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Your Legal Rights Under
Ælfred, King of Wessex
First we enjoin, what
is most necessary, that each man keep carefully his oath and his pledge.
If anyone plots against
the king's life, by himself or by means of the harbouring of fugitives
or his men, he is to be liable for his life and all that he possesses.
If anyone fights or draws
his weapon in the king's hall, and he is captured, it is to be at the king's
judgement - either death or life, as he wishes to grant him.
If he disturbs a public
meeting by drawing a weapon, he is to pay 120 shillings to the ealdorman
as a fine.
Moreover we declare that
a man may fight on behalf of his lord, if anyone is fighting against the
lord, without incurring a feud; similarly, the lord may fight on behalf
of his man.
And a man may fight without
incurring a feud if he finds another man with his lawful wife, behind closed
doors or under the same blanket; or if he finds another man with his legitimate
daughter, or with his legitimate sister, or with his mother who was given
as lawful wife to his father.
THE ABOVE are all direct extracts from
the laws of King Ælfred, who ruled Wessex from 871 (the year in which
The Circle of Ceridwen is set) to his
death in 899. The only English monarch to bear the honorific "the Great",
Ælfred was not only a tactical genius who repelled the rapaciously-advancing
Danes, but also a man deeply concerned with human and divine justice. His
law code was drawn up in the late 880's or early 890's. In his preface,
Ælfred explains that he examined many existing law codes from the
Old Testament to those of previous Anglo-Saxon kings in neighbouring kingdoms:
Then I, King Ælfred,
gathered them together and ordered to be written many of the ones that
our forefathers observed - those that pleased me; and many of the ones
that did not please me I rejected with the advice of my councillors, and
commanded them to be observed in a different way. For I dared not presume
to set down in writing at all many of my own, since it was unknown to me
what would please those who should come after us. But those which I found
either in the days of Ine, my kinsman, or of Offa, king of the Mercians,
or of Ælthelberht (who first among the English people received baptism),
and which seemed to me most just, I collected herein, and omitted the others.
The Laws outline a wide variety of
crimes and appropriate punishments, from cattle-rustling to the rape of
a slave girl to cutting a man's long hair off without his consent (short
hair was often the sign of a slave, thus to be forcibly shorn would be
an insult to one's class). Some punishments
are excruciatingly apt: coiners are to have their hand nailed to their
front door for daring to debase the realm's currency.
Crimes are categorised along class
lines:
If anyone lies with the
wife of a twelve-hundred man, he is to pay 120 shillings compensation to
the husband; to a six-hundred man, he is to pay 100 shillings compensation;
to a ceorl, he is to pay forty shillings compensation.
A "twelve-hundred man" refers to the
individual's wergild
(man-gold),
or valuation. Twelve hundred shillings would signify a nobleman, or at
least a thegn (the forerunner of the later knight). The
ceorl ("churl")
was a common free man, usually an agricultural worker, but possibly a skilled
craftsman as well. The ceorl's wergild was set at 200 shillings. These
class distinctions were flexible: a ceorl who accumulated five hides of
land (a hide being the amount needed to sustain one family) became entitled
to the rights of a thegn, and this rank became hereditary after three generations.
Wergild was an important concept,
for without it all feuds were settled "eye for an eye": If you killed my
kinsman, I killed your kinsman. If you raped my daughter, I raped yours.
Wergild, the notion of a cash valuation for each person's life, allowed
the ruling noble to command that grievances be redressed not by violence
but by silver or gold payments, thus limiting the escalation of vendetta.
All persons (save slaves)
had a wergild, and Ælfred's laws spell out reparations for the loss
of bodily parts as well, even unto the loss of the little fingernail (one
shilling fine). It is not known what Ælfred's own wergild would have
been set at, but is thought to have been at least 6,000 shillings.
Women
enjoyed legal rights under Anglo-Saxon law that they were to lose after
the Battle of Hastings (1066) and for many hundreds of years afterwards.
Among them were the right to own land in her own name, and to sell such
land or give it away without her father's or husband's consent; the right
to defend herself in court; the right to act as compurgator in law suits;
that is, to testify to another's truthfulness. She could freely manumit
her slaves. She could not be forced into an unwanted union:
No woman or maiden shall
ever be forced to marry one whom she dislikes, nor be sold for money.
Early divorce laws granted the wife
half the household goods, but as the Church tightened its grip towards
the end of the period, divorce became rarer and marriage itself more regulated.
No Church blessing was required to legalize the marriage union, though
the Church encouraged it.
For more about Anglo-Saxon law and
society, I highly recommend The Beginnings of English Society
by
Dorothy Whitelock, Penguin Books 1974; and Alfred the Great: Asser's
Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, translated by Simon
Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Penguin Books 1983, from which I excerpted
portions of Ælfred's law code.
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