The Times: 600-900
The country was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. The French called it
"Angleterre", which means the angle or end of the earth. It was called
"Angle land", which later became "England".
A community was usually an extended family. Its members lived a
village in which a stone church was the most prominent building. They
lived in one-room huts with walls and roofs made of wood, mud, and
straw. Hangings covered the cracks in the walls to keep the wind out.
Smoke from a fire in the middle of the room filtered out of cracks in
the roof. Grain was ground at home by rotating by hand one stone disk
on another stone disk. Some villages had a mill powered by the flow of
water or by horses. All freeholders had the duty of watch [at night]
and ward [during the day], of following the hue and cry to chase an
offender, and of taking the oath of peace. These three duties were
constant until 1195.
Farmland surrounded the villages and was farmed by the
community as a whole under the direction of a lord. There was silver,
copper, iron, tin, gold, and various types of stones from remote lead
mines and quarries in the nation. Silver pennies replaced the smaller
scaetts. Freemen paid "scot" and bore "lot" according to their means
for local purposes.
Offa, the strongest of the Saxon kings, minted high-quality
silver pennies. He traded woolen coats for lava grindstones with
Emperor Charlemagne, who used a silver denarius coin. There were 12
denarii to the solidus and 20 soldi to the pound of silver. These
denominations were taken by England as 12 pennies to the shilling and
20 shillings to the pound. The pound sign, an "L" with a hash mark
derived from the word Libra, which meant weighing scales.
Everyone in the village went to church on Sunday and brought
gifts such as grain to the priest. Later, contributions in the form of
money became customary, and then expected. These "tithes" were spent
for church repair, the clergy, and poor and needy laborers. The church
fixed the amount to be one-tenth, but local custom determined the
amount. There was also church-scot: a payment to the clergy in lieu of
the first fruits of the land. There were also offerings, originally
voluntary but afterwards compulsory, for sacraments. The priest was the
chaplain of a landlord and his parish was coextensive with that
landlord's holding and could include one to several villages. The
priest and other men who helped him, lived in the church building. Some
churches had lead roofs and iron hinges, latches, and locks on their
doors. The land underneath had been given to the church by former kings
and persons who wanted the church to say prayers to help their souls go
from purgatory to heaven and who also selected the first priest. The
priest conducted Christianized Easter ceremonies in the spring and
(Christ's mass) ceremonies in winter in place of the pagan Yuletide
festivities. Burning incense took the place of pagan burnt animal
offerings, which were accompanied by incense to disguise the odor of
burning flesh. Holy water replaced haunted wells and streams. Christian
incantations replaced sorcerer's spells. Nuns assisted priests in
celebrating mass and administering the sacraments. They alone
consecrated new nuns. Vestry meetings were community meetings held for
church purposes. The people said their prayers in English, and the
priest conducted the services in English. A person joined his hands in
prayer as if to offer them for binding together in submission.
The church baptized babies and officiated or gave blessings at
marriage ceremonies. It also said prayers for the dying, gave them
funerals, and buried them. There were burial service fees, candle dues,
and plough alms. A piece of stone with the dead person's name marked
his grave. It was thought that putting the name on the grave would
assist identification of that person for being taken to heaven. The
church heard the last wish or will of the person dying concerning who
he wanted to have his property. The church taught that it was not
necessary to bury possessions with the deceased. The church taught boys
and girls.
Every man carried a horn slung on his shoulder as he went about
his work so that he could at once send out a warning to his fellow
villagers or call them in chasing a thief or other offender. The
forests were full of outlaws, so strangers who did not blow a horn to
announce themselves were presumed to be fugitive offenders who could be
shot on sight with impunity. An eorl could call upon the ceorl farmers
for about forty days to fight off an invading group.
There were several kingdoms, whose boundaries kept changing due
to warfare, which was a sin according to the church. They were each
governed by a king and witan of wise men who met at a witanegemot,
which was usually held three times a year, mostly on great church
festivals and at the end of the harvest. The king and witan chose the
witan's members of bishops, eorldormen, and thegns [landholding
farmers]. The king and hereditary claims played a major part in the
selection of the eorldormen, who were the highest military leaders and
often of the royal family. They were also chief magistrates of large
jurisdictional areas of land. The witan included officers of the king's
household and perhaps other of his retinue. There was little
distinction then between his gesith, fighting men, guards, household
companions, dependents, and servants. The king was sometimes
accompanied by his wife and sons at the witanagemot. A king was
selected by the witan according to his worthiness, usually from among
the royal family, and could be deposed by it. The witan and king
decided on laws, taxes, and transfers of land. They made determinations
of war and peace and directed the army and the fleet. The king wore a
crown or royal helmet. He extended certain protections by the king's
peace. He could erect castles and bridges and could provide a special
protection to strangers.
A king had not only a wergeld to be paid to his family if he
were killed, but a "cynebot" of equal amount that would be paid to his
kingdom's people. A king's household had a chamberlain for the royal
bedchamber, a marshall to oversee the horses and military equipment, a
steward as head of household, and a cupbearer. The king had income from
fines for breach of his peace; fines and forfeitures from courts
dealing with criminal and civil cases; salvage from ship wrecks;
treasure trove [assets hidden or buried in times of war]; treasures of
the earth such as gold and silver; mines; saltworks; tolls and other
dues of markets, ports, and the routes by land and by river generally;
heriot from heirs of his special dependents for possession of land
(usually in kind, principally in horses and weapons). He also had
rights of purveyance [hospitality and maintenance when traveling]. The
king had private lands, which he could dispose of by his will. He also
had crown lands, which belonged to his office and could not be
alienated without consent of the witan. Crown lands often included
palaces and their appendant farms, and burhs. It was a queen's duty to
run the royal estate. Also, a queen could possess, manage, and dispose
of lands in her name. Violent queens waged wars. Kingdoms were often
allied by marriage between their royal families. There were also royal
marriages to royalty on the continent.
The houses of the wealthy had ornamented silk hangings on the
walls. Some had fine white ox horn shaved so thin they were transparent
for windows. Brightly colored drapery, often purple, and fly nets
surrounded their beds, which were covered with the fur of animals. They
slept in bed clothes on pillows stuffed with straw. Tables plated with
silver and gems held silver candlesticks, gold and silver goblets and
cups, and lamps of gold, silver, or glass. They used silver mirrors and
silver writing pens. There were covered seats, benches, and footstools
with the head and feet of animals at their extremities. They ate from a
table covered with a cloth. Servants brought in food on spits, from
which they ate. Food was boiled, broiled, or baked. The wealthy ate
wheat bread and others ate barley bread. Ale made from barley was
passed around in a cup. Mead made from honey was also drunk.
Men wore long-sleeved wool and linen garments reaching almost
to the knee, around which they wore a belt tied in a knot. Men often
wore a gold ring on the fourth finger of the right hand. Leather shoes
were fastened with leather thongs around the ankle. Their hair was
parted in the middle and combed down each side in waving ringlets. The
beard was parted in the middle of the chin, so that it ended in two
points. The clergy did not wear beards. Great men wore gold-embroidered
clothes, gilt buckles and brooches, and drank from drinking horns
mounted in silver gilt or in gold. Well- to-do women wore brightly
colored robes with waist bands, headbands, necklaces, gem bracelets,
and rings. Their long hair was in ringlets and they put rouge on their
cheeks. They had beads, pins, needles, tweezers of bronze, and
workboxes of bronze, some highly ornamented. They were often doing
needlework. Silk was affordable only by the wealthy.
Most families kept a pig and pork was the primary meat. There
were also sheep, goats, cows, deer, hare, and fowl. Fowl was obtained
by fowlers who trapped them. The inland waters yielded eels, salmon,
and trout. In the fall, meat was salted to preserve it for winter
meals. There were orchards growing figs, nuts, grapes, almonds, pears,
and apples. Also produced were beans, lentils, onions, eggs, cheese,
and butter. Pepper and cinnamon were imported.
Fishing from the sea yielded herrings, sturgeon, porpoise,
oysters, 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, so the witan
imposed a danegeld tax on land that was assessed on everyone every ten
to twenty years for maintaining forces sufficient to clear the British
seas of Danish pirates or to buy off the ravages of the Danish It was
1s. and later 2s. upon every hide of land, where 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.
Burhs grew into towns and some towns into boroughs by obtaining
a charter from the king. Their citizens were landholding freemen
called."burgesses". A borough typically was a place of refuge with
earth works, and perhaps a garrrison; it had a market place in which
men could buy cattle and other goods and have the sale attested by
official witnesses and toll was taken from them; and it had a meeting
place at which a court was held.
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 collected 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 sake [sac] and soke [soc] jurisdiction over them - the
right to hold a court and to receive the profits of jurisdiction. 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 [land held by the one lowest in the scale of holding who
has a general right of doing with it what he pleases] 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.
It was usual for a dying man to confess his sins to a priest.
For the sake of his soul, the priest often suggested the man give some
of his chattel to the church, the poor, or other pious uses. By the
700s, the words of a dying man giving chattel for the sake of his soul
were expected to be carried out. Later is the "post obit gift" by which
a man gives land to the church, with the king's consent, but enjoys the
land during his lifetime by stating in writing "I give certain land
after my death" in a special "book". The church takes possession of the
land after his death. He may make a conditional such gift, leaving the
land to his wife for her life with a rent paid to the church and the
church taking possession of the land on her death. These two procedures
coalesce into one written will used in the 800s, 900s, and 1000s. This
will also includes distributions to family and kinsmen and perhaps to
creditors. If the will is made by the very great people: kings, queens,
king's sons, bishops, earldormen, and king's thegns, it requires the
king's consent, which may be bought by a large heriot. And a bishop
usually sets his cross to the will, denouncing any who infringe it to
the torments of hell. The dead man's parish church is paid a mortuary
when he is buried.
The Law
The special authority of the king and his peace gradually
superseded the customary jurisdiction of the local courts as to
preservation of the peace and punishment of offenses. All criminal
offenses became breaches of the king's peace and were deemed acts of
personal disobedience and made an offender the king's enemy. This
notion developed from the special sanctity of the king's house and his
special protection of his attendants and servants. An offender made
fines to the king for breach of his peace and fines and forfeitures to
him from court decisions in criminal and civil cases. Offenses
especially dealt with in various parts of the Anglo-Saxon laws were
treason, homicide, wounding, assault, and theft. Treason to one's lord,
especially to the king, was punishable by death. Compassing or
imagining the king's death was treason.
King Alfred collected regulations from various church synods and
commanded that many of them which English forefathers had observed to
be written out - those which appealed to him; and many of those that
did not appeal to him he rejected, with the consent of his Witan or
commanded them to be observed in a different way. "These are the
regulations which the Almighty God himself spoke to Moses and ordered
him to observe and subsequently the only-born son of the Lord, our God,
that is the Savior Christ confirmed ...":
1. Do not love other strange gods before me.
2. Do not speak My name idly, for you will not be guiltless with Me if
you idly speak My name.
3. Remember to hallow the rest-day. Work for yourselves six days, and
on the seventh day rest yourselves. For in six days, God the Father
made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all creatures that are in
them, and rested himself on the seventh day, and therefore God has
sanctified it.
4. Honour your father and your mother that God gave you so that you may
be the longer living on earth.
5. Do not kill.
6. Do not lie in sexual union secretly.
7. Do not steal.
8. Do not speak false evidence.
9. Do not wish for your neighbour's property unrightfully.
10. Do not make yourselves golden or silver gods.
11. If anyone buy a Christian slave, let him serve for six years and on
the seventh let him be free without payment. With such clothes as he
entered into service, let him leave with. If he has a wife of his own
providing, let her leave with him. If the master provided him with a
wife, both she and her children shall belong to the master. If the
slave then says `I do not want to leave my master or my wife or my
child or my property', let his master bring him to the door of the
Temple and perforate his ear with an awl as a sign that he shall ever
afterwards be a slave.
12. Though someone sell his daughter into slavery do not let her be a
slave entirely as are other maid servants. He has not the right to sell
her abroad among foreign people. But if he who bought her does not care
for her, let her be free among a foreign people. But if he i.e. the
purchaser allows his son to cohabit with her, give her the morning gift
and ensure that she has clothing and that she has the value of her
maidenhood, that is the dowry - let him give her that. If he does none
of those things for her, then she shall be free.
13. The person who slays another deliberately shall suffer death. He
that has killed another in self defense or involuntarily or
unintentionally, as God delivered him i.e. the victim into his hands
and providing he i.e. the killer did not set a trap for him - in that
case let him be worthy of his life, and of settling by customary
compensation, if he should seek asylum. If however anyone deliberately
and intentionally kills his neighbour treacherously, pluck him from my
altar so that he should suffer death.
14. He that attacks his father or his mother shall suffer death.
15. He that abducts a freeman and sell him, and it is proved so that he
cannot absolve himself, let him suffer death. He that curses his father
or his mother, let him suffer death.
16. If someone attacks his neighbour with a stone or with his fist, but
he i.e. the victim can still get about with the aid of a staff, let him
i.e. the aggressor provide him with a doctor and do his i.e. the
victim's work for him for as long as he i.e. the victim cannot himself.
17. He that attacks his own non-free servant or his maidservant, and
they are not dead as a result of the attack but live two or three days,
he i.e. the aggressor shall not be so entirely guilty, because it was
his own property he damaged. But if the slave be dead the same day,
then the guilt rests on him i.e. the aggressor.
18. If anyone in the course of a dispute injure a pregnant woman, let
him make compensation for the hurt as judges decide in his case. If she
be dead, let him give life for life.
19. If anyone put out another's eye, let him give his own for it. Tooth
for tooth. Hand for hand. Foot for foot. Burn for burn. Wound for
wound. Bruise for bruise.
20. If anyone strike the eye of his slave or maidservant out and so
makes them one-eyed, let him free them for that. If he strike out a
tooth, let him do the same.
21. If an ox gore a man or woman so that they are dead, it it be stoned
to death and do not let the flesh be eaten. The owner shall not be
liable if the ox was butting two days before that or even three and the
owner did not know of it. But if he knew of it and would not shut it
i.e. the animal in, and then it killed a man or woman, let it be stoned
to death and let the master be killed or made to pay as the Witan
consider proper. If it gore a son or daughter, let the same penalty
apply. But if it gore a slave or serving-woman, let the owner give 30
shillings of silver and let the ox be stoned to death.
22. If anyone dig a well or open up a closed one and does not close it
up again, let him pay for whatever cattle fall in; but let him have the
dead animal for his own use.
23. If an ox wound another man's ox so it is dead, let them sell the
live ox and share the proceeds, and also the flesh of the dead ox. But
if the owner knew the ox was butting and would not restrain it, let him
hand over the other i.e. live ox for it but let him have all the flesh
of the dead ox for his own use.
24. If anyone steal another man's ox and kill or sell it, let him give
two oxen in restitution. And four sheep for one stolen. If he i.e. the
thief does not have anything to give in restitution, let him be sold
himself to raise the money.
25. If a thief break into a man's house by night and is killed there,
he i.e. the house-owner shall not be guilty of manslaughter. But if he
i.e. the house-owner does this after sunrise, he is guilty of
manslaughter, and shall himself perish, unless he acted in
self-defence. If there is found in the possession of the living thief
things he had already stolen, let him make restitution for it two-fold.
26. If anyone damage another man's vineyard or his crops or any part of
his estate, let him pay compensation according to how it is assessed.
27. If a fire is lit in order to burn rubbish, let him who started the
fire pay compensation for any consequent damage.
28. If anyone entrusts any possession to his friend and the friend
appropriates it for himself, let him i.e. the friend clear himself and
prove that he committed no fraud in the matter. If it was livestock,
and he says that raiders took it, or it perished of itself, and if he
has proof, he need not pay up. But if he has no proof, and the original
owner does not believe him, let him make an oath to clear himself.
29. If anyone seduce an uncommitted woman and sleeps with her, let him
pay for her and take her then as his wife. But if the woman's father is
unwilling to let her go, then let the seducer hand over money in
proportion to her dowry.
30. The women who are accustomed to harbour enchanters and wizards and
witches - do not allow them to live.
31. And he that has intercourse with animals shall suffer death.
32. And he that sacrifices to idols, rather than to God alone, let him
suffer death.
33. Do not harass visitors from abroad and foreigners, for you were
formerly strangers on the land of the Egyptians.
34. Do not harm widows and step-children, neither do them any injury.
If you do otherwise, they will call upon Me and I will listen to them,
and then I will slay you with my sword and I will ensure that your
wives shall be widows and your children orphans.
35. If you hand over money as a loan to your comrade who wishes to live
with you, do not coerce him like an underling and do not oppress him
with the interest.
36. If someone has only a single garment to cover and clothe himself
with and he hands it over as a pledge, let it be returned before the
sun sets. If you do not do so then he will call unto Me, and I will
listen to him because I am very clement.
37. Do not reproach you Lord, nor curse the lord of the people.
38. Your tithe i.e. tenth-part of profit and your first-fruits of
moving animals and growing crops, offer to God.
39. All the flesh that wild animals leave, do not eat it but give it to
the dogs.
40. Do not bother to give credence to the word of a false man, and do
not approve his opinions; do not repeat any of his assertions.
41. Do not join in the false judgment and evil aspirations of the many
nor join in their rumours and outcry, against your own conscience, at
the incitement of some ignorant person. Do not support them.
42. If the stray cattle of another man come into your possession,
though it be the property of your enemy, let him know about it.
43. Judge equably, do not lay down one rule for the rich, another for
the poor; do not decide one way for a friend, another for a foe.
44. Always shun falsehood.
45. Never slay a righteous and innocent man.
46. Never accept bribes, for they very often blind the minds of wise
men and pervert their words.
47. Do not behave unkindly to foreigners and visitors from abroad; do
not harass them with unjust acts.
48. Never swear an oath by heathen gods, nor in any circumstances call
upon them.
Alfred also issued a set of laws to cover the whole country
that he derived from laws of various regional kings in England as
follows:
"1. First we insist that there is particular need that each person
shall keep his oath and his pledge carefully. If anyone be compelled to
give either of these wrongly, either to support treachery to his lord
or to provide any unlawful aid, then it is better to forswear than to
fulfil. But if he pledge himself to that which it is right for him to
fulfil and fails, let him submissively hand over his weapons and his
possessions to his friends to keep, and stay forty days in prison in a
property of the king. Let him undergo there whatever the bishop
prescribes as penance, and let his kinsmen feed him if he himself has
no food. If he has no kin or has no food, let the king's officer feed
him. If one has to compel him to this i.e. to surrender, and otherwise
he is unwilling to co-operate - if they have to bind him he shall
forfeit his weapons and his possessions. If he is slain while
resisting, let him lie uncompensated. If he makes an escape before the
time is up, and he is recaptured, let him stay forty days in prison as
he would have previously. But if he gets away, let him be banished and
excommunicated from all the churches of Christ. Further, if someone has
provided surety for him, let him compensate for the breach of surety as
custom require him, and atone for the breach of pledge as his confessor
imposes in his case.
2. If anyone seek out as sanctuary for any offence any of the monastic
houses to which the king's revenue applies, or any other exempt
community that is worthy of respect he shall have a period of three
days of immunity, unless he wants to negotiate before that. If someone
harms him during that period, either by assault or by fettering him,,
or by a penetrating wound, let the aggressor pay compensation for each
of such attacks according to proper practice, both with wergeld and
with a fine, and 120 shillings to that community, as compensation for
breach of sanctuary, and let his own possessions be forfeit.
3. If anyone violate the king's surety, let him pay compensation for
the original charge as customary law direct, and for the violation of
surety with five pounds of the purer pennies. In the case of breach of
an archbishop's surety or protection, let him compensate with three
pounds. For violation of the surety or protection of another bishop or
official [earldorman], let him make compensation with two pounds.
4. If anyone plot against the king's life, either directly or by
harbouring outlaws or indirectly through the agency of his men, let him
be liable with his life and with all that he owns. If he desire to
prove himself loyal, let him do that by paying a king's wergeld.
Similar protection we ordain for all ranks, both common and noble
[earl]: whoever plots against his master's life shall be liable with
his life and with all that he owns - or let him show his loyalty by
paying his master's wergeld.
5. Also we appoint to every church that a bishop has consecrated this
right of sanctuary: that if a party to a feud run or ride to the
church, then no one may drag him forth for seven days. If however
anyone does that, then let him be liable at the rate of breach of a
king's protection and at the rate of breach of church sanctuary - more
if he take more from the site. [And the sanctuary seeker shall be safe]
if he can survive hunger, and unless he himself try to fight his way
out. If the community have greater need of their church, let them keep
him in another building, and let that not have the more doors than the
church itself; Let the church official ensure that no one give the
sanctuary-seeker food during that period. If he himself is willing to
hand over his weapons to his foes, let them keep him for 30 days and
inform his kin about him. Also it shall count as sanctuary if some man
seek out a church about any offence that had not previously been
revealed, and there confess himself in God's name - let the penalty be
half remitted. He that steal on Sunday or at Yule or at Easter or on
Holy Thursday or on the Rogation days - for each of those we intend
that there should be a double-penalty, as during Lent.
6. If anyone steal something in a church, let him pay a plain
compensation and the fine such as they consider appropriate to the
plain compensation, and let them strike the hand off with which he did
it i.e. the deed. If he wishes to redeem his hand, and they consent to
that, let him pay in proportion to his wergeld.
7. If anyone fights in the king's hall or draw his weapon, and he is
seized, let the penalty be at the king's judgement, either death or
life, as he is willing to grant him. If he escapes and is captured
later, let him pay in proportion to his wergeld, and atone for the
offence with wergeld and fine, as he may deserve by his act.
8. If anyone abducts a nun of a nunnery without the king's or the
bishop's leave, let him pay 120 shillings, half to the king, half to
the bishop and the church patron who had charge of the nun. If she
lives longer than he that abducted her, let her not have any of his
estate. If she bears a child, let that not have any more of the estate
than the mother. If anyone slay her child let him pay the king the
maternal kindred's share; to the paternal kin let him pay their share.
9. If anyone slay a woman with child, while the child still be within
her, let him pay full compensation for the woman and half compensation
for the child according to the wergeld of the father's kin. Let the
fine payable to the king always be 60 shillings, until the
corresponding simple compensation rises to 30 shillings. When the
simple compensation rises to that level, then let the fine be 120
shillings. Formerly there was a defined fine for a gold-thief, and a
horse-thief and a bee-thief and many special fines greater than others.
Now all are alike except for an illegal slayer and that is 120
shillings.
10. If a man has intercourse with the wife of a 1200 shilling wergeld
man, let him pay in compensation 120 shillings to the husband. For a
600 shilling wergeld man i.e. husband, let him pay in compensation 100
shillings. For a common man [ceorl] i.e. husband, let him make
compensation of 40 shillings.
11. If someone grabs the breast of a common woman, let him compensate
with five shillings. If he throws her to the ground but does not have
sexual intercourse with her, let him compensate with 60 shillings. If
he has sexual intercourse with her let him compensate with sixty
shillings. If some other man had previously lain with her, then let the
compensation be half that. If someone accuse her of complicity, let her
clear herself with an oath guaranteed by sixty hides of land, or
forfeit half the compensation. If this happens to a nobly born woman,
let the compensation increase in proportion to the wergeld.
12. If someone burns or cuts down another person's trees without
permission, let him pay over 5 shillings for each substantial tree, and
thereafter, no matter how many there are, five pence for each tree, and
thirty shillings as a fine.
13. In the course of their joint work felling trees, if someone is
killed by accident, let the tree involved be given to his kin, and let
them remove it off the property within 30 days; otherwise let him
possess it that owns the forest.
14. If someone is born dumb or deaf, so that he can neither deny or
confess his sins, let the father make compensation for his misdeeds.
15. If someone fights or draws his weapon in the presence of an
archbishop, let him make compensation with 150 shillings. If this
occurs before another bishop or royal official [earldorman] let him
make compensation with 100 shillings.
16. If someone steals a cow or mare and drives off a foal or calf, let
him pay over one shilling as well as paying compensation for the adult
animals according to their value.
17. If anyone entrust a child into the keeping of others, and he i.e.
the offspring die while in that guardianship, let him that did the
fostering prove his innocence of any crime if anyone accuse him of it.
18. If anyone grabs at a nun's clothing or breast with sexual intent,
unless with her consent, let him pay double the rate of compensation we
previously arranged for a lay-person. If she commit adultery and she is
a betrothed woman, if she is a commoner, let 60 shillings be paid in
compensation to the guarantor, and let that be in livestock or cattle,
but let no one give any human as part of it. If she be of 600 shilling
wergeld, let 100 shillings be paid in compensation to the guarantor. If
she be of 1200 shilling wergeld, let compensation of 120 shillings be
paid to the guarantor.
19. If anyone lends his weapon to another so that he may kill with it,
they may combine, if they are willing, in the matter of paying the
wergeld. If they are unwilling to co-operate, let him that proffered
the weapon pay a third part of the wergeld and a third part of the
fine. If he i.e. the loaner of the weapon prefer to clear himself and
assert that he knew of no evil-intent in making the loan, he may do so.
20. If someone entrust cattle to another man's monk, without the
approval of the patron if that monk, and it gets lost, let he that
originally owned it suffer the loss.
21. If a priest slay another man, let all that he i.e. the priest
brought into the monastic community be turned over to the possession of
the victim's representatives, and let the bishop unfrock him; then he
shall be removed from the monastery, unless the civil patron interceded
for him.
22. If someone wishes in the local assembly to declare a claim for debt
to the king's officer, and then wishes to cancel it, let him impute
i.e. transfer it to a truer source if he can. If he cannot, let him
forfeit the single value.
23. If a dog rends or bites someone, for the first misdeed let the
owner hand over 6 shillings, if he is still giving it food. For as
second occurrence, let him give 12 shillings, and for a third 30
shillings. If, upon any of these misdeeds, the dog escapes, nonetheless
the penalty proceeds. If the dog commit more misdeeds and he i.e. the
owner still keeps him, let him pay compensation at the level of a full
wergeld as well as wound-compensation according to what he i.e. the dog
has done.
24. If an ox wounds someone, let him i.e. the owner hand the animal
over or come forward with some solution.
25. If someone forces a commoner's slave-woman to sexual intercourse,
let him compensate the owner with 5 shillings and pay 60 shillings
fine. If a male slave compel a female slave to sexual intercourse, let
him atone with his testicles.
26. If someone force an underage woman into sexual intercourse, let the
compensation be as that of an adult person.
27. If someone without kin on his father's side gets into a fight and
kills someone, if he has maternal relatives, let them pay a third part
of the wergeld; and a third part his guild-brethren; for a third part
unpaid let him flee. If he has no maternal relatives, let the
guild-brethren pay a half; for a half unpaid let him flee.
28. If someone kill a man so circumstanced and if he has no kinfolk,
let them pay half the wergeld to the king, half to his guild-brethren.
29. If anyone in a group kills a 200 shilling wergeld man who is
guiltless, let him that acknowledges the blow pay over wergeld and
fine, and let every man who was of the party hand over 30 shillings in
token of his complicity.
30. If it is a case of a 600 shilling wergeld man, let each of them pay
60 shillings as a token of their complicity, and let him that struck
the fatal blow pay wergeld and fine.
31. If he that is killed is a 1200 shilling wergeld man, let each of
them pay 120 shillings, and let the one who struck the fatal blow pay
wergeld and fine. If a group commit this sort of killing, and later
deny responsibility on oath, let them all be accused, and let them pay
over the wergeld as a group, and together pay one fine such as
corresponds to the wergeld.
32. If someone commits slander and it is proved against him, let him
make atonement with no lighter penalty than having is tongue cut out.
It i.e. the tongue must not be redeemed for any lesser value than would
be reckoned in proportion to the wergeld.
33. If someone reproach another with breach of church-witnessed pledge
and wishes to accuse him of not fulfilling any of those pledges that he
gave him, let the accuser make his preliminary oath in four churches,
and the other i.e. the accused, if he wishes to assert his good faith -
let him do that in twelve churches.
34. Also it is laid down for traders that they should produce before
the king's officer at the local assembly those people that they are
taking inland with them, and let it be established how many of them
there are. And let them take only such men as they can afterward be
accountable for at the local assembly. An if they have need of more men
along with them on their journey, let it always be declared, as often
as is necessary, to the king's officer before the assembly.
35. If someone restrains a free man who is innocent, let him pay
compensation of ten shillings. If he flogs him, compensation of twenty
shillings. If he put him to torture compensation of thirty shillings.
If as a humiliation he shave his head like a homolan, let him pay
compensation of ten shillings. If he shaves him i.e. his head like a
priest's, without binding him let him pay compensation of thirty
shillings. If he shaves off his beard, let him pay compensation of
twenty shillings. If he ties him up and then shaves his head like a
priest's, let him pay compensation of sixty shillings.
36. It is established that if someone has a spear over his shoulder and
someone else impales himself upon it, he i.e. the spear-carrier shall
pay the wergeld without any fine. If he is impaled from in front, let
him i.e. the spear-carrier pay the wergeld. If someone accuses him i.e.
the spear-carrier of deliberately doing it, let him assert his
innocence at a rate corresponding to the fine, and by that finish with
the fine. And this applies if the point is above the rest of the shaft;
if they are both level, point and shaft, let it count as no risk.
37. If someone wants to seek a new lord, transferring from one district
to another district, let him do it with the knowledge of the chief
officer to whom he was originally responsible in his shire. If he does
it without his i.e. the officer's knowledge, let him who harbours him
as his follower pay over 120 shillings as a fine. But let him divide
it, paying the king half in the shire where the man was originally
answerable, and half in that he has moved to. If he i.e. the man who
moves had done anything wrong where he came from, let him who receives
him as his follower pay the compensation and a fine of 120 shillings to
the king.
38. If someone starts a fight in front of the king's officer at an
assembly, let him pay compensation of wergeld and a fine, as it is
customary; and as a priority a fine of 120 shillings to the officer
[earldorman] concerned. If he disturb the assembly by drawing a weapon,
let him pay 120 shillings to the officer by way of fine. If something
of this sort occurs before the king's officer's deputy or a royal
priest, let him pay 30 shillings by way of fine.
39. If someone starts a fight on the floor of a free man's house, let
him pay compensation of six shillings to the freeman. If he draws his
weapon but does not fight, let the compensation be half that. If either
of these offences takes place in the house of a 600 shilling wergeld
man, let the rate rise to triple the compensation due the freeman. In
the case of a 1200 shilling wergeld man, a rate twice that of the
compensation of the 600 shilling wergeld man.
40. For breaking into a royal residence the penalty shall be 120
shillings. Into an archbishop's, ninety shillings. Into another
bishop's or a royal officer's, 60 shillings. Into a 1200 shilling
werwgeld man's, thirty shillings. Into a 600 shilling wergeld man's
fifteen shillings. For breaking into a freeman's property the penalty
shall be five shillings. If something of this kind takes place while
the levy [fyrd] is on duty elsewhere, or during Lent, let it be a
double compensation. If someone sets aside holy custom publicly in Lent
without an exemption, let him pay a compensation of 120 shillings.
41. The man who has charter land [bocland] which his kin left him, is
not allowed, we enact, to part with it outside his kin-group, if there
is written evidence or spoken witness that it was forbidden to be done
by those people who originally acquired it or by those who passed it to
him. Let him i.e. the one who opposes the alienation process declare
any such stipulation in the presence of the king and the bishop, with
his own kin attending.
42. Also we command that the man who knows his enemy is quiescent at
home should not start a fight before he has asked him for justice. If
he has the strength to surround his enemy and besiege him, let him
contain him for 7 days within and not attack him if he i.e. the enemy
is willing to abide within. After seven days if he is willing to
surrender and hand over his weapons, let him i.e. the avenger keep him
unharmed for thirty days and inform his kinsmen and his friends about
him. But if he i.e. the enemy flee to a church, let the matter be
resolved according to the privilege of the church, as we detailed
above. But if he i.e. the avenger does not have the resources to
besiege him i.e. the enemy, let him ride to the royal officer and ask
him for help. If he i.e. the officer is unwilling to assist, let him
ride and ask the king, before he mounts an attack.
Further, if someone happen upon his enemy and did not know beforehand
that he was quiescent at home, if he i.e. the enemy is willing to hand
over his weapons, let him be held for thirty days and inform his
friends about him; if he is not willing to hand over his weapons then
he i.e. the avenger may attack him. If he i.e. the enemy is willing to
surrender and hand over his weapons and yet someone still attacks him,
let the aggressor pay over wergeld and wound compensation, according to
what he has done, and pay a fine, and lose his kin-status.
We also declare someone may fight in support of his lord without blame,
if anyone has attacked the lord; so too the lord may fight in support
of his follower. In the same way, someone may fight on behalf of his
blood relative if someone attack him wrongfully, but not take the side
of a kinsman against his lord - that we do not permit. Someone may
fight blamelessly if he discovers another with his lawful wife behind
closed doors or under the one cover, or with his legitimate daughter,
or with his legitimate sister or with his mother if she was given
lawfully to his father.
43. To all free people let these following days be granted as holidays
but not to slaves and servile workers; twelve days at Christmas and the
day that Christ overcame the Devil, and St. Gregory's commemoration
day, and seven days before Easter and seven after, and one day at the
celebration of St. Peter and St. Paul and the full week in harvest
before St. Mary's Mass, and one day for the celebration of All Hallows.
The four Wednesdays in the Ember weeks shall be granted to all slaves
to sell to anyone that pleases them to anything either that any man
will give them in God's name or what they in any spare time can manage."
44.-77. The compensations for wounds is as follows: head if both bones
of the head be pierced 30s., head if the outer bone only be pierced
15s.; an inch long wound in the area of the hair 1s., an inch long
wound in the front of the hair 2s.; striking off the other ear 30s., if
the hearing be affected so that he cannot hear 60s.; putting out an eye
60s. 6 1/3 d., if the eye stay in the head but he can see nothing with
it 1/3 of the compensation be remitted; striking off a nose 60s.;
striking a front tooth 8s., a back tooth 4s., a canine tooth 15s.;
severing cheeks 15s., breaking a chin bone 12s.; perforating a windpipe
12s.; removing a tongue the same compensatin for any eye; wounding in
the shoulder so that the muscle fluid flows out 30s.; shattering the
arm above the elbow 15s.; shattering both arm bones 30s.; striking off
the thumb 30s., if the nail is struck off 5s.; striking off the
forefinger 15s., for the nail 4s.; striking off the middle finger 12s.,
for the nail 2s.; striking off the ring finger 17s., for the nail 4s.;
striking off the little finger 9s., for the nail 1s.; wounding in the
belly 30s., if the wound go through the body 20s. for each opening;
perforating the thigh or hip 30s., if it be disabled 30s.; piercing the
leg below the knee 12s., if he is disabled below the knee 30s.;
striking off the great toe 20s., the second toe 15s., the middle toe
9s., the fourth toe 6s., the little toe 5s.; wounding in the testicles
so that he cannot bear children 80s.; cutting off the arm below the
elbow with the hand cut off 80s., wounding before the hair-line and
below the sleeve and below the knee twice the value; permanently
damaging the loins 60s., it they are stabbed 15s., if they are pierced
through 30s.; wounding in the shoulder if the victim be alive 80s.;
maiming a hand outwardly, providing it can be treated effectively 20s.,
if half the hand be lost 40s.; breaking a rib without breaking the skin
10s., if the skin be broken and the bone be extruded 15s.; cutting away
an eye hand or foot 66s.6 1/3 d.; cutting off the leg at the knee 80s.;
breaking a shoulder 20s.; hacking into a shoulder so that the bone
extrudes 15s.; severing the tendon of the foot and if it can be treated
so that will be sound again 12s., but if he is lame on account of the
wound and he cannot be cured 30s.; severing the lesser tendon 6s.;
severing the muscles up by the neck and damage them so severely that he
has no control over them and however lives on thus maimed 100s., unless
the Witan appoint him a juster and greater sum.
Judicial Procedure
Cases were held at monthly meetings of the hundred court. The
king or one of his reeves, conducted the trial by compurgation, which
was an appeal to the supernatural.
In compurgation, the one complaining, called the "plaintiff",
and the one defending, called the "defendant", each told their story
and put his hand on the Bible and swore "By God this oath is clean and
true". A slip or a stammer would mean he lost the case. Otherwise,
community members would stand up to swear on behalf of the plaintiff or
the defendant as to their reputation for veracity. The value of a man's
oath was commensurate with his value or wergeld. A man's brothers were
usually his compurgators. The number of compurgators varied according
to the nature of the case and the rank of the persons concerned. If
there were too few "compurgators", usually twelve in number, or recited
poorly, their party lost. If this process was inconclusive, the parties
could bring witnesses to declare such knowledge as they had as
neighbors. These witnesses, male and female, swore to particular points
determined by the court.
If compurgation failed, the defendant was told to go to church
and to take the sacrament only if he was innocent. If he took the
sacrament, he was tried by the process of "ordeal", which was
administered by the church. In the ordeal by cold water, he was given a
drink of holy water and then bound hand and foot and thrown into water.
If he floated, he was guilty beccause the holy water had rejected him.
If he sank, he was innocent. It was not necessary to drown to be deemed
innocent. In the ordeal by hot water, he had to pick up a stone from
inside a boiling cauldron. If his hand was healing in three days, he
was innocent. If it was festering, he was guilty. A similar ordeal was
that of hot iron, in which one had to carry in his hands a hot iron for
a certain distance. In the ordeal of the consecrated morsel, one would
swallow a morsel; if he choked on it, he was guilty. The results of the
ordeal were taken to indicate the will of God.
An archbishop's or bishop's oath was incontrovertible. If they
were accused, they could clear themselves with an oath that they were
guiltless. Lesser ranks could clear themselves with the oaths of at
least three compurgators of their rank or, for more serious offenses,
undergo the ordeal.
The shire and hundred courts were held for free tenants of a
lord and the judges were the tenants themselves. The feudal courts were
held for unfree tenants and the lord or his steward was the judge.
The earl presided over the shire court. He received one-third
of the profits of justice. The judges were the owners of certain pieces
of land. The shire court was held twice a year. There was little
distinction between secular and spiritual jurisdiction. A bishop sat
on the shire court. The shire court fulfilled all three functions of
government: judicial, legislative, and executive.
The courts had no efficient mode of compelling attendance or
enforcing their orders, except by outlawing the offender, that is,
putting him outside the protection of the law, so that anyone might
kill him with impunity. In grave cases, a special expedition could be
called against an offender.
The individual wronged had his choice of payment in money or engaging
in a blood feud. The sums of money of the system of bot, wer, and wite
were enormous, and often could not be paid. Then a man could be
declared outlaw or sold as a slave. If a person was outlawed, he also
forfeited all his goods to the king.
Cases of general importance concerned mayslaying, wounding, and
cattle-stealing.
A person convicted of murder, i.e. killing by stealth or
robbery [taking from a person's robe, that is, his person or breaking
into his home to steal] could be hung and his possessions confiscated.
A man had a self-help right to arrest a thief hand-habbende [a thief
found with the stolen goods in his hands] and a thief back-berend [a
thief found with the stolen goods on his back or about his person].
Any inanimate or animate object or personal chattel which was
found by a court to be the immediate cause of death was forfeited as
"deodand", for instance, a tree from which a man fell to his death, a
beast which killed a man, a sword of a third party not the slayer that
was used to kill a man. The deodand was to go to the dead man's kin so
they could wreak their vengeance on it, which in turn would cause the
dead man to lie in peace.
This is a lawsuit regarding rights to feed pigs in a certain
woodland: "In the year 825 which had passed since the birth of Christ,
and in the course of the second Indiction, and during the reign of
Beornwulf, King of Mercia, a council meeting was held in the famous
place called Clofesho, and there the said King Beornwulf and his
bishops and his earls and all the councilors of this nation were
assembled. Then there was a very noteworthy suit about wood pasture at
Sinton, towards the west in Scirhylte. The reeves in charge of the
pigherds wished to extend the pasture farther, and take in more of the
wood than the ancient rights permitted. Then the bishop and the
advisors of the community said that they would not admit liability for
more than had been appointed in AEthelbald's day, namely mast for 300
swine, and that the bishop and the community should have two thirds of
the wood and of the mast. The Archbishop Wulfred and all the councilors
determined that the bishop and the community might declare on oath that
it was so appointed in AEthelbald's time and that they were not trying
to obtain more, and the bishop immediately gave security to Earl
Eadwulf to furnish the oath before all the councilors, and it was
produced in 30 days at the bishop's see at Worcester. At that time Hama
was the reeve in charge of the pigherds at Sinton, and he rode until he
reached Worcester, and watched and observed the oath, as Earl Eadwulf
bade him, but did not challenge it. Here are the names and designations
of those who were assembled at the council meeting ..."