The Times: 900-1066
There were many large landholders such as the King, earls, and
bishops. Earls were noblemen by birth, and often relatives of the King.
They were his army commanders and the highest civil officials, each
responsible for a shire. A breach of the public peace of an earl would
occasion a fine. Lower in social status were freemen: sokemen, and
then, in decreasing order, villani [villeins], bordarii, and cottarii.
The servi were the slaves. Probably all who were not slaves were
freemen.
Kings typically granted land in exchange for services of
military duties, maintaining fortresses, and repairing bridges. Less
common services required by landlords include equipping a guard ship
and guarding the coast, guarding the lord, military watch, maintaining
the deer fence at the King's residence, alms giving, and church dues.
Since this land was granted in return for service, there were
limitations on its heritability and often an heir had to pay a heriot
to the landlord to obtain the land. A heriot was originally the weapons
and armor of a man killed, which went to the King. The heriot of a
thegn who had soken [or jurisdiction over their own lands] came to be
about 80s.; of a kings' thegn about four lances, two coats of mail, two
swords, and 125s.; of an earl about eight horses, four saddled and four
unsaddled, eight lances, four coats of mail, four swords, and 500s.
There were several thousand thegns, rich and poor, who held
land directly of the King. Some thegns had soken and others did not.
Free farmers who had sought protection from thegns in time of war now
took them as their lords. A freeman could chose his lord, following him
in war and working his land in peace. All able-bodied freemen were
liable to military service in the fyrd [national militia], but not in a
lord's private wars. In return, the lord would protect him against
encroaching neighbors, back him in the courts of law, and feed him in
times of famine. But often, lords raided each other's farmers, who fled
into the hills or woods for safety. Often a lord's fighting men stayed
with him at his large house, but later were given land with inhabitants
on it, who became his tenants. The lords were the ruling class and the
greatest of them sat in the King's council along with bishops, abbots,
and officers of the King's household. The lesser lords were local
magnates, who officiated at the shire and hundred courts.
Staghunting, foxhunting, and hawking were reserved for lords
who did not work with their hands. Every free born person had the right
to hunt other game.
There was a great expansion of arable land. Some land had been
specifically allocated to certain individuals. Some was common land,
held by communities. If a family came to pay the dues and fines on
certain common land, it could become personal to that family and was
then known as heirland. Most land came to be privately held from
community-witnessed allotments or inheritance. Bookland was those
holdings written down in books. This land was usually land that had
been given to the church or monasteries because church clerics could
write. So many thegns gave land to the church, usually a hide, that the
church held 1/3 of the land of the realm. Folkland was that land that
was left over after allotments had been made to the freemen and which
was not common land. It was public land and a national asset and could
be converted to heirland or bookland only by action of the king and
witan. It could also be rented by services to the state via charter. A
holder of folkland might express a wish, e.g. by testamentary action,
for a certain disposition of it, such as an estate for life or lives
for a certain individual. But a distinct act by the king and witan was
necessary for this wish to take effect. Small private transactions of
land could be done by "livery of seisin" in the presence of neighbors.
"Seisin" is rightful possession. A man in possession of land is
presumed to have "seisin", unless and until someone else can establish
a better title by legal process. All estates in land could be let,
lent, or leased by its holders, and was then known as "loenland".
Ploughs and wagons could be drawn by four or more oxen or
horses in sets of two behind each other. Oxenshoes and horseshoes
prevented lameness due to cracked hooves. Horse collars especially
fitted for horses, replaced oxen yoke that had been used on horses. The
horse collar did not restrict breathing and enabled horses to use the
same strength of oxen. Also, horses had better endurance and faster
speed.
A free holder's house was wood, perhaps with a stone
foundation, and roofed with thatch or tiles. There was a main room or
hall, with bed chambers around it. Beyond was the kitchen, perhaps
outside under a lean-to. These buildings were surrounded by a bank or
stiff hedge.
Simple people lived in huts made from wood and mud, with one
door and no windows. They slept around a wood-burning fire in the
middle of the earthen floor. They wore shapeless clothes of goat hair
and unprocessed wool from their sheep. They ate rough brown bread,
vegetable and grain broth, ale from barley, bacon, beans, milk,
cabbage, onion, apples, plums, cherries, and honey for sweetening or
mead. Vegetables grown in the country included onions, leeks, celery,
lettuce, radish, carrots, garlic, shallots, parsnip, dill, chervil,
marigold, coriander, and poppy. In the summer, they ate boiled or raw
veal and wild fowl such as ducks, geese, or pigeons, and game snared in
the forest. Poultry was a luxury food, but recognized as therapeutic
for invalids, especially in broth form [chicken soup]. Venison was
highly prized. There were still some wild boar, which were hunted with
long spears, a greyhound dog, and hunting horns. They sometimes mated
with the domestic pigs which roamed the woodlands. In September, the
old and infirm pigs were slaughtered and their sides of bacon smoked in
the rafters for about a month. Their intestines provided skin for
sausages. In the fall, cattle were slaughtered and salted for food
during the winter because there was no more pasture for them. However,
some cows and breed animals were kept through the winter.
For their meals, people used wooden platters, sometimes
earthenware plates, drinking horns, drinking cups from ash or alderwood
turned on a foot-peddled pole lathe, and bottles made of leather. Their
bowls, pans, and pitchers were made by the potter's wheel. Water could
be boiled in pots made of iron, brass, lead, or clay. Water could be
carried in leather bags because leather working preservative techniques
improved so that tanning prevented stretching or decaying. At the back
of each hut was a hole in the ground used as a latrine, which flies
frequented. Moss was used for toilet paper. Parasitical worms in the
stool were ubiquitous.
Most of the simple people lived in villages of about 20 homes
circling a village green or lining a single winding lane. There were
only first names, and these were usually passed down family lines. To
grind their grain, the villagers used hand mills with crank and gear,
or a communal mill, usually built of oak, driven by power transmitted
through a solid oak shaft, banded with iron as reinforcement, to
internal gear wheels of elm. Almost every village had a watermill. It
might be run by water shooting over or flowing under the wheel.
Clothing for men and women was made from coarse wool, silk, and
linen and was usually brown in color. Only the wealthy could afford to
wear linen or silk. Men also wore leather clothing, such as neckpieces,
breeches, ankle leathers, shoes, and boots. Boots were worn when
fighting. They carried knives or axes under metal belts. They could
carry items by tying leather pouches onto their belts with their
drawstrings. They wore leather gloves for warmth and for heavy working
with their hands.
People were as tall, strong and healthy as in the late 1900s,
not having yet endured the later malnourishment and overcrowding that
was its worst in the 1700s and 1800s. Their teeth were very healthy.
Most adults died in their 40s, after becoming arthritic from hard
labor. People in their 50s were deemed venerable. Boys of twelve were
considered old enough to swear an oath of allegiance to the king. Girls
married in their early teens, often to men significantly older.
The lands of the large landholding lords were administered by
freemen. They had wheat, barley, oats, and rye fields, orchards,
vineyards for wine, and beekeeping areas for honey. On this land lived
not only farm laborers, cattle herders, shepherds, goatherds, and
pigherds, but craftsmen such as goldsmiths, hawkkeepers, dogkeepers,
horsekeepers, huntsmen, foresters, builders, weaponsmiths, embroiders,
bronze smiths, blacksmiths, watermill wrights, wheelwrights, wagon
wrights, iron nail makers, potters, soap makers (made from wood ashes
reacting chemically with fats or oils), tailors, shoemakers, salters
(made salt at the "wyches", which later became towns ending with
'-wich'), bakers, cooks, and gardeners. Most men did carpentry work.
Master carpenters worked with ax, hammer, and saw to make houses,
doors, bridges, milk buckets, washtubs, and trunks. Blacksmiths made
gates, huge door hinges, locks, latches, bolts, and horseshoes. The
lord loaned these people land on which to live for their life, called a
"life estate", in return for their services. The loan could continue to
their widows or children who took up the craft. Mills were usually
powered by water. Candles were made from beeswax, which exuded a bright
and steady light and pleasant smell, or from mutton fat, which had an
unpleasant odor. The wheeled plough and iron-bladed plough made the
furrows. One man held the plough and another walked with the oxen,
coaxing them forward with a stick and shouts. Seeds were held in an
apron for seeding. Farm implements included spades, shovels, rakes,
hoes, buckets, barrels, flails, and sieves. Plants were pruned to
direct their growth and to increase their yield. Everyone got together
for feasts at key stages of the farming, such as the harvest. Easter
was the biggest feast. When the lord was in the field, his lady held
their estate. There were common lands of these estates as well as of
communities. Any proposed new settler had to be admitted at the court
of this estate.
The land of some lords included fishing villages along the
coasts. From the sea were caught herrings, salmon, porpoises, sturgeon,
oysters, crabs, mussels, cockles, winkles, plaice, flounder, and
lobsters. Sometimes whales were driven into an inlet by many boats.
River fish included eels, pike, minnows, burbot, trout, and lampreys.
They were caught by brushwood weirs, net, bait, hooks, and baskets.
Oysters were so numerous that they were eaten by the poor. The king's
peace extended over the waterways. If mills, fisheries, weirs, or other
structures were set up to block them, they were to be destroyed and a
penalty paid to the king.
Other lords had land with iron mining industries. Ore was dug
from the ground and combined with wood charcoal in a shaft furnace to
be smelted into liquid form. Wood charcoal was derived from controlled
charring of the wood at high temperatures without using oxygen. This
burned impurities from it and left a purer carbon, which burned better
than wood. The pure iron was extracted from this liquid and formed into
bars. To keep the fire hot, the furnaces were frequently placed at
windswept crossings of valleys or on the tops of hills.
Some lords had markets on their land, for which they charged a
toll for participation. There were about fifty markets in the nation.
Cattle and slaves (from the word "slav") were the usual medium of
exchange. An ox was still worth about 30d. Shaking hands was symbolic
of an agreement for a sale, which had to be carried out in front of
witnesses at the market for any property worth over 20d. The higher the
value of the property, the more witnesses were required. Witnesses were
also required for the exchange of property and to vouch for cattle
having being born on the property of a person claiming them. People
traveled to markets on deep, sunken roads and narrow bridges kept in
repair by certain men who did this work as their service to the King.
The king's peace extended to a couple of high roads, i.e. highways,
running the length of the country and a couple running its width.
Salt was used throughout the nation to preserve meat over the
winter. Inland saltworks had an elaborate and specialized organization.
The chief one used saltpans and furnaces to extract salt from natural
brine springs. They formed little manufacturing enclaves in the midst
of agricultural land, and they were considered to be neither large
private estates headed by a lord nor appurtenant to such. They belonged
jointly to the king and the local earl, who shared, at a proportion of
two to one, the proceeds of the tolls upon the sale of salt and methods
of carriage on the ancient salt ways according to cartload, horse load,
or man load. Sometimes there were investors in a portion of the works
who lived quite at distance away. The sales of salt were mostly retail,
but some bought to resell. Peddlers carried salt to sell from village
to village.
Some smiths traveled for their work, for instance, stonewrights
building arches and windows in churches, and lead workers putting lead
roofs on churches.
An example of a grant of hides of land is: "[God has endowed
King Edred with England], wherefore he enriches and honors men, both
ecclesiastic and lay, who can justly deserve it. The truth of this can
be acknowledged by the thegn AElfsige Hunlafing through his acquisition
of the estate of 5 hides at Alwalton for himself and his heirs, free
from every burden except the repair of fortifications, the building of
bridges and military service; a prudent landowner church dues, burial
fees and tithes. [This land] is to be held for all time and granted
along with the things both great and small belonging to it."
A Bishop gave land to a faithful attendant for his life and two
other lives as follows: "In 904 A.D., I, Bishop Werfrith, with the
permission and leave of my honorable community in Worcester, grant to
Wulfsige, my reeve, for his loyal efficiency and humble obedience, one
hide of land at Aston as Herred held it, that is, surrounded by a dyke,
for three lives and then after three lives the estate shall be given
back without any controversy to Worcester."
At seaports on the coast, goods were loaded onto vessels owned
by English merchants to be transported to other English seaports.
London was a market town on the north side of the Thames River and the
primary port and trading center for foreign merchants. Streets that
probably date from this time include Milk, Bread, and Wood Streets, and
Honey Lane. There were open air markets such as Billingsgate. There
were wooden quays over much of the river front. Houses were made of
wood, with one sunken floor, or a ground floor with a cellar beneath.
Some had central stone hearths and earth latrines. There were crude
pottery cooking pots, beakers and lamps, wool cloth, a little silk,
simple leather shoes, pewter jewelry, looms, and quernstones (for
grinding flour). Wool, skins, hides, wheat, meal, beer, lead, cheese,
salt, and honey were exported. Wine (mostly for the church), fish,
timber, pitch, pepper, garlic, spices, copper, gems, gold, silk, dyes,
oil, brass, sulphur, glass, slaves, and elephant and walrus ivory were
imported. Goods from the continent were sold at open stalls in certain
streets. Furs and slaves were traded. There was a royal levy on exports
by foreigners merchants. Southwark, across the Thames River from
London,was reachable by a bridge. Southwark contained sleazy docks,
prisons, gaming houses, and brothels.
Guilds in London were first associations of neighbors for the
purposes of mutual assistance. They were fraternities of persons by
voluntary compact to assist each other in poverty, including their
widows or orphans and the portioning of poor maids, and to protect each
other from injury. Their essential features are and continue to be in
the future: 1) oath of initiation, 2) entrance fee in money or in kind
and a common fund, 3) annual feast and mass, 4) meetings at least three
times yearly for guild business, 5) obligation to attend all funerals
of members, to bear the body if need be from a distance, and to provide
masses for the dead, 6) the duty of friendly help in cases of sickness,
imprisonment, house burning, shipwreck, or robbery, 7) rules for decent
behavior at meetings, and 8) provisions for settling disputes without
recourse to the law. Both the masses and the feast were attended by the
women. Frequently the guilds also had a religious ceremonial to affirm
their bonds of fidelity. They readily became connected with the
exercise of trades and with the training of apprentices. They promoted
and took on public purposes such as the repairing of roads and bridges,
the relief of pilgrims, the maintenance of schools and almshouses, and
the periodic performance of pageants and miracle plays telling
scriptural history, which could last for several days. The devil often
was prominent in miracle plays.
Many of these London guilds were known by the name of their
founding member. There were also Frith Guilds (peace guilds) and a
Knights' Guild. The Frith Guild's main object was to enforce the King's
laws, especially the prevalent problem of theft. They were especially
established by bishops and reeves. Members met monthly and contributed
about 4d. to a common fund, which paid a compensation for items stolen.
They each paid 1s. towards the pursuit of the thief. The members were
grouped in tens. Members with horses were to track the thief. Members
without horses worked in the place of the absent horse owners until
their return. When caught, the thief was tried and executed.
Overwhelming force was used if his kindred tried to protect him. His
property was used to compensate the victim for his loss and then
divided between the thief's wife, if she was innocent, the King, and
the guild. Owners of slaves paid into a fund to give one half
compensation to those who lost slaves by theft or escape, and
recaptured slaves were to be stoned to death or hanged. The members of
the peace guild also feasted and drank together. When one died, the
others each sang a song or paid for the singing of fifty psalms for his
soul and gave a loaf.
The Knights' Guild was composed of thirteen military persons to
whom King Edgar granted certain waste land in the east of London,
toward Aldgate, and also Portsoken, which ran outside the eastern wall
of the city to the Thames, for prescribed services performed, probably
defense of the vulnerable east side of the city. This concession was
confirmed by King Edward the Confessor in a charter at the suit of
certain citizens of London, the successors of these knights. Edward
granted them sake and soke, the right to hold a court for the offender
and to receive the profits of jurisdiction, over their men.
Edward the Confessor made these rules for London:
1. Be it known that within the space of three miles from all parts
outside of the city a man ought not to hold or hinder another, and also
should not do business with him if he wish to come to the city under
its peace. But when he arrives in the city, then let the market be the
same to the rich man as to the poor.
2. Be it also known that a man who is from the court of the king or the
barons ought not to lodge in the house of any citizen of London for
three nights, either by privilege or by custom, except by consent of
the host. For if he force the host to lodge him in his house and there
be killed by the host, let the host choose six from his relatives and
let him as the seventh swear that he killed him for the said cause. And
thus he will remain quit of the murder of the - - deceased towards the
king and relatives and lords of the deceased.
3. And after he has entered the city, let a foreign merchant be lodged
wherever it please him. But if he bring dyed cloth, let him see to it
that he does not sell his merchandise at retail, but that he sell not
less than a dozen pieces at a time. And if he bring pepper, or cumin,
or ginger, or alum, or brasil wood, or resin, or incense, let him sell
not less than fifteen pounds at a time. But if he bring belts, let him
sell not less than a thousand at a - - time. And if he bring cloths of
silk, or wool or linen, let him see that he cut them not, but sell them
whole. But if he bring wax, let him sell not less than one quartanum.
Also a foreign merchant may not buy dyed cloth, nor make the dye in the
city, nor do any work which belongs by right to the citizens.
4. Also no foreign merchant with his partner may set up any market
within the city for reselling goods in the city, nor may he approach a
citizen for making a bargain, nor may he stop longer in the City.
Every week in London there was a folkmote at St. Paul's
churchyard, where majority decision was a tradition. By 1032, it had
lost much of its power to the husting [household assembly in Danish]
court. The folkmote then had responsibility for order and was the sole
authority for proclaiming outlaws. It met three times a year at St.
Paul's churchyard and there acclaimed its sheriff and its justiciar, or
if the king had chosen his officer, heard who was chosen and listened
to his charge. It also yearly arranged the watch and dealt with risks
of fire. It was divided into wards, each governed by an alderman who
presided over the wardmote, and represented his ward at the folkmote.
Each guild became a ward. The chief alderman was the portreeve. London
paid one-eighth of all the taxes of England.
Later in the towns, merchant guilds grew out of charity
associations whose members were bound by oath to each other and got
together for a guild feast every month. Some traders of these merchant
guilds became so prosperous that they became landholders. Many market
places were dominated by a merchant guild, which had a monopoly of the
local trade. In the great mercantile towns all the land and houses
would be held by merchants and their dependents, all freeholders were
connected with a trade, and everyone who had a claim on public office
or magistry would be a member of the guild. The merchant guild could
admit into their guild country villeins, who became freemen if
unclaimed by their lords for a year and a day. Every merchant who had
made three long voyages on his own behalf and at his own cost ranked as
a thegn. There were also some craft guilds composed of handicraftsmen
or artisans. Escaped bonded agricultural workers, poor people, and
traders without land migrated to towns to live, but were not citizens.
Towns were largely self-sufficient, but salt and iron came from
a distance. The King's established in every shire at least one town
with a market place where purchases would be witnessed, and a mint
where reliable money was coined by a moneyer, who put his name on his
coins. There were eight moneyers in London. Coins were issued to be of
value for only a couple of years. Then one had to exchange them for
newly issued ones at a rate of about 10 old for 8 or 9 new. The
difference constituted a tax. Roughly 10% of the people lived in towns.
Some took surnames such as Tanner, Weaver, or Carpenter. Some had
affectionate or derisive nicknames such as clear-hand, fresh friend,
soft bread, foul beard, money taker, or penny purse. Craftsmen in the
1000s included goldsmiths, embroiderers, illuminators of manuscripts,
and armorers.
Edward the Confessor, named such for his piety, was a king of
24 years who was widely respected for his intelligence,
resourcefulness, good judgment, and wisdom. His educated Queen Edith,
whom he relied on for advice and cheerful courage, was a stabilizing
influence on him. They were served by a number of thegns, who had
duties in the household, which was composed of the hall, the courtyard,
and the bedchamber. They were important men - thegns by rank. They were
landholders, often in several areas, and held leading positions in the
shires. They were also priests and clerics, who maintained the
religious services and performed tasks for which literacy was
necessary. Edward was the first king to have a "Chancellor", who was
the first great officer of state. He kept a royal seal and was the
chief royal chaplain. He did all the secretarial work of the household
and court, drew up and sealed the royal writs, conducted the king's
correspondence, and kept all the royal accounts. The word "chancellor"
signified a screen behind which the secretarial work of the household
was done. He had the special duty of securing and administering the
royal revenue from vacant benefices. The second great office was that
of Treasurer, who headed the Exchequer. The most important royal
officers were the chamberlains, who took care of the royal bedchamber
and adjoining wardrobe used for dressing and storage of valuables, and
the priests. These royal officers had at first been responsible only
for domestic duties, but gradually came to assume public administrative
tasks.
Edward wanted to avoid the pressures and dangers of living in
the rich and powerful City of London. So he rebuilt a monastic church,
an abbey, and a palace at Westminster about two miles upstream. He
started the growth of Westminster as a center of royal and political
power; kings' councils met there. Royal coronations took place at the
abbey. Since Edward traveled a lot, he established a
storehouse-treasury at Winchester to supplement his traveling wardrobe.
At this time, Spanish stallions were imported to improve English
horses. London came to have the largest and best trained army in
England.
The court invited many of the greatest magnates and prelates
[highest ecclesiastical officials, such as bishops] of the land to the
great ecclesiastical festivals, when the king held more solemn courts
and feasted with his vassals for several days. These included all the
great earls, the majority of bishops, some abbots, and a number of
thegns and clerics. Edward had a witan of wise men to advise him, but
sometimes the King would speak in the hall after dinner and listen to
what comments were made from the mead-benches. As the court moved about
the country, many men came to pay their respects and attend to local
business. Edward started the practice of King's touching people to cure
them of scrofula, a disease which affected the glands, especially in
the head and neck. It was done in the context of a religious ceremony.
The main governmental activities were: war, collection of
revenue, religious education, and administration of justice. For war,
the shires had to provide a certain number of men and the ports quotas
of ships with crews. The king was the patron of the English church. He
gave the church peace and protection. He presided over church councils
and appointed bishops. As for the administration of justice, the public
courts were almost all under members of Edward's court, bishops, earls,
and reeves. Edward's mind was often troubled and disturbed by the
threat that law and justice would be overthrown, by the pervasiveness
of disputes and discord, by the raging of wicked presumption, by money
interfering with right and justice, and by avarice kindling all of
these. He saw it as his duty to courageously oppose the wicked by
taking good men as models, by enriching the churches of God, by
relieving those oppressed by wicked judges, and by judging equitably
between the powerful and the humble. He was so greatly revered that a
comet was thought to accompany his death.
The king established the office of the Chancery to draft
documents and keep records. It created the writ, which was a small
piece of parchment [sheep skin] addressed to a royal official or
dependent commanding him to perform some task for the King. By the
1000s A.D., the writ contained a seal: a lump of wax with the impress
of the Great Seal of England which hung from the bottom of the
document. Writing was done with a sharpened goose-wing quill. Ink was
obtained from mixing fluid from the galls made by wasps for their eggs
on oak trees, rainwater or vinegar, gum arabic, and iron salts for
color.
A King's grant of land entailed two documents: a charter giving
boundaries and conditions and a writ, usually addressed to the shire
court, listing the judicial and financial privileges conveyed with the
land. These were usually sac [jurisdiction of a lord to hold court and
to impose fines and amercements] and soke [jurisdiction of a private
court of a noble or institution to execute the laws and administer
justice over inhabitants and tenants of the estate], toll [right to
have a market and to collect a payment on the sale of cattle and other
property on one's own estate] and team [a privilege granted by royal
charter to the lord of a manor for the having, restraining, and judging
of villeins with their children, goods, and chattels], and
infangenetheof [the authority to hang and take the chattels of a thief
caught on his estate].
The town of Coventry consisted of a large monastery estate,
headed by an abbot, and a large private estate headed by a lord. The
monastery was granted by Edward the Confessor full freedom and these
jurisdictions: sac and soke, toll and team, hamsocne [the authority to
fine a person for breaking into and making entry by force into the
dwelling of another], forestall [the authority to fine a person for
robbing others on the road], bloodwite [the authority to impose a
forfeiture for assault involving bloodshed], fightwite [the authority
to fine for fighting], weordwite [the authority to fine for
manslaughter, but not for willful murder], and mundbryce [the authority
to fine for any breach of the peace, such as trespass on lands].
Every man was expected to have a lord to whom he gave fealty.
He swore by a fealty oath such as: "By the Lord, before whom this relic
is holy, I will be to faithful and true, and love all that he loves,
and shun all that he shuns, according to God's law, and according to
the world's principle, and never, by will nor by force, by word nor by
work, do ought of what is loathful to him; on condition that he keep me
as I am willing to deserve, and all that fulfill that our agreement
was, when I to him submitted and chose his will." If a man was homeless
or lordless, his brothers were expected to find him such, e.g. in the
folkmote. Otherwise, he was to be treated as a fugitive and could be
slain, and anyone who had harbored him would pay a penalty. Brothers
were also expected to protect their minor kinsmen. When the oath of
fealty was sworn, the man usually did homage to this lord symbolized by
holding his hands together between those of his lord.
Marriages were determined by men asking women to marry them. If
a woman said yes, he paid a sum to her kin for her "mund" [jurisdiction
or protection over her] and gave his oath to them to maintain and
support the woman and any children born. As security for this oath, he
gave a valuable object or "wed". The couple were then betrothed.
Marriage ceremonies were performed by priests in churches. The groom
had to bring friends to his wedding as sureties to guarantee his oath
to maintain and support his wife and children. Those who swore to take
care of the children were called their "godfathers". The marriage was
written into church records. After witnessing the wedding, friends ate
the great loaf, or first bread made by the bride. This was the
forerunner of the wedding cake. They drank special ale, the "bride ale"
(from hence the work "bridal"), to the health of the couple.
Women could own land, houses, and furniture and other property.
They could even make wills that disinherited their sons. This marriage
agreement with an Archbishop's sister provides her with land, money,
and horsemen:
"Here in this document is stated the agreement which Wulfric
and the archbishop made when he obtained the archbishop's sister as his
wife, namely he promised her the estates at Orleton and Ribbesford for
her lifetime, and promised her that he would obtain the estate at
Knightwick for her for three lives from the community at Winchcombe,
and gave her the estate at Alton to grant and bestow upon whomsoever
she pleased during her lifetime or at her death, as she preferred, and
promised her 50 mancuses of gold and 30 men and 30 horses.
The witnesses that this agreement was made as stated were Archbishop
Wulfstan and Earl Leofwine and Bishop AEthelstan and Abbot AElfweard
and the monk Brihtheah and many good men in addition to them, both
ecclesiastics and laymen. There are two copies of this agreement, one
in the possession of the archbishop at Worcester and the other in the
possession of Bishop AEthelstan at Hereford."
This marriage agreement provided the wife with money, land,
farm animals and farm laborers; it also names sureties, the survivor of
whom would receive all this property:
"Here is declared in this document the agreement which Godwine made
with Brihtric when he wooed his daughter. In the first place he gave
her a pound's weight of gold, to induce her to accept his suit, and he
granted her the estate at Street with all that belongs to it, and 150
acres at Burmarsh and in addition 30 oxen and 20 cows and 10 horses and
10 slaves.
This agreement was made at Kingston before King Cnut, with the
cognizance of Archbishop Lyfing and the community at Christchurch, and
Abbot AElfmaer and the community at St. Augustine's, and the sheriff
AEthelwine and Sired the old and Godwine, Wulfheah's son, and AElfsige
cild and Eadmaer of Burham and Godwine, Wulfstan's son, and Carl, the
King's cniht. And when the maiden was brought from Brightling AElfgar,
Sired's son, and Frerth, the priest of Forlstone, and the priests
Leofwine and Wulfsige from Dover, and Edred, Eadhelm's son, and
Leofwine, Waerhelm's son, and Cenwold rust and Leofwine, son of Godwine
of Horton, and Leofwine the Red and Godwine, Eadgifu's son, and
Leofsunu his brother acted as security for all this. And whichever of
them lives the longer shall succeed to all the property both in land
and everything else which I have given them. Every trustworthy man in
Kent and Sussex, whether thegn or commoner, is cognizant of these terms.
There are three of these documents; one is at Christchurch, another at
St. Augustine's, and Brihtric himself has the third."
Nuns and monks lived in segregated nunneries and monasteries on
church land and grew their own food. The local bishop usually was also
an abbot of a monastery. The priests and nuns wore long robes with
loose belts and did not carry weapons. Their life was ordered by the
ringing of the bell to start certain activities, such as prayer; meals;
meetings; work in the fields, gardens, or workshops; and copying and
illuminating books. They chanted to pay homage and to communicate with
God or his saints. They taught justice, piety, chastity, peace, and
charity; and cared for the sick. Caring for the sick entailed mostly
praying to God as it was thought that only God could cure. They bathed
a few times a year. They got their drinking water from upstream of
where they had located their latrines over running water. The large
monasteries had libraries, dormitories, guesthouses, kitchens,
butteries to store wine, bakehouses, breweries, dairies, granaries,
barns, fishponds, orchards, vineyards, gardens, workshops, laundries,
lavatories with long stone or marble washing troughs, and towels.
Slavery was diminished by the church by excommunication for the sale of
a child over seven. The clergy taught that manumission of slaves was
good for the soul of the dead, so it became frequent in wills. The
clergy were to abstain from red meat and wine and were to be celibate.
But there were periods of laxity. Punishment was by the cane or scourge.
The Archbishop of Canterbury began anointing new kings at the
time of coronation to emphasize that the king was ruler by the grace of
God. As God's minister, the king could only do right. From 973, the new
king swore to protect the Christian church, to prevent inequities to
all subjects, and to render good justice, which became a standard oath.
It was believed that there was a celestial hierarchy, with
heavenly hosts in specific places. The heavenly bodies revolved in
circles around the earthly world on crystal spheres of their own, which
were serene, harmonious, and eternal. This contrasted with the change,
death, and decay that occurred in the earthly world. Also in this
world, Aristotle's four elements of earth, air, fire, and water sought
their natural places, e.g. bubbles of air rising through water. The
planets were called wanderers because their motion did not fit the
circular scheme.
God intervened in daily life, especially if worshipped. Jesus
Christ, his mother the Virgin Mary and saints were also worshipped.
Saints such as Bede and Hilda performed miracles, especially ones of
curing. Their spirits could be contacted through their relics, which
rested at the altars of churches. Sin resulted in misfortune. When
someone was said to have the devil in him, people took it quite
literally. Omens fortold events. A real Jack Frost nipped noses and
fingers and made the ground too hard to work. Little people, elves,
trolls, and fairies inhabited the fears and imaginings of people. The
forest was the mysterious home of spirits. People prayed to God to help
them in their troubles and from the work of the devil. Prayer was often
a charm to conjure up friendly spirits rather than an act of
supplication. Sorcerers controlled the forces of nature with the aid of
spirits. Since natural causes of events were unknown, people attributed
events to wills like their own. Illness and disease were thought to be
caused by demons and witches. To cure illness, people hung charms
around their neck and went to good witches for treatments of magic and
herbs. For instance, the remedy for "mental vacancy and folly" was a
drink of "fennel, agrimony, cockle, and marche".Some herbs had
hallucinogenic effects, which were probably useful for pain. Blood-
letting by leeches and cautery were used for most maladies, which were
thought to be caused by imbalance of the four bodily humors: sanguine,
phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic. These four humors reflected the
four basic elements air, water, fire, and earth. Blood was hot and
moist like air; phlegm was cold and moist like water; choler or yellow
bile was hot and dry like fire; and melancholy or black bile was cold
and dry like earth. Bede had explained that when blood predominates, it
makes people joyful, glad, sociable, laughing, and talking a great
deal. Phlegm renders them slow, sleepy, and forgetful. Red cholic makes
them thin, though eating much, swift, bold, wrathful, and agile. Black
cholic makes them serious of settled disposition, even sad. To relieve
brain pressure and/or maybe to exorcise evil spirits, holes were made
in skulls by a drill with a metal tip that was caused to turn back and
forth by a strap wrapped around a wooden handle. A king's daughter
Edith inspired a cult of holy wells, whose waters were thought to
alleviate eye conditions. Warmth and rest were also used for illness.
Agrimony boiled in milk was thought to relieve impotence in men.
It was known that the liver casted out impurities in the blood.
The stages of fetal growth were known. The soul was not thought to
enter a fetus until after the third month, so presumably abortions
within three months were allowable.
The days of the week were Sun day, Moon day, Tiw's day (Viking
god of war), Woden's day (Viking god of victory, master magician,
calmer of storms, and raiser of the dead), Thor's day (Viking god of
thunder), Frig's day (Viking goddess of fertility and growing things),
and Saturn's day (Roman god). Special days of the year were celebrated:
Christmas, the birthday of Jesus Christ; the twelve days of Yuletide (a
Viking tradition) when candles were lit and houses decorated with
evergreen and there were festivities around the burning of the biggest
log available; Plough Monday for resumption of work after Yuletide;
February 14th with a feast celebrating Saint Valentinus, a Roman bishop
martyr who had married young lovers in secret when marriage was
forbidden to encourage men to fight in war; New Year's Day on March
25th when seed was sown and people banged on drums and blew horns to
banish spirits who destroy crops with disease; Easter, the day of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ; Whitsunday, celebrating the descent of
the Holy Spirit on the apostles of Jesus and named for the white worn
by baptismal candidates; May Day when flowers and greenery was gathered
from the woods to decorate houses and churches, Morris dancers leapt
through their villages with bells, hobby horses, and waving scarves,
and people danced around a May pole holding colorful ribbons tied at
the top so they became entwined around the pole; Lammas on August 1st,
when the first bread baked from the wheat harvest was consecrated;
Harvest Home when the last harvest load was brought home while an
effigy of a goddess was carried with reapers singing and piping behind,
and October 31st, the eve of the Christian designated All Hallow Day,
which then became known as All Hallow Even, or Halloween. People
dressed as demons, hobgoblins, and witches to keep spirits away from
possessing them. Trick or treating began with Christian beggars asking
for "soul cake" biscuits in return for praying for dead relatives.
Ticktacktoe and backgammon were played.
The languages of invaders had produced a hybrid language that
was roughly understood throughout the country. The existence of Europe,
Africa, Asia, and India were known. Jerusalem was thought to be at the
center of the world. There was an annual tax of a penny on every
hearth, Peter's pence, to be collected and sent to the pope in Rome
yearly. Ecclesiastical benefices were to pay church-scot, a payment in
lieu of first fruits of the land, to the pope.
The Law
There were several kings in this period. The king and witan
deliberated on the making of new laws, both secular and spiritual, at
the regularly held witanagemot. There was a standard legal requirement
of holding every man accountable, though expressed in different ways,
such as the following three:
Every freeman who does not hold land must find a lord to answer
for him. Every lord shall be personally responsible as surety for the
men of his household. [This included female lords.] (King Athelstan)
"And every man shall see that he has a surety, and this surety
shall bring and keep him to [the performance of] every lawful duty.
1. -And if anyone does wrong and escapes, his surety shall incur what
the other should have incurred.
2. -If the case be that of a thief and his surety can lay hold of him
within twelve months, he shall deliver him up to justice, and what he
has paid shall be returned to him." (King Edgar)
Every freeman who holds land, except lords with considerable
landed property, must be in a local tithing, usually ten to twelve men,
in which they serve as personal sureties for each other's peaceful
behavior. If one of the ten landholders in a tithing is accused of an
offense, the others have to produce him in court or pay a fine plus pay
the injured party for the offense, unless they could prove that they
had no complicity in it. If the man is found guilty but can not pay,
his tithing must pay his fine. The chief officer is the "tithing man"
or "capital pledge". There were probably ten tithings in a hundred.
(King Edward the Confessor).
Canute reigned from 1016 to 1035. The following are substantially all
the laws of Canute with an * before ones of special interest.
Proclamations of Canute are:
All my reeves, under pain of forfeiting my friendship and all that they
possess and their own lives, shall govern my people justly everywhere,
and to pronounce just judgments with the cognizance of the bishops of
the dioceses, and to inflict such mitigated penalties as the bishop may
approve and the man himself may be able to bear.
I enjoin upon all the sheriffs and reeves throughout my kingdom that,
as they desire to retain my friendship and their own sercurity, they
employ no unjust force towards any man, either rich or poor, but that
all, both nobles and commoners, rich and poor, shall have their right
of just possession, which shall not be infringed upon in any way,
either for the sake of obtaining the favour of the king or of
gratifying any powerful person or of collecting money for me; and I
have no need that monoey should be collected for me by any unust
exactions.
Ecclesiastical laws of Canute are:
Above all else, love and honour one God, and uphold one Christian
faith, and love King Canute with due fidlity.
*Maintain the security and sanctity of the churches of God, and
frequently attend them for the salvation of our souls and our own
benefit. He who violates the protection given by the church of God
within its walls, or the protection granted by a Christian king in
person shall lose both land and life, unless the king is willing to
pardon him. Homicide within the church's walls shall not be
atoned for by any payment of compensation, and everyone shall pursue
the miscreant, unless it happen that he escapes from there and reaches
so inviolable a sanctuary that the king, because of that, grants him
his life, upon condition that he makes full amends both towards God and
towards men. The first conditon is that he shall give his own wergeld
to Christ and to the king and by that means obtain the legal right to
offer compensation. And if the king allows compensation, amends for the
violation of the protection of the church shall be made by the payment
to the church of the full fine for breach of the king's mund, and the
purification of the church shall be carried out as is fiting, and
compensation both to the kin and to the lord of the slain man shall be
fully psid, and supplication shall earnestly be made to God. If the
protection of the church is broken by offenses such as fighting or
robbery, without the taking of life, amends shall diligently be made in
accordance with the nature of the offense. The penalty for violation of
the protection of a principal church is 5 pounds, for a church of
medium rank is 120s., for a church with a graveyard 60s., and for a
country chapel where there is no graveyard, 30s.
Maintain the security and sanctity of holy things and priests according
to their rank, for they drive away devils, baptize anyone, hallow the
Eucharist, and intercede to Christ for the needs of the people. If an
accusation of evil practices is made against a priest and he knows
himself to be guiltless, he shall say Mass, if he dares, and thus clear
himelf by the Holy Communion in the cases of a simple accusation, and
by the Holy Communion with two supporters of the same ecclesiastical
rank in the case of a triple accusation. If he has no supporters, he
shall go to the ordeal of consecrated bread.
No monk who belongs to a monastery may demand or pay compensation
incurred by vendetta because he leaves the law of his kindred behind
when he accepts monastic rule.
If a priest is concerned in false witness or perjury or is the
accessory and accomplice of thieves, he shall be cast out from the
fellowship of those in holy orders and forfeit every privilege, unless
he make amends both towards God and towards men, as the bishop shall
prescribe, and find surtey for future behavior.
Servants of God shall call upon Christ to intercede for all Christian
people and practice celibacy. Those who turn away from marriage and
observe celibacy shall enjoy the privileges of a thegn.
*No Christian man shall marry among his own kin within six degress of
relationship or with the widow of a man as nearly related to him as
that, or with a near relative of his first wife's. No man shall marry
his god-mother, a nun, or a divorced woman. He shall not commit
adultery. He shall have no more wives that one, with whom he shall
remain as long as she lives.
Ecclesiastical dues shall be paid yearly, namely, plough alms 15 days
after Easter, the tithe [tenth] of young animals at Pentecost, and the
tithe of the fruits of the earth at All Saints. Otherwise the king's
reeve, the bishop's reeve, and the lord's reeve shall take what is due
and assign him the next tenth, and the eight remaining parts shall go
half to the lord and half to the bishop.
Peter's Pence shall be paid by St. Peter's Day or pay the bishop the
penny and 30d. in addition and 120s. to the king.
Church dues shall be paid at Martinmas, or pay the biship eleven fold
and 120s. to the king.
Any thegn with a church with attached graveyard on his land shall give
a third part of his own tithes to his church. If he has a church
without a graveyard, he shall give his priest whatever he desires from
the nine remaining parts.
Light dues shall be paid a halfpenny worth of wax from every hide three
times a year.
Payment for the souls of the dead should be rendered before the grave
is closed.
*All festivals and fasts, such as Lent, shall be observed. The festival
of every Sunday shall be observed from noon on Saturday till dawn on
Monday. No trading, public gatherings, hunting, or secular occupations
shall be done on Sunday. We forbid ordeals and oaths during festivals
and fasts.
To avoid the torment of hell, let us turn away from sin and confess our
misdeeds to out confessors and cease from evil and make amends.
Each of us shall treat others as we desire to be treated.
Every Christian man shall prepare himself for the sacrament at least
three times a year. Every friend shall abide by his oath and pledge.
Every injustice shall be cast out from this land.
Let us be faithful and true to our lord and promote his honour and
carry out his will. And likewise, it is the duty of every lord to treat
his men justly.
Men of every estate shall readily submit to the duty which befits them.
Every Christian man shall learn the Creed and the Pater Noster, the
sacred prayer taught by Christ to his disciples which contains all the
petitions necessary for this life and the life to come. He who does not
learn it may not sponsor another man at baptism or at confirmation.
*Guard against grievous sins and devilish deeds and make amends
according to one's confessor's advice.
Fear God, be in terror of sin, and dread the Day of Judgment.
The bishops shall give example of our duty towards God.
Secular laws of Canute are:
All men, both rich and poor, shall be entitled to the benefit of the
law, and just decisions shall be pronounced on their behalf.
Those in authority to give judgment shall consider very earnestly "And
forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us."
Christian people shall not be condemned to death for trivial offenses.
We forbid the all too prevalent practice of selling Christian people
out of the country, especially into heathen lands. Care shall be taken
that the souls which Christ bought with his own life be not destroyed.
*Any wizards or sorcerers, those who secretly compass death,
prostitutes, thieves, and robbers shall be destroyed unless they cease
and make amends.
We forbid heathen practices, namely the worship of idols, heathen gods,
and the sun or moon, fire or water, springs or stones or any kind of
forest trees, or indulgence in witchcraft or the compassing of death in
any way, either by sacrifice or by divinations or by the practice of
any such delusions.
*Murderers and perjurers, injurers of the clergy, and adulterers shall
submit and make amends or depart with their sins from their native land.
*Hypocrites and liars, robbers and plunderers shall incur the wrath of
God, unless they desist and make amends.
*There shall be one currency free from all adulteration throughout the
land and no one shall refuse it. He who coins false money shall forfeit
the hand with which he made it, and he shall not redeem it in any way,
either with gold or silver. If the reeve is accused of having granted
his permission to the man who coined the false money, he shall clear
himself by the triple oath of exculpation and, if it fails, he shall
have the same sentence as the man who coined the false money.
*Measures and weights shall be diligently corrected and an end put to
all unjust practices.
The repair of fortifications and bridges, and the preparation of ships
and the equipment of military forces shall be diligently undertaken for
the common need, whenever the occasion arises.
*In Wessex and Mercia, the king is entitled to payments for violation
of his mund, attacks on people's houses, assault, and neglecting
military service. In the Danelaw, he is entitled to payments for
fighting, breach of the peace and attacks on people's houses, and
neglect of military service.
*If anyone does the deed of an outlaw, the king alone shall have power
to grant him security. He shall forfeit all his land to the king
without regard to whose vassal he is. Whoever feeds or harbours the
fugitive shall pay 5 pounds to the king, unless he clears himself by a
declaration that he did not know that he was a fugitive.
*He who promotes injustice or pronounces unjust judgments, as a result
of malice or bribery, shall forfeit 120s. to the king, in districts
under English law, unless he declares on oath that he did not know how
to give a more just verdict, and he shall lose forever his rank as a
thegn, unless he redeem it from the king, provided the latter is
willing to allow him to do so. In the Danelaw he shall forfeit his
lahslit.
*He who refuses to observe just laws and judgments shall forfeit, in
districts under English law, a fine to the party entitled thereto -
either 120s. to the king, 60s. to the earl, or 30s. to the hundred, or
to all of them if they were all concerned.
*If a man seeks to accuse another man falsely in such a way as to
injure him in property or in reputation, and if the latter can refute
the accusation brought against him, the first shall forfeit his tongue,
unless he redeems himself with his wergeld.
No one shall appeal to the king, unless he fails to obtain justice
within his hundred. Everyone shall attend the hundred court, under pain
of fine, whenever he is required by law to attend it.
The borough court shall be held at least three times and the shire
court at least twice, under pain of fine. The bishop of the diocese and
the earldorman shall attend and they shall direct the administration of
both ecclesiastical and secular law.
*No one shall make distraint [seizure of personal property out of the
possession of an alleged wrongdoer into the custody of the party
injured, to procure a satisfaction for a wrong committed] of property
either within the shire or outside it, until he has appealed for
justice three times in the hundred court. If on the third occasion he
does not obtain justice, he shall go on the fourth occasion to the
shire court, and the shire court shall appoint a day when he shall
issue his summons for the fourth time. And if this summons fails, he
shall get leave from the one court or the other, to take his own
measures for the recovery of his property.
*Every freeman over age 12 must be in a tithing if he desires to have
the right of exculpation and of being atoned for by the payment of his
wergeld, if he is slain, and to be entitled to the rights of a freeman,
whether he has an establishment of his own or is in the service of
another. Everyone shall be brought within a hundred and under surety,
and his surety shall hold and bring him to the performance of every
legal duty.
*Everyone over age 12 shall take an oath that he will not be a thief or
a thief's accomplice.
Every trustworthy man, who has never earned a bad reputation and who
has never failed either in oath or in ordeal, shall be entitled to
clear himself within the hundred by the simple oath of exculpation. For
an untrustworthy man compurgators for the simple oath shall be selected
within three hundreds, and for the triple oath, throughout the district
under the jurisdiction of the borough court; otherwise he shall go to
the ordeal. When a simple oath of exculpation is involved, the case
shall be begun with a simple oath of accusation; but where a triple
oath of exculpation is involved, it shall be begun with a triple oath
of accusation. A thegn may have a trustworthy man give his oath of
accusation for him.
No man may vouch to warranty unless he has three trustworthy witnesses
to declare whence he acquired the stock which is attached in his
possession. The witnesses shall declare that, in bearing testimony on
his behalf to the effect that he acquired it legally, they are speaking
the truth, in accordance with what they saw with their eyes and heard
with their ears.
*No one shall buy anything over 4d. in value, either livestock or other
property, unless he has four men as trustworthy witnesses, whether the
purchase be made within a town or in the open country. If, however, any
property is attached, and he who is in possession of it has no such
witnesses, no vouching to warranty shall be allowed, but the property
shall be given up to its rightful owner and also the supplementary
payment, and the fine to the party who is entitled thereto. And if he
has witnesses in accordance with what we have declared above, vouching
to warranty shall take place three times. On the fourth occasion he
shall prove his claim to it or give it back to its rightful owner. No
one shall claim ownership where fraud is involved.
*If anyone who is of bad reputation and unworthy of public confidence
fails to attend the court meetings three times, men shall be chosen
from the fourth meeting who shall ride to him, and he may then still
find a surety, if he can. If he cannot, they shall seize him either
alive or dead, and they shall take all that he has. And they shall pay
to the accuser the value of his goods, and the lord shall take half of
what remains and the hundred half. And if anyone, either kinsman or
stranger, refuses to ride against him, he shall pay the king 120s.
*The proved thief and he who has been discovered in treason against his
lord, whatever sanctuary he seeks, shall never be able to save his life.
He who in court tries to protect himself or one of his men by bringing
a countercharge shall have wasted his words, and shall meet the charge
brought by his opponent in such a way as the hundred court shall
determine.
No one shall entertain any man for more than three days, unless he is
committed to this charge by the man whom he has been serving. And no
one shall dismiss one of his men from his service until he is quit of
every accusation which has been brought against him.
*If anyone comes upon a thief and of his own accord lets him escape
without raising the hue and cry, he shall make compensation by the
payment of the thief's wergeld, or clear himself with the full oath,
asserting that he did not know him to be guilty of any crime. And if
anyone hears the hue and cry and neglects it, he shall pay the full
fine for insubordination [120s] to the king, or clear himself by the
full oath.
*Regarding thoroughly untrustworthy men, if anyone has forfeited the
confidence of the hundred, and he has charges brought against him to
such an extent that he is accused by three men at once, no other course
shall be open to him but to go to the triple ordeal. If, however, his
lord asserts that he has failed neither in oath nor in ordeal since the
assembly was held at Winchester, the lord shall choose two trustworthy
men within the hundred - unless he has a reeve who is qualified to
discharge this duty - and they shall swear that he has never failed in
oath or ordeal or been convicted of stealing. If the oath is
forthcoming, the man who is accused there shall choose whichever he
will - either the simple ordeal or an oath equivalent to a pound in
value, supported by compurgators found within the three hundreds, in
the case of an object over 30d. in value. If they dare not give the
oath, the accused shall go to the triple ordeal, which shall be opened
by five compurgators selected by the accuser and he himself shall make
a sixth. If the accused is proved guilty, on the first occasion he
shall pay double value to the accuser and his wergeld to the lord who
is entitled to receive his fine, and he shall appoint trustworthy
sureties, that hence forth he will desist from all wrong-doing. And on
the second occasion, if he is proved guilty, there shall be no
compensation but to have his hands or his feet cut off or both,
according to the nature of the offense. And if has wrought still
greater crime, he shall have his eyes put out and his nose and ears and
upper lip cut off or his scalp removed, whichever of these penalties is
determined by those with whom rests the decision of the case; and thus
punishment shall be inflicted, while, at the same time, the soul is
preserved from injury. If, however, he escapes and avoids the ordeal,
his surety shall pay the value of his goods to the plaintiff and the
wergeld of the accused to the king or to the man who is entitled to
receive his wergeld. And if the lord is accused of advising the man who
had done wrong to escape, he shall choose five trustworthy men, and
shall himself make a sixth, and shall clear himself of the accusation.
If he succeeds in clearing himself, he shall be entitled to the
wergeld. And if he fails, the king shall take the wergeld, and the
thief shall be treated as an outlaw by the whole nation.
Every lord shall be personally responsible as surety for the men of his
own household. And if any accusation is brought against one of them, he
shall answer if within the hundred in which he is accused. And if he is
accused and escapes, the lord shall pay the man's wergeld to the king.
And if the lord is accused of advising him to escape, he shall clear
himself with the help of five thegns, himself making a sixth. And if he
fails to clear himself, he shall pay his own wergeld to the king, and
the man shall be an outlaw towards the king.
If a slave is found guilty at the ordeal, he shall be branded on the
first occasion. And on the second occasion, he shall not be able to
make any amends except by his head.
*Concerning untrustworthy men, if there is anyone who is regarded with
suspicion by the general public, the king's reeve shall go and place
him under surety so that he a may be brought to do justice to those who
have made charges against him. If he has no surety, he shall be slain
and buried in unconsecrated ground. And if anyone interposes in his
defense, they shall both incur the same punishment. And he who ignores
this and will not further what we have all determined upon shall pay
120s. to the king.
The various boroughs shall have one common law with regard to
exculpation.
If a friendless man or one come from afar is so utterly destitute of
friends as not to be able to produce a surety, on the first occasion
that he is accused he shall go to prison, and wait there until he goes
to God's ordeal where he shall experience whatever he can. Verily, he
who pronounces a more severe judgment upon whom is friendless or come
from afar than upon one of his own acquaintances injures himself.
*Concerning perjury, if anyone swears a false oath on the relics and is
convicted, he shall lose his hand or half his wergeld which shall be
divided between the lord and the bishop. And henceforth he shall not be
entitled to swear an oath, unless he makes amends to the best of his
ability before God, and finds surety that ever afterwards he will
desist from such perjury.
*Concerning false witness, if anyone has given testimony which is
manifestly false, and is convicted thereof, his testimony henceforth
shall be valueless, and he shall pay to the king or to the lord of the
manor a sum equivalent to his healsfang [payment due only to those very
closely related to a killed man].
Special care must be taken to prevent lawlessness at sacred seasons and
in sacred places. The greater a man is and the higher his rank, the
more stringent shall be the amends which he shall be required to make
to God and to men for lawless behavior. And ecclesiastical amends shall
be diligently exacted in accordance with the directions contained in
the canon law, and secular amends in accordance with secular law.
If anyone slays a priest of the altar, he shall be both excommunicated
and outlawed, unless he make amends to the best of his ability by
pilgrimage, and likewise by the payment of compensation to the kin of
the slain man, or else he shall clear himself by an oath equal in value
to his wergeld. He shall begin to make amends to God and men within 30
days, under pain of forfeiting all that he possesses.
If an attempt is made to deprive a man in orders or a stranger of his
goods or his life, the king shall act as his kinsman and protector
unless he has some other. And such compensation as is fitting shall be
paid to the king, or he shall avenge the deed to the uttermost.
If a minister of the altar commits homicide or any other great crime,
he shall be deprived of his ecclesiastical office and banished, and
shall travel as a pilgrim as far as the Pope appoints for him and
zealously make amends. If he seeks to clear himself, he shall do so by
the triple mode of proof. If he does not begin to make amends both to
God and men within 30 days, he shall be outlawed.
If anyone binds or beats or deeply insults a man in holy orders, he
shall make amends towards him and shall pay the fine due to the bishop
for sacrilege, in accordance with the rank of the injured man, and to
his lord or to the king the full fine for breach of his mund, or he
shall clear himself by the full process of exculpation.
If a man in holy orders commits a capital crime, he shall be arrested,
and his cases shall be reserved for the bishop's decision.
If a condemned man desires confession, he shall never be refused him or
pay the king 120s. or he shall clear himself by selecting five men and
be himself the sixth.
*No condemned man shall be put to death during the Sunday festival,
unless he flees or fights, but he shall be arrested and kept in custody
until the festival is over. If a freeman works during a church
festival, he shall make amends by payment of his healsfang and make
amends to God according to the directions given him. If as slave works,
he shall undergo the lash or pay the fine, according to the nature of
the offense. If a lord compels his slave to work during a church
festival, he shall lose the slave, who shall then obtain the rights of
a freeman and the lord shall pay a fine or clear himself.
If a freeman breaks an ordained fast, he shall pay a fine. If a slave
does so, he shall undergo the lash or pay the fine in accordance with
the nature of the deed.
If anyone openly causes a breach of the fast of Lent by fighting or by
intercourse with women or by robbery or by any great misdeed, he shall
pay double compensation just as he must do during a high festival. If
he denies the charge, he shall clear himself by the triple process of
exculpation.
*If anyone refuses by force the payment of ecclesiastical dues, he
shall pay the full fine or he shall clear himself: he shall select 11
men and himself make a twelfth. If he wounds anyone, he shall make
amends and pay the full fine to the lord and redeem his hands from the
bishop or lose them. If he kills a man, he shall be outlawed and
pursued with hostility. If he so acts as to bring about his own death
by setting himself against the law, no compensation shall be paid for
him.
If anyone injures one of the clergy, he shall make amends according to
the rank of the person injured, either by the payment of his wergeld or
a fine or by the forfeiture of all his property.
*If anyone commits adultery, he shall make amends according to the
nature of the offense. It is wicked adultery for a pious man to commit
fornication with an unmarried woman, and much worse with the wife of
another man or with any woman who has taken religious vows.
*If anyone commits incest, he shall make amends according to the degree
of relationship between them, either by the payment of wergeld or of a
fine, or by the forfeiture of all his possessions.
*If anyone does violence to a widow or maiden, he shall pay his wergeld.
*If a woman commits adultery, her husband shall have all she possesses
and she shall lose her nose and her ears.
If a married man commits adultery with his own slave, he shall lose her
and make amends to God and to men.
*If anyone has a lawful wife and also a concubine, no priest shall
perform for him any of the offices which must be performed for a
Christian man, until he desists and makes amends as the bishop shall
direct.
Foreigners, if they will not regularize their unions, shall be driven
from the land with their possessions, and shall depart in sin.
*Any murderer shall be given up to the kinsmen of the slain man. The
bishop shall pronounce judgment.
*If anyone plots against the king or his own lord, he shall forfeit his
life and all that he possesses, unless he proves himself innocent by
the triple ordeal.
*If anyone violates the protection or a king, archbishop or bishop, he
shall pay 5, 3, or 2 pounds respectively as compensation.
*Anyone who fights at the king's court shall lose his life, unless
pardoned by the king.
*If a man unjustly disarms another, he shall compensate him by the
payment of his healsfang. If he binds him, he shall compensate by the
payment of half his wergeld.
If anyone is guilty of a capital deed of violence while serving in the
army, he shall lose his life or his wergeld.
*If a man makes forcible entry into another man's house, he shall pay 5
pounds to the king. If he is slain in such a case, no compensation
shall be paid for his death.
*Anyone guilty of robbery shall restore the stolen goods and pay the
injured man as much again and forfeit his wergeld to the king.
*According to secular law, assaults upon houses, arson, theft which
cannot be disproved, murder which cannot be denied, and treachery
towards a man's lord are crimes for which no compensation can be paid.
If anyone neglects the repair of fortifications or bridges or military
service, he shall pay 120s. to the king or he shall clear himself with
the support of 11 compurgators out of 14 nominated by the court.
The whole nation shall assist in the repair of churches.
If anyone unlawfully maintains an excommunicated person, he shall
deliver him up in accordance with the law, and pay compensation to him
to whom it belongs, and to the king his wergeld. Anyone keeping and
maintaining as excommunicated man or an outlaw shall risk losing his
life and all his property.
Greater leniency shall be shown in passing judgment and in imposing
penance on the weak than on the strong because they cannot bear an
equally heavy burden. So we distinguish between age and youth, wealth
and poverty, freemen and slaves, the sound and the weak.
*When a man is an involuntary agent in evil-doing or does something
unintentionally, he is more entitled to clemency.
All my reeves shall provide for me from my own property and no man need
give them anything as purveyance. If any of my reeves demands a fine,
he shall forfeit his wergeld to me. The public has been so far too
greatly oppressed by this.
*If a man dies intestate [without a will], whether through negligence
or sudden death, his lord shall take no more than his legal heriot. The
property shall be divided among his wife and children and near kinsmen
according to the share which belongs to him.
Heriots shall be fixed with regard to the rank of the person for whom
they are paid. The heriot of any earl is eight horses, four saddled and
four unsaddled, four helmets, four coats of chainmail, eight spears,
eight shields, four swords, and 200 mancuses of gold. The heriot of a
king's thegn is four horses, two saddled and two unsaddled, two swords,
four spears, four shields, four helmets, four coats of chain mail and
50 mancuses of gold, but among the Danes who possess rights of
jurisdiction 4 pounds. The heriot of an ordinary thegn is a horse and
its trappings and his weapons or his healsfang in Wessex, and in Mercia
2 pounds, and in East Anglia 2 pounds. The heriot of a man who stands
in a more intimate relationship to the king shall be two horses, one
saddled and one unsaddled, one sword, two spears, two shields, and 50
mancuses of gold. The heriot of a man who is inferior in wealth is 2
pounds.
When a householder has dwelt all his time free from claims and charges,
his wife and children shall dwell there unmolested by litigation.
*Every widow who remains a year without a husband shall do what she
herself desires. If within the space of a year, she chooses a husband,
she shall lose her morning gift and all the property she had from her
first husband, and his nearest relatives shall take the land and
property which she had held. And the second husband shall forfeit his
wergeld to the king or the lord to whom it has been granted. And
although she has been married by force, she shall lose her possessions,
unless she leaves the man and returns home. And no widow shall be too
hastily consecrated as a nun. And every widow shall pay heriots within
a year without incurring a fine, if it has not been convenient for her
to pay earlier.
*No woman or maiden shall be forced to marry a man whom she dislikes,
nor shall she be given for money, except the suitor desires of his own
freewill to give something.
If anyone sets his spear at the door to another man's house, he himself
having an errand inside, or if anyone carefully lays any other weapons
where they might remain quietly, and another seizes the weapon and
works mischief with it, he shall pay compensation for it. He who owns
the weapon may clear himself by asserting that the mischief was done
without his desire or authority or advice or cognizance.
*If anyone carries stolen goods home to his cottage and is detected,
the owner shall have what he has tracked. The wife shall be clear of
any charge of complicity unless the goods had been put under her lock
and key or in her storeroom, her chest, or her cupboard. But no wife
can forbid her husband from depositing anything in his cottage.
Until now it has been the custom for grasping persons to treat a child
which lay in the cradle, even though it had never tasted food, as being
guilty as though it were fully intelligent. I forbid this practice.
The man who, through cowardice, deserts his lord or his comrades in an
expedition, either by sea or by land, shall lose all he possesses and
his own life, and the lord shall take back the property and the land
which he had given him. And if he has land held by title-deed it shall
pass into the king's hands.
The heriots of the man who falls before his lord during a campaign,
whether within the country or abroad, shall be remitted, and the heirs
shall succeed to his land and property and make a very just division of
the same.
He who, with the cognisance of the shire, has performed the services
demanded from a landowner on expedition, either by sea or by land,
shall hold his land unmolested by litigation during his life, and at
his death shall have the right of disposing of it or giving it to
whomsoever he pleases.
*Every man is entitled to hunt in the woods and fields on his own
property. But everyone, under pain of incurring the full penalty, shall
avoid hunting on my preserves.
There shall never be any interference with bargains successfully
concluded or with the legal gifts made by a lord.
Every man shall be entitled to protection in going to and from
assemblies, unless he is a notorious thief.
*He who violates the law shall forfeit his wergeld to the king. And he
who violates it again, shall pay his wergeld twice over. And if he is
so presumptuous as to break it a third time, shall lose all he
possesses.
Love God and follow his law and obey our spiritual leaders, for it is
their duty to lead us to the judgment of God according to our works
wrought. Do what is right and good and guard against the hot fire of
hell. God Almighty have mercy upon us all, as His Will may be. Amen.
The Laws for London were:
"1. The gates called Aldersgate and Cripplegate were in charge of
guards.
2. If a small ship came to Billingsgate, one halfpenny was paid as
toll; if a larger ship with sails, one penny was paid.
1) If a hulk or merchantman arrives and lies there, four pence is
paid as toll.
2) From a ship with a cargo of planks, one plank is given as -toll.
3) On three days of the week toll for cloth [is paid] on Sunday and
Tuesday and Thursday.
4) A merchant who came to the bridge with a boat containing fish paid
one halfpenny as toll, and for a larger ship one penny."
5) - 8) Foreigners with wine or blubber fish or other goods and their
tolls. (Foreigners were allowed to buy wool, melted sheep fat [tallow],
and three live pigs for their ships.)
"3. If the town reeve or the village reeve or any other official
accuses anyone of having withheld toll, and the man replies that he has
kept back no toll which it was his legal duty to pay, he shall swear to
this with six others and shall be quit of the charge.
1) If he declares that he has paid toll, he shall produce the -man to
whom he paid it, and shall be quit of the charge.
2) If, however, he cannot produce the man to whom he paid it, he
shall pay the actual toll and as much again and five pounds to the King.
3) If he vouches the taxgatherer to warranty [asserting] that he paid
toll to him, and the latter denies it, he shall clear himself by the
ordeal and by no other means of proof.
4. And we [the king and his counselors] have decreed that a man who,
within the town, makes forcible entry into another man's -house without
permission and commits a breach of the peace of the worst kind and he
who assaults an innocent person on the King's highway, if he is slain,
shall lie in an unhonored grave.
1) If, before demanding justice, he has recourse to violence, but
does not lose his life thereby, he shall pay five pounds for breach of
the King's peace.
2) If he values the goodwill of the town itself, he shall pay us
thirty shillings as compensation, if the King will grant us -this
concession."
5. No base coin or coin defective in quality or weight, foreign or
English, may be used by a foreigner or an Englishman. (In 956, a person
found guilty of illicit coining was punished by loss of a hand.)
Judicial Procedure
There were courts for different geographical communities:
shires, hundreds, and vills. The arrangement of the whole kingdom into
shires was completed by 975 after being united under King Edgar.
A shire was a large area of land, headed by an earl. A shire
reeve or "sheriff" represented the royal interests in the shires and in
the shire courts. This officer came to be selected by the king and earl
of the shire to be a judicial and financial deputy of the earl and to
execute the law. The office of sheriff, which was not hereditary, was
also responsible for the administration of royal lands and royal
accounts. The sheriff summoned the freemen holding land in the shire,
four men selected by each community or township, and all public
officers to meet twice a year at their "shiremotes". Actually only the
great lords - the bishops, earls, and thegns - attended. The shire
court was primarily concerned with issues of the larger landholders.
Here the freemen interpreted the customary law of the locality. The
earl declared the secular law and the bishop declared the spiritual
law. They also declared the sentence of the judges. The earl usually
took a third of the profits, such as fines and forfeits, of the shire
court, and the bishop took a share. In time, the earls each came to
supervise several shires and the sheriff became head of the shire and
assumed the earl's duties there, such as heading the shire fyrd. The
shire court also heard cases which had been refused justice at the
hundredmote and cases of keeping the peace of the shire.
The hundred was a division of the shire, having come to refer
to a geographical area rather than a number of households. The monthly
hundredmote could be attended by any freeman holding land (or a lord's
steward), but was usually attended only by reeve, thegns, parish
priest, and four representatives selected by each agrarian community or
village - usually villeins. Here transfers of land were witnessed.
The sheriff, or a reeve in his place, presided over minor local
criminal and peace and order issues. When the jurisdiction was in the
hands of a sheriff, it was called the sheriff's tourn. All residents
were expected to attend this court. When the jurisdiction was in
private hands, it was called a leet court. Leet jurisdiction derived
from sac and soke jurisdiction. Sac and soc jurisdiction was possession
of legal powers of execution and profits of justice held by a noble or
institution over inhabitants and tenants of the estate, exercised
through a private court.
The sheriff usually held each hundred court, which heard civil cases.
The suitors to these courts were the same as those of the shire courts.
They were the judges who declared the law and ordered the form of
proof, such as compurgatory oath and ordeal. They were customarily
thegns, often twelve in number. They, as well as the king and the earl,
received part of the profits of justice. Summary procedure was followed
when a criminal was caught in the act or seized after a hue and cry.
Every freeman over age twelve had to be in a hundred and had to follow
the hue and cry.
In 997, King Ethelred in a law code ordered the sheriff and
twelve leading magnates of each shire to swear to accuse no innocent
man, nor conceal any guilty one. This was the germ of the later assize,
and later still the jury.
The integrity of the judicial system was protected by certain
penalties: for swearing a false oath, bot as determined by a cleric who
has heard his confession, or, if he has not confessed, denial of burial
in consecrated ground. Also a perjurer lost his oath-worthiness.
Swearing a false oath or perjury was also punishable by loss of one's
hand or half one's wergeld. A lord denying justice, as by upholding an
evildoing thegn of his, had to pay 120s. to the king for his
disobedience. Furthermore, if a lord protected a theow of his who had
stolen, he had to forfeit the theow and pay his wer, for the first
offense, and he was liable for all he property, for subsequent
offenses. There was a bot for anyone harboring a convicted offender. If
anyone failed to attend the gemot thrice after being summoned, he was
to pay the king a fine for his disobedience. If he did not pay this
fine or do right, the chief men of the burh were to ride to him, and
take all his property to put into surety. If he did not know of a
person who would be his surety, he was to be imprisoned. Failing that,
he was to be killed. But if he escaped, anyone who harbored him,
knowing him to be a fugitive, would be liable pay his wer. Anyone who
avenged a thief without wounding anyone, had to pay the king 120s. as
wite for the assault.
"And if anyone is so rich or belongs to so powerful a kindred,
that he cannot be restrained from crime or from protecting and
harboring criminals, he shall be led out of his native district with
his wife and children, and all his goods, to any part of the kingdom
which the King chooses, be he noble or commoner, whoever he may be -
with the provision that he shall never return to his native district.
And henceforth, let him never be encountered by anyone in that
district; otherwise he shall be treated as a thief caught in the act."
Courts controlled by lords of large private estates had various
kinds of jurisdiction recognized by the King: sac and soke [possession
of legal powers of execution and profits of justice held by a noble or
institution over inhabitants and tenants of the estate, exercised
through a private court], toll [right to collect a payment on the sale
of cattle and property] and team [right to hold a court to determine
the honesty of a man accused of illegal possession of cattle],
infangenetheof [the authority to judge and to hang and take the
chattels of a thief caught on the property], and utfangenetheof [the
authority to judge, punish, and take the chattels of a thief dwelling
out of his liberty, and committing theft without the same, if he were
caught within the lord's property]. Some lords were even given
jurisdiction over breach of the royal peace, ambush and treacherous
manslaughter, harboring of outlaws, forced entry into a residence, and
failure to answer a military summons. Often this court's jurisdiction
overlapped that of the hundred court and sometimes a whole hundred had
passed under the jurisdiction of an abbot, bishop, or earl.
A lord and his noble lady, or his steward, presided at this
court. The law was administered here on the same principles as at the
hundred court. Judges of the leet [minor criminal jurisdiction] of the
court of a large private estate were chosen from the constables and
four representatives selected from each community, village, or town.
The vill [similar to village] was the smallest community for
judicial purposes. There were several vills in a hundred.
Before a dispute went to the hundred court, it might be taken
care of by the head tithing man, e.g. cases between vills, between
neighbors, and some compensations and settlements, namely concerning
pastures, meadows, harvests, and contests between neighbors.
In London, the Hustings Court met weekly and decided such
issues as wills and bequests and commerce matters. The folkmote of all
citizens met three times a year. Each ward had a leet court.
The king and his witan decided the complaints and issues of the
nobility and those cases which had not received justice in the hundred
or shire court. The witan had a criminal jurisdiction and could
imprison or outlaw a person. The witan could even compel the king to
return any land he might have unjustly taken. Especially punishable by
the king was "oferhyrnesse": contempt of the king's law. It covered
refusal of justice, neglect of summons to gemot or pursuit of thieves,
disobedience to the king's officers, sounding the king's coin,
accepting another man's dependent without his leave, buying outside
markets, and refusing to pay Peter's pence.
The forests were peculiarly subject to the absolute will of the
king. They were outside the common law. Their unique customs and laws
protected the peace of the animals rather than the king's subjects.
Only special officials on special commissions heard their cases.
The form of oaths for compurgation were specified for theft of
cattle, unsoundness of property bought, and money owed for a sale. The
defendant denied the accusation by sweating that "By the Lord, I am
guiltless, both in deed and counsel, and of the charge of which ...
accuses me." A compurgator swore that "By the Lord, the oath is clean
and unperjured which ... has sworn.". A witness swore that "In the name
of Almighty God, as I here for ... in true witness stand, unbidden and
unbought, so I with my eyes oversaw, and with my ears overheard, that
which I with him say."
If a theow man was guilty at the ordeal, he was not only to
give compensation, but was to be scourged thrice, or a second geld
[compensation] be given; and be the wite of half value for theows.
This lawsuit between a son and his mother over land was heard
at a shire meeting: "Here it is declared in this document that a shire
meeting sat at Aylton in King Cnut's time. There were present Bishop
AEthelstan and Earl Ranig and Edwin, the Earl's son, and Leofwine,
Wulfsige's son, and Thurkil the White; and Tofi the Proud came there on
the King's business, and Bryning the sheriff was present, and
AEthelweard of Frome and Leofwine of Frome and Godric of Stoke and all
the thegns of Herefordshire. Then Edwin, Enneawnes son, came traveling
to the meeting and sued his own mother for a certain piece of land,
namely Wellington and Cradley. Then the bishop asked whose business it
was to answer for his mother, and Thurkil the White replied that it was
his business to do so, if he knew the claim. As he did not know the
claim, three thegns were chosen from the meeting [to ride] to the place
where she was, namely at Fawley, and these were Leofwine of Frome and
AEthelsige the Red and Winsige the seaman, and when they came to her
they asked her what claim she had to the lands for which her son was
suing her. Then she said that she had no land that in any way belonged
to him, and was strongly incensed against her son, and summoned to her
kinswoman, Leofflaed, Thurkil's wife, and in front of them said to her
as follows: 'Here sits Leofflaed, my kinswoman, to whom, after my
death, I grant my land and my gold, my clothing and my raiment and all
that I possess.' And then she said to the thegns: 'Act like thegns, and
duly announce my message to the meeting before all the worthy men, and
tell them to whom I have granted my land and all my property, and not a
thing to my own son, and ask them to be witnesses of this.' And they
did so; they rode to the meeting and informed all the worthy men of the
charge that she had laid upon them. Then Thurkil the White stood up in
the meeting and asked all the thegns to give his wife the lands
unreservedly which her kinswoman had granted her, and they did so. Then
Thurkil rode to St. AEthelbert's minister, with the consent and
cognizance of the whole assembly, and had it recorded in a gospel book."