IV. LEX ANGLIORUM ET WERINORUM, HOC EST THURINGORUM.
We may probably follow Richthofen[169] in his conclusions that the Thuringians of these laws were the tribes settled with the Anglii and Werini in North Thuringia, and that they were promulgated under Charlemagne about A.D. 802.
Wergelds of the Anglii and Werini.
In the first title the wergelds for homicide are stated:—
| Adaling | 600 | solidi. |
| Liber | 200 | solidi. |
| Servus | 30 | solidi. |
These are evidently unaltered gold values.
A half wergeld for destruction of an eye, hand, or foot.
The rest of the first five titles relate to wounds, and we need only mention that the destruction of an eye, hand, or foot, or a blow causing loss of hearing, was to be paid for with half the wergeld of each class, following in this respect the custom of the Frisian and Saxon tribes.
These five titles in the Corvey Manuscript of the tenth century constitute a whole under the title ‘Lex Thuringorum.’ The remaining titles are, in this manuscript, added to the Lex Saxonum, to which, however, they do not appear to belong.
Triple wergeld of the Adaling.
The triple wergeld of the Adaling of these laws may have been the result either of noble birth or official position, or both combined. The wergeld of the liber of 200 gold solidi, presumably of three tremisses, seems to connect the customs of the Thuringian tribes of these laws with those of the Salic and Ripuarian Franks rather than with those of the Saxons and Frisians. It is worth notice, too, that, while in the Lex Saxonum and the Lex Frisionum the figures seem to follow a duodecimal system, in these laws the more usual decimal reckoning is retained as in the Lex Salica.
The fact that among the additional titles there is one ‘De alodibus’ connects still further these laws, notwithstanding their later date, with the Salic and Ripuarian laws which contain similar titles. And it is worth while, for purposes of comparison, to give it at length. (Tit. v.)
The title ‘De Alodis.’
(I) Hereditatem defuncti filius non filia suscipiat. Si filium non habuit, qui defunctus est, ad filiam pecunia et mancipia, terra vero ad proximum paternæ generationis consanguineum pertineat.
(I) Let the son of the deceased and not the daughter receive the inheritance. If he who has died had no son, to the daughter shall go the cattle and slaves, but the land shall pertain to the next blood relation of the paternal generation.
(II) Si autem nec filiam non habuit, soror ejus pecuniam et mancipia, terram proximus paternæ generationis accipiat.
(II) But if he had no daughter either, his sister shall take the cattle and slaves; the next of the paternal generation shall take the land.
(III) Si autem nec filium nec filiam neque sororem habuit, sed matrem tantum superstitem reliquit, quod filia vel soror debuerunt, mater suscipiat, id est, pecuniam et mancipia.
(III) But if he had neither son nor daughter nor sister, but he left a mother only surviving, what daughter or sister should have had, let the mother take, i.e. the cattle and slaves.
(IV) Quodsi nec filium nec filiam nec sororem aut matrem dimisit superstites, proximus qui fuerit paternæ generationis, heres ex toto succedat, tam in pecunia atque in mancipiis quam in terra.
(IV) But if he leaves neither son nor daughter nor sister nor mother surviving, he who shall be next of the paternal generation shall succeed as heir of the whole as well in cattle and slaves as in land.
(V) Ad quemcumque hereditas terræ pervenerit, ad illum vestis bellica, id est lorica, et ultio proximi et solutio leudis debet pertinere.
(V) And to whomsoever the inheritance in the land shall come, to him ought to pertain the coat of mail, i.e. the birnie, and the avenging of the next of kin and the payment of wergeld.
(VI) Mater moriens filio terram, mancipia, pecuniam dimittat, filiæ vero spolia colli, id est murenulas, nuscas, monilia, inaures, vestes, armillas, vel quicquid ornamenti proprii videbatur habuisse.
(VI) A mother dying shall leave her land, slaves, and goods, to her son, but to her daughter her neck-treasures, i.e., necklaces, buckles, collars, earrings, robes, bracelets, or whatever personal ornaments she appeared to have.
(VII) Si nec filium nec filiam habuerit, sororem vero habuerit, sorori pecuniam et mancipia, proximo vero paterni generis terram relinquat.
(VII) If she had neither son nor daughter, but had a sister, to the sister shall she leave the cattle and slaves, but the land to the next of the paternal kin.
(VIII) Usque ad quintam generationem paterna generatio succedat. Post quintam autem filia ex toto, sive de patris sive de matris parte, in hereditatem succedat; et tunc demum hereditas ad fusum a lancea transeat.
(VIII) As far as the fifth generation the paternal kin succeed. But after the fifth, a daughter, whether on the father’s or on the mother’s side, may succeed to the whole inheritance; and then finally let the inheritance pass over from the spear to the spindle.
The alod included both land and cattle.
As in the other laws so under these rules the alod clearly embraced both the land and the ‘pecunia’ and ‘mancipia’ upon it. Its object, like that of the similar clauses in the other laws and also like that of the Edict of Chilperic, seems to have been to protect the land in ordinary cases from passing over ‘from the spear to the spindle,’ while at the same time sanctioning inheritance by females even in the land of the alod when otherwise there would be danger of its passing away from the kindred altogether.
In certain cases the land of the alod was made to go to male heirs while the ‘pecunia’ and ‘mancipia’ upon it went to females.
Whether the word ‘pecunia’ in such cases should be translated by ‘cattle’[170] or the wider word ‘chattels,’ it must have included the cattle, and at first sight it is not easy to see how the rule would work which gave the cattle of the alod to a female and the land to a distant male heir. The cattle must in the nature of things have remained or be put upon land, and the awkward question arises upon whose land they remained or were put. And so we are brought once more to the practical question of the position of women in relation to the land. That in certain cases in default of male heirs they could inherit land is one thing; but this question of the cattle and slaves involves quite another.
Male next of kin takes the land and chieftainship, but females may have cattle upon the land.
When a sister received her portion or gwaddol under Cymric custom, and when she received so many cows for her maintenance from the chief of kindred, she must have had rights of grazing for her cattle in the family herd of her gwely. Till she married, her cattle would graze with the cattle of her paternal gwely; and when she married, with the cattle of her husband’s gwely. And so under the rules of this clause ‘De alodibus’ it does not follow that the distant male heir succeeding to the land of the alod was to evict her and her cattle from it. With the land he had to take also the responsibilities involved in the family holding. Clause V. states that to whomsoever the inheritance of the land shall come, to him ought to pertain the coat of mail, i.e. the birnie, and with it the duty of the chief of the kindred to avenge his kin and to see to the payment of wergeld if any one of the kin should be slain. Read from this point of view this clause ‘De alodibus’ becomes good evidence that, whatever changes may have been made as to female inheritance, the land of the alod had not yet lost all its tribal traits. It had not yet become the ‘res propria’ of an individual possessor under Roman law.