The Molmutine Laws were the laws said to have been instituted over the Britons by

Dyfnwal Moelmud Dyfnwal Moelmud ( Welsh for "Dyfnwal the Bald and Silent"; ; ) was accounted as an early king and lawmaker among the Welsh, credited with the codification of their standard units of measure. He also figures as a legendary king of the Britons ...

, who is also referred by the Latin form of his name, Dunvallo Molmutius (from which the Molmutine Laws take their title). The Laws were most famously described by

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth (; ; ) was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth, Wales, and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle '' The History of ...

in his

Historia Regum Britanniae (''The History of the Kings of Britain''), originally called (''On the Deeds of the Britons''), is a fictitious account of British history, written around 1136 by Geoffrey of Monmouth. It chronicles the lives of the List of legendary kings o ...

. Little remains known of these laws, with surviving Welsh codes simply noting that Dyfnwal's laws were largely superseded by the new codes instituted by Hywel Da. Hywel was said, however, to have retained Dyfnwal's units of measurement.

Legendary accounts

History of the Kings of Britain

's pseudohistorical '' History of the Kings of Britain'' describes Dyfnwal as its "Dunvallo Molmutius". In his account, one of the Molmutine Laws declared that the

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

s of the

god In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

s and

cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

should act as sanctuaries from death. Furthermore, anyone who fled to a temple for being accused of a crime must be pardoned by the accuser upon departure from the temple. This law soon included all

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s leading to temples and all farmers were declared safe from such crimes. Geoffrey credited the British Trojans as the original source of many of Dyfnwal's laws, including one allowing the reign of queens.

Welsh triads

The Molmutine Laws are among the texts said to have been "discovered" by the forger Iolo Morganwg around the year 1800. They are given in the form of triads and include: * There are three tests of civil liberty: equality of rights, equality of taxation, freedom to come and go. * Three things are indispensable to a true union of nations: sameness of laws, rights, and language. * There are three things free to all Britons: the forest, the unworked mine, the right of hunting. * There are three property birthrights of every Briton: five British acres of land for a home, the right of suffrage in the enacting of the laws, the male at twenty-one, the female on her marriage. * There are three things which every Briton may legally be compelled to attend: the worship of God, military service, the courts of law. * There are three things free to every man, Briton or foreigner, the refusal of which no law will justify: water from spring, river, or well; firing from a decayed tree; a block of stone not in use. * There are three classes which are exempt from bearing arms: bards, judges, graduates in law or religion. These represent God and His peace, and no weapon must ever be found in their hands. * There are three persons who have a right of public maintenance: the old, the babe, the foreigner who can not speak the British tongue. * There are three things free to a country and its borders: the roads, the rivers, and the places of worship. These are under the protection of God and His peace.

References

British traditional history Geoffrey of Monmouth Legal codes {{Law-stub

Legendary accounts

History of the Kings of Britain

Welsh triads

See also

References