Copyright (C) 2004, 2012 by 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, 2012
Preface
This book was written for people with an interest in English
legal history who don't know where to start reading, as I didn't. Its
purpose is also to look at history through its laws, which do not lend
themselves to interpretation, and thus points of view, as does
conventional history; one cannot argue with the black letter of the
law. Attorneys will be interested in reading about the historical
context in which the legal doctrines they learned in law school
developed. This book includes the complete law codes of King Alfred and
of King Aethelbert, the law code of King Canute, paraphrased, excerpts
from the law code of Henry I, the entire Magna Carta, and the statutes
of England relevant to English life, but excluding such topics as
Scottish affairs and wars with Ireland. It also 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.
Money is expressed in pounds, shillings, pence, scaetts, or
marks, which is a Danish denomination. There are twenty shillings in a
pound. A mark in silver is two-thirds of a pound. Shillings are
abbreviated: "s." The pre-Norman English shilling was divided into 4
pence or pennies. In Henry I's time, the shilling was divided into 5
pence. The Norman shilling was introduced by Henry II and was divided
into 12 pennies. This penny was literally one pennyweight of silver, so
a pound sterling thus weighed 240 pennyweights. Pence are abbreviated
"d.", for the Roman denarius. For example, six shillings and two pence
is denoted 6s.2d. A scaett was a coin of silver and copper of lesser
denomination; there were 20 scaetts to one shilling. There were no
coins of the denomination of shilling during pre-Norman times.
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
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 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, or one's blood kindred, paid a man's "wergeld"
[worth] to his blood 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. Personal injury was compensated by a
"bot". 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 [burning a
house], 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]; maethl-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 fine 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 wergeld.
8. [Offenses against anyone or any place under] the King's mund byrd
[protection or patronage], 50 shillings fine
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" and was usually a
beast, though it could mean any personal property.)
10. If a man lie with the one of the King's female servants, let him
pay a bot of 50 shillings.
11. If she be a corn-grinding slave, let him pay a bot of 25 shillings.
The third [class of servant] 12 shillings.
12. Let the King's fedesl [tenant or boarder] 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 20 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 wergeld
of 100 shillings.
22. If a man slay another, at the open grave let him pay 20 shillings,
and pay the whole wergeld 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 half-aeta [loaf or bread eater; domestic
or menial servant], let him make bot with 6 shillings.
26. If [anyone] slay a laet [semi-slave] 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
wergeld, 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; the perimeter of a homestead], 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 a cutting of 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 under 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 needs medical attention, let bot be made with 30
shillings.
63. If any one be cearwund [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 wergelds: 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 as wife, 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
her controller, and afterwards buy the consent of the controller [to
the marriage].
83. If she be betrothed to another man and money has changed hands, let
him [who carried her off] make bot [to the intended bridegroom] with 20
shillings.
84. If restitution [of the girl] is made, bot of 35 shillings; and 15
shillings to the King.
85. If a man lie with an esne's [slave's]wife, her husband still
living, let him make twofold bot.
86. If one esne [slave] slay another unoffending, let him pay for him
at his full worth.
87. If an esne's [slave'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 [slave], 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 [the owner] 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. The bots, wers, and wites were
high and often could not be paid. If a man could not or would not pay,
he could be outlawed, to be killed by anyone with impunity or punished
by hanging; beheading; burning; drowning; stoning; precipitation from a
cliff; loss of ears, nose, upper-lip, hands and feet; castration;
flogging; or sale into slavery.
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 concept of a wrong to a person or his kindred is still
primary and that of offense to the community secondary. Very slowly did
the concept emerge that that members of the community must be content
with legal remedies and must not seek private vengeance and that public
offenses cannot be altered by private agreement.
The Druid priests decided all disputes of the Celts.