Copyright (C) 2004, 2012 by S. A. Reilly
OUR LEGAL HERITAGE
King AEthelbert - King George III, 1776, 600 A.D. - 1776
By
S. A. Reilly, Attorney
175 E. Delaware Place
Chicago, Illinois 60611-7715
S-Reilly@att.net
Copyright (C) 2004, 2012
Preface
This book was written for people with an interest in English legal history who don't know where to start reading, as I didn't. Its purpose is also to look at history through its laws, which do not lend themselves to interpretation, and thus points of view, as does conventional history; one cannot argue with the black letter of the law. Attorneys will be interested in reading about the historical context in which the legal doctrines they learned in law school developed. This book includes the complete law codes of King Alfred and of King Aethelbert, the law code of King Canute, paraphrased, excerpts from the law code of Henry I, the entire Magna Carta, and the statutes of England relevant to English life, but excluding such topics as Scottish affairs and wars with Ireland. It also includes the inception of the common law system, which was praised because it made law which was not handed down by an absolutist king; the origin of the jury system; the meaning of the Magna Carta provisions in their historical context; and the emergence of attorneys. This book is a primer. One may read it without prior knowledge of history or law, although it will be more meaningful to attorneys than to others. It can serve as an introduction on which to base further reading in English legal history. It defines terms unique to English legal history. However, the meaning of some terms in King Aethelbert's code in Chapter 1 are unknown or inexact. In the Table of Contents, the title of each chapter denotes an important legal development in the given time period for that chapter. Each chapter is divided into three sections: The Times, The Law, and Judicial Procedure. The Times section sets a background and context in which to better understand the law of that period. The usual subject matter of history such as battles, wars, royal intrigues, periods of corruption, and international relations are omitted as not helping to understand the process of civilization and development of the law. Standard practices are described, but there are often variations with locality. Also, change did not come abruptly, but with vacillations, e.g. the change from pagan to Christian belief and the change to allowance of loans for interest. The scientific revolution was accepted only slowly. There were often many attempts made for change before it actually occurred, e.g. gaining Parliamentary power over the king's privileges, such as taxation. The Law section describes the law governing the behavior and conduct of the populace. It includes law of that time which is the same, similar, or a building block to the law of today. In earlier times this is both statutory law and the common law of the courts. The Magna Carta, which is quoted in Chapter 7, is the first statute of England and is listed first in the "Statutes of the Realm" and the "Statutes at Large". The law sections of Chapters 7 - 18 mainly quote or paraphrase almost all of these statutes. Excluded are statutes which do not help us understand the development of our law, such as statutes governing Wales after its conquest and statutes on succession rights to the throne. The Judicial Procedure section describes the process of applying the law and trying cases, and jurisdictions. It also contains some examples of cases. Money is expressed in pounds, shillings, pence, scaetts, or marks, which is a Danish denomination. There are twenty shillings in a pound. A mark in silver is two-thirds of a pound. Shillings are abbreviated: "s." The pre-Norman English shilling was divided into 4 pence or pennies. In Henry I's time, the shilling was divided into 5 pence. The Norman shilling was introduced by Henry II and was divided into 12 pennies. This penny was literally one pennyweight of silver, so a pound sterling thus weighed 240 pennyweights. Pence are abbreviated "d.", for the Roman denarius. For example, six shillings and two pence is denoted 6s.2d. A scaett was a coin of silver and copper of lesser denomination; there were 20 scaetts to one shilling. There were no coins of the denomination of shilling during pre-Norman times.
Dedication and Acknowledgements
A Vassar College faculty member once dedicated her book to her students, but for whom it would have been written much earlier. This book "Our Legal Heritage" is dedicated to the faculty of Vassar College, without whom it would never have been written. Much appreciation goes to Professor James Curtin of Loyola Law School for his review and comments on this book's medieval period: Chapters 4-10, and especially his comment that "I learned quite a bit about life in those days from your work." Thanks go to Loyola University Law School Professor George Anastaplo for introducing me to Professor Curtin. Much appreciation goes to Professor Lacey Baldwin Smith of Northwestern University's History Department for his review and comments on this book's Tudor and Stuart periods: Chapters 11-17, especially his comment that he learned a lot. Thanks go to Northwestern University Law School Professor Steven Presser for introducing me to Professor Smith. Finally, many thanks go to fellow Mensan William Wedgeworth for proof-reading the entire book.
Table of Contents
Chapters:
1. Tort law as the first written law: to 600 2. Oaths and perjury: 600-900 3. Marriage law: 900-1066 4. Martial "law": 1066-1100 5. Criminal law and prosecution: 1100-1154 6. Common Law for all freemen: 1154-1215 7. Magna Carta: the first statute: 1215-1272 8. Land law: 1272-1348 9. Legislating the economy: 1348-1399 10. Equity from Chancery Court: 1399-1485 11. Use-trust of land: 1485-1509 12. Wills and testaments of lands and goods: 1509-1558 13. Consideration and contract Law: 1558-1601 14. Welfare for the poor: 1601-1625 15. Independence of the courts: 1625-1642 16. Freedom of religion: 1642-1660 17. Habeas Corpus: 1660-1702 18. Service of Process instead of arrest: 1702-1776
Appendix: Sovereigns of England
Bibliography
Chapter 1
The Times: before 600 A.D.
The settlement of England goes back thousands of years. At first, people hunted and gathered their food. They wore animal skins over their bodies for warmth and around their feet for protection when walking. These skins were sewn together with bone needles and threads made from animal sinews. They carried small items by hooking them onto their belts. They used bone and stone tools, e.g. for preparing skins. Their uncombed hair was held by thistlethorns, animal spines, or straight bone hair pins. They wore conical hats of bound rush and lived in rush shelters.
Early clans, headed by kings, lived in huts on top of hills or other high places and fortified by circular or contour earth ditches and banks behind which they could gather for protection. They were probably dug with antler picks and wood spades. The people lived in rectangular huts with four wood posts supporting a roof. The walls were made of saplings, and a mixture of mud and straw. Cooking was in a clay oven inside or over an open fire on the outside. Water was carried in animal skins or leather pouches from springs lower on the hill up to the settlement. Forests abounded with wolves, bears, deer, wild boars, and wild cattle. They could more easily be seen from the hill tops. Pathways extended through this camp of huts and for many miles beyond.
For wives, men married women of their clan or bought or captured other women, perhaps with the help of a best man. They carried their unwilling wives over the thresholds of their huts, which were sometimes in places kept secret from her family. The first month of marriage was called the honeymoon because the couple was given mead, a drink with fermented honey and herbs, for the first month of their marriage. A wife wore a gold wedding band on the ring finger of her left hand to show that she was married.
Women usually stayed at home caring for children, preparing meals, and making baskets. They also made wool felt and spun and wove wool into a coarse cloth. Flax was grown and woven into a coarse linen cloth. Spinning the strands into one continuous thread was done on a stick, which the woman could carry about and spin at anytime when her hands were free. The weaving was done on an upright or warp-weighted loom. People of means draped the cloth around their bodies and fastened it with a metal brooch inlayed with gold, gems, and shell, which were glued on with glue that was obtained from melting animal hooves. People drank from hollowed- out animal horns, which they could carry from belts. They could tie things with rawhide strips or rope braids they made. Kings drank from animal horns decorated with gold or from cups of amber, shale, or pure gold. Men and women wore pendants and necklaces of colorful stones, shells, amber beads, bones, and deer teeth. They skinned and cut animals with hand-axes and knives made of flint dug up from pits and formed by hitting flakes off. The speared fish with barbed bone prongs or wrapped bait around a flint, bone, or shell fish hook. On the coast, they made bone harpoons for deep-sea fish. The flint ax was used to shape wood and bone and was just strong enough to fell a tree, although the process was very slow.
The king, who was tall and strong, led his men in hunting groups to kill deer and other wild animals in the forests and to fish in the streams. Some men brought their hunting dogs on leashes to follow scent trails to the animal. The men threw stones and spears with flint points at the animals. They used wood clubs to beat them, at the same time using wood shields to protect their bodies. They watched the phases of the moon and learned to predict when it would be full and give the most light for night hunting. This began the concept of a month. Circles of stone like Stonehenge were built with alignments to paths of the moon.
If hunting groups from two clans tried to follow the same deer, there might be a fight between the clans or a blood feud. After the battle, the clan would bring back its dead and wounded. A priest officiated over a funeral for a dead man. His wife would often also go on the funeral pyre with him.
The priest also officiated over sacrifices of humans, who were usually offenders found guilty of transgressions. Sacrifices were usually made in time of war or pestilence, and usually before the winter made food scarce.
The clan ate deer that had been cooked on a spit over a fire, and fruits and vegetables which had been gathered by the women. They drank water from springs. In the spring, food was plentiful. There were eggs of different colors in nests and many hare to eat. The goddess Easter was celebrated at this time.
Later, there was farming and domestication of animals such as horses, pigs, sheep, goats, chicken, and cattle. Of these, the pig was the most important meat supply, being killed and salted for winter use. Next in importance were the cattle. Sheep were kept primarily for their wool. Flocks and herds were taken to pastures. The male cattle, with wood yokes, pulled ploughs in the fields of barley and wheat. The female goat and cow provided milk, butter, and cheese. The chickens provided eggs. The hoe, spade, and grinding stone were used. Thread was spun with a hand-held spindle which one hand held while the other hand alternately formed the thread from a mass and then wound it around the spindle. A coarse cloth was woven and worn as a tunic which had been cut from the cloth. Kings wore tunics decorated with sheet gold. Decorated pottery was made from clay and used to hold liquids and for food preparation and consumption. During the period of "lent" [from the word "lencten", which means spring], it was forbidden to eat any meat or fish. This was the season in which many animals were born and grew to maturity. Wood carts with four wheels were used to transport produce and manure. Horses were used for transportation of people or goods. Wood dug-out boats and paddles were used to fish on rivers or on the seacoast.
Clans had settlements near rivers. Each settlement had a meadow, for the mowing of hay, and a simple mill, with round timber huts, covered with branches or thatch or turf supported by a ring of posts. Inside was a hearth with smoke going up through a hole in the roof, and a cauldron for cooking food. There was an upright loom in the darkness. The floor was swept clean. At the door were spears or bags of slingstones ready for immediate use. The King lived in the largest hut. Gullies outside carried off excess water. Each hut had a garden for fruit and vegetables. A goat or cow might be tied out of reach of the garden. There was a fence or hedge surrounding and protecting the garden area and dwelling. Buckets and cauldrons which had originated from the Mediterranean were used. Querns with the top circular stone turned by hand over the bottom stone were used for grinding grain. There were ovens to dry and roast grain. Grain was first eaten as a porridge or cereal. There were square wood granaries on stilts and wood racks on which to dry hay. Grain was stored in concealed pits in the earth which were lined with drystone or basket work or clay and made airtight by sealing with clay or dung. Old pits were converted into waste dumps, burials, or latrines. Outside the fence were an acre or two of fields of wheat and barley, and sometimes oats and rye. Wheat and rye were sown in the fall, and oats and barley in the spring. Sowing was by men or two oxen drawing a simple scratch plough. The crops were all harvested in the summer. In this two-field system, land was held by peasants in units designed to support a single extended family. These fields were usually enclosed with a hedge to keep animals from eating the crop and to define the territory of the settlement from that of its neighbors. Flax was grown and made into linen cloth. Beyond the fields were pastures for cattle and sheep grazing. There was often an area for beehives. This was subsistence level farming.
Pottery was given symmetry when formed with use of a wheel and heated in increasingly hot kilns. From kilns used for pottery, it was noticed that lumps of gold or copper ore within would melt and assume the shape of what they had been resting on. These were the first metals, and could be beaten into various shapes, such as ornaments. Then the liquid ore was poured into moulds carved out of stones to make axes [small pointed tool for piercing holes in leather, wood, or other soft materials] and daggers, which were reheated and hammered to become strong. Copper-tipped drills, chisels, punches and awls were also made.
The bodies of deceased were buried far away from any village in wood coffins, except for kings, who were placed in large stone coffins after being wrapped in linen. Buried with them were a few personal items, such as copper daggers, flat copper axes, and awls. The deceased was buried in a coffin with a stone on top deep in the earth to keep the spirit of the dead from coming out to haunt the living.
It was learned that tin added to the copper made a stronger metal: bronze. Stone hammers, and bronze and iron tools, were used to make cooking pots, weapons, breast plates, and horse bits, which were formed from moulds and/or forged by bronze smiths and blacksmiths from iron extracted from iron ore heated in bowl- shaped hearths. Typically one man operated the bellows to keep the fire hot while another did the hammering. Bronze was made into sickles for harvesting, razors for shaving, tweezers, straight hair pins, safety pins for clothes, armlets, neck-rings, and mirrors. Weapons included bows and arrows, flint and copper daggers, bronze swords and spears, stone axes, and shields of wood with bronze mountings. The bows and arrows probably evolved from spear throwing rods. Kings in body armor fought with chariots drawn by two horses. The horse harnesses had bronze fittings. The chariots had wood wheels, later with iron rims. When bronze came into use, there was a demand for its constituent parts: copper and tin, which were traded by rafts on waterways and the sea. When iron came into use, there were wrought iron axes, saws, adzes [ax with curved blade used to dress wood], files, ploughshares, harrows [set of spikes to break clods of earth on ploughed land and also to cover seed when sewn], scythes, billhooks [thick knife with hooked point used to prune shrubs], and spits for hearths. Lead was mined. There was some glassmaking of beads. Wrought iron bars were used as currency.
Hillforts now had wooden palisades on top of their banks to protect the enclosed farmsteads and villages from stock wandering off or being taken by rustlers, and from attacks by wild animals or other people. Later a rampart was added from which sentries could patrol. These were supported by timber and/or stone structures. Timbers were probably transported by carts or dragged by oxen. At the entrances were several openings only one of which really allowed entry. The others went between banks into dead ends and served as traps in which to kill the enemy from above. Gates were of wood, some hung from hinges on posts which could be locked. Later guard chambers were added, some with space for hearths and beds. Sometimes further concentric circles of banks and ditches, and perhaps a second rampart, were added around these forts. They could reach to 14 acres. The ramparts are sufficiently widely spaced to make sling-shotting out from them highly effective, but to minimize the dangers from sling-shotting from without. The additional banks and ditches could be used to create cattle corridors or to protect against spear-thrown firebrands. However, few forts had springs of water within them, indicating that attacks on them were probably expected to be short. Attacks usually began with warriors bristling with weapons and blowing war trumpets shouting insults to the foe, while their kings dashed about in chariots. Sometimes champions from each side fought in single combat. They took the heads of those they killed to hang from their belts or place on wood spikes at the gates. Prisoners, including women and children, might become slaves. Kings sometimes lived in separate palisades where they kept their horses and chariots.
Circles of big stones like Stonehenge were rebuilt so that the sun's position with respect to the stones would indicate the day of longest sunlight and the day of shortest sunlight. Between these days there was an optimum time to harvest the crops before fall, when plants dried up and leaves fell from the trees. The winter solstice, when the days began to get longer was cause for celebration. In the next season, there was an optimum time to plant seeds so they could spring up from the ground as new growth. So farming gave rise to the concept of a year. Certain changes of the year were celebrated, such as Easter, named for the Goddess of the Dawn, which occurred in the east (after lent); May Day celebrating the revival of life; Lammas around July, when the wheat crop was ready for harvesting; and on October 31 the Celtic eve of Samhain, when the spirits of the dead came back to visit homes and demand food or else cast an evil spell on the refusing homes; and at which masked and costumed inhabitants representing the souls of the dead paraded to the outskirts of the settlements to lead the ghosts away from their homes; and at which animals and humans, who might be deemed to be possessed by spirits, were sacrificed or killed perhaps as examples, in huge bonfires [bonefires] as those assembled looked out for spirits and evil beings.
There was an agricultural revolution from the two-field system in which one field was fallow to the three-field system, in which there were three large fields for the heavy and fertile land. Each field was divided into long and narrow strips. Each strip represented a day's work with the plough. One field had wheat, or perhaps rye, another had barley, oats, beans, or peas, and the third was fallow. It had been observed that legumes such as peas and beans restored the soil. These were rotated yearly. There was a newly invented plough that was heavy and made of wood and later had an attached iron blade. The plough had a mould-board which caught the soil stirred by the plough blade and threw it into a ridge alongside the furrow dug by the plough blade. This plough was too heavy for two oxen and was pulled by a team of about eight to ten oxen. Each ox was owned by a different man as was the plough, because no one peasant could afford the complete set. Each freeman was allotted certain strips in each field to bear crops. His strips were far from each other, which insured some very fertile and some only fair soil, and some land near his village dwelling and some far away. These strips he cultivated, sowed with seed, and harvested for himself and his family. After the harvest, they reverted to common ownership for grazing by pigs, sheep, and geese. As soon as haymaking was over, the meadows became common grazing land for horses, cows, and oxen. Not just any inhabitant, but usually only those who owned a piece of land in the parish were entitled to graze their animals on the common land, and each owner had this right of pasture for a definite number of animals. The faster horse replaced the ox as the primary work animal. Other farm implements were: coulters, which gave free passage to the plough by cutting weeds and turf, picks, spades and shovels, reaping hooks and scythes, and sledge hammers and anvils. Strips of land for agriculture were added from waste land as the community grew. Waste lands were moors bristling with brushwood, or gorse, heather and wanton weeds, reed-coated marshes, quaking peat-bogs, or woods grown haphazard on sand or rock. With iron axes, forests could be cleared to provide more arable land.
Some villages had a smith, a wheelwright, and a cooper. There were villages which had one or two market days in each week. Cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, calves, and hare were sold there. London was a town on the Thames River under the protection of the Celtic river god Lud: Lud's town. It's huts were probably built over the water, as was Celtic custom. It was a port for foreign trade. Near the town was Ludhill. Each Celtic tribe in England made its own coinage. Silver and bronze were first used, and then gold. The metal was put into a round form and then placed between two engraved dies, which were hit.
Flint workers mined with deer antler picks and ox shoulder blade shovels for flint to grind into axes, spearheads, and arrowheads. Mine shafts were up to thirty feet deep and necessitated the use of chalk lamps fueled by animal fat with wicks of moss. The flint was hauled up in baskets.
Common men and women were now buried in tombs within memorial burial mounds of earth with stone entrances and interior chambers. A man's weapons and shield were buried with him and a woman's spindle and weaving baton, and perhaps beads or pottery with her. At times, mounds of earth would simply be covered over piles of corpses and ashes in urns. In these mass graves, some corpses had spear holes or sword cuts, indicating death by violence. The Druid priests, the learned class of the Celts, taught the Celts to believe in reincarnation of the soul after death of one body into another body. They also threw prized possessions into lakes and rivers as sacrifices to water gods. They placed images of gods and goddesses in shrines, which were sometimes large enough to be temples. They thought of their gods as supernatural magicians.
With the ability to grow food and the acquisition of land by conquest by invading groups, the population grew. There were different classes of men. The freemen were eorls [noble freemen] or ceorls [ordinary free farmers]. Slaves were not free. Freemen had long hair and beards. Slaves' hair was shorn from their heads so that they were bald. Slaves were chained and often traded. Prisoners taken in battle, especially native Britons taken by invading groups, became slaves. A slave who was captured or purchased was a "theow". An "esne" was a slave who worked for hire. A "weallas" was a Welsh slave. Criminals became slaves of the person wronged or of the king. Sometimes a father pressed by need sold his children or his wife into bondage. Debtors, who increased in number during famine, which occurred regularly, became slaves by giving up the freeman's sword and spear, picking up a slave's mattock [pick ax for the soils], and placing their head within a lord's or lady's hands. They were called wite- theows. The original meaning of the word lord was "loaf-giver". Children with a slave parent were slaves. The slaves lived in huts around the homes of big landholders, which were made of logs and consisted on one large room or hall. An open hearth was in the middle of the earthen floor of the hall, which was strewn with rushes. There was a hole in the roof to let out the smoke. Here the landholder and his men would eat meat, bread, salt, hot spiced ale, and mead while listening to minstrels sing about the heroic deeds of their ancestors. Richer men drank wine. There were festivals which lasted several days, in which warriors feasted, drank, gambled, boasted, and slept where they fell. Physical strength and endurance in adversity were admired traits.
Slaves often were used as grain grinders, ploughmen, sowers, haywards, woodwards, shepherds, goatherds, swineherds, oxherds, cowherds, dairymaids, and barnmen. Slaves had no legal rights. A lord could kill his slave at will. A wrong done to a slave was regarded as done to his owner. If a person killed another man's slave, he had to compensate him with the slave's purchase price. The slave owner had to answer for the offenses of his slaves against others, as for the mischief done by his cattle. Since a slave had no property, he could not be fined for crimes, but was whipped, mutilated, or killed.
During famine, acorns, beans, peas, and even bark were ground down to supplement flour when grain stocks grew low. People scoured the hedgerows for herbs, roots, nettles, and wild grasses, which were usually left for the pigs. Sometimes people were driven to infanticide or group suicide by jumping together off a cliff or into the water.
Several large kingdoms came to replace the many small ones. The people were worshipping pagan gods when St. Augustine came to England in 596 A.D. to Christianize them. King AEthelbert of Kent and his wife, who had been raised Christian on the continent, met him when he arrived. The King gave him land where there were ruins of an old city. Augustine used stones from the ruins to build a church which was later called Canterbury. He also built the first St. Paul's church in London. Aethelbert and his men who fought with him and ate and lived in his household [gesiths] became Christian. A succession of princesses went out from Kent to marry other Saxon kings and convert them to Christianity.
Augustine knew how to write, but King AEthelbert did not. The King announced his laws at meetings of his people and his eorls would decide the punishments. There was a fine of 120s. for disregarding a command of the King. He and Augustine decided to write down some of these laws, which now included the King's new law concerning the church.
These laws concern personal injury, killing, theft, burglary, marriage, adultery, and inheritance. The blood feud's private revenge for killing had been replaced by payment of compensation to the dead man's kindred. One, or one's blood kindred, paid a man's "wergeld" [worth] to his blood kindred for causing his wrongful death. The wergeld [wer] of a king was an unpayable amount of about 7000s., of an aetheling The Law 1. [Theft of] the property of God and of the church [shall be compensated], twelve fold; a bishop's property, eleven fold; a priest's property, nine fold; a deacon's property, six fold; a cleric's property, three fold; church frith [breach of the peace of the church; right of sanctuary and protection given to those within its precincts], two fold [that of ordinary breach of the public peace]; maethl-frith [breach of the peace of a meeting place], two fold. 2. If the King calls his leod [his people] to him, and any one there do them evil, [let him compensate with] a twofold bot [damages for the injury], and 50 shillings fine to the King. 3. If the King drink at any one's home, and any one there do any lyswe [evil deed], let him make twofold bot. 4. If a freeman steal from the King, let him repay nine fold. 5. If a man slay another in the King's tun [enclosed dwelling premises], let him make bot with 50 shillings. 6. If any one slay a freeman, 50 shillings to the King, as drihtin beah [payment to a lord in compensation for killing his freeman]. 7. If the King's ambiht-smith [smith or carpenter] or laad-rine [man who walks before the King or guide or escort], slay a man, let him pay a half wergeld. 8. [Offenses against anyone or any place under] the King's mund byrd [protection or patronage], 50 shillings fine 9. If a freeman steal from a freeman, let him make threefold bot; and let the King have the wite [fine] and all the chattels [necessary to pay the fine]. (Chattels was a variant of "cattle" and was usually a beast, though it could mean any personal property.) 10. If a man lie with the one of the King's female servants, let him pay a bot of 50 shillings. 11. If she be a corn-grinding slave, let him pay a bot of 25 shillings. The third [class of servant] 12 shillings. 12. Let the King's fedesl [tenant or boarder] be paid for with 20 shillings. 13. If a man slay another in an eorl's tun [premises], let [him] make bot with 12 shillings. 14. If a man lie with an eorl's birele [female cupbearer], let him make bot with 20 shillings. 15. [Offenses against a person or place under] a ceorl's mund byrd [protection], 6 shillings. 16. If a man lie with a ceorl's birele [female cupbearer], let him make bot with 6 shillings; with a slave of the second [class], 50 scaetts; with one of the third, 30 scaetts. 17. If any one be the first to invade a man's tun [premises], let him make bot with 6 shillings; let him who follows, with 3 shillings; after, each, a shilling. 18. If a man furnish weapons to another where there is a quarrel, though no injury results, let him make bot with 6 shillings. 19. If a weg-reaf [highway robbery] be done [with weapons furnished by another], let him [the man who provided the weapons] make bot with 6 shillings. 20. If the man be slain, let him [the man who provided the weapons] make bot with 20 shillings. 21. If a [free] man slay another, let him make bot with a half wergeld of 100 shillings. 22. If a man slay another, at the open grave let him pay 20 shillings, and pay the whole wergeld within 40 days. 23. If the slayer departs from the land, let his kindred pay a half leod. 24. If any one bind a freeman, let him make bot with 20 shillings. 25. If any one slay a ceorl's half-aeta [loaf or bread eater; domestic or menial servant], let him make bot with 6 shillings. 26. If [anyone] slay a laet [semi-slave] of the highest class, let him pay 80 shillings; of the second class, let him pay 60 shillings; of the third class, let him pay 40 shillings. 27. If a freeman commit edor-breach [breaking through the fenced enclosure and forcibly entering a ceorl's dwelling], let him make bot with 6 shillings. 28. If any one take property from a dwelling, let him pay a three-fold bot. 29. If a freeman goes with hostile intent through an edor [the fence enclosing a dwelling], let him make bot with 4 shillings. 30. If [in so doing] a man slay another, let him pay with his own money, and with any sound property whatever. 31. If a freeman lie with a freeman's wife, let him pay for it with his wergeld, and obtain another wife with his own money, and bring her to the other [man's dwelling]. 32. If any one thrusts through the riht-ham-scyld [legal means of protecting one's home; the perimeter of a homestead], let him adequately compensate. 33. If there be feax-fang [seizing someone by the hair], let there be 50 sceatts for bot. 34. If there be an exposure of the bone, let bot be made with 3 shillings. 35. If there be a cutting of the bone, let bot be made with 4 shillings. 36. If the outer hion [outer membrane covering the brain] be broken, let bot be made with 10 shillings. 37. If it be both [outer and inner membranes covering the brain], let bot be made with 20 shillings. 38. If a shoulder be lamed, let bot be made with 30 shillings. 39. If an ear be struck off, let bot be made with 12 shillings. 40. If the other ear hear not, let bot be made with 25 shillings. 41. If an ear be pierced, let bot be made with 3 shillings. 42. If an ear be mutilated, let bot be made with 6 shillings. 43. If an eye be [struck] out, let bot be made with 50 shillings. 44. If the mouth or an eye be injured, let bot be made with 12 shillings. 45. If the nose be pierced, let bot be made with 9 shillings. 46. If it be one ala, let bot be made with 3 shillings. 47. If both be pierced, let bot be made with 6 shillings. 48. If the nose be otherwise mutilated, for each [cut, let] bot be made with 6 shillings. 49. If it be pierced, let bot be made with 6 shillings. 50. Let him who breaks the jaw bone pay for it with 20 shillings. 51. For each of the four front teeth, 6 shillings; for the tooth which stands next to them 4 shillings; for that which stands next to that, 3 shillings; and then afterwards, for each a shilling. 52. If the speech be injured, 12 shillings. If the collar bone be broken, let bot be made with 6 shillings. 53. Let him who stabs [another] through an arm, make bot with 6 shillings. If an arm be broken, let him make bot with 6 shillings. 54. If a thumb be struck off, 20 shillings. If a thumb nail be off, let bot be made with 3 shillings. If the shooting [fore] finger be struck off, let bot be made with 8 shillings. If the middle finger be struck off, let bot be made with 4 shillings. If the gold [ring] finger be struck off, let bot be made with 6 shillings. If the little finger be struck off, let bot be made with 11 shillings. 55. For every nail, a shilling. 56. For the smallest disfigurement of the face, 3 shillings; and for the greater, 6 shillings. 57. If any one strike another with his fist on the nose, 3 shillings. 58. If there be a bruise [on the nose], a shilling; if he receive a right hand bruise [from protecting his face with his arm], let him [the striker] pay a shilling. 59. If the bruise [on the arm] be black in a part not covered by the clothes, let bot be made with 30 scaetts. 60. If it be covered under the clothes, let bot for each be made with 20 scaetts. 61. If the belly be wounded, let bot be made with 12 shillings; if it be pierced through, let bot be made with 20 shillings. 62. If any one needs medical attention, let bot be made with 30 shillings. 63. If any one be cearwund [badly wounded], let bot be made with 3 shillings. 64. If any one destroy [another's] organ of generation [penis], let him pay him with 3 wergelds: if he pierce it through, let him make bot with 6 shillings; if it be pierced within, let him make bot with 6 shillings. 65. If a thigh be broken, let bot be made with 12 shillings; if the man become halt [lame], then friends must arbitrate. 66. If a rib be broken, let bot be made with 3 shillings. 67. If [the skin of] a thigh be pierced through, for each stab 6 shillings; if [the wound be] above an inch [deep], a shilling; for two inches, 2; above three, 3 shillings. 68. If a sinew be wounded, let bot be made with 3 shillings. 69. If a foot be cut off, let 50 shillings be paid. 70. If a great toe be cut off, let 10 shillings be paid. 71. For each of the other toes, let one half that for the corresponding finger be paid. 72. If the nail of a great toe be cut off, 30 scaetts for bot; for each of the others, make bot with 10 scaetts. 73. If a freewoman loc-bore [with long hair] commit any leswe [evil deed], let her make a bot of 30 shillings. 74. Let maiden bot [compensation for injury to an unmarried woman] be as that of a freeman. 75. For [breach of] the mund [protection] of a widow of the best class, of an eorl's degree, let the bot be 50 shillings; of the second, 20 shillings; of the third, 12 shillings; of the fourth, 6 shillings. 76. If a man carry off a widow not under his own protection by right, let the mund be twofold. 77. If a man buy a maiden as wife, let the bargain stand, if it be without fraud; but if there be fraud, let him bring her home again, and let his property be restored to him. 78. If she bear a live child, she shall have half the property, if the husband die first. 79. If she wish to go away with her children, she shall have half the property. 80. If the husband wish to keep them [the children], [she shall have the same portion] as one child. 81. If she bear no child, her paternal kindred shall have the fioh [her money and chattels] and the morgen-gyfe [morning gift: a gift made to the bride by her husband on the morning following the consummation of the marriage]. 82. If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay 50 shillings to her controller, and afterwards buy the consent of the controller [to the marriage]. 83. If she be betrothed to another man and money has changed hands, let him [who carried her off] make bot [to the intended bridegroom] with 20 shillings. 84. If restitution [of the girl] is made, bot of 35 shillings; and 15 shillings to the King. 85. If a man lie with an esne's [slave's]wife, her husband still living, let him make twofold bot. 86. If one esne [slave] slay another unoffending, let him pay for him at his full worth. 87. If an esne's [slave's] eye and foot be struck out or off, let him be paid for at his full worth. 88. If any one bind another man's esne [slave], let him make bot with 6 shillings. 89. Let [compensation for] weg-reaf [highway robbery] of a theow [slave] be 3 shillings. 90. If a theow steal, let him [the owner] 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. The bots, wers, and wites were high and often could not be paid. If a man could not or would not pay, he could be outlawed, to be killed by anyone with impunity or punished by hanging; beheading; burning; drowning; stoning; precipitation from a cliff; loss of ears, nose, upper-lip, hands and feet; castration; flogging; or sale into slavery. There were occasional meetings of "hundreds", which were 100 households, to settle widespread disputes. The chief officer was "hundreder" or "constable". He was responsible for keeping the peace of the hundred. The concept of a wrong to a person or his kindred is still primary and that of offense to the community secondary. Very slowly did the concept emerge that that members of the community must be content with legal remedies and must not seek private vengeance and that public offenses cannot be altered by private agreement. The Druid priests decided all disputes of the Celts. The Times: 600-900 The country was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. The French called it 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. Farmland surrounded the villages and was farmed by the community as a whole under the direction of a lord. There was silver, copper, iron, tin, gold, and various types of stones from remote lead mines and quarries in the nation. Silver pennies replaced the smaller scaetts. Freemen paid "scot" and bore "lot" according to their means for local purposes. Offa, the strongest of the Saxon kings, minted high-quality silver pennies. He traded woolen coats for lava grindstones with Emperor Charlemagne, who used a silver denarius coin. There were 12 denarii to the solidus and 20 soldi to the pound of silver. These denominations were taken by England as 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. The pound sign, an "L" with a hash mark derived from the word Libra, which meant weighing scales. Everyone in the village went to church on Sunday and brought gifts such as grain to the priest. Later, contributions in the form of money became customary, and then expected. These "tithes" were spent for church repair, the clergy, and poor and needy laborers. The church fixed the amount to be one-tenth, but local custom determined the amount. There was also church-scot: a payment to the clergy in lieu of the first fruits of the land. There were also offerings, originally voluntary but afterwards compulsory, for sacraments. The priest was the chaplain of a landlord and his parish was coextensive with that landlord's holding and could include one to several villages. The priest and other men who helped him, lived in the church building. Some churches had lead roofs and iron hinges, latches, and locks on their doors. The land underneath had been given to the church by former kings and persons who wanted the church to say prayers to help their souls go from purgatory to heaven and who also selected the first priest. The priest conducted Christianized Easter ceremonies in the spring and (Christ's mass) ceremonies in winter in place of the pagan Yuletide festivities. Burning incense took the place of pagan burnt animal offerings, which were accompanied by incense to disguise the odor of burning flesh. Holy water replaced haunted wells and streams. Christian incantations replaced sorcerer's spells. Nuns assisted priests in celebrating mass and administering the sacraments. They alone consecrated new nuns. Vestry meetings were community meetings held for church purposes. The people said their prayers in English, and the priest conducted the services in English. A person joined his hands in prayer as if to offer them for binding together in submission. The church baptized babies and officiated or gave blessings at marriage ceremonies. It also said prayers for the dying, gave them funerals, and buried them. There were burial service fees, candle dues, and plough alms. A piece of stone with the dead person's name marked his grave. It was thought that putting the name on the grave would assist identification of that person for being taken to heaven. The church heard the last wish or will of the person dying concerning who he wanted to have his property. The church taught that it was not necessary to bury possessions with the deceased. The church taught boys and girls. Every man carried a horn slung on his shoulder as he went about his work so that he could at once send out a warning to his fellow villagers or call them in chasing a thief or other offender. The forests were full of outlaws, so strangers who did not blow a horn to announce themselves were presumed to be fugitive offenders who could be shot on sight with impunity. An eorl could call upon the ceorl farmers for about forty days to fight off an invading group. There were several kingdoms, whose boundaries kept changing due to warfare, which was a sin according to the church. They were each governed by a king and witan of wise men who met at a witanegemot, which was usually held three times a year, mostly on great church festivals and at the end of the harvest. The king and witan chose the witan's members of bishops, eorldormen, and thegns [landholding farmers]. The king and hereditary claims played a major part in the selection of the eorldormen, who were the highest military leaders and often of the royal family. They were also chief magistrates of large jurisdictional areas of land. The witan included officers of the king's household and perhaps other of his retinue. There was little distinction then between his gesith, fighting men, guards, household companions, dependents, and servants. The king was sometimes accompanied by his wife and sons at the witanagemot. A king was selected by the witan according to his worthiness, usually from among the royal family, and could be deposed by it. The witan and king decided on laws, taxes, and transfers of land. They made determinations of war and peace and directed the army and the fleet. The king wore a crown or royal helmet. He extended certain protections by the king's peace. He could erect castles and bridges and could provide a special protection to strangers. A king had not only a wergeld to be paid to his family if he were killed, but a "cynebot" of equal amount that would be paid to his kingdom's people. A king's household had a chamberlain for the royal bedchamber, a marshall to oversee the horses and military equipment, a steward as head of household, and a cupbearer. The king had income from fines for breach of his peace; fines and forfeitures from courts dealing with criminal and civil cases; salvage from ship wrecks; treasure trove [assets hidden or buried in times of war]; treasures of the earth such as gold and silver; mines; saltworks; tolls and other dues of markets, ports, and the routes by land and by river generally; heriot from heirs of his special dependents for possession of land (usually in kind, principally in horses and weapons). He also had rights of purveyance [hospitality and maintenance when traveling]. The king had private lands, which he could dispose of by his will. He also had crown lands, which belonged to his office and could not be alienated without consent of the witan. Crown lands often included palaces and their appendant farms, and burhs. It was a queen's duty to run the royal estate. Also, a queen could possess, manage, and dispose of lands in her name. Violent queens waged wars. Kingdoms were often allied by marriage between their royal families. There were also royal marriages to royalty on the continent. The houses of the wealthy had ornamented silk hangings on the walls. Some had fine white ox horn shaved so thin they were transparent for windows. Brightly colored drapery, often purple, and fly nets surrounded their beds, which were covered with the fur of animals. They slept in bed clothes on pillows stuffed with straw. Tables plated with silver and gems held silver candlesticks, gold and silver goblets and cups, and lamps of gold, silver, or glass. They used silver mirrors and silver writing pens. There were covered seats, benches, and footstools with the head and feet of animals at their extremities. They ate from a table covered with a cloth. Servants brought in food on spits, from which they ate. Food was boiled, broiled, or baked. The wealthy ate wheat bread and others ate barley bread. Ale made from barley was passed around in a cup. Mead made from honey was also drunk. Men wore long-sleeved wool and linen garments reaching almost to the knee, around which they wore a belt tied in a knot. Men often wore a gold ring on the fourth finger of the right hand. Leather shoes were fastened with leather thongs around the ankle. Their hair was parted in the middle and combed down each side in waving ringlets. The beard was parted in the middle of the chin, so that it ended in two points. The clergy did not wear beards. Great men wore gold-embroidered clothes, gilt buckles and brooches, and drank from drinking horns mounted in silver gilt or in gold. Well- to-do women wore brightly colored robes with waist bands, headbands, necklaces, gem bracelets, and rings. Their long hair was in ringlets and they put rouge on their cheeks. They had beads, pins, needles, tweezers of bronze, and workboxes of bronze, some highly ornamented. They were often doing needlework. Silk was affordable only by the wealthy. Most families kept a pig and pork was the primary meat. There were also sheep, goats, cows, deer, hare, and fowl. Fowl was obtained by fowlers who trapped them. The inland waters yielded eels, salmon, and trout. In the fall, meat was salted to preserve it for winter meals. There were orchards growing figs, nuts, grapes, almonds, pears, and apples. Also produced were beans, lentils, onions, eggs, cheese, and butter. Pepper and cinnamon were imported. Fishing from the sea yielded herrings, sturgeon, porpoise, oysters, crabs, and other fish. Sometimes a whale was driven into an inlet by a group of boats. Whale skins were used to make ropes. The roads were not much more than trails. They were often so narrow that two pack horses could hardly pass each other. The pack horses each carried two bales or two baskets slung over their backs, which balanced each other. The soft soil was compacted into a deep ditch which rains, floods, and tides, if near the sea, soon turned into a river. Traveling a far distance was unsafe as there were robbers on the roads. Traveling strangers were distrusted. It was usual to wash one's feet in a hot tub after traveling and to dry them with a rough wool cloth. There were superstitions about the content of dreams, the events of the moon, and the flights and voices of birds were often seen as signs or omens of future events. Herbal mixtures were drunk for sickness and maladies. From the witch hazel plant was made a mild alcoholic astringent, which was probably used to clean cuts and sooth abrasions. In the peaceful latter part of the 600s, Theodore, who had been a monk in Rome, was appointed archbishop and visited all the island speaking about the right rule of life and ordaining bishops to oversee the priests. Each kingdom was split up into dioceses each with one bishop. Thereafter, bishops were selected by the king and his witan, usually after consulting the clergy and even the people of the diocese. The bishops came to be the most permanent element of society. They had their sees in villages or rural monasteries. The bishops came to have the same wergeld as an eorldorman: 1200s., which was the price of about 500 oxen. A priest had the wergeld as a landholding farmer [thegn], or 300s. The bishops spoke Latin, but the priests of the local parishes spoke English. Theodore was the first archbishop whom all the English church obeyed. He taught sacred and secular literature, the books of holy writ, ecclesiastical poetry, astronomy, arithmetic, and sacred music. Theodore discouraged slavery by denying Christian burial to the kidnapper and forbidding the sale of children over the age of seven. A slave became entitled to two loaves a day and to his holydays. A slave was allowed to buy his or his children's freedom. In 673, Theodore started annual national ecclesiastical assemblies, for instance for the witnessing of important actions. The bishops, some abbots, the king, and the eorldormen were usually present. From them the people learned the benefit of common national action. There were two archbishops: one of Canterbury in the south and one of York in the north. They governed the bishops and could meet with them to issue canons that would be equally valid all over the land. A bishop's house contained some clerks, priests, monks, and nun and was a retreat for the weary missionary and a school for the young. The bishop had a deacon who acted as a secretary and companion in travel, and sometimes as an interpreter. Ink was made from the outer husks of walnuts steeped in vinegar. The learned ecclesiastical life flourished in monastic communities, in which both monks and nuns lived. Hilda, a noble's daughter, became the first nun in Northumbria and abbess of one of its monasteries. There she taught justice, piety, chastity, peace, and charity. Several monks taught there later became bishops. Kings and princes often asked her advice. Many abbesses came to run monastic communities; they were from royal families. Women, especially from royal families, fled to monasteries to obtain shelter from unwanted marriage or to avoid their husbands. Kings and eorldormen retired to them. Danish Vikings made several invasions in the 800s, so the witan imposed a danegeld tax on land that was assessed on everyone every ten to twenty years for maintaining forces sufficient to clear the British seas of Danish pirates or to buy off the ravages of the Danish It was 1s. and later 2s. upon every hide of land, where a hide was probably the amount of land which could support a family or household for a year or as much land as could be tilled annually by a single plough. It was stored in a strong box under the King's bed. King Alfred the Great, who had lived for awhile in Rome, unified the country to defeat the invaders. He established fortifications called "burhs", usually on hill tops or other strategic locations on the borders to control the main road and river routes into his realm. The burhs were seminal towns. They were typically walled enclosures with towers and an outer ditch and mound, instead of the hedge or fence enclosure of a tun. Inside were several wooden thatched huts and a couple of churches, which were lit by earthen oil lamps. The populace met at burhgemotes. The land area protected by each burh became known as a "shire", which means a share of a larger whole. The shire or local landowners were responsible for repairing the burh fortifications. There were about thirty shires. Alfred gathered together fighting men who were at his disposal, which included eorldormen with their hearthbands (retinues of men each of whom had chosen to swear to fight to the death for their eorldorman, and some of whom were of high rank), the King's thegns, shire thegns (local landholding farmers, who were required to bring fighting equipment such as swords, helmets, chain mail, and horses), and ordinary freemen, i.e. ceorls (who carried food, dug fortifications, and sometimes fought). Since the King was compelled to call out the whole population to arms, the distinction between the king's thegns from other landholders disappeared. Some great lords organized men under them, whom they provisioned. These vassals took a personal oath to their lord "on condition that he keep me as I am willing to deserve, and fulfill all that was agreed on when I became his man, and chose his will as mine." Alfred had a small navy of longships with 60 oars to fight the Viking longships. Alfred divided his army into two parts so that one half of the men were fighting while the other half was at home sowing and harvesting for those fighting. Thus, any small-scale independent farming was supplanted by the open-field system, cultivation of common land, more large private estates headed by a lord, and a more stratified society in which the king and important families more powerful and the peasants more curtailed. The witan became mere witnesses. Many free coerls of the older days became bonded. The village community tended to become a large private estate headed by a lord. But the lord does not have the power to encroach upon the rights of common that exist within the community. In 886, a treaty between Alfred and the Vikings divided the country along the war front and made the wergeld of every free farmer, whether English or Viking, 200s. Men of higher rank were given a wergeld of 4 1/2 marks of pure gold. A mark was probably a Viking denomination and a mark of gold was equal to nine marks of silver in later times and probably in this time. The word "earl" replaced the word "eorldormen" and the word "thegn" replaced the word "aetheling" after the Danish settlement. The ironed pleats of Viking clothing indicated a high status of the wearer. The Vikings brought combs and the practice of regular hair-combing to England. King Alfred gave land with jurisdictional powers within its boundaries such as the following: "This is the bequest which King Alfred make unequivocally to Shaftesbury, to the praise of God and St. Mary and all the saints of God, for the benefit of my soul, namely a hundred hides as they stand with their produce and their men, and my daughter AEthelgifu to the convent along with the inheritance, since she took the veil on account of bad health; and the jurisdiction to the convent, which I myself possessed, namely obstruction and attacks on a man's house and breach of protection. And the estates which I have granted to the foundation are 40 hides at Donhead and Compton, 20 hides at Handley and Gussage 10 hides at Tarrant, 15 hides at Iwerve and 15 hides at Fontmell. The witnesses of this are Edward my son and Archbishop AEthelred and Bishop Ealhferth and Bishop AEthelhead and Earl Wulfhere and Earl Eadwulf and Earl Cuthred and Abbot Tunberht and Milred my thegn and AEthelwulf and Osric and Brihtulf and Cyma. If anyone alters this, he shall have the curse of God and St. Mary and all the saints of God forever to all eternity. Amen." Sons usually succeeded their fathers on the same land as shown by this lifetime lease: "Bishop Denewulf and the community at Winchester lease to Alfred for his lifetime 40 hides of land at Alresford, in accordance with the lease which Bishop Tunbriht had granted to his parents and which had run out, on condition that he renders every year at the autumnal equinox three pounds as rent, and church dues, and the work connected with church dues; and when the need arises, his men shall be ready both for harvesting and hunting; and after his death the property shall pass undisputed to St. Peter's. These are the signatures of the councilors and of the members of the community who gave their consent, namely …" Alfred invented a graduated candle with spaces indicating one hour of burning, which could be used as a clock. He used a ventilated cow's horn to put around the top of the candle to prevent its blowing out, and then devised a wooden lantern with a horn window. He described the world as like a yolk in the middle of an egg whose shell moves around it. This agreed with the position of Ptolemy Claudius of Alexandria, who showed the curvature of the earth from north to south by observing that the Polar Star was higher in the north and lower in the south. That it was curved from east to west followed from the observation that two clocks placed one west and one east would record a different time for the same eclipse of the moon. Alfred wrote poems on the worthiness of wisdom and knowledge in preference to material pleasures, pride, and fame, in dealing with life's sorrow and strife. His observations on human nature and his proverbs include: 1. As one sows, so will he mow. 2. Every man's doom [judgment] returns to his door. 3. He who will not learn while young, will repent of it when old. 4. Weal [prosperity] without wisdom is worthless. 5. Though a man had 70 acres sown with red gold, and the gold grew like grass, yet he is not a whit the worthier unless he gain friends for himself. 6. Gold is but a stone unless a wise man has it. 7. It's hard to row against the sea flood; so it is against misfortune. 8. He who toils in his youth to win wealth, so that he may enjoy ease in his old age, has well bestowed his toil. 9. Many a man loses his soul through silver. 10. Wealth may pass away, but wisdom will remain, and no man may perish who has it for his comrade. 11. Don't choose a wife for her beauty nor for wealth, but study her disposition. 12. Many an apple is bright without and bitter within. 13. Don't believe the man of many words. 14. With a few words a wise man can compass much. 15. Make friends at market, and at church, with poor and with rich. 16. Though one man wielded all the world, and all the joy that dwells therein, he could not therewith keep his life. 17. Don't chide with a fool. 18. A fool's bolt is soon shot. 19. If you have a child, teach it men's manners while it is little. If you let him have his own will, he will cause you much sorrow when he comes of age. 20. He who spares the rod and lets a young child rule, shall rue it when the child grows old. 21. Either drinking or not drinking is, with wisdom, good. 22. Relatives often quarrel together. 23. The barkless dog bites ill. 24. Be wise of word and wary of speech, then all shall love you. 25. We may outride, but not outwit, the old man. 26. Be not so mad as to tell your friend all your thoughts. 27. If you and your friend fall out, then your enemy will know what your friend knew before. 28. Don't choose a deceitful man as a friend, for he will do you harm. 29. The false one will betray you when you least expect it. 30. Don't choose a scornful false friend, for he will steal your goods and deny the theft. 31. Take to yourself a steadfast man who is wise in word and deed; he will prove a true friend in need. To restore education and religion, Alfred disseminated the Anglo- Saxon Chronicles; the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation; the "Consolidation of Philosophy" by Roman philosopher Boethius, which related the use of adversity to develop the soul, and described the goodness of God and how the highest happiness comes from spiritual values and the soul, which are eternal, rather than from material or earthly pursuits, which are temporal; and Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care, which he had translated into English and was the fundamental book on the duty of a bishop, which included a duty to teach laymen; and Orosius' History of the World, which he had translated into English. Alfred's advice to pastors was to live as they had been taught from books and to teach this manner of life to others. To be avoided was pride, the mind's deception of seeking glory in the name of doing good works, and the corruption of high office. Bede was England's first scholar, first theologian, and first historian. He wrote poetry, theological books, homilies, and textbooks on grammar, rhetoric [public speaking and debating], arithmetic, and astronomy. He adhered to the doctrine that death entered the world by the sin of Adam, the first man. He began the practice of dating years from the birth of Christ and believed that the earth was round. Over the earth was a fiery spherical firmament. Above this were the waters of the heavens. Above this were the upper heavens, which contained the angels and was tempered with ice. He declared that comets portend downfalls of kingdoms, pestilence, war, winds, or heat. This reflected the church's view that a comet was a ball of fire flung from the right hand of an angry God as a warning to mankind, usually for disbelief. Storms were begun by the devil. A famous poem, the oral legend of Beowulf, a hero who led his men into adventures and performed great feats and fought monsters and dragons, was put into writing with a Christian theme. In it, loyalty to one's lord is a paramount virtue. Also available in writing was the story of King Arthur's twelve victorious battles against the pagan Saxons, authored by Nennius. There were professional story tellers attached to great men. Others wandered from court to court, receiving gifts for their story telling. Men usually told oral legends of their own feats and those of their ancestors after supper. Alfred had monasteries rebuilt with learned and moral men heading them. He built a nunnery which was headed by his daughter as prioress. He built a strong wall with four gates around London, which he had taken into his control. He appointed his son-in-law, who was one of his eorldormen, to be alderman [older man] to govern London and to be the shire's earl. A later king built a palace in London, although Winchester was still the royal capital town. When the king traveled, he and his retinue were fed by the local people at their expense. After Alfred's death, his daughter Aethelflared ruled the country for seven years. She had more fortified burhs built and led soldiers to victories. Burhs grew into towns and some towns into boroughs by obtaining a charter from the king. Their citizens were landholding freemen called."burgesses". A borough typically was a place of refuge with earth works, and perhaps a garrrison; it had a market place in which men could buy cattle and other goods and have the sale attested by official witnesses and toll was taken from them; and it had a meeting place at which a court was held. Under the royalty were the nobles. An earl headed each shire as representative of the King. The term "earl" came to denote an office instead of a nobleman. He led the array of his shire to do battle if the shire was attacked. He executed all royal commands. An earl received grants of land and could claim hospitality and maintenance for himself, his officers, and his servants. He collected a third of the revenues derived from tolls and duties levied in the boroughs of his shire. The office tended to be hereditary. Royal representatives called "reeves" started to assist them. The reeve took security from every person for the maintenance of the public peace. He also tracked cattle thieves, brought suspects to court, gave judgments according to the doom books, and delivered offenders to punishment. Under the earls were the thegns. By service to the King, it was possible for a coerl to rise to become a thegn and to be given land by the King. Other thegns performed functions of magistrates. A thegn was later identified as a person with five hides of land, a kitchen, a church, a bell house, a judicial place at the burhgemote It was possible for a thegn to become an earl, probably by the possession of forty hides. He might even acquire enough land to qualify him for the witan. Women could be present at the witanagemot and shiregemote [meeting of the people of the shire]. They could sue and be sued in the courts. They could independently inherit, possess, and dispose of property. A wife's inheritance was her own and under no control of her husband. Marriage required the consent of the lady and her friends. The man also had to arrange for the foster lean, that is, remuneration for rearing and support of expected children. He also declared the amount of money or land he would give the lady for her consent, that is, the morgengift, and what he would bequeath her in case of his death. It was given to her on the morning after the wedding night. The family of the bride was paid a "mund" for transferring the rightful protection they possessed over her to the family of the husband. If the husband died and his kindred did not accept the terms sanctioned by law, her kindred could repurchase the rightful protection. If she remarried within a year of his death, she had to forfeit the morgengift and his nearest kin received the lands and possessions she had. The word for man was "waepnedmenn" or weaponed person. A woman was "wifmenn" or wife person, with "wif" being derived from the word for weaving. Great men and monasteries had millers, smiths, carpenters, architects, agriculturists, fishermen, weavers, embroiders, dyers, and illuminators. For entertainment, minstrels sang ballads about heroes or Bible stories, harpers played, jesters joked, and tumblers threw and caught balls and knives. There was gambling, dice games, and chasing deer with hounds. Fraternal guilds were established for mutual advantage and protection. A guild imposed fines for any injury of one member by another member. It assisted in paying any murder fine imposed on a member. It avenged the murder of a member and abided by the consequences. It buried its members and purchased masses for his soul. Mercantile guilds in seaports carried out commercial speculations not possible by the capital of only one person. There were some ale houses, probably part of certain dwellings. It was usual for a dying man to confess his sins to a priest. For the sake of his soul, the priest often suggested the man give some of his chattel to the church, the poor, or other pious uses. By the 700s, the words of a dying man giving chattel for the sake of his soul were expected to be carried out. Later is the "post obit gift" by which a man gives land to the church, with the king's consent, but enjoys the land during his lifetime by stating in writing "I give certain land after my death" in a special "book". The church takes possession of the land after his death. He may make a conditional such gift, leaving the land to his wife for her life with a rent paid to the church and the church taking possession of the land on her death. These two procedures coalesce into one written will used in the 800s, 900s, and 1000s. This will also includes distributions to family and kinsmen and perhaps to creditors. If the will is made by the very great people: kings, queens, king's sons, bishops, earldormen, and king's thegns, it requires the king's consent, which may be bought by a large heriot. And a bishop usually sets his cross to the will, denouncing any who infringe it to the torments of hell. The dead man's parish church is paid a mortuary when he is buried. The Law The special authority of the king and his peace gradually superseded the customary jurisdiction of the local courts as to preservation of the peace and punishment of offenses. All criminal offenses became breaches of the king's peace and were deemed acts of personal disobedience and made an offender the king's enemy. This notion developed from the special sanctity of the king's house and his special protection of his attendants and servants. An offender made fines to the king for breach of his peace and fines and forfeitures to him from court decisions in criminal and civil cases. Offenses especially dealt with in various parts of the Anglo-Saxon laws were treason, homicide, wounding, assault, and theft. Treason to one's lord, especially to the king, was punishable by death. Compassing or imagining the king's death was treason. King Alfred collected regulations from various church synods and commanded that many of them which English forefathers had observed to be written out - those which appealed to him; and many of those that did not appeal to him he rejected, with the consent of his Witan or commanded them to be observed in a different way. "These are the regulations which the Almighty God himself spoke to Moses and ordered him to observe and subsequently the only-born son of the Lord, our God, that is the Savior Christ confirmed …": 1. Do not love other strange gods before me. 2. Do not speak My name idly, for you will not be guiltless with Me if you idly speak My name. 3. Remember to hallow the rest-day. Work for yourselves six days, and on the seventh day rest yourselves. For in six days, God the Father made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all creatures that are in them, and rested himself on the seventh day, and therefore God has sanctified it. 4. Honour your father and your mother that God gave you so that you may be the longer living on earth. 5. Do not kill. 6. Do not lie in sexual union secretly. 7. Do not steal. 8. Do not speak false evidence. 9. Do not wish for your neighbour's property unrightfully. 10. Do not make yourselves golden or silver gods. 11. If anyone buy a Christian slave, let him serve for six years and on the seventh let him be free without payment. With such clothes as he entered into service, let him leave with. If he has a wife of his own providing, let her leave with him. If the master provided him with a wife, both she and her children shall belong to the master. If the slave then says `I do not want to leave my master or my wife or my child or my property', let his master bring him to the door of the Temple and perforate his ear with an awl as a sign that he shall ever afterwards be a slave. 12. Though someone sell his daughter into slavery do not let her be a slave entirely as are other maid servants. He has not the right to sell her abroad among foreign people. But if he who bought her does not care for her, let her be free among a foreign people. But if he i.e. the purchaser allows his son to cohabit with her, give her the morning gift and ensure that she has clothing and that she has the value of her maidenhood, that is the dowry - let him give her that. If he does none of those things for her, then she shall be free. 13. The person who slays another deliberately shall suffer death. He that has killed another in self defense or involuntarily or unintentionally, as God delivered him i.e. the victim into his hands and providing he i.e. the killer did not set a trap for him - in that case let him be worthy of his life, and of settling by customary compensation, if he should seek asylum. If however anyone deliberately and intentionally kills his neighbour treacherously, pluck him from my altar so that he should suffer death. 14. He that attacks his father or his mother shall suffer death. 15. He that abducts a freeman and sell him, and it is proved so that he cannot absolve himself, let him suffer death. He that curses his father or his mother, let him suffer death. 16. If someone attacks his neighbour with a stone or with his fist, but he i.e. the victim can still get about with the aid of a staff, let him i.e. the aggressor provide him with a doctor and do his i.e. the victim's work for him for as long as he i.e. the victim cannot himself. 17. He that attacks his own non-free servant or his maidservant, and they are not dead as a result of the attack but live two or three days, he i.e. the aggressor shall not be so entirely guilty, because it was his own property he damaged. But if the slave be dead the same day, then the guilt rests on him i.e. the aggressor. 18. If anyone in the course of a dispute injure a pregnant woman, let him make compensation for the hurt as judges decide in his case. If she be dead, let him give life for life. 19. If anyone put out another's eye, let him give his own for it. Tooth for tooth. Hand for hand. Foot for foot. Burn for burn. Wound for wound. Bruise for bruise. 20. If anyone strike the eye of his slave or maidservant out and so makes them one-eyed, let him free them for that. If he strike out a tooth, let him do the same. 21. If an ox gore a man or woman so that they are dead, it it be stoned to death and do not let the flesh be eaten. The owner shall not be liable if the ox was butting two days before that or even three and the owner did not know of it. But if he knew of it and would not shut it i.e. the animal in, and then it killed a man or woman, let it be stoned to death and let the master be killed or made to pay as the Witan consider proper. If it gore a son or daughter, let the same penalty apply. But if it gore a slave or serving-woman, let the owner give 30 shillings of silver and let the ox be stoned to death. 22. If anyone dig a well or open up a closed one and does not close it up again, let him pay for whatever cattle fall in; but let him have the dead animal for his own use. 23. If an ox wound another man's ox so it is dead, let them sell the live ox and share the proceeds, and also the flesh of the dead ox. But if the owner knew the ox was butting and would not restrain it, let him hand over the other i.e. live ox for it but let him have all the flesh of the dead ox for his own use. 24. If anyone steal another man's ox and kill or sell it, let him give two oxen in restitution. And four sheep for one stolen. If he i.e. the thief does not have anything to give in restitution, let him be sold himself to raise the money. 25. If a thief break into a man's house by night and is killed there, he i.e. the house-owner shall not be guilty of manslaughter. But if he i.e. the house-owner does this after sunrise, he is guilty of manslaughter, and shall himself perish, unless he acted in self-defence. If there is found in the possession of the living thief things he had already stolen, let him make restitution for it two-fold. 26. If anyone damage another man's vineyard or his crops or any part of his estate, let him pay compensation according to how it is assessed. 27. If a fire is lit in order to burn rubbish, let him who started the fire pay compensation for any consequent damage. 28. If anyone entrusts any possession to his friend and the friend appropriates it for himself, let him i.e. the friend clear himself and prove that he committed no fraud in the matter. If it was livestock, and he says that raiders took it, or it perished of itself, and if he has proof, he need not pay up. But if he has no proof, and the original owner does not believe him, let him make an oath to clear himself. 29. If anyone seduce an uncommitted woman and sleeps with her, let him pay for her and take her then as his wife. But if the woman's father is unwilling to let her go, then let the seducer hand over money in proportion to her dowry. 30. The women who are accustomed to harbour enchanters and wizards and witches - do not allow them to live. 31. And he that has intercourse with animals shall suffer death. 32. And he that sacrifices to idols, rather than to God alone, let him suffer death. 33. Do not harass visitors from abroad and foreigners, for you were formerly strangers on the land of the Egyptians. 34. Do not harm widows and step-children, neither do them any injury. If you do otherwise, they will call upon Me and I will listen to them, and then I will slay you with my sword and I will ensure that your wives shall be widows and your children orphans. 35. If you hand over money as a loan to your comrade who wishes to live with you, do not coerce him like an underling and do not oppress him with the interest. 36. If someone has only a single garment to cover and clothe himself with and he hands it over as a pledge, let it be returned before the sun sets. If you do not do so then he will call unto Me, and I will listen to him because I am very clement. 37. Do not reproach you Lord, nor curse the lord of the people. 38. Your tithe i.e. tenth-part of profit and your first-fruits of moving animals and growing crops, offer to God. 39. All the flesh that wild animals leave, do not eat it but give it to the dogs. 40. Do not bother to give credence to the word of a false man, and do not approve his opinions; do not repeat any of his assertions. 41. Do not join in the false judgment and evil aspirations of the many nor join in their rumours and outcry, against your own conscience, at the incitement of some ignorant person. Do not support them. 42. If the stray cattle of another man come into your possession, though it be the property of your enemy, let him know about it. 43. Judge equably, do not lay down one rule for the rich, another for the poor; do not decide one way for a friend, another for a foe. 44. Always shun falsehood. 45. Never slay a righteous and innocent man. 46. Never accept bribes, for they very often blind the minds of wise men and pervert their words. 47. Do not behave unkindly to foreigners and visitors from abroad; do not harass them with unjust acts. 48. Never swear an oath by heathen gods, nor in any circumstances call upon them. Alfred also issued a set of laws to cover the whole country that he derived from laws of various regional kings in England as follows: "1. First we insist that there is particular need that each person shall keep his oath and his pledge carefully. If anyone be compelled to give either of these wrongly, either to support treachery to his lord or to provide any unlawful aid, then it is better to forswear than to fulfil. But if he pledge himself to that which it is right for him to fulfil and fails, let him submissively hand over his weapons and his possessions to his friends to keep, and stay forty days in prison in a property of the king. Let him undergo there whatever the bishop prescribes as penance, and let his kinsmen feed him if he himself has no food. If he has no kin or has no food, let the king's officer feed him. If one has to compel him to this i.e. to surrender, and otherwise he is unwilling to co-operate - if they have to bind him he shall forfeit his weapons and his possessions. If he is slain while resisting, let him lie uncompensated. If he makes an escape before the time is up, and he is recaptured, let him stay forty days in prison as he would have previously. But if he gets away, let him be banished and excommunicated from all the churches of Christ. Further, if someone has provided surety for him, let him compensate for the breach of surety as custom require him, and atone for the breach of pledge as his confessor imposes in his case. 2. If anyone seek out as sanctuary for any offence any of the monastic houses to which the king's revenue applies, or any other exempt community that is worthy of respect he shall have a period of three days of immunity, unless he wants to negotiate before that. If someone harms him during that period, either by assault or by fettering him,, or by a penetrating wound, let the aggressor pay compensation for each of such attacks according to proper practice, both with wergeld and with a fine, and 120 shillings to that community, as compensation for breach of sanctuary, and let his own possessions be forfeit. 3. If anyone violate the king's surety, let him pay compensation for the original charge as customary law direct, and for the violation of surety with five pounds of the purer pennies. In the case of breach of an archbishop's surety or protection, let him compensate with three pounds. For violation of the surety or protection of another bishop or official [earldorman], let him make compensation with two pounds. 4. If anyone plot against the king's life, either directly or by harbouring outlaws or indirectly through the agency of his men, let him be liable with his life and with all that he owns. If he desire to prove himself loyal, let him do that by paying a king's wergeld. Similar protection we ordain for all ranks, both common and noble [earl]: whoever plots against his master's life shall be liable with his life and with all that he owns - or let him show his loyalty by paying his master's wergeld. 5. Also we appoint to every church that a bishop has consecrated this right of sanctuary: that if a party to a feud run or ride to the church, then no one may drag him forth for seven days. If however anyone does that, then let him be liable at the rate of breach of a king's protection and at the rate of breach of church sanctuary - more if he take more from the site. [And the sanctuary seeker shall be safe] if he can survive hunger, and unless he himself try to fight his way out. If the community have greater need of their church, let them keep him in another building, and let that not have the more doors than the church itself; Let the church official ensure that no one give the sanctuary-seeker food during that period. If he himself is willing to hand over his weapons to his foes, let them keep him for 30 days and inform his kin about him. Also it shall count as sanctuary if some man seek out a church about any offence that had not previously been revealed, and there confess himself in God's name - let the penalty be half remitted. He that steal on Sunday or at Yule or at Easter or on Holy Thursday or on the Rogation days - for each of those we intend that there should be a double-penalty, as during Lent. 6. If anyone steal something in a church, let him pay a plain compensation and the fine such as they consider appropriate to the plain compensation, and let them strike the hand off with which he did it i.e. the deed. If he wishes to redeem his hand, and they consent to that, let him pay in proportion to his wergeld. 7. If anyone fights in the king's hall or draw his weapon, and he is seized, let the penalty be at the king's judgement, either death or life, as he is willing to grant him. If he escapes and is captured later, let him pay in proportion to his wergeld, and atone for the offence with wergeld and fine, as he may deserve by his act. 8. If anyone abducts a nun of a nunnery without the king's or the bishop's leave, let him pay 120 shillings, half to the king, half to the bishop and the church patron who had charge of the nun. If she lives longer than he that abducted her, let her not have any of his estate. If she bears a child, let that not have any more of the estate than the mother. If anyone slay her child let him pay the king the maternal kindred's share; to the paternal kin let him pay their share. 9. If anyone slay a woman with child, while the child still be within her, let him pay full compensation for the woman and half compensation for the child according to the wergeld of the father's kin. Let the fine payable to the king always be 60 shillings, until the corresponding simple compensation rises to 30 shillings. When the simple compensation rises to that level, then let the fine be 120 shillings. Formerly there was a defined fine for a gold-thief, and a horse-thief and a bee-thief and many special fines greater than others. Now all are alike except for an illegal slayer and that is 120 shillings. 10. If a man has intercourse with the wife of a 1200 shilling wergeld man, let him pay in compensation 120 shillings to the husband. For a 600 shilling wergeld man i.e. husband, let him pay in compensation 100 shillings. For a common man [ceorl] i.e. husband, let him make compensation of 40 shillings. 11. If someone grabs the breast of a common woman, let him compensate with five shillings. If he throws her to the ground but does not have sexual intercourse with her, let him compensate with 60 shillings. If he has sexual intercourse with her let him compensate with sixty shillings. If some other man had previously lain with her, then let the compensation be half that. If someone accuse her of complicity, let her clear herself with an oath guaranteed by sixty hides of land, or forfeit half the compensation. If this happens to a nobly born woman, let the compensation increase in proportion to the wergeld. 12. If someone burns or cuts down another person's trees without permission, let him pay over 5 shillings for each substantial tree, and thereafter, no matter how many there are, five pence for each tree, and thirty shillings as a fine. 13. In the course of their joint work felling trees, if someone is killed by accident, let the tree involved be given to his kin, and let them remove it off the property within 30 days; otherwise let him possess it that owns the forest. 14. If someone is born dumb or deaf, so that he can neither deny or confess his sins, let the father make compensation for his misdeeds. 15. If someone fights or draws his weapon in the presence of an archbishop, let him make compensation with 150 shillings. If this occurs before another bishop or royal official [earldorman] let him make compensation with 100 shillings. 16. If someone steals a cow or mare and drives off a foal or calf, let him pay over one shilling as well as paying compensation for the adult animals according to their value. 17. If anyone entrust a child into the keeping of others, and he i.e. the offspring die while in that guardianship, let him that did the fostering prove his innocence of any crime if anyone accuse him of it. 18. If anyone grabs at a nun's clothing or breast with sexual intent, unless with her consent, let him pay double the rate of compensation we previously arranged for a lay-person. If she commit adultery and she is a betrothed woman, if she is a commoner, let 60 shillings be paid in compensation to the guarantor, and let that be in livestock or cattle, but let no one give any human as part of it. If she be of 600 shilling wergeld, let 100 shillings be paid in compensation to the guarantor. If she be of 1200 shilling wergeld, let compensation of 120 shillings be paid to the guarantor. 19. If anyone lends his weapon to another so that he may kill with it, they may combine, if they are willing, in the matter of paying the wergeld. If they are unwilling to co-operate, let him that proffered the weapon pay a third part of the wergeld and a third part of the fine. If he i.e. the loaner of the weapon prefer to clear himself and assert that he knew of no evil-intent in making the loan, he may do so. 20. If someone entrust cattle to another man's monk, without the approval of the patron if that monk, and it gets lost, let he that originally owned it suffer the loss. 21. If a priest slay another man, let all that he i.e. the priest brought into the monastic community be turned over to the possession of the victim's representatives, and let the bishop unfrock him; then he shall be removed from the monastery, unless the civil patron interceded for him. 22. If someone wishes in the local assembly to declare a claim for debt to the king's officer, and then wishes to cancel it, let him impute i.e. transfer it to a truer source if he can. If he cannot, let him forfeit the single value. 23. If a dog rends or bites someone, for the first misdeed let the owner hand over 6 shillings, if he is still giving it food. For as second occurrence, let him give 12 shillings, and for a third 30 shillings. If, upon any of these misdeeds, the dog escapes, nonetheless the penalty proceeds. If the dog commit more misdeeds and he i.e. the owner still keeps him, let him pay compensation at the level of a full wergeld as well as wound-compensation according to what he i.e. the dog has done. 24. If an ox wounds someone, let him i.e. the owner hand the animal over or come forward with some solution. 25. If someone forces a commoner's slave-woman to sexual intercourse, let him compensate the owner with 5 shillings and pay 60 shillings fine. If a male slave compel a female slave to sexual intercourse, let him atone with his testicles. 26. If someone force an underage woman into sexual intercourse, let the compensation be as that of an adult person. 27. If someone without kin on his father's side gets into a fight and kills someone, if he has maternal relatives, let them pay a third part of the wergeld; and a third part his guild-brethren; for a third part unpaid let him flee. If he has no maternal relatives, let the guild-brethren pay a half; for a half unpaid let him flee. 28. If someone kill a man so circumstanced and if he has no kinfolk, let them pay half the wergeld to the king, half to his guild-brethren. 29. If anyone in a group kills a 200 shilling wergeld man who is guiltless, let him that acknowledges the blow pay over wergeld and fine, and let every man who was of the party hand over 30 shillings in token of his complicity. 30. If it is a case of a 600 shilling wergeld man, let each of them pay 60 shillings as a token of their complicity, and let him that struck the fatal blow pay wergeld and fine. 31. If he that is killed is a 1200 shilling wergeld man, let each of them pay 120 shillings, and let the one who struck the fatal blow pay wergeld and fine. If a group commit this sort of killing, and later deny responsibility on oath, let them all be accused, and let them pay over the wergeld as a group, and together pay one fine such as corresponds to the wergeld. 32. If someone commits slander and it is proved against him, let him make atonement with no lighter penalty than having is tongue cut out. It i.e. the tongue must not be redeemed for any lesser value than would be reckoned in proportion to the wergeld. 33. If someone reproach another with breach of church-witnessed pledge and wishes to accuse him of not fulfilling any of those pledges that he gave him, let the accuser make his preliminary oath in four churches, and the other i.e. the accused, if he wishes to assert his good faith - let him do that in twelve churches. 34. Also it is laid down for traders that they should produce before the king's officer at the local assembly those people that they are taking inland with them, and let it be established how many of them there are. And let them take only such men as they can afterward be accountable for at the local assembly. An if they have need of more men along with them on their journey, let it always be declared, as often as is necessary, to the king's officer before the assembly. 35. If someone restrains a free man who is innocent, let him pay compensation of ten shillings. If he flogs him, compensation of twenty shillings. If he put him to torture compensation of thirty shillings. If as a humiliation he shave his head like a homolan, let him pay compensation of ten shillings. If he shaves him i.e. his head like a priest's, without binding him let him pay compensation of thirty shillings. If he shaves off his beard, let him pay compensation of twenty shillings. If he ties him up and then shaves his head like a priest's, let him pay compensation of sixty shillings. 36. It is established that if someone has a spear over his shoulder and someone else impales himself upon it, he i.e. the spear-carrier shall pay the wergeld without any fine. If he is impaled from in front, let him i.e. the spear-carrier pay the wergeld. If someone accuses him i.e. the spear-carrier of deliberately doing it, let him assert his innocence at a rate corresponding to the fine, and by that finish with the fine. And this applies if the point is above the rest of the shaft; if they are both level, point and shaft, let it count as no risk. 37. If someone wants to seek a new lord, transferring from one district to another district, let him do it with the knowledge of the chief officer to whom he was originally responsible in his shire. If he does it without his i.e. the officer's knowledge, let him who harbours him as his follower pay over 120 shillings as a fine. But let him divide it, paying the king half in the shire where the man was originally answerable, and half in that he has moved to. If he i.e. the man who moves had done anything wrong where he came from, let him who receives him as his follower pay the compensation and a fine of 120 shillings to the king. 38. If someone starts a fight in front of the king's officer at an assembly, let him pay compensation of wergeld and a fine, as it is customary; and as a priority a fine of 120 shillings to the officer [earldorman] concerned. If he disturb the assembly by drawing a weapon, let him pay 120 shillings to the officer by way of fine. If something of this sort occurs before the king's officer's deputy or a royal priest, let him pay 30 shillings by way of fine. 39. If someone starts a fight on the floor of a free man's house, let him pay compensation of six shillings to the freeman. If he draws his weapon but does not fight, let the compensation be half that. If either of these offences takes place in the house of a 600 shilling wergeld man, let the rate rise to triple the compensation due the freeman. In the case of a 1200 shilling wergeld man, a rate twice that of the compensation of the 600 shilling wergeld man. 40. For breaking into a royal residence the penalty shall be 120 shillings. Into an archbishop's, ninety shillings. Into another bishop's or a royal officer's, 60 shillings. Into a 1200 shilling werwgeld man's, thirty shillings. Into a 600 shilling wergeld man's fifteen shillings. For breaking into a freeman's property the penalty shall be five shillings. If something of this kind takes place while the levy [fyrd] is on duty elsewhere, or during Lent, let it be a double compensation. If someone sets aside holy custom publicly in Lent without an exemption, let him pay a compensation of 120 shillings. 41. The man who has charter land [bocland] which his kin left him, is not allowed, we enact, to part with it outside his kin-group, if there is written evidence or spoken witness that it was forbidden to be done by those people who originally acquired it or by those who passed it to him. Let him i.e. the one who opposes the alienation process declare any such stipulation in the presence of the king and the bishop, with his own kin attending. 42. Also we command that the man who knows his enemy is quiescent at home should not start a fight before he has asked him for justice. If he has the strength to surround his enemy and besiege him, let him contain him for 7 days within and not attack him if he i.e. the enemy is willing to abide within. After seven days if he is willing to surrender and hand over his weapons, let him i.e. the avenger keep him unharmed for thirty days and inform his kinsmen and his friends about him. But if he i.e. the enemy flee to a church, let the matter be resolved according to the privilege of the church, as we detailed above. But if he i.e. the avenger does not have the resources to besiege him i.e. the enemy, let him ride to the royal officer and ask him for help. If he i.e. the officer is unwilling to assist, let him ride and ask the king, before he mounts an attack. Further, if someone happen upon his enemy and did not know beforehand that he was quiescent at home, if he i.e. the enemy is willing to hand over his weapons, let him be held for thirty days and inform his friends about him; if he is not willing to hand over his weapons then he i.e. the avenger may attack him. If he i.e. the enemy is willing to surrender and hand over his weapons and yet someone still attacks him, let the aggressor pay over wergeld and wound compensation, according to what he has done, and pay a fine, and lose his kin-status. We also declare someone may fight in support of his lord without blame, if anyone has attacked the lord; so too the lord may fight in support of his follower. In the same way, someone may fight on behalf of his blood relative if someone attack him wrongfully, but not take the side of a kinsman against his lord - that we do not permit. Someone may fight blamelessly if he discovers another with his lawful wife behind closed doors or under the one cover, or with his legitimate daughter, or with his legitimate sister or with his mother if she was given lawfully to his father. 43. To all free people let these following days be granted as holidays but not to slaves and servile workers; twelve days at Christmas and the day that Christ overcame the Devil, and St. Gregory's commemoration day, and seven days before Easter and seven after, and one day at the celebration of St. Peter and St. Paul and the full week in harvest before St. Mary's Mass, and one day for the celebration of All Hallows. The four Wednesdays in the Ember weeks shall be granted to all slaves to sell to anyone that pleases them to anything either that any man will give them in God's name or what they in any spare time can manage." 44.-77. The compensations for wounds is as follows: head if both bones of the head be pierced 30s., head if the outer bone only be pierced 15s.; an inch long wound in the area of the hair 1s., an inch long wound in the front of the hair 2s.; striking off the other ear 30s., if the hearing be affected so that he cannot hear 60s.; putting out an eye 60s. 6 1/3 d., if the eye stay in the head but he can see nothing with it 1/3 of the compensation be remitted; striking off a nose 60s.; striking a front tooth 8s., a back tooth 4s., a canine tooth 15s.; severing cheeks 15s., breaking a chin bone 12s.; perforating a windpipe 12s.; removing a tongue the same compensatin for any eye; wounding in the shoulder so that the muscle fluid flows out 30s.; shattering the arm above the elbow 15s.; shattering both arm bones 30s.; striking off the thumb 30s., if the nail is struck off 5s.; striking off the forefinger 15s., for the nail 4s.; striking off the middle finger 12s., for the nail 2s.; striking off the ring finger 17s., for the nail 4s.; striking off the little finger 9s., for the nail 1s.; wounding in the belly 30s., if the wound go through the body 20s. for each opening; perforating the thigh or hip 30s., if it be disabled 30s.; piercing the leg below the knee 12s., if he is disabled below the knee 30s.; striking off the great toe 20s., the second toe 15s., the middle toe 9s., the fourth toe 6s., the little toe 5s.; wounding in the testicles so that he cannot bear children 80s.; cutting off the arm below the elbow with the hand cut off 80s., wounding before the hair-line and below the sleeve and below the knee twice the value; permanently damaging the loins 60s., it they are stabbed 15s., if they are pierced through 30s.; wounding in the shoulder if the victim be alive 80s.; maiming a hand outwardly, providing it can be treated effectively 20s., if half the hand be lost 40s.; breaking a rib without breaking the skin 10s., if the skin be broken and the bone be extruded 15s.; cutting away an eye hand or foot 66s.6 1/3 d.; cutting off the leg at the knee 80s.; breaking a shoulder 20s.; hacking into a shoulder so that the bone extrudes 15s.; severing the tendon of the foot and if it can be treated so that will be sound again 12s., but if he is lame on account of the wound and he cannot be cured 30s.; severing the lesser tendon 6s.; severing the muscles up by the neck and damage them so severely that he has no control over them and however lives on thus maimed 100s., unless the Witan appoint him a juster and greater sum. Judicial Procedure Cases were held at monthly meetings of the hundred court. The king or one of his reeves, conducted the trial by compurgation, which was an appeal to the supernatural. In compurgation, the one complaining, called the "plaintiff", and the one defending, called the "defendant", each told their story and put his hand on the Bible and swore "By God this oath is clean and true". A slip or a stammer would mean he lost the case. Otherwise, community members would stand up to swear on behalf of the plaintiff or the defendant as to their reputation for veracity. The value of a man's oath was commensurate with his value or wergeld. A man's brothers were usually his compurgators. The number of compurgators varied according to the nature of the case and the rank of the persons concerned. If there were too few "compurgators", usually twelve in number, or recited poorly, their party lost. If this process was inconclusive, the parties could bring witnesses to declare such knowledge as they had as neighbors. These witnesses, male and female, swore to particular points determined by the court. If compurgation failed, the defendant was told to go to church and to take the sacrament only if he was innocent. If he took the sacrament, he was tried by the process of "ordeal", which was administered by the church. In the ordeal by cold water, he was given a drink of holy water and then bound hand and foot and thrown into water. If he floated, he was guilty beccause the holy water had rejected him. If he sank, he was innocent. It was not necessary to drown to be deemed innocent. In the ordeal by hot water, he had to pick up a stone from inside a boiling cauldron. If his hand was healing in three days, he was innocent. If it was festering, he was guilty. A similar ordeal was that of hot iron, in which one had to carry in his hands a hot iron for a certain distance. In the ordeal of the consecrated morsel, one would swallow a morsel; if he choked on it, he was guilty. The results of the ordeal were taken to indicate the will of God. An archbishop's or bishop's oath was incontrovertible. If they were accused, they could clear themselves with an oath that they were guiltless. Lesser ranks could clear themselves with the oaths of at least three compurgators of their rank or, for more serious offenses, undergo the ordeal. The shire and hundred courts were held for free tenants of a lord and the judges were the tenants themselves. The feudal courts were held for unfree tenants and the lord or his steward was the judge. The earl presided over the shire court. He received one-third of the profits of justice. The judges were the owners of certain pieces of land. The shire court was held twice a year. There was little distinction between secular and spiritual jurisdiction. A bishop sat on the shire court. The shire court fulfilled all three functions of government: judicial, legislative, and executive. The courts had no efficient mode of compelling attendance or enforcing their orders, except by outlawing the offender, that is, putting him outside the protection of the law, so that anyone might kill him with impunity. In grave cases, a special expedition could be called against an offender. The individual wronged had his choice of payment in money or engaging in a blood feud. The sums of money of the system of bot, wer, and wite were enormous, and often could not be paid. Then a man could be declared outlaw or sold as a slave. If a person was outlawed, he also forfeited all his goods to the king. Cases of general importance concerned mayslaying, wounding, and cattle-stealing. A person convicted of murder, i.e. killing by stealth or robbery [taking from a person's robe, that is, his person or breaking into his home to steal] could be hung and his possessions confiscated."THESE ARE THE DOOMS [DECREES] WHICH KING AETHELBERHT ESTABLISHED IN THE DAYS OF AUGUSTINE
Chapter 2
"Angleterre", which means the angle or end of the earth. It was called
"Angle land", which later became "England".