In a system of which the fundamental principle was so vicious, the best efforts of legislation could prove but a slight palliation, and from an early period we find efforts made for its abrogation or limitation. In 983, a constitution of Otho II. abolished it in cases of contested estates, and substituted the wager of battle, on account of the enormous perjury which it occasioned.[191] In England, a more sweeping denunciation, declaring its abolition and replacing it with the vulgar ordeal, is found in the confused and contradictory compilation known as the laws of Henry I.[192]
We have already seen, from instances of later date, how little influence these efforts had in eradicating a custom so deeply rooted in the ancestral prejudices of all the European races. The hold which it continued to enjoy on the popular confidence is well illustrated by the oath which, according to the Romancero, was exacted of Alfonso VI. of Castile, by the Cid to clear him of suspicion of privity to the death of his brother and predecessor Sancho II. at the siege of Zamora, where he was slain by Bellido Delfos—
“Que nos fagays juramento
Qual vos lo querrán tomar,
Vos y doce de los vuesos,
Quales vos querays juntar,
Que de la muerte del Rey
Non tenedes que culpar....
Ni tampoco della os plugo,
Ni a ella distes lugar.”[193]