Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law / Being an Essay Supplemental to (1) 'The English Village Community', (2) 'The Tribal System in Wales'

by Frederic Seebohm

We pass on now to clause LXX. of the ‘Laws of Henry I.’ with the heading ‘Consuetudo Westsexe.’

Wessex wergeld of twyhynde or villanus and twelve-hynde or thane.

The amount of the wergeld according to Wessex law is thus stated:—

In Westsexa, que caput regni est et legum, twihindi, i. villani wera est iiii lib.; twelfhindi, i. thaini xxv lib.

(lxx. i) In Wessex, which is the capital of the kingdom and of laws, the wer of the twyhyndeman, i.e. of the villanus, is four pounds; of the twelvehyndeman, i.e. of the thane, twenty-five pounds.

The Anglo-Saxon and Norman lb. of silver was 240d., and thus the twelve-hyndeman’s wergeld of 25 lbs. was the same thing as the ancient Wessex wergeld of 1200 Wessex scillings of 5d. Four pounds was a rough equivalent of the twyhyndeman’s wergeld of 200 Wessex scillings.

A little further on in the same clause is the following quotation from Ethelred II.’s compact with Olaf.

Si Anglicus homo Dacum occidat, liber liberum, persolvat eum xxv lib. vel ipse malefactor reddatur, et tantundem reddat Dacus de Anglico si eum occidat.

(lxx. s. 6.) If an Englishman kill a Dane—a freeman a freeman—let him pay for him 25 lbs. or the criminal himself shall be delivered up. And let the Dane do the same if he kill an Englishman.