Anglo-Saxon law (, later ; , ) was the legal system of

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Empire, Roman imperial rule in Roman Britain, Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Compared to modern England, the territory of the ...

from the 6th century until the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

of 1066. It was a form of

Germanic law Germanic law is a scholarly term used to describe a series of commonalities between the various law codes (the ''Leges Barbarorum'', 'laws of the barbarians', also called Leges) of the early Germanic peoples. These were compared with statements i ...

based on unwritten custom known as folk-right and on written laws enacted by

kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...

with the advice of their

witan The witan () was the king's council in the Anglo-Saxon government of England from before the 7th century until the 11th century. It comprised important noblemen, including ealdormen, thegns, and bishops. Meetings of the witan were sometimes c ...

or council. By the later Anglo-Saxon period, a system of courts had developed to administer the law, while enforcement was the responsibility of

ealdormen Ealdorman ( , )"ealdorman"
''

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

s, in addition to self-policing () by local communities. Originally, each Anglo-Saxon kingdom had its own laws. As a result of

Viking invasions Viking expansion was the historical movement which led Norse explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship as Vikings, to sail most of the North Atlantic, reaching south as far as North Africa and east as far as Russ ...

and settlement, the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, ; ; ) was the part of History of Anglo-Saxon England, England between the late ninth century and the Norman Conquest under Anglo-Saxon rule in which Danes (tribe), Danish laws applied. The Danelaw originated in the conquest and oc ...

followed Scandinavian laws. In the 10th century, a unified

Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the late 9th century, when it was unified from various Heptarchy, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland to f ...

was created with a single

Anglo-Saxon government Government in Anglo-Saxon England covers English government during the Anglo-Saxon period from the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. See Government in medieval England for developments after 1066. Until the 9th century, England ...

; however, different regions continued to follow their customary legal systems. The last Anglo-Saxon law codes were enacted in the early 11th century during the reign of

Cnut the Great Cnut ( ; ; – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute and with the epithet the Great, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway from 1028 until his death in 1035. The three kingdoms united under Cnut's rul ...

Development

Before Christianisation

The native inhabitants of England were

Celtic Britons The Britons ( *''Pritanī'', , ), also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point they diverged into the Welsh, ...

. The unwritten Celtic law was learned and preserved by the

Druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wr ...

s, who in addition to their religious role also acted as judges. After the

Roman conquest of Britain The Roman conquest of Britain was the Roman Empire's conquest of most of the island of Great Britain, Britain, which was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the ...

in the first century,

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

was operative at least concerning

Roman citizens Citizenship in ancient Rome () was a privileged political and legal status afforded to free individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance. Citizenship in ancient Rome was complex and based upon many different laws, traditions, and cu ...

. But the Roman legal system disappeared after the Romans left the island in the 5th century. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the

Anglo-Saxons 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 ...

migrated from continental Europe and established several

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a 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 their origins to Ge ...

. These had their own legal traditions based in

that "owed little if anything" to Celtic or Roman influences. Anglo-Saxon law largely derived from unwritten customs termed folk-right (, ). The older law of real property, of succession, of contracts, the customary tariffs of fines, were mainly regulated by folk-right. Customary law differed between local cultures. There were different folk-rights of

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

and

East Saxons The Kingdom of the East Saxons (; ), referred to as the Kingdom of Essex , was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex ...

, of

East Angles The Kingdom of the East Angles (; ), informally known as the Kingdom of East Anglia, was a small independent kingdom of the Angles during the Anglo-Saxon period comprising what are now the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and perhaps ...

, of Kentish men,

Mercians Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

Northumbrians Northumbria () was an early medieval Heptarchy, kingdom in what is now Northern England and Scottish Lowlands, South Scotland. The name derives from the Old English meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the Sout ...

Danes Danes (, ), or Danish people, are an ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. History Early history Denmark ...

, Welshmen, and these main folk-right divisions remained even when tribal kingdoms disappeared and the people were concentrated in one kingdom.

After Christianisation

Following the Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons, written law codes or "dooms" were produced. The Christian clergy brought with them the art of letters, writing, and literacy. The oldest Anglo-Saxon law codes, especially from Kent and Wessex, reveal a close affinity to Germanic law. The first written Anglo-Saxon laws were issued around 600 by

Æthelberht of Kent Æthelberht (; also Æthelbert, Aethelberht, Aethelbert or Ethelbert; ; 550 – 24 February 616) was Kings of Kent, King of Kingdom of Kent, Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his ''Ecclesiastical Hist ...

. Writing in the 8th century, the

Venerable Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most fa ...

comments that Æthelberht created his law code "after the examples of the Romans" (). This likely refers to

Romanised In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

peoples such as the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

, whose

Salic law The Salic law ( or ; ), also called the was the ancient Frankish Civil law (legal system), civil law code compiled around AD 500 by Clovis I, Clovis, the first Frankish King. The name may refer to the Salii, or "Salian Franks", but this is deba ...

was codified under

Clovis I Clovis (; reconstructed Old Frankish, Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first List of Frankish kings, king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a ...

. As a newly Christian king, Æthelberht's creation of his own law code symbolised his belonging to the Roman and Christian traditions. The actual legislation, however, was not influenced by Roman law. Rather, it converted older customs into written legislation, and, reflecting the role of the

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

s in drafting it, protected the English church. The first seven clauses deal solely with compensation for the church. Folk-right could be broken or modified by special law or special grant, and the fountain of such privileges was the royal power. Alterations and exceptions were, as a matter of fact, suggested by the interested parties themselves, and chiefly by the church. Thus a privileged land-tenure was created—

bookland "Bookland" is the informal name for the Unique Country Code (UCC) prefix allocated in the 1980s for European Article Number (EAN) identifiers of published books, regardless of country of origin, so that the EAN namespace can catalogue books by ...

; the rules as to the succession of kinsmen were set at nought by concession of testamentary power and confirmations of grants and wills; special exemptions from the jurisdiction of the hundreds and special privileges as to levying fines were conferred. In process of time the rights originating in royal grants of privilege overbalanced, as it were, folk-right in many respects, and became themselves the starting-point of a new legal system—the

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

one. In the 9th century, the

was conquered by

and governed under

Scandinavian law Scandinavian law, also known as Nordic law,Wahlgren, P. (2007). What is Scandinavian law? Social private law. Stockholm: Stockholm Institute for Scandinavian Law, Law Faculty, Stockholm University. is the law of the five Nordic countries, nam ...

. The word ''law'' itself derives from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

word . Starting with

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...

(), the kings of

Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...

united the other Anglo-Saxon peoples against their common Danish enemy. In the process, they created a single

. This unification process was completed under

Æthelstan Æthelstan or Athelstan (; ; ; ; – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn. Modern histori ...

(). There is a good deal of resemblance between the

capitularies A capitulary (medieval Latin ) was a series of legislative or administrative acts emanating from the Frankish court of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties, especially that of Charlemagne, the first emperor of the Romans in the west since th ...

legislation of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

and his successors on one hand and the acts of Alfred,

Edward the Elder Edward the Elder (870s?17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousi ...

, Æthelstan and

Edgar Edgar is a commonly used masculine English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Edgar'' (composed of ''wikt:en:ead, ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''Gar (spear), gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the Late Midd ...

on the other, a resemblance called forth less by direct borrowing of Frankish institutions than by the similarity of political problems and condition. The

of 1066 ended the Anglo-Saxon monarchy. But Anglo-Saxon law and institutions survived and formed the foundation for the

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

Legislation

While custom was respected, kings could adapt the laws of their predecessors and also create new laws. Royal law codes were produced in consultation with the

, the king's council comprising the lay and ecclesiastical

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

. Some law codes portrayed the witan as initiating new legislation and the king assenting to it. For example, one code begins, "these are the ordinances which the wise men established at Exeter, by the counsel of King Æthelstan". Royal law codes were written to address specific situations and were intended to be read by people who were already familiar with the law. The first law code was the

Law of Æthelberht The Law of Æthelberht is a set of legal provisions written in Old English, probably dating to the early 7th century. It originates in the kingdom of Kent, and is the first Germanic-language law code. It is also thought to be the earliest exam ...

(), which put into writing the unwritten legal customs of Kent. This was followed by two later Kentish law codes, the Law of Hlothhere and Eadric () and the

Law of Wihtred The Law of Wihtred is an Anglo-Saxon, early English Law code, legal text attributed to the Kentish king Wihtred of Kent, Wihtred (died 725). It is believed to date to the final decade of the 7th century and is the last of three Kentish legal text ...

(695). Outside of Kent,

Ine of Wessex Ine or Ini (died in or after 726) was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of what is now southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor, Cædwalla of Wessex ...

issued a law code between 688 and 694.

Offa of Mercia Offa ( 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death in 796. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of ...

() produced a law code that has not survived. Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, produced a law code known as the

Doom Book The Doom Book, ''Dōmbōc'', Code of Alfred or Legal Code of Ælfred the Great was the code of laws ("dooms" being laws or judgments) compiled by Alfred the Great ( 893 AD). Alfred codified three prior Anglo-Saxons, Saxon codes – tho ...

. The prologue of Alfred's code states that the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

and

penitential A penitential is a book or set of church rules concerning the Christianity, Christian sacrament of penance, used for regular private confession with a confessor-priest, a "new manner of reconciliation with God in Christianity, God" that was prom ...

s were studied as part of creating his code. In addition, older law codes were studied, including the laws of Æthelberht, Ine, and Offa. This may have been the first attempt to create a limited set of uniform laws across England, and it set a precedent for future English kings. The

House of Wessex The House of Wessex, also known as the House of Cerdic, the House of the West Saxons, the House of the Gewisse, the Cerdicings and the West Saxon dynasty, refers to the family, traditionally founded by Cerdic of the Gewisse, that ruled Wessex in ...

became rulers of all England in the 10th century, and their laws were applied throughout the kingdom. Significant 10th-century law codes were promulgated by

Edmund I Edmund I or Eadmund I (920/921 – 26 May 946) was King of the English from 27 October 939 until his death in 946. He was the elder son of King Edward the Elder and his third wife, Queen Eadgifu, and a grandson of King Alfred the Great. Af ...

, and

Æthelred the Unready Æthelred II (,Different spellings of this king's name most commonly found in modern texts are "Ethelred" and "Æthelred" (or "Aethelred"), the latter being closer to the original Old English form . Compare the modern dialect word . ; ; 966 � ...

. But regional variations in laws and customs survived as well. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 noted that distinct laws existed for Wessex, Mercia, and the Danelaw. The law codes of Cnut () were the last to be promulgated in the Anglo-Saxon period and are primarily a collection of earlier laws. They became the main source for old English law after the Norman Conquest. For political reasons, these laws were attributed to

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

(), and "under the guise of the ''

Leges Edwardi Confessoris The title ''Leges Edwardi Confessoris'', or ''Laws of Edward the Confessor'', refers to a collection of laws, purporting to represent English law in the time of Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042–1066), as recited to the Norman invader king Wi ...

'' they achieved an almost mystical authority which inspired

Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter"), sometimes spelled Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardin ...

in 1215 and were for centuries embedded in the

coronation oath An oath of office is an oath or affirmation a person takes before assuming the duties of an office, usually a position in government or within a religious body, although such oaths are sometimes required of officers of other organizations. Suc ...

." The ''Leges Edwardi Confessoris'' is the best known of the

custumal A custumal is a medieval-English document that stipulates the economic, political, and social customs of a manor or town. It is common for it to include an inventory of customs, regular agricultural, trading and financial activities as well as l ...

s, compilations of Anglo-Saxon customs written after the Conquest to explain Anglo-Saxon laws to the new Norman rulers.

Language and dialect

The English dialect in which the Anglo-Saxon laws have been handed down is in most cases a common speech derived from the

West Saxon dialect West Saxon is the term applied to the two different dialects Early West Saxon and Late West Saxon with West Saxon being one of the four distinct regional dialects of Old English. The three others were Kentish, Mercian and Northumbrian (the l ...

. Wessex formed the core of the unified Kingdom of England, and the royal court at

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

became the main literary centre. Traces of the Kentish dialect can be detected in the ''

Textus Roffensis The (Latin for "The Tome of Rochester Cathedral, Rochester"), fully titled the ''Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum episcopum'' ("The Tome of the Rochester Cathedral, Church of Rochester up to Ernulf, Bishop Ernulf") and sometimes also ...

'', a manuscript containing the earliest Kentish laws. Northumbrian dialectical peculiarities are also noticeable in some codes, while Danish words occur as technical terms in some documents. With the Norman Conquest, Latin took the place of English as the language of legislation.

Courts

The Anglo-Saxons developed a sophisticated system of assemblies or moots (the Old English words and mean "meeting"). Historians often call these assemblies ''courts''; however, they were not like the specialised law courts that developed under Angevin government. These assemblies performed a variety of functions beyond judicial business. They issued legislation, organised and performed law enforcement, and witnessed transactions. Vague references to courts appear in earlier laws. These texts use terms such as (). Later laws use more specific terminology. The laws of Edgar () outline a precise division of courts. The

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

court was to meet every four weeks. The

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

court was to meet three times a year, and the

shire court A shire court or shire moot was an Anglo-Saxon government institution, used to maintain law and order at a local level, and perform various administrative functions, including the collection of taxes for the central government. The system origina ...

was to meet twice a year.

King's court

In addition to being a legislator, the king was also a judge. The king heard cases in the presence of his witan or council. Kings could also hear and act on complaints alone, outside of a formal judicial context. The cases heard by the king included: * matters directly involving the king or royal property * treason * land disputes *

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...

s from the decisions of lower courts The law reserved some cases to the king's jurisdiction. In the laws of Cnut, they include: * (breach of the king's protection) * (assault on a person inside a house) * (assault on a royal road) * (fine for failing to perform military service) * In the

: (fine for fighting) and (infringement of the peace) These reserved cases could only be tried in the presence of the king or a royal official, and the fines were paid into the royal treasury. The requirement that a royal official preside usually meant that these cases, if not heard directly by the king, were heard in the shire court.

Shire courts

The shire court was a royal court presided over by the

ealdorman Ealdorman ( , )"ealdorman"
''Collins English Dictionary''. was an office in the Government ...

and local bishop as royal representatives. The

might also be there, either alongside the ealdorman or in his stead. It met twice a year around Easter and

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in many Western Christian liturgical calendars on 29 Se ...

. A law of Cnut allowed it to meet more often if necessary. While the ealdorman and bishop presided over the court, they were not judges in the modern sense. Decisions were made by the local

thegn In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were ...

s (nobles) who attended the court as suitors (those who declared the law and made judgments). Litigants and their supporters (such as oath-helpers) would also be present. The shire court likely addressed the most serious crimes, such as death penalty cases. The shire was also the most likely setting for cases reserved to the king . The shire court witnessed land purchases, and it also adjudicated land disputes.

Hundred courts

Most people experienced the judicial system through their local

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and in Cumberland County in the British Colony of ...

. The hundred court met monthly and was presided over by a royal reeve. The laws of Edward the Elder and Æthelstan required reeves to ensure everyone received the benefits of folk-right and royal law. The hundred had a role in witnessing transactions. Edgar's law required all sales and purchases (such as land, cattle, and the

manumission Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing slaves by their owners. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that the most wi ...

of slaves) to be witnessed by 12 men chosen by the hundred. The hundred handled criminal cases, civil cases, land disputes, and

tort A tort is a civil wrong, other than breach of contract, that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with cri ...

. It heard accusations of theft not involving the death penalty and may have executed thieves caught in the act; however, most serious offenses were reserved to the shire court's jurisdiction. The hundred handled most ecclesiastical cases (such as

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...

and marriage cases), and the bishop or his representative was expected to attend. Each hundred was responsible for policing itself through a system called (). Free men were organised into groups of 10 or 12 called

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or ...

s. They pledged to be law abiding and to report crimes on pain of

amercement An amercement is a financial penalty in English law, common during the Middle Ages, imposed either by the court or by peers. While it is often synonymous with a fine, it differs in that a fine is a fixed sum prescribed by statute and was often v ...

. When a crime was committed, the victim or witnesses could raise the "

hue and cry In common law, a hue and cry is a process by which bystanders are summoned to assist in the apprehension of a criminal who has been witnessed in the act of committing a crime. History By the Statute of Winchester of 1285, 13 Edw. 1. St. 2. c. ...

", requiring all able-bodied men to pursue the suspect. The Hundred Ordinance attributed to Edgar commands, "if the need is pressing, the man in charge of the hundred is to be told, and he then is to tell the men in charge of the tithings; and all are to go forth, where God guides them, that they may reach he thief Justice is to be done on the thief as Edmund decreed previously." Suspects who escaped were declared

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...

s, and it was said that they "wore the wolf's head", meaning they could be hunted and killed like wolves. The identities of suitors to the hundred court are unclear. Cnut's law required all freemen 12 years and older to belong to a hundred and tithing. However, this law referred to peacekeeping, and it is unknown if all free men would have attended the hundred court. It is possible that local thegns (or their

bailiff A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary. Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...

s) controlled the court and made its decisions. Decisions of a hundred court could be appealed to the shire or to the king. Before distraining property, Cnut's law required a man to seek justice three times in the hundred court and, failing that, to appeal to the shire court. Other laws required plaintiffs to seek justice in hundred courts before appealing to the king.

Borough courts

Boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

were separate from the hundreds and had their own courts (variously termed burghmoot, portmanmoot, or

husting A husting originally referred to a native Germanic governing assembly, the thing. By metonymy, the term may now refer to any event (such as debates or speeches) during an election campaign where one or more of the candidates are present. Devel ...

). These met three times a year. Like hundreds, boroughs were required to appoint official witnesses for all transactions, 36 witnesses for large boroughs and 12 witnesses for small ones. While initially a regular court, the borough court developed into a special court for the

law merchant (from Latin language, Latin for "merchant law"), often referred to as "the Law Merchant" in English, is the body of commercial law used by merchants throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period. It evolved similar to English common ...

Franchisal courts

The king could grant judicial rights and powers to a lord over his lands or over entire hundreds. It was common for royal

writ In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrant (legal), Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, and ''certiorari'' are commo ...

s granting such rights to include the phrases " sake and soke" and "sake and soke,

toll and team Toll and team (also spelled ''thol and theam'') were related privileges granted by the Crown to landowners under Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman law. First known from a charter of around 1023, the privileges usually appeared as part of a standard for ...

, and ." * Sake and soke: right to hold a court with similar jurisdiction to a hundred court and to collect judicial fines. * Toll: right to charge tolls. * Team: right to judge whether goods were acquired in good faith and to collect fines from offenders. * : right to

summary may refer to: * Abstract (summary), shortening a passage or a write-up without changing its meaning but by using different words and sentences * Epitome, a summary or miniature form * Abridgement, the act of reducing a written work into a shor ...

trial and execution of thieves caught in the act. Sometimes further rights were granted, such as jurisdiction over (breach of the king's protection), (assault on a person inside a house), and (assault on a royal road). The king could revoke all of these grants.

Church courts

Synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word '' synod'' comes from the Ancient Greek () ; the term is analogous with the Latin word . Originally, ...

s dealt with legal disputes. Initially, synods may have had jurisdiction over cases involving

since this form of

land tenure In Common law#History, common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land "owned" by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement betw ...

originated within the church. The king could also grant the church (either the bishop of a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

or the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of a

religious house A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may ...

) the right to administer a hundred. The hundred's reeve would then answer to the bishop or abbot. The same cases would be tried as before, but the profits of justice would now go to the church. One such hundred was the

Soke of Peterborough The Soke of Peterborough is a historic area of England associated with the City and Anglican Diocese of Peterborough, Diocese of Peterborough. It was part of Northamptonshire, but was administered by Soke of Peterborough County Council, its own ...

Trial procedure

While common legal procedures existed, they can be difficult to reconstruct due to lack of evidence and variation in local custom. Shires possessed their own local traditions, and the Danelaw deviated in important ways from other parts of England.

Accusation and denial

Legal proceedings began with an accusation by an aggrieved party. In addition, tithing groups could

present The present is the period of time that is occurring now. The present is contrasted with the past, the period of time that has already occurred; and the future, the period of time that has yet to occur. It is sometimes represented as a hyperplan ...

accusations as part of the system of . In cases involving royal rights, accusations could be brought by royal officials. There were two types of cases that could be brought to court. In the first kind, a party claimed they or, in the case of homicide, a relative had been wronged. In the second kind, a claimant asserted that another party was in possession of movable or immovable property rightfully belonging to the claimant. The outcome sought could vary based on the type of case. Claimants might seek restoration of property, compensation, or the offender's punishment. The initiating party formally stated his charge with a fore-oath. An example formula in the anonymous text ''Swerian'' states, "by the Lord, I accuse N. neither for hatred nor for calumny nor for unjust gain; nor do I know anything more true, except as my informant told me and I myself truly relate that he was the thief of my cattle". If strong evidence existed, the accuser would not need to make a fore-oath. However, false accusations were severely punished; the offender would lose his tongue unless he redeemed himself by paying his

wergeld 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, ...

. The defendant had to appear in court at the scheduled time or provide an

essoin In old English law, an essoin (, , Anglo-Norman, from Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's ...

(excuse) for not attending. Surety () could be required to ensure the accused attended court and did not attempt to flee justice. This could take the form of a financial pledge, but it also included people standing as pledges. If the accused could find no people to stand surety and had no property to pledge, then he would be imprisoned. The man's kinsmen or lord had a particular responsibility to act as surety for him. If a man fled justice, his surety had to pay his wergeld to the king or to the entitled party. The accused had to formally deny the accusation in person; however, women and the mute or deaf needed a representative. The denial took the form of an oath, such as "by the Lord, I am guiltless, both in deed and counsel, of the accusation of which N. accuses me".

Argument and mesne judgment

After the initial accusation and denial, the parties themselves (or their supporters) were able to argue their case. Each side told their version of the facts of the case, which could be supported by witnesses or written evidence (such as the well-known Fonthill Letter). Arguments could also cite folk-right or legal norms. Following the arguments, the court might issue a mesne or intermediate judgment. A mesne judgment might declare the form of proof to be used in the trial and which party should provide that proof. Alternatively, a mesne judgment could appoint a smaller group of people to decide a case.

Proof

Evidence

Witnesses were an important form of evidence, especially in cases involving property. The parties might bring their own witnesses, but the official presiding over the court might also search for witnesses. Charters and other documents could help decide land disputes. Physical evidence could also be utilized. The Fonthill Letter recounts that a cattle thief named Helmstan was scratched in the face by a bramble while fleeing the scene of the crime. In court, the scratch was used as evidence against him.

Oath

In compurgation or trial by oath, a

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one juris ...

swore oaths to prove his innocence without

cross-examination In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination (known as examination-in-chief in Law of the Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the Law of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom, Austra ...

. A defendant was expected to bring oath-helpers (), neighbors willing to swear to his good character or "oathworthiness". In the Christian society of Anglo-Saxon England, a false oath was a grave offense against God and could endanger one's immortal soul. In Anglo-Saxon law, "denial is always stronger than accusation". The defendant was acquitted if he produced the necessary number of oaths. If a defendant's community believed him to be guilty or generally untrustworthy, he would be unable to gather oath-helpers and would lose his case. This system was vulnerable to abuse. A defendant might be unable to gather oath-helpers because his opponent was more powerful or influential within the community. The number of oaths needed depended on the seriousness of the accusation and the person's social status. If the law required oaths valued at 1200

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...

, then a thegn would not need any oath-helpers because his wergeld equaled 1200 shillings. However, a (200 shilling wergeld) would need oath-helpers.

Ordeal

When a defendant failed to establish his innocence by oath in criminal cases (such as murder, arson, forgery, theft and

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

), he might still redeem himself through trial by ordeal. Trial by ordeal was an appeal to God to reveal

perjury Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...

, and its divine nature meant it was regulated by the church. The ordeal had to be overseen by a priest at a place designated by the bishop. The most common forms in England were

ordeal by hot iron Trial by ordeal was an ancient judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused (called a "proband") was determined by subjecting them to a painful, or at least an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience. In medieval Europe, like ...

and ordeal by water. Before a defendant was put through the ordeal, the

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...

had to establish a ''

prima facie ''Prima facie'' (; ) is a Latin expression meaning "at first sight", or "based on first impression". The literal translation would be "at first face" or "at first appearance", from the feminine forms of ' ("first") and ' ("face"), both in the a ...

'' case under oath. The plaintiff was assisted by his own supporters or "suit", who might act as witnesses for the plaintiff.

Final judgment

The final judgment was made collectively by the suitors of the court, especially the thegns. In the Danelaw, judgment might be made by a group of "doomsmen" or judges. There is also evidence that those presiding over the court sometimes issued their own judgments. A court could order the guilty party to pay a fine, compensate a victim, or

forfeit Forfeit or forfeiture may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Forfeit'', a 2007 thriller film starring Billy Burke * "Forfeit", a song by Chevelle from '' Wonder What's Next'' * '' Forfeit/Fortune'', a 2008 album by Crooked Fingers ...

property. A religious penalty, such as a

penance Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of contrition for sins committed, as well as an alternative name for the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. The word ''penance'' derive ...

, might also be imposed. In land disputes, a court could order the restoration of property to a successful litigant. Sometimes resolutions took the form of compromise. For example, a party who lost their claim to land might be given a life-tenure in the property. The most serious crimes (murder, treachery to one's lord, arson, house-breaking, and open theft) were punishable by death and forfeiture.

Hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

by the

gallows A gallows (or less precisely scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sa ...

and beheading were common forms of execution. A woman convicted of murder by witchcraft was punished by

drowning Drowning is a type of Asphyxia, suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Submersion injury refers to both drowning and near-miss incidents. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where othe ...

. According to the laws of Æthelstan, thieves over 15 years of age who stole more than 12

pence A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is t ...

were to be executed (men by

stoning Stoning, or lapidation, is a method of capital punishment where a group throws stones at a person until the subject dies from blunt trauma. It has been attested as a form of punishment for grave misdeeds since ancient times. Stoning appears t ...

, women by

burning Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combust ...

, and free women could be pushed off a cliff or

drowned Drowning is a type of Asphyxia, suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Submersion injury refers to both drowning and near-miss incidents. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where othe ...

). In Cnut's code, a first criminal offence usually merited compensation to victims and fines to the king. Later offenses saw progressively severe forms of bodily mutilation. Cnut also introduced

ry, a punishment only the king could remove. Anglo-Saxon law assumed that a man's wife and children were his accomplices in any crime. If a man could not return or pay for stolen property, he and his family could be enslaved.

Kinship law

One of the foundations of Anglo-Saxon law was the extended family or kindred (Old English: ). Membership in a kindred provided the individual with protection and security. In the case of homicide, the victim's family was responsible for avenging him or her through a

blood feud A feud , also known in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, clan war, gang war, private war, or mob war, is a long-running argument or fight, often between social groups of people, especially family, families or clans. Feuds begin ...

. The law set criteria for legitimate blood feuds. A family did not have the right to retaliate if a member was killed while stealing property, committing capital crimes, or resisting capture. A person was exempt from retaliation if he killed while: * Fighting for his lord * Protecting his family from attack * Defending his wife, daughter, sister, or mother from attempted rape (the murder had to take place during the attack) Kings and the church promoted financial compensation (Old English: ) for death or injury as an alternative to blood feuds. In the case of death, the victim's family was owed the

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, ...

("man price"). A person's weregild was greater or lesser depending on social status. Cnut's code allowed

secular clergy In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. Secular priests (sometimes known as diocesan priests) are priests who commit themselves to a certain geograph ...

to demand or pay compensation in a feud. However,

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

s were prohibited because they had abandoned their "kin-law when hey bowedto onasticrule-law". quoted in .

Social class

A man had to own at least five hides of land to be considered a

(nobleman). Ealdormen (and later earls) were the highest-ranking nobles. High-ranking churchmen such as archbishops, bishops, and abbots also formed part of the aristocracy. There were various categories of freemen: * performed riding service (carried messages, transported strangers to the village, cared for horses, and acted as the lord's bodyguard) * held one to two hides of land * held a

virgate The virgate, yardland, or yard of land ( was an English unit of land. Primarily a measure of tax assessment rather than area, the virgate was usually (but not always) reckoned as hide and notionally (but seldom exactly) equal to 30 acr ...

of land * (cottage dwellers) held five acres * Homeless laborers were paid in food and clothing Thegns enjoyed greater rights and privileges than did ordinary freemen. The weregild of a was 200

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...

s while that of a thegn was 1200. In court, a thegn's oath was equal to the oath of six . Slavery was widespread in early medieval England. The price of a slave (

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

: ) or

thrall A thrall was a slave or Serfdom, serf in Scandinavia, Scandinavian lands during the Viking Age. The status of slave (, ) contrasts with that of the Franklin (class), freeman (, ) and the nobleman (, ). Etymology Thrall is from the Old Norse ...

(

: ) was one pound or eight oxen. If a slave was killed, his murderer only had to pay the purchase price because slaves had no wergild. Because slaves had no property, they could not pay fines as a punishment for crime. Instead, slaves received corporal punishments such as flogging, mutilation, or death. Slavery was an inherited status. The slave population included the conquered Britons and their descendants. Some people were enslaved as war captives or as punishment for crimes (such as theft). Others became slaves due to unpaid debts. While owners had extensive power over their slaves, their power was not absolute. Slaves could be manumitted; however, only second- or third-generation descendants of freed slaves received all the privileges of a freeman. Slavery may have declined in the late eleventh century as it was considered a pious act for Christians to free their slaves on their deathbed. The church condemned the sale of slaves outside the country, and the internal trade declined in the twelfth century. It may have been more economic to settle slaves on land than to feed and house them, and the change to serfdom was probably an evolutionary change in status rather a clear distinction between the two.

Land law

Types

Land in Anglo-Saxon England can be divided into three types:

, loanland, and folkland. When a royal

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

() transferred land ownership from the king to another person, the land was known as bookland (). Owning bookland carried three important benefits. First,

food rent Food render or food rent (Old English: ''foster'') was a form of tax in kind (Old English: ''feorm'') levied in Anglo-Saxon England, consisting of essential foodstuffs provided by territories such as ''regiones'', multiple estates or hundreds to k ...

and other services owed to the king (except for the ) were transferred to the new owner. Second, the charter itself served as important evidence of ownership in case of a dispute. Third, the charter granted perpetual ownership to the grantee and his heirs unless freely alienated. The king had special jurisdiction over legal disputes involving bookland, and sometimes the king had to consent to its alienation. Originally, only

s received bookland, but kings started granting it to

laymen In religious organizations, the laity () — individually a layperson, layman or laywoman — consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. ...

in the late 8th century. When a king, religious house, or lay lord

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

d property to others, it became loanland (). Most of the surviving evidence involves leases from religious houses. Sometimes land was leased to pay back a monetary loan; as part of such an agreement, a lender paid a

lump sum A lump sum is a single payment of money, as opposed to a series of payments made over time (such as an annuity). The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development distinguishes between " price analysis" and " cost analysis" by whether ...

of money to the borrower in exchange for the right to collect the loanland's income for a set period (commonly three lives). For example, one document records loanland granted for three years in return for a loan of £3. Leases were witnessed in court, and written documents have survived, such as

chirograph A chirograph is a medieval document, which has been written in duplicate, triplicate or very occasionally quadruplicate (four copies) on a single piece of parchment, with the Latin word ''chirographum'' (occasionally replaced by some other term ...

s. The meaning of folkland () is unclear, and historians have proposed at least three definitions. The first view, popular in the 19th century, is that folkland was a form of communal property belonging to the nation (the folk). The second view is that it belonged to the Crown but was separate from the king's personal property; it could therefore be leased but not permanently alienated. The third view is that folkland referred to land held according to custom or tradition, which included all land except bookland.

Lordship and dependents

Lords granted peasants land in return for rent and labor. It was also common for free peasants who owned their land to submit to a lord for protection through a process called commendation. Peasants who commended their land owed their lord labor service. Theoretically, a commended peasant could transfer his land to a new lord whenever he liked. In reality, this was not permitted. By 1066,

manorialism Manorialism, also known as seigneurialism, the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or "Land tenure, tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features incl ...

was entrenched in England.

Inheritance

Many parts of England (including Kent, East Anglia, and Dorset) practiced forms of

partible inheritance Partible inheritance, sometimes also called partitive, is a system of inheritance in which property is apportioned among heirs. It contrasts in particular with primogeniture, which was common in feudal society and requires that the whole or most ...

in which land was equally divided among heirs. In Kent, this took the form of

gavelkind Gavelkind () was a system of land tenure chiefly associated with the Celtic law in Ireland and Wales and with the legal traditions of the English county of Kent. The word may have originated from the Old Irish phrases ''Gabhaltas-cinne'' or '' ...

Peace and protection

Every house had a peace (Old English: ). Intruders and other violators of the peace had to pay a fine called a . A man's status determined the amount of the . The laws of Æthelberht set the for the king at 50

, the eorl (noble) at 12s., and the ceorl (freeman) at 6s. In Alfred the Great's time, the king's was £5. is the origin of the king's peace. Initially, the king's was limited to the royal residence. As royal power and responsibilities grew, the king's peace was applied to other areas: shire courts, hundred courts, highways, rivers, bridges, churches, monasteries, markets, and towns. Theoretically, the king was present at these places. King's imposed fines called wites as punishments for breaches of the king's peace. Individuals received protection through kinship ties or by entering the service of a lord. The king could grant individuals a personal peace (or ). For example, the king's peace protected his counselors when traveling to and from meetings of the witan. Foreign traders and others not protected by lordship or kinship ties were under the king's protection.

Compensation

Anglo-Saxon law mandated that a person pay compensation when injuring another person. The injured body part determined the amount of compensation. According to Æthelberht's law, pulling someone's hair cost 50

sceat A sceat or sceatta ( ; , ) was a small, thick silver coin minted in England, Frisia, and Jutland during the Anglo-Saxon period that normally weighed 0.8–1.3 grams (about troy ounce). It is now (as of 2024) more commonly known in England ...

tas, a severed foot cost 50 shillings, and "damaging the kindling limb" (the reproductive organs) cost 300 shillings. In the case of murder, the victim's kindred could forego a blood feud in return for payment of a

wergild 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, ...

. In addition to paying the king a wite (fine), the killer also owed compensation to the victim's lord. Some crimes could not be satisfied by financial compensation. These botless crimes were punished with death or forfeiture of property. They included: * secret murder, such as by poison or witchcraft * treachery to one's lord * arson * house-breaking * open theft

Religion and the church

The creation of written law codes coincided with Christianisation, and the church received special privileges and protections in the earliest codes. The

demanded compensation for offenses against church property: * 12-fold compensation for church property * 11-fold for a bishop's property * 9-fold for a priest's property * 6-fold for a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

's property * 3-fold for a cleric's property In the late 7th century, the laws of Kent and Wessex supported the church in various ways. Failure to receive

baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

was punished with a financial penalty, and the oath of a

communicant The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an ordinance in others. Christians believe that the rite was instituted by J ...

was worth more than a non-communicant in legal proceedings. Laws supported Sabbath in Christianity, Sabbath observance and payment of church-Scot and lot, scot (church dues). Laws also established rights to church Sanctuary#Church sanctuary, sanctuary .

Citations

References

* * * * * * * * 1st edition available to read onlin
here
* * * *

External links

Medieval Sourcebook: The Anglo-Saxon Dooms, 560-975
(georgetown.edu)
Anglo-Saxon Law: Its Development and Impact on the English Legal System
(Charles Tucker, USAFA Journal of Legal Studies)
Early English Laws research project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anglo-Saxon Law Anglo-Saxon law, Customary legal systems Medieval law