89. Let [compensation for] weg reaf [highway robbery] of a theow
[slave] be 3 shillings.
90. If a theow steal, let him make twofold bot [twice the value of
the stolen goods]."
- Judicial Procedure -
The King and his freemen would hear and decide cases of wrongful behavior such as breach of the peace. Punishment would be given to the offender by the community.
There were occasional meetings of "hundreds", which were 100 households, to settle wide-spread disputes. The chief officer was "hundreder" or "constable". He was responsible for keeping the peace of the hundred.
The Druid priests decided all disputes of the Celts.
- - - Chapter 2 - - -
- The Times: 600-900 -
The country was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. The French called it "Angleterre", which means the angle or end of the earth. It was called "Angle land", which later became "England".
A community was usually an extended family. Its members lived a village in which a stone church was the most prominent building. They lived in one-room huts with walls and roofs made of wood, mud, and straw. Hangings covered the cracks in the walls to keep the wind out. Smoke from a fire in the middle of the room filtered out of cracks in the roof. Grain was ground at home by rotating by hand one stone disk on another stone disk. Some villages had a mill powered by the flow of water or by horses. All freeholders had the duty of watch [at night] and ward [during the day], of following the hue and cry to chase an offender, and of taking the oath of peace. These three duties were constant until 1195.