurried; his trusty helper
Plied a handy task, but tired
At length, less strong than she,
Weary of the work. Thick beneath
Her belt swelled the thing good men
Praise with their hearts and purses.
What am I?
A milk churn.
The languages of invaders had produced a hybrid language that was
roughly understood throughout the country. The existence of
Europe, Africa, Asia, and India were known. Jerusalem was thought
to be at the center of the world. There was an annual tax of a
penny on every hearth, Peter's pence, to be collected and sent to
the pope in Rome. Ecclesiastical benefices were to pay church-
scot, a payment in lieu of first fruits of the land, to the pope.
- The Law -
The king and witan deliberated on the making of new laws, both
secular and spiritual, at the regularly held witanagemot. There
was a standard legal requirement of holding every man accountable,
though expressed in different ways, such as the following three:
Every freeman who does not hold land must find a lord to answer
for him. The act of homage was symbolized by holding his hands
together between those of his lord. Every lord shall be personally
responsible as surety for the men of his household. [This included
female lords.] (King Athelstan)
"And every man shall see that he has a surety, and this surety
shall bring and keep him to [the performance of] every lawful
duty.
1. And if anyone does wrong and escapes, his surety shall incur
what the other should have incurred.
2. If the case be that of a thief and his surety can lay hold of
him within twelve months, he shall deliver him up to justice,
and what he has paid shall be returned to him." (King Edgar)
Every freeman who holds land, except lords with considerable
landed property, must be in a local tithing, usually ten to twelve
men, in which they serve as personal sureties for each other's
peaceful behavior. If one of the ten landholders in a tithing is
accused of an offense, the others have to produce him in court or
pay a fine plus pay the injured party for the offense, unless they
could prove that they had no complicity in it. If the man is found
guilty but can not pay, his tithing must pay his fine. The chief
officer is the "tithing man" or "capital pledge". There were
probably ten tithings in a hundred. (King Edward the Confessor).
Everyone was to take an oath not to steal, which one's surety
would compel one to keep.
No one may receive another lord's man without the permission of
this lord and only if the man is blameless towards every hand. The
penalty is the bot for disobedience. No lord was to dismiss any of
his men who had been accused, until he had made compensation and
done right.
"No woman or maiden shall be forced to marry a man she dislikes or
given for money."
"Violence to a widow or maiden is punishable by payment of one's
wergeld."
No man may have more wives than one.
No man may marry among his own kin within six degrees of
relationship or with the widow of a man as nearly related to him
as that, or with a near relative of his first wife's, or his god-
mother, or a divorced woman. Incest is punishable by payment of
one's wergeld or a fine or forfeiture of all his possessions.
Grounds for divorce were mutual consent or adultery or desertion.
Adultery was prohibited for men as well as for women. The penalty
was payment of a bot or denial of burial in consecrated ground. A
law of Canute provided that if a wife was guilty of adultery, she
forfeited all her property to her husband and her nose and ears,
but this law did not survive him.
Laymen may marry a second time, and a young widow may again take a
husband, but they will not receive a blessing and must do penance
for their incontinence.
Prostitutes were to be driven out of the land or destroyed in the
land, unless they cease from their wickedness and make amends to
the utmost of their ability.
Neither husband nor wife could sell family property without the
other's consent.
If there was a marriage agreement, it determined the wife's
"dower", which would be hers upon his death. Otherwise, if a man
who held his land in socage [owned it freely and not subject to a
larger landholder] died before his wife, she got half this
property. If there were minor children, she received all this
property.
Inheritance of land to adult children was by the custom of the
land held. In some places, the custom was for the oldest son to
take it and in other places, the custom was for the youngest son
to take it. Usually, the sons each took an equal portion by
partition, but the eldest son had the right to buy out the others
as to the chief messuage [manor; dwelling and supporting land and
buildings] as long as he compensated them with property of equal
value. If there were no legitimate sons, then each daughter took
an equal share when she married.
In London, one-third of the personal property of a decedent went
to his wife, one-third went to his children in equal shares, and
one-third he could bequeath as he wished.
"If a man dies intestate [without a will], his lord shall have
heriot [horses, weapons, shields, and helmets] of his property
according to the deceased's rank and [the rest of] the property
shall be divided among his wife, children, and near kinsmen."
A man could justifiably kill an adulterer in the act with the
man's wife, daughter, sister, or mother. In Kent, a lord could
fine any bondswoman of his who had become pregnant without his
permission [childwyte].
A man could kill in defense of his own life, the life of his
kinsmen, his lord, or a man whose lord he was. The offender was
"caught red-handed" if the blood of his victim was still on him.
Self-help was available for hamsocne [breaking into a man's house
to assault him].
Murder is punished by death as follows: "If any man break the
King's peace given by hand or seal, so that he slay the man to
whom the peace was given, both his life and lands shall be in the
King's power if he be taken, and if he cannot be taken he shall be
held an outlaw by all, and if anyone shall be able to slay him he
shall have his spoils by law." The king's peace usually extended
to important designated individuals, churches, assemblies, those
traveling to courts or assemblies, and particular times and
places. Often a king would extend his peace to fugitives from
violent feuds if they asked the king, earls, and bishops for time
to pay compensation for their misdeeds. From this came the
practice of giving a portion of the "profits of justice" to such
men who tried the fugitive. The king's peace came to be extended
to those most vulnerable to violence: foreigners, strangers, and
kinless persons.
"If anyone by force break or enter any man's court or house to
slay or wound or assault a man, he shall pay 100s. to the King as
fine."
"If anyone slay a man within his court or his house, himself and
all his substance are at the King's will, save the dower of his
wife if he have endowed her."
If a person fights and wounds anyone, he is liable for his wer. If
he fells a man to death, he is then an outlaw and is to be seized
by raising the hue and cry. And if anyone kills him for resisting
God's law or the king's, there will be no compensation for his
death.
A man could kill a thief over twelve years in the act of carrying
off his property over 8d., e.g. the thief hand-habbende [a thief
found with the stolen goods in his hand] or the thief back-berend
[a thief found carrying stolen goods on his back].
Cattle theft could be dealt with only by speedy pursuit. A person
who had involuntarily lost possession of cattle is to at once
raise the hue and cry. He was to inform the hundredman, who then
called the tithingmen. All these neighbors had to then follow the
trail of the cow to its taker, or pay 30d. to the hundred for the
first offense, and 60d. for the second offense, half to the
hundred and half to the lord, and half a pound [10s.] for the
third offense, and forfeiture of all his property and declared
outlaw for the fourth offense. If the hundred pursued a track into
another hundred, notice was to be given to that hundredman. If he
did not go with them, he had to pay 30s. to the king.
If a thief was brought into prison, he was to be released after 40
days if he paid his fine of 120s. His kindred could become his
sureties, to pay according to his wer if he stole again. If a
thief forfeited his freedom and gave himself up, but his kindred
forsook him, and he does not know of anyone who will make bot for
him; let him then do theow-work, and let the wer abate for the
kindred.
Measures and weights of goods for sale shall be correct.
Every man shall have a warrantor to his market transactions and no
one shall buy and sell except in a market town; but he shall have
the witness of the portreeve or of other men of credit, who can be
trusted.
Moneyers accused of minting money outside a designated market
were to go to the ordeal of the hot iron with the hand that was
accused of doing the fraud. If he was found guilty, his hand that
did the offense was to be struck off and be set up on the money-
smithy.
No marketing, business, or hunting may be done on Sundays.
No one may bind a freeman, shave his head in derision, or shave
off his beard. Shaving was a sign of enslavement, which could be
incurred by not paying one's fines for offenses committed.
No clergy may gamble or participate in games of chance.
The Laws for London were:
"1. The gates called Aldersgate and Cripplegate were in charge of
guards.
2. If a small ship came to Billingsgate, one halfpenny was paid
as toll; if a larger ship with sails, one penny was paid.
1) If a hulk or merchantman arrives and lies there, four pence
is paid as toll.
2) From a ship with a cargo of planks, one plank is given as
toll.
3) On three days of the week toll for cloth [is paid] on Sunday
and Tuesday and Thursday.
4) A merchant who came to the bridge with a boat containing fish
paid one halfpenny as toll, and for a larger ship one penny."
5 - 8) Foreigners with wine or blubber fish or other goods and
their tolls.
Foreigners were allowed to buy wool, melted sheep fat [tallow],
and three live pigs for their ships.
"3. If the town reeve or the village reeve or any other official
accuses anyone of having withheld toll, and the man replies that
he has kept back no toll which it was his legal duty to pay, he
shall swear to this with six others and shall be quit of the
charge.
1) If he declares that he has paid toll, he shall produce the
man to whom he paid it, and shall be quit of the charge.
2) If, however, he cannot produce the man to whom he paid it, he
shall pay the actual toll and as much again and five pounds to
the King.
3) If he vouches the taxgatherer to warranty [asserting] that
he paid toll to him, and the latter denies it, he shall clear
himself by the ordeal and by no other means of proof.
4. And we [the king and his counselors] have decreed that a man
who, within the town, makes forcible entry into another man's
house without permission and commits a breach of the peace of the
worst kind ... and he who assaults an innocent person on the
King's highway, if he is slain, shall lie in an unhonored grave.
1) If, before demanding justice, he has recourse to violence,
but does not lose his life thereby, he shall pay five pounds
for breach of the King's peace.
2) If he values the goodwill of the town itself, he shall pay
us thirty shillings as compensation, if the King will grant us
this concession."
5. No base coin or coin defective in quality or weight, foreign or
English, may be used by a foreigner or an Englishman. (In 956, a
person found guilty of illicit coining was punished by loss of a
hand.)
- Judicial Procedure -
There were courts for different geographical communities. The
arrangement of the whole kingdom into shires was completed by 975
after being united under King Edgar.
A shire was a larger area of land, headed by an earl. A shire
reeve or "sheriff" represented the royal interests in the shires
and in the shire courts. This officer came to be selected by the
king and earl of the shire to be a judicial and financial deputy
of the earl and to execute the law. The office of sheriff, which
was not hereditary, was also responsible for the administration of
royal lands and royal accounts. The sheriff summoned the freemen
holding land in the shire, four men selected by each community or
township, and all public officers to meet twice a year at their
"shiremote". Actually only the great lords - the bishops, earls,
and thegns - attended. The shire court was primarily concerned
with issues of the larger landholders. Here the freemen
interpreted the customary law of the locality. The earl declared
the secular law and the bishop declared the spiritual law. They
also declared the sentence of the judges. The earl usually took a
third of the profits, such as fines and forfeits, of the shire
court, and the bishop took a share. In time, the earls each came
to supervise several shires and the sheriff became head of the
shire and assumed the earl's duties there, such as heading the
county fyrd. The shire court also heard cases which had been
refused justice at the hundredmote and cases of keeping the peace
of the shire.
The hundred was a division of the shire, having come to refer to a
geographical area rather than a number of households. The monthly
hundredmote could be attended by any freeman holding land (or a
lord's steward), but was usually attended only by reeve, thegns,
parish priest, and four representatives selected by each agrarian
community or village - usually villeins. Here transfers of land
were witnessed. A reeve, sometimes the sheriff, presided over
local criminal and peace and order issues ["leet jurisdiction",
which derived from sac and soc jurisdiction] and civil cases at
the hundred court. All residents were expected to attend the leet
court. The sheriff usually held each hundred court in turn. The
suitors to these courts were the same as those of the shire
courts. They were the judges who declared the law and ordered the
form of proof, such as compurgatory oath and ordeal. They were
customarily thegns, often twelve in number. They, as well as the
king and the earl, received part of the profits of justice.
Summary procedure was followed when a criminal was caught in the
act or seized after a hue and cry. Every freeman over age twelve
had to be in a hundred and had to follow the hue and cry.
"No one shall make distraint [seizure of personal property out of
the possession of an alleged wrongdoer into the custody of the
party injured, to procure a satisfaction for a wrong committed] of
property until he has appealed for justice in the hundred court
and shire court".
In 997, King Ethelred in a law code ordered the sheriff and twelve
leading magnates of each shire to swear to accuse no innocent man,
nor conceal any guilty one. This was the germ of the later assize,
and later still the jury.
The integrity of the judicial system was protected by certain
penalties: for swearing a false oath, bot as determined by a
cleric who has heard his confession, or, if he has not confessed,
denial of burial in consecrated ground. Also a perjurer lost his
oath-worthiness. Swearing a false oath or perjury was also
punishable by loss of one's hand or half one's wergeld. A lord
denying justice, as by upholding an evildoing thegn of his, had
to pay 120s. to the king for his disobedience. Furthermore, if a
lord protected a theow of his who had stolen, he had to forfeit
the theow and pay his wer, for the first offense, and he was
liable for all he property, for subsequent offenses. There was a
bot for anyone harboring a convicted offender. If anyone failed to
attend the gemot thrice after being summoned, he was to pay the
king a fine for his disobedience. If he did not pay this fine or
do right, the chief men of the burh were to ride to him, and take
all his property to put into surety. If he did not know of a
person who would be his surety, he was to be imprisoned. Failing
that, he was to be killed. But if he escaped, anyone who harbored
him, knowing him to be a fugitive, would be liable pay his wer.
Anyone who avenged a thief without wounding anyone, had to pay the
king 120s. as wite for the assault.
"And if anyone is so rich or belongs to so powerful a kindred,
that he cannot be restrained from crime or from protecting and
harboring criminals, he shall be led out of his native district
with his wife and children, and all his goods, to any part of the
kingdom which the King chooses, be he noble or commoner, whoever
he may be - with the provision that he shall never return to his
native district. And henceforth, let him never be encountered by
anyone in that district; otherwise he shall be treated as a thief
caught in the act."
This lawsuit between a son and his mother over land was heard at a
shire meeting: "Here it is declared in this document that a shire
meeting sat at Aylton in King Cnut's time. There were present
Bishop AEthelstan and Earl Ranig and Edwin, the Earl's son, and
Leofwine, Wulfsige's son, and Thurkil the White; and Tofi the
Proud came there on the King's business, and Bryning the sheriff
was present, and AEthelweard of Frome and Leofwine of Frome and
Godric of Stoke and all the thegns of Herefordshire. Then Edwin,
Enneawnes son, came traveling to the meeting and sued his own
mother for a certain piece of land, namely Wellington and Cradley.
Then the bishop asked whose business it was to answer for his
mother, and Thurkil the White replied that it was his business to
do so, if he knew the claim. As he did not know the claim, three
thegns were chosen from the meeting [to ride] to the place where
she was, namely at Fawley, and these were Leofwine of Frome and
AEthelsige the Red and Winsige the seaman, and when they came to
her they asked her what claim she had to the lands for which her
son was suing her. Then she said that she had no land that in any
way belonged to him, and was strongly incensed against her son,
and summoned to her kinswoman, Leofflaed, Thurkil's wife, and in
front of them said to her as follows: 'Here sits Leofflaed, my
kinswoman, to whom, after my death, I grant my land and my gold,
my clothing and my raiment and all that I possess.' And then she
said to the thegns: 'Act like thegns, and duly announce my message
to the meeting before all the worthy men, and tell them to whom I
have granted my land and all my property, and not a thing to my
own son, and ask them to be witnesses of this.' And they did so;
they rode to the meeting and informed all the worthy men of the
charge that she had laid upon them. Then Thurkil the White stood
up in the meeting and asked all the thegns to give his wife the
lands unreservedly which her kinswoman had granted her, and they
did so. Then Thurkil rode to St. AEthelbert's minister, with the
consent and cognizance of the whole assembly, and had it recorded
in a gospel book."
Courts controlled by lords of large private estates had various
kinds of jurisdiction recognized by the King: sac and soke
[possession of legal powers of execution and profits of justice
held by a noble or institution over inhabitants and tenants of the
estate, exercised through a private court], toll [right to collect
a payment on the sale of cattle and property] and team [right to
hold a court to determine the honesty of a man accused of illegal
possession of cattle], infangenetheof [the authority to judge and
to hang and take the chattels of a thief caught on the property],
and utfangenetheof [the authority to judge and to hand and take
the chattels of a thief dwelling out of his liberty, and
committing theft without the same, if he were caught within the
lord's property]. Some lords were even given jurisdiction over
breach of the royal peace, ambush and treacherous manslaughter,
harboring of outlaws, forced entry into a residence, and failure
to answer a military summons. Often this court's jurisdiction
overlapped that of the hundred court and sometimes a whole hundred
had passed under the jurisdiction of an abbot, bishop, or earl.
A lord and his noble lady, or his steward, presided at this court.
The law was administered here on the same principles as at the
hundred court. Judges of the leet of the court of a large private
estate were chosen from the constables and four representatives
selected from each community, village, or town.
Before a dispute went to the hundred court, it might be taken care
of by the head tithing man, e.g. cases between vills, between
neighbors, and some compensations and settlements, namely
concerning pastures, meadows, harvests, and contests between
neighbors.
The vill [similar to village] was the smallest community for
judicial purposes. There were several vills in a hundred.
In London, the Hustings Court met weekly and decided such issues
as wills and bequests and commerce matters. The folkmote of all
citizens met three times a year. Each ward had a leet court [for
minor criminal matters].
The king and his witan decided the complaints and issues of the
nobility and those cases which had not received justice in the
hundred or shire court. The witan had a criminal jurisdiction and
could imprison or outlaw a person. The witan could even compel the
king to return any land he might have unjustly taken. Specially
punishable by the king was "oferhyrnesse": contempt of the king's
law. It covered refusal of justice, neglect of summons to gemot or
pursuit of thieves, disobedience to the king's officers, sounding
the king's coin, accepting another man's dependent without his
leave, buying outside markets, and refusing to pay Peter's pence.
The forests were peculiarly subject to the absolute will of the
king. They were outside the common law. Their unique customs and
laws protected the peace of the animals rather than the king's
subjects. Only special officials on special commissions heard
their cases.