A union of villages and towns formed the hundred, and to the court of the hundred each township sent the reeve and four men. Cases which lay outside their jurisdiction were sent up from the town-moots, but here, too, the nobility began to encroach upon the rights of their weaker neighbours; and in cases where landowners had privileges known as sac and soc, the decision in their courts was final, and was not subject to the court of the hundred. The police of the hundred was provided by the system known as frankpledge (peace pledge), by which freemen were grouped into bodies of ten, in which each man had to go bail for any one of the other nine, and produce him before the court if he had done wrong. The landless man in the same way was compelled to find a lord who would be answerable for him.
The division above the hundred was the shire, usually formed on the lines of the old kingdoms, as in the case of Kent and Sussex; or sub-kingdoms as in the case of most of the midland shires. The boundaries of each shire were co-extensive with those of each bishopric. The court of the shire, or shire-moot, was presided over by the sheriff or reeve of the shire, who was appointed by the king. By his side sat the alderman or chief military officer of the shire, and the bishop. The shire-moot met twice a year, and any freeman was entitled to attend it, and to have a voice in its decisions.
Its business was two-fold, taxation and justice. Taxation was a very simple affair, being practically non-existent until the period of the Danish invasion, when, as we shall see, the obnoxious burden known as Danegeld was introduced. Its necessity was obviated by the obligation which lay upon every freeman known as the "three-fold necessity" (trinoda necessitas), by which he was bound to attend the host or fyrd in time of war, to repair the public roads, and to keep the fortifications in good order. Thus no imposts were necessary for what are some of the principal sources of modern rating; while the king lived and kept up his court upon the proceeds of the royal domains.
In the matter of justice the shire-moot acted as a court of appeal from the inferior courts. The influence of the great landowners over it must have been considerable, for the verdict was given by the twelve senior thegns. The methods of trial in this and the other courts of old England in criminal cases were three in number, a statement of innocence on oath, compurgation and ordeal. Compurgation was a mode of defence by which a man was held to have established his innocence if he could get twelve men to swear that he was not guilty of the crime in question. Ordeal was allowed as an alternative to those who failed in or shrank from the process of compurgation or of taking an oath themselves. It was practised either by boiling water or red-hot iron. The water, or iron, was consecrated by many prayers, masses, fastings, and exorcisms; after which the person accused either took up a stone sunk in the water to a certain depth, or carried the iron to a certain distance; and his hand being wrapped up, and the covering sealed for three days, if there appeared, on examining it, no marks of burning, he was pronounced innocent; if otherwise, guilty. There were other and less credible methods of trial by ordeal. The trial by cold water was one of them. The person was thrown into consecrated water; if he swam he was guilty, if he sank, innocent. It is difficult for us to conceive how any innocent person could ever escape by the one trial, or any criminal be convicted by the other. But there was another usage admirably calculated for allowing every criminal to escape who had confidence enough to try it. A consecrated cake, called a corsned, was produced; if the person could swallow and digest it, he was pronounced innocent. Walking on burning ploughshares also appears as an ordeal, but seldom, or never, except in stories that are evidently mythical.
The punishments amongst the English seem to have been exceedingly mild for some offences, since even murder might be atoned for by the payment of a fine.
The laws of Alfred enjoin that if any one know that his enemy or aggressor, after doing him an injury, resolves to keep within his own house and his own lands, he shall not fight him till he require compensation for the injury. If he be strong enough to besiege him in his house, he may do it for seven days without attacking him; and if the aggressor be willing during that time to surrender himself and his arms, his adversary may detain him thirty days; but is afterwards obliged to restore him safe to his kindred, and be content with the compensation. If the criminal fly to the church, that sanctuary must not be violated. Where the assailant has not force sufficient to besiege the criminal in his house, he must apply to the alderman for assistance; and if the alderman refuse aid, the assailant must have recourse to the king; and he is not allowed to assault the house till after this supreme magistrate has refused assistance. If any one meet with his enemy, and be ignorant that he was resolved to keep within his own lands, he must, before he attack him, require him to surrender himself prisoner, and deliver up his arms, in which case he may detain him thirty days; but if he refuse to deliver up his arms, it is then lawful to fight him. A slave may fight in his master's quarrel, and a father in his son's, with any one except his master.
Ina enacted that no man should take revenge till he had first demanded compensation, and it had been refused him.
King Edmund decreed that if a man committed a murder, he might, within a year, pay the fine, with the assistance of his relatives and friends; but if they refused to aid him, he should alone sustain the feud with the kindred of the murdered person.
There is, indeed, a law of Alfred, which makes wilful murder capital; but this seems only to have been an attempt of that great legislator towards establishing a better police in the kingdom, and probably it was not often carried into execution. By the laws of the same prince, a conspiracy against the life of the king might be redeemed by a fine.
The fine to be paid for the murder of a king, or his wergild—a word signifying the legal value of any one,—was by law 30,000 thrismas, nearly 1,300 pounds of present money. The price of the head of one of royal blood (Atheling), was 15,000 thrismas; that of a bishop's, or alderman's, 8,000; a sheriff's, 4,000; a thegn's, or clergyman's, 2,000; a ceorl's, 266. These prices were fixed by the laws of the Angles. By the Mercian law, the price of a ceorl's head was 200 shillings; that of a thegn's six times as much; that of a king's, six times more. By the laws of Kent, the price of the archbishop's head was higher than that of the king. It must be understood that where a person was unable or unwilling to pay the fine, he was put out of the protection of the law, and the kindred of the deceased had liberty to punish him as they thought proper.