The Leges inter Brettos et Scottos or Laws of the Brets and Scots was a legal
codification under
David I of Scotland
David I or Dauíd mac Maíl Choluim ( Modern: ''Daibhidh I mac haoilChaluim''; – 24 May 1153) was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians from 1113 to 1124 and later King of Scotland from 1124 to 1153. The youngest son of Malco ...
(reigned 1124 – 1153). Only a small fragment of the original document survives, describing the penalties for several offences against people.
Historically, the term "Brets" refers to
Brythonic
Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to:
*Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain
*Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic
*Britons (Celtic people)
The Br ...
peoples, while "Scots" refers to
Gaelic-speaking peoples.
Skene however, asserted that here "Scots" refers to all of the peoples living north of the firths of
Clyde and
Forth
Forth or FORTH may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine
* ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008
* ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw
* Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotla ...
.
Aside from the document's intrinsic importance to
Scottish history, it is significant in its similarity to corresponding areas both of Irish
Brehon law and of
Welsh law
Welsh law ( cy, Cyfraith Cymru) is an autonomous part of the English law system composed of legislation made by the Senedd.Law Society of England and Wales (2019)England and Wales: A World Jurisdiction of Choice eport(Link accessed: 16 March 202 ...
, which are better-preserved than the laws of medieval southern Scotland, allowing reasonable conjectures to be made regarding the laws and customs of the region, as few historical records exist.
The Laws or their precursor were relevant in the early twelfth century, as the ''Laws of the Four Burghs'' (Latin: ''Leges Quatuor Burgorum'') explicitly banned parts of it relating to the ''cro'' (or
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 archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to ...
).
[The ''Laws of the Four Burghs'' is dated between 1135 and 1157, and there is uncertainty and some contention in establishing the specific date. The four burghs were then ]Stirling
Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...
, Edinburgh, Lanark
Lanark (; gd, Lannraig ; sco, Lanrik) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a population of 9 ...
, and Linlithgow
Linlithgow (; gd, Gleann Iucha, sco, Lithgae) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian's county town, reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt o ...
, with the latter two replaced by Roxburgh
Roxburgh () is a civil parish and formerly a royal burgh, in the historic county of Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was an important trading burgh in High Medieval to early modern Scotland. In the Middle Ages it had at lea ...
and Berwick in 1168.
The Laws were specifically abolished in 1305 by
Edward I of England
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Duchy of Aquitaine, Aquitaine and D ...
, following his invasion of Scotland. This does not appear to have diminished their influence in Scottish law, however. Among the surviving clauses the practice of 'Galanas' (British or Welsh) continued to at least the end of the 16th century:
"In March 1587, a month after the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, there was a meeting between ambassadors from England and Scotland. According to the account of the well-informed contemporary Scots lawyer David Moysie, the English assured the Scots... that Elizabeth was "verie sore for taking Queine Mares lyfe", and asked what satisfaction could be offered to James VI. The Scots' reply must have sounded very odd to English ears. They stated that it was not up to James to tell them. Rather, it was the "custome of Scotland" that the committers of a murder should make offers of compensation to the kin and friends of the victim, who would then discuss and resolve upon them... So deeply embedded was the principle of compensation in the fabric of Scottish justice that it could as well be invoked, if for diplomatic reasons, for a king as for the lowest of the gentry; for anyone, in fact, who had the means to compensate, and who had kin and friends to support him. The sixteenth-century English ambassadors may well have been as baffled as the thirteenth-century English clerk who wrote in bewilderment: "Find out what the law of galanas is'.? "
The surviving clauses
The surviving clauses
[ ]
Leges Inter Brettos et Scotos
' (annotated) show the society's origins as a kinship based culture, where a perpetrator's family is responsible for the perpetrator's transgressions, and the family of a victim is compensated for the loss of a family member. As with other
Celt
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...
ic societies, the rights and obligations of women are explicitly guaranteed (though at a lesser standing than that of men). Marriages are treated as relationships between different families, and payments accrue to the family of the victim's spouse under some circumstances, but accrue to the victim's family under other circumstances.
Definition of the penalties
* Penalties for death, including honour-price (clause LV) – ''cro'', ''enach'', and ''galnes'' (cf. Irish ''crólige báis'' relating to ''
éraic'', Irish ''enech'', and Welsh ''
galanas'', resp.). Payment is made to the victims or their families. This is the feature of tribal law commonly known in English as a
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 archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to ...
.
* Penalties for homicides that breach the king's peace (clause LVI) – These are separate from other penalties that might result from killing a person. It includes breaches to the peace of lesser individuals (such as breaching the peace of a noble), which have lesser penalties. Payment is made to the person whose peace was breached.
* Penalties for wounding or insults to personal honour (clauses LVII and LVIII) – ''kelchin'' or ''gelchach'' (cf. Irish ''enech'' and Welsh ''sarhad''). Payment is made to the victims or their families. Penalties are distinguished for greater and lesser wounds (e.g., different penalties for drawing blood than for a wound that does not draw blood).
Penalty amount according to social position
The amounts to be paid were on a scale according to the social position of the victim, with the king at the top with the greatest value, then with a lesser amount for his son or high-ranking noble, an even lesser amount for other nobles, and so on down to the least amount for a common person. Amounts for homicide were given both as a number of cows, and as an equivalent amount of gold. Amounts for wounding or insult were given in gold only.
Payments for a female victim were one third less than that of her husband (but equal to that of her brother if she were unmarried), and make clear that women retained their original kinship and rights after marriage, as death penalties were owed by her family (and not by her husband's family), while death payments were made to her family (and not to the husband's family). Also, the importance of the marriage is acknowledged in that some payments for insult accrue to the spouse of the victim, rather than to the victim's family.
See also
*
Anglo-Saxon law
Anglo-Saxon law ( Old English ''ǣ'', later ''lagu'' "law"; dōm "decree, judgment") is a body of written rules and customs that were in place during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, before the Norman conquest. This body of law, along with earl ...
*
Davidian Revolution
*
Brehon law
*
Celtic law
*
Welsh law
Welsh law ( cy, Cyfraith Cymru) is an autonomous part of the English law system composed of legislation made by the Senedd.Law Society of England and Wales (2019)England and Wales: A World Jurisdiction of Choice eport(Link accessed: 16 March 202 ...
References
Explanatory notes
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
Berne Manuscript (National Archives of Scotland, reference PA5/1), f. 61r-v 13th-century MS digitised by th
Stair Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leges Inter Brettos Et Scottos
Celtic law
12th century in law
12th century in Scotland
Medieval Scottish literature
Customary legal systems
Early Gaelic law
Medieval Scots law
Medieval legal codes
Medieval literature
Scottish non-fiction literature
12th-century Latin books