Other important enactments deal with matters of finance, especially with the King's share in the fines assessed in the courts, his income from his estates, and coinage and counterfeiting; there are also important laws that look toward the security of persons and of property. The principle of equality before the law is distinctly stated: the magnates were to have no unusual privileges in the courts of justice.
Many a powerful man will, if he can and may, defend his man in whatever way it seems to him the more easy to defend him, whether as freeman or as theow (serf). But we will not suffer that injustice.[395]
With the legislation of Canute, the development of Old English law comes to a close. Various tracts or customals of considerable importance were composed in the eleventh century, some of which may have been put into form after the close of Canute's reign; but of these we know neither the authors nor the date. The "Laws of Edward" that the Norman kings swore to maintain were in reality the laws of Canute; for when the Anglo-Norman lawyers of the early twelfth century began to investigate the subject of Old English law, they found its most satisfactory statement in the legislation of the mighty Dane. In the Quadripartitus these laws occupy the most prominent place; while the compilations that Liebermann has called the Instituta Cnuti and the Consiliatio Cnuti are scarcely more than translations of Canute's legislation for church and state.[396]
So great was the Danish King's reputation as a lawmaker in the twelfth century that he was even credited with enactments and institutional experiments with which he never had any connection. Toward the close of that century an official of the royal forest, as it seems, drew up an elaborate law for the King's hunting preserves which he tried to give currency and authority by ascribing it to Canute.[397] The Dane was not indifferent to the chase, but he did not find it necessary to make it the subject of extensive legislation. In his secular laws the subject is disposed of in a single sentence: "And let every man forego my hunting, wherever I wish to have it free from trespass, under penalty of the full fine."[398]
In the so-called "Laws of Edward the Confessor" it is stated that the murdrum fine originated in the reign of Canute. It is well-known that William the Conqueror found it necessary to take special measures for the protection of his Normans from assassination at the hands of Englishmen who were seeking vengeance; he decreed, therefore, that the hundred where the murder of a Norman was committed should see that the criminal was given proper punishment or pay a heavy fine in case of default. The twelfth-century lawyer who drew up the "Laws of Edward" evidently believed that in this matter William was following a precedent from Danish times.[399] But though it seems that Canute was obliged to legislate for the protection of his Danish officials and subjects in Norway, there is no good evidence for any corresponding decree in England.
A similar conclusion has been reached as to Canute's responsibility for the institution known as frankpledge. Tithing and surety, two Old English institutions which were the roots of the later frankpledge, are mentioned in the laws of Canute; but they were still distinct. The tithing, normally a group of ten, was charged chiefly with the duty of assisting in the pursuit of criminals; not until its members had been pledged to a duty of mutual suretyship, each being held responsible in certain respects for the behaviour of all his associates in the group, did the tithing develop into the pledge.[400]
In Canute's empire there were at least two institutional systems, those of England and of the North. In some respects both had attained a high development. The question how far these systems influenced each other as the result of the union is a difficult one: the union of the crowns was of short duration and the institutional changes that seem to indicate borrowing may be due in large part to earlier contact through the Danelaw. With the Northmen came a new conception of personal honour and a new term for criminality of the most dishonourable type, the nithing name. Norse rules were introduced into court procedure. Administrative areas came to bear Norse appellations, as the wapentake in the Danelaw generally and the riding in Yorkshire.[401] These facts, however, belong in large measure to the earlier development, though it doubtless continued through the reign of Canute and longer.
But though Scandinavian ideas of law had long flourished on English soil, it was not till Canute's day that they were formally accepted as a part of the Anglo-Saxon legal system. In penal legislation a new spirit appeared: there was less mercy and punishments became more severe—exile, mutilation, and forfeiture of life more common. If the ordeal should convict a man of a second offence, the penalty might be the loss of the hands or the feet, or of both. Still further mutilation was decreed if the criminal should continue to commit grave offences; "but let the soul be spared."[402] The same penalties were not always provided for both sexes: a faithless husband might have to pay the ancient money fine for man-slaughter; a sinning wife was to suffer the loss of all her property and her ears and nose.[403] Certain institutions of Scandinavian origin took on a peculiar form during Canute's reign: for instance, the guard of housecarles in its English and later Danish form, and the office of staller or the King's spokesman at the popular assemblies, which office seems to have been introduced into England in Canute's day.[404]
It is still more difficult to determine what results the union had for the institutional development of Denmark. On only one point have we clear evidence: Canute was the first Danish King to begin a systematic coinage of money. Coins were stricken in Denmark before his day, but there was no organised system of mints. Canute supplied this need, using the English pattern. He brought moneyers from his western kingdom and located them in the chief cities of Denmark; coins have come down to us that were stricken by these moneyers in the cities of Roeskild, Ringsted, Odense, Heathby (Sleswick), and Lund.[405]