''Galanas'' in Welsh law was a payment made by a killer and his family to the family of his or her victim. It is similar to

éraic Éraic (or ''eric'') was the Ireland, Irish equivalent of the Wales, Welsh galanas and the Anglo-Saxon language, Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian weregild, a form of tribute paid in reparation for murder or other major crimes. The term survived into ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

weregild Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price ( blood money), was a precept in some historical legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, ...

Definition

The details of galanas were laid out in the

Laws of Hywel Dda ''Cyfraith Hywel'' (; ''Laws of Hywel''), also known as ''Welsh law'' (), was the system of law practised in medieval Wales before its conquest of Wales by Edward I, final conquest by England. Subsequently, the Welsh law's criminal codes were s ...

, codified during the mid tenth century reign of King

Hywel Dda Hywel ap Cadell, commonly known as Hywel Dda, which translates to Howel the Good in English, was a Welsh king who ruled the southern Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth and eventually came to rule most of Wales. He became the sole king of Seisyllw ...

, but dating back to earlier oral traditions passed down through bards and jurists. The earliest surviving written documenst of the laws are Peniarth MS. 28 and Peniarth MS. 29 (known as the '' Black Book of Chirk)'' written c. 1200. The compensation payment required depended on the status of the victim, but could also be affected by the circumstances of the killing, for example a killing from ambush or by poison meant the payment of double ''galanas''. The payment was due from relatives as distant as the fifth cousins of the killer, with each degree of relationship paying double the rate of the next, for example first cousins of the killer paid double the sum payable by second cousins. Women paid half the rate of payment by men. The first third of the ''galanas'' falls on the homicide, his father and mother and brothers and sisters. The remainder is shared between the kindred, with two thirds falling on the father's kindred and one third on the mother's kindred. The same rules applied to the receipt of ''galanas''. In the existing texts, dating from the 13th century, one third of the sum paid was due to the Lord as the enforcing authority, but this is considered to be an innovation. Galanas is mentioned 512 times in the known collected manuscripts of Welsh language prose written between 1300 and 1425. It has been suggested that

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 ...

attempted to abolish galanas through the

Statute of Rhuddlan The Statute of Rhuddlan (), also known as the Statutes of Wales ( or ''Valliae'') or as the Statute of Wales ( or ''Valliae''), was a royal ordinance by Edward I of England, which gave the constitutional basis for the government of the Principal ...

following his 1284 conquest of the Welsh principality. This statute laid out the constitutional basis for the government of the

Principality of Wales The Principality of Wales () was originally the territory of the native Welsh princes of the House of Aberffraw from 1216 to 1283, encompassing two-thirds of modern Wales during its height of 1267–1277. Following the conquest of Wales by Edwa ...

from 1284 until 1536. It introduced

English common law English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. The judiciary is independent, and legal principles like fairness, equality bef ...

to Wales, but also permitted the continuance of Welsh legal practices within the Principality. The galanas tradition is thought to have survived well into the fifteenth century in the

Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches () is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ''Marchia W ...

border regions.R. R. Davies, ‘The survival of the bloodfeud in medieval Wales’, History 54 (1969), 338–57, at p. 339.

References

{{authority control Welsh law Legal history of Wales Compensation for victims of crime

Definition

See also

References