How could this be remedied but by altering the figures of the wergeld and the compositions for wounds, and inserting silver values instead of the gold ones? This seems to have been clumsily done, the other clauses in the laws being apparently left unaltered or only partially altered. But assuming that the wergelds as they appear in the present text of Tit. II. are stated in silver solidi of twelve denarii, let us divide them by three, so as to restore them to gold values in solidi of three tremisses.
The wergeld of the nobilis of 1440 solidi divided by three becomes 480 solidi of three tremisses. And if, following very common precedents, we take this wergeld of the nobilis, whether from his noble birth or natural official position, to be a triple wergeld, then the missing wergeld of the liber or ingenuus would be 160 solidi, as the passage in the Ripuarian laws so often quoted declared it to be.
Wergeld of ‘liber’ then 160 solidi.
The wergelds would then stand thus:—
| Nobilis | 480 | solidi of three tremisses. |
| [Liber | 160 | ” ”] |
| Litus | 40 | ” ” |
or in the local solidi of two tremisses:—
| Nobilis | 720 | solidi or bullocks. |
| [Liber | 240 | ” ”] |
| Litus | 60 | ” ” |
These then are the figures which, if we are right, were the original figures of the Title De homicidiis.
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.