Law of the Burgundians.—Noble 300 shillings: lower noble (mediocris) 200: freeman (minor) 150.
Law of the Frisians.—Noble 80 shillings: freeman 53⅓; freedman 26⅔ shillings.
Law of the Visigoths.—Freeman (between the years of twenty and fifty) 300 shillings: freedman 150.
In the North, 100 silfrs was the wergyld of the freeman, and there is no account of the jarl’s. The Old Swedish laws generally assign 40 marks; this is the reckoning of the Upland, Sudermanland, and Eastgothland laws. The Westgothland law has 39 marks; the Jutish 54; and the Gutalag, three marks of gold.
The wergyld of the clergy is slightly different: among the Salic Franks, deacon 300, priest 600, bishop 900 shillings. A late addition to the Ripuarian law computes,—clericus 200, subdeacon 400, deacon 500, priest 600, bishop 900.
This is sufficient to give a general outline of the system: it will be observed that these continental computations give no reckoning for the king. Beyond doubt they were for the most part settled after the royal power had become so fully developed as to cast aside all traces of its original character and nature.
The Anglosaxon equivalents for these computations are by no means clear; nor, as far as we can judge, are they altogether consistent. It is probable that they varied not only in the several Anglosaxon kingdoms, but were also subject to change at various periods, as the relative value of life and produce altered. The Kentish law which names only the eorl and ceorl, as the two classes of free men, does not give us the exact amount of their wergylds, but it supplies us with some data by which perhaps an approximation may be made to it. In Æðelberht’s law (§ 2, 5, 8) the king’s mundbyrd or protection is valued at fifty shillings, the eorl’s or noble’s at twelve (§ 13, 14, compared with § 10, 15, 16, 17), and the ceorl’s or simple freeman’s at six (§ 15, 25, 88). Thus the three classes stand in the relation of fifty, twelve and six; or taking the ceorl as unity, their respective values are 8⅓, 2 and 1: that is,
Ceorl:eorl::1:2.
Ceorl:king::1:8⅓.
Eorl :king::1:4⅙.