2) If, however, he cannot produce the man to whom he paid it, he shall pay the actual toll and as much again and five pounds to the King.
3) If he vouches the taxgatherer to warranty [asserting] that he paid toll to him, and the latter denies it, he shall clear himself by the ordeal and by no other means of proof.
4. And we [the king and his counselors] have decreed that a man who, within the town, makes forcible entry into another man's house without permission and commits a breach of the peace of the worst kind ... and he who assaults an innocent person on the King's highway, if he is slain, shall lie in an unhonored grave.
1) If, before demanding justice, he has recourse to violence, but does not lose his life thereby, he shall pay five pounds for breach of the King's peace.
2) If he values the goodwill of the town itself, he shall pay us thirty shillings as compensation, if the King will grant us this concession."
5. No base coin or coin defective in quality or weight, foreign or English, may be used by a foreigner or an Englishman. (In 956, a person found guilty of illicit coining was punished by loss of a hand.)
Judicial Procedure
There were courts for different geographical communities. The arrangement of the whole kingdom into shires was completed by 975 after being united under King Edgar.
A shire was a larger area of land, headed by an earl. A shire reeve or "sheriff" represented the royal interests in the shires and in the shire courts. This officer came to be selected by the king and earl of the shire to be a judicial and financial deputy of the earl and to execute the law. The office of sheriff, which was not hereditary, was also responsible for the administration of royal lands and royal accounts. The sheriff summoned the freemen holding land in the shire, four men selected by each community or township, and all public officers to meet twice a year at their "shiremote". Actually only the great lords - the bishops, earls, and thegns - attended. The shire court was primarily concerned with issues of the larger landholders. Here the freemen interpreted the customary law of the locality. The earl declared the secular law and the bishop declared the spiritual law. They also declared the sentence of the judges. The earl usually took a third of the profits, such as fines and forfeits, of the shire court, and the bishop took a share. In time, the earls each came to supervise several shires and the sheriff became head of the shire and assumed the earl's duties there, such as heading the county fyrd. The shire court also heard cases which had been refused justice at the hundredmote and cases of keeping the peace of the shire.