The other part is as follows:—
And by man’s law for breaking of bones 5 ores, for a wound under the clothes 12 pence. For a wound before the sleeve 16 pence, and for each visible wound except the face 15 pence. For a man’s life 12 marks; for a wound above the chest 6 solidi, and under the chest 60 pence; for a foot stroke 60 pence; for blood drawn 25 shillings, and beyond the sea 6 cows.
Amount of the wergeld doubtful.
Now what are we to make of these ‘Fragmenta’? Clearly the two fragments must be taken separately, for in the first the payment ‘for the life of a man’ is 180 cows and in the second the payment ‘for a man’s life’ is twelve marks.
Mr. Robertson seems to have concluded that the payment of 180 cows was the wergeld according to the Assize of Scotland, or, as he puts it, ‘the manbote for homicide throughout Scotia.’[200] But he arrived at this conclusion apparently by connecting this fragment with the clause already quoted in the Assize of King David which states that a person killing another in any place within the king’s peace ‘shall pay to the king 180 cows and a colpindach.’ He concluded that the payment was 180 cows from the reading ‘ixˣˣ cows,’ as it is found in the Ayr manuscript of one of the clauses, as already stated. But the clause itself shows that this payment to the king was not the wergeld, because after making this payment the slayer had still to ‘assyth to the kin of him slain after the assyse of the land.’
Nor does it seem any more likely that the payment of twelve marks mentioned in the second fragment was the wergeld of Scottish custom. From its amount it seems much more likely to correspond with the payment already alluded to as the ‘wergeld’ of the thief allowed to escape, which, however, might possibly represent that of persons of lowest rank.
The evidence of these undated fragments leaves us in the dark as to what the wergeld of the ancient Assize of Scotland may have been. Confused and mixed statements as to the wergelds are not surprising when the mixture of races is taken into account, and, after all, the phrase ‘after the assize of the land’ or ‘after the assize of the Kynrik’ may refer only to those portions of the kingdom to which the laws of King David specially applied.
II. THE ‘REGIAM MAJESTATEM.’
Further traces of tribal custom are mentioned in the treatise entitled ‘Regiam majestatem’[201] apart from the remarkable addition to it, which also appears again as a separate document, under the heading ‘Leges inter Brettos et Scotos.’
Scotch version of Glanville.