The price of the king’s head, or his weregild, as it was then called, was by law thirty thousand thrimsas, near thirteen hundred pounds of present money. The price of the prince’s head was fifteen thousand thrimsas; that of a bishop’s or alderman’s, eight thousand; a sheriff’s, four thousand; a thane’s or clergyman’s, two thousand; a ceorle’s, two hundred and sixty-six. These prices were fixed by the laws of the Angles. By the Mercian law, the price of a ceorle’s head was two hundred shillings; that of a thane’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’s.[********] Such respect was then paid to the ecclesiastics! It must be understood, that where a person was unable or unwilling to pay the fine, he was put out of the protection of law, and the kindred of the deceased had liberty to punish him as they thought proper.
Some antiquaries [*********] have thought that these compensations were only given for manslaughter, not for wilful murder.
[* LL. Edm. sect,. 1. Wilkins, p. 73.]
[** LL. Edm. sect. 3.]
[*** LL. Edm. sect. 2.]
[**** LL. Edm. sect. 4.]
[****** Tit. 63.]
[******* Wilkins, p. 71, 72]
[******** LL. Elthredi, apud Wilkins, p. 110.]
[********* Tyrrel, Introduct. vol. i. p. 120. Carte vol i.
p. 366.]
But no such distinction appears in the laws; and it is contradicted by the practice of all the other barbarous nations,[*] by that of the ancient Germans,[**] and by that curious monument above mentioned of Saxon antiquity, preserved by Hickes. There is indeed a law of Alfred’s 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 it probably remained without execution. By the laws of the same prince, a conspiracy against the life of the king might be redeemed by a fine.[****]
The price of all kinds of wounds was likewise fixed by the Saxon laws: a wound of an inch long under the hair was paid with one shilling: one of a like size in the face, two shillings; thirty shillings for the loss of an ear; and so forth.[*****] There seems not to have been any difference made, according to the dignity of the person. By the laws of Ethelbert, any one who committed adultery with his neighbor’s wife was obliged to pay him a fine, and buy him another wife.[******]
These institutions are not peculiar to the ancient Germans. They seem to be the necessary progress of criminal jurisprudence among every free people, where the will of the sovereign is not implicitly obeyed. We find them among the ancient Greeks during the time of the Trojan war. Compositions for murder are mentioned in Nestor’s speech to Achilles, in the ninth Iliad, and are called [Greek: apoinai]. The Irish, who never had any connections with the German nations, adopted the same practice till very lately; and the price of a man’s head was called among them his “eric;” as we learn from Sir John Davis. The same custom seems also to have prevailed among the Jews.[*******]
Theft and robbery were frequent among the Anglo-Saxons In order to impose some check upon these crimes, it was ordained, that no man should sell or buy any thing above twenty pence value, except in open market;[********] and every bargain of sale must be executed before witnesses.[*********]
[1: Lindenbrogius, passim.]
[2: Tacit, de Mor. Germ.]
[3: LL. Ælf. sect. 12. Wilkins, p. 29. It is
probable that by wilful murder Alfred means a treacherous
murder, committed by one who has no declared feud with
another.]
[4: LL. Ælf. sect. 4. Wilkins, p. 35.]
[5: LL. Ælf. sect. 40. See also LL. Ethelb. sect.
34, etc.]
[6: LL Ethelb. sect. 32.]
[7: Exod. cap. xxi. 29, 30.]
[8: LL. Æthelst. sect. 12.]
[9: LL. Æthelst. sect. 10, 12. LL.Edg. apud
Wilkins, p. 80. LL Ethelredi, sect 4, apud Wilkins, p. 103.
Hloth. et Eadm. sect 16. LL. Canute. sect. 22.]
Gangs of robbers much disturbed the peace of the country, and the law determined that a tribe of banditti, consisting of between seven and thirty-five persons, was to be called a “turma,” or troop; any greater company was denominated an army.[*] The punishments for this crime were various, but none of them capital.[**] If any man could track his stolen cattle into another’s ground, the latter was obliged to show the tracks out of it, or pay their value.[***]
Rebellion, to whatever excess it was carried, was not capital but might be redeemed by a sum of money.[****] The legislators, knowing it impossible to prevent all disorders, only imposed a higher fine on breaches of the peace committed in the king’s court, or before an alderman or bishop. An ale-house, too, seems to have been considered as a privileged place; and any quarrels that arose there were more severely punished than else where.[*****]