=Source.=--_Bodleian Rawlinson_, C. 641, in Stubbs, Select Charters.
First, he desired that above all things one God should be worshipped
throughout the whole of his realm, one faith in Christ kept always
inviolate, and peace and security observed between the English and the
Normans.
We have decreed also that every freeman affirm by covenant and oath
that within and without England they will be loyal to king William, and
will keep his honour in all fealty with him, and defend him against his
enemies.
I will also that all men whom I have brought with me or who have come
after me be in my peace and quiet. And if any one of them be killed,
his lord shall have his murderer within five days, if he can; and if
not, he shall begin payment to me of 46 marks of silver, so long as
that lord’s possessions last. And when his possessions fail, the whole
hundred in which that murder was committed shall pay the residue in
common.
And every Frenchman who in the time of king Edward, my kinsman, was in
England, sharing the customs of the English which they call lot and
scot,[1] shall be paid for[2] according to the law of the English. This
decree was established in the city of Gloucester.
We forbid also that any live cattle be sold or bought except within
cities, and this before three trusty witnesses, and that none sell or
buy anything old without surety and warrant. And if any do otherwise he
shall pay and pay to the full, and shall afterwards pay a forfeiture.
It was also decreed there that if a Frenchman shall appeal an
Englishman of perjury or murder, theft, homicide, or “ran,” which
is the English term for manifest rape that cannot be denied, the
Englishman shall defend himself as he shall prefer, either by the
ordeal of iron or by battle. But if the Englishman be sick, he shall
find another to do it for him. The one who shall be vanquished shall
make amends in 40_s._ to the king. If an Englishman shall appeal a
Frenchman and refuse the proof of ordeal or battle, I will that the
Frenchman purge himself with an oath unbroken.
This also I command and will, that all men have and hold the law of
king Edward in lands and all other things, with those additions which I
have decreed for the benefit of the English people.
Every man who will be holden for a freeman shall have a surety, that
the surety may hold and bring him to justice, if he offend in aught.
And if any such make default, his sureties shall see to it that they
pay simply what is charged against him, and purge themselves of all
collusion in his default. The hundred court and the county court shall
be convened, as our ancestors decreed. And they who ought justly to
come and refuse to come, shall be summoned once; and if they refuse to
come the second time, one ox shall be taken, and they shall be summoned
a third time; and if they come not the third time, another ox shall be
taken; but if they come not a fourth time, there shall be rendered from
the goods of the man who shall refuse to come what is charged against
him, which is called “ceapgeld”; and further a forfeiture to the king.
I forbid any to sell a man out of the country on pain of full
forfeiture to me.
I prohibit also that any man be killed or hanged for any crime, but
his eyes shall be plucked out or his members cut off. And this command
shall not be violated on pain of full forfeiture to me.