*If a man dies intestate [without a will], whether through negligence or sudden death, his lord shall take no more than his legal heriot. The property shall be divided among his wife and children and near kinsmen according to the share which belongs to him.
Heriots shall be fixed with regard to the rank of the person for whom they are paid. The heriot of any earl is eight horses, four saddled and four unsaddled, four helmets, four coats of chainmail, eight spears, eight shields, four swords, and 200 mancuses of gold. The heriot of a king's thegn is four horses, two saddled and two unsaddled, two swords, four spears, four shields, four helmets, four coats of chain mail and 50 mancuses of gold, but among the Danes who possess rights of jurisdiction 4 pounds. The heriot of an ordinary thegn is a horse and its trappings and his weapons or his healsfang in Wessex, and in Mercia 2 pounds, and in East Anglia 2 pounds. The heriot of a man who stands in a more intimate relationship to the king shall be two horses, one saddled and one unsaddled, one sword, two spears, two shields, and 50 mancuses of gold. The heriot of a man who is inferior in wealth is 2 pounds.
When a householder has dwelt all his time free from claims and charges, his wife and children shall dwell there unmolested by litigation.
*Every widow who remains a year without a husband shall do what she herself desires. If within the space of a year, she chooses a husband, she shall lose her morning gift and all the property she had from her first husband, and his nearest relatives shall take the land and property which she had held. And the second husband shall forfeit his wergeld to the king or the lord to whom it has been granted. And although she has been married by force, she shall lose her possessions, unless she leaves the man and returns home. And no widow shall be too hastily consecrated as a nun. And every widow shall pay heriots within a year without incurring a fine, if it has not been convenient for her to pay earlier.
*No woman or maiden shall be forced to marry a man whom she dislikes, nor shall she be given for money, except the suitor desires of his own freewill to give something.
If anyone sets his spear at the door to another man's house, he himself having an errand inside, or if anyone carefully lays any other weapons where they might remain quietly, and another seizes the weapon and works mischief with it, he shall pay compensation for it. He who owns the weapon may clear himself by asserting that the mischief was done without his desire or authority or advice or cognizance.
*If anyone carries stolen goods home to his cottage and is detected, the owner shall have what he has tracked. The wife shall be clear of any charge of complicity unless the goods had been put under her lock and key or in her storeroom, her chest, or her cupboard. But no wife can forbid her husband from depositing anything in his cottage.
Until now it has been the custom for grasping persons to treat a child which lay in the cradle, even though it had never tasted food, as being guilty as though it were fully intelligent. I forbid this practice.
The man who, through cowardice, deserts his lord or his comrades in an expedition, either by sea or by land, shall lose all he possesses and his own life, and the lord shall take back the property and the land which he had given him. And if he has land held by title-deed it shall pass into the king's hands.
The heriots of the man who falls before his lord during a campaign, whether within the country or abroad, shall be remitted, and the heirs shall succeed to his land and property and make a very just division of the same.