Book: Our Legal Heritage, 4th Ed.

S >> S. A. Reilly >> Our Legal Heritage, 4th Ed.




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
[much later a county] 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revenge for killing had been replaced by payment of compensation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 paid a man's "wergeld" [worth] to
his kindred for causing his wrongful death. The wergeld [wer] of a
king was an unpayable amount of about 7000s., of an aetheling [a
king-worthy man of the extended royal family] was 1500s., of an
eorl, 300s., of a ceorl, 100s., of a laet [agricultural worker in
Kent, which class was between free and slave], 40-80s., and of a
slave nothing. At this time a shilling could buy a cow in Kent or
a sheep elsewhere. If a ceorl killed an eorl, he paid three times
as much as an eorl would have paid as murderer. The penalty for
slander was tearing out of the tongue. If an aetheling was guilty
of this offense, his tongue was worth five times that of a coerl,
so he had to pay proportionately more to ransom it. The crimes of
murder, treachery to one's own lord, arson, house breaking, and
open theft, were punishable by death and forfeiture of all
property.



- The Law -

"THESE ARE THE DOOMS [DECREES] WHICH KING AETHELBERHT ESTABLISHED
IN THE DAYS OF AUGUSTINE

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]; m....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 two-fold bot
[damages for the injury], and 50 shillings 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 two-fold 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 compensaton 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 leod geld.

8. [Offenses against anyone or anyplace under] the King's mund
byrd [protection or patronage], 50 shillings.

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".)

10. If a man lie with the King's maiden [female servant], let him
pay a bot of 50 shillings.

11. If she be a grinding slave, let him pay a bot of 25 shillings.
The third [class of servant] 12 shillings.

12. Let the King's fed esl [woman who serves him food or nurse] 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 12 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
leod geld [wergeld for manslaughter] of 100 shillings.

22. If a man slay another, at the open grave let him pay 20
shillings, and pay the whole leod 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 hlaf aeta [loaf or bread eater;
domestic or menial servant], let him make bot with 6 shillings.

26. If [anyone] slay a laet 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 wer geld, 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], 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 an injury to 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 by 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 be gegemed [pregnant], let bot be made with 30
shillings.

63. If any one be cear wund [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 leod gelds: 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 with cattle, 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 the owner, and afterwards buy [the object of] his will from the
owner.

83. If she be betrothed to another man in money [at a bride
price], let him [who carried her off] make bot with 20 shillings.

84. If she become gaengang [pregnant], 35 shillings; and 15
shillings to the King.

85. If a man lie with an esne's wife, her husband still living,
let him make twofold bot.

86. If one esne slay another unoffending, let him pay for him at
his full worth.

87. If an esne'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, 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 make twofold bot [twice the value of
the stolen goods]."



- Judicial Procedure -

The King and his freemen would hear and decide cases of wrongful
behavior such as breach of the peace. Punishment would be given to
the offender by the community.

There were occasional meetings of "hundreds", which were 100
households, to settle wide-spread disputes. The chief officer was
"hundreder" or "constable". He was responsible for keeping the
peace of the hundred.

The Druid priests decided all disputes of the Celts.





- - - Chapter 2 - - -



- The Times: 600-900 -

The country was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. The French called it
"Angleterre", which means the angle or end of the earth. It was
called "Angle land", which later became "England".

A community was usually an extended family. Its members lived a
village in which a stone church was the most prominent building.
They lived in one-room huts with walls and roofs made of wood,
mud, and straw. Hangings covered the cracks in the walls to keep
the wind out. Smoke from a fire in the middle of the room filtered
out of cracks in the roof. Grain was ground at home by rotating by
hand one stone disk on another stone disk. Some villages had a
mill powered by the flow of water or by horses. All freeholders
had the duty of watch [at night] and ward [during the day], of
following the hue and cry to chase an offender, and of taking the
oath of peace. These three duties were constant until 1195.

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.

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. They were called
"tithes" and were spent for church repair, the clergy, and poor
and needy laborers. Local custom determined the amount. There was
also church-scot: a payment to the clergy in lieu of the first
fruits of the land. 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. 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 earht 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 abraisons.

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.

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