The Peace of Edward and Guthrum forgery, c.1002-23

Dr Alexander Thomas introduces The Peace of Edward and Guthrum forgery, with a transcription and translation of Textus Roffensis, folios 40r-41v by Dr Christopher Monk.²

The Peace of Edward and Guthrum (hereafter Edward-Guthrum) is an infamous forgery of a Viking Age treaty text, supposedly between two kings, Edward the Elder (r.899-924) and Guthrum. It is well known among historians of the early medieval period because it was only discovered to be a fake in 1941 by Dorothy Whitelock.³ Up to that point, according to Patrick Wormald (p. 389), it had been considered a genuine text by many leading scholars in the field since at least 1568, including Felix Liebermann (the brother of the German impressionist artist, Max Liebermann), Benjamin Thorpe, and Frederick Levi Attenborough (the father of Sir David and Lord Richard Attenborough).⁴

Edward-Guthrum was created by Wulfstan, who was archbishop of York from 1002 until his death in 1023. In addition to his religious duties and responsibilities, Wulfstan of York became an influential figure within the court of Æthelred II, or ‘the Unready’, (r.978-1014 and 1014-1016) and helped to produce many of the King’s genuine law codes. Edward-Guthrum seems to have been created by Wulfstan to uphold the security and, to an extent, the authority of the Church in northern England, where Danish law was enforced.⁵ According to Wormald (p. 390), this appears to be evident from the second half of the preamble to Edward-Guthrum:

And they set worldly punishments also for those things for which they knew they might not otherwise regulate for the majority, knowing many a person would not otherwise submit to sacred remedy as they should. And thus they set a worldly remedy, in common with Christ and king, wherever a person would not submit legally to a sacred remedy as the bishops determine.⁶

Whitelock (pp. 7-9) highlights two reasons why Edward-Guthrum is a forgery. First, it uses many distinctive expressions, or formulae, which were frequently used by Wulfstan within his writings, including other law texts and homilies (Whitelock, p. 7). Second, the text uses terms not seen in any law code dating to before 1008, such as sibleger and leohtgesceot (Whitelock, pp. 8-9). Sibleger, meaning ‘incest’ in Old English, was an offence which features solely within the law codes of King Cnut (r.1016-1035), but also within Wulfstan’s writings (Whitelock, p. 8). Leohtgesceot was a church due, or payment, for lighting churches; this due also featured within Wulfstan’s works. There exist several lists of tenth-century church dues, and examples are found in Æthelstan’s Tithe Edict, Edmund’s First Law Code and Edgar’s Andover Code. Not one of these contains the term leohtgesceot (Whitelock, p. 9).

Yet before 1941, historians had good reason to believe Edward-Guthrum was genuine. After all, they had ten surviving land-granting charters,⁷ dating to the tenth century, which refer to a man called Guthrum who had the title dux or King. Some historians – for example, Thorpe (p. 166) and Attenborough (p. 97) – thought this could not have been the Guthrum, King of East Anglia, who had agreed the original peace with Edward the Elder’s father, Alfred the Great (r.871-899). This peace agreement is arguably found across two texts: the Treaty of Wedmore, which is a text with no surviving copies and which we only know about from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles,⁸ and the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum (hereafter Alfred-Guthrum).⁹ As Guthrum died in 890, the land grants, and consequently Edward-Guthrum, must have been referring to a second Guthrum (Thorpe, p. 166, note a), and it was this assertion which provided much of the rationale behind the idea that Edward-Guthrum was genuine.

The Textus Roffensis version of Edward-Guthrum is very closely related to a copy of the text found within the manuscript known as Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 383 (Wormald, p. 390).¹⁰ It also features within the Quadripartitus collection – a series of nine manuscripts¹¹ which in part provide a foundation to the Laws of Henry I, or the Leges Henrici Primi.¹² Edward-Guthrum features within seven of these manuscripts.¹³

Within Textus Roffensis, Edward-Guthrum is the only Danish peace document – a feature it shares with the manuscript known as British Library, Royal MS 11 B.ii. Textus Roffensis may not have included the genuine Alfred-Guthrum for two reasons. First, there may have been an unintentional omission by the scribe. Second, Textus Roffensis also includes the text known as Wergeld, which seems to be related to the earlier blood-feud laws of King Edmund (r.939-946) (Wormald, p. 390).¹⁴ Wormald explains that:

[Textus Roffensis] followed ‘Edward-Guthrum’ by Wergeld with no break, as if the two had become inextricably entwined, and it had no copy of Alfred-Guthrum at all. [Textus Roffensis’] copy[…], evidently disordered in that Wergeld came so hard on ‘Edward-Guthrum’, may just have lost Alfred-Guthrum, to which its rubric for ‘Edward-Guthrum’[…] should have applied (Wormald, p. 390).

It would therefore seem that the reasons behind Edward-Guthrum’s inclusion and Alfred-Guthrum’s exclusion from Textus Roffensis relied on the scribe and the texts’ transmission – the transmission being the way in which the texts were copied by scribe to scribe and from manuscript to manuscript.

In contrast, the aforementioned Cambridge manuscript has Edward-Guthrum following Alfred-Guthrum, which might suggest the scribe believed Edward-Guthrum was a successor to Alfred-Guthrum (Wormald, p. 390). Yet within Quadripartitus, Alfred-Guthrum and Edward-Guthrum are separated by a distinct third text, known evocatively as the Alfred-Guthrum Treaty Appendix.¹⁵ It is not clear why the scribe ordered these texts in this way within Quadripartitus; nevertheless, in this way, Edward-Guthrum is presented as a successor to Alfred-Guthrum (Wormald, p. 390).

The Peace of Edward-Guthrum may be a forgery by Wulfstan of York, but it provides a valuable insight into the importance, the peculiarities, and the occasionally complex transmission of early English laws.

Dr Alexander Thomas

Transcription

40r (select folio number to open facsimile)

Þis syndon þa domas ðe ælfred cyncg ⁊ guþrum
_AND þis is seo gerædnis, cyncg gecuran.
eac þe ælfred cyng, ⁊ guðrum cyng,
⁊ eft eadward cyng, ⁊ guðrum cyng
gecuran ⁊ gecwædon, þa þa engle ⁊ dene to fri-
þe ⁊ to freondscipe fullice fengon, ⁊ þa witan
eac þe syððan wæron oft ⁊ unseldan þæt seolfe
geniwodon, ⁊ mid gode gehihtan. Ðis ærest
þæt hig gecwædon, þæt hi ænne god lufian woldon,
⁊ ælcne hæþendom georne aweorpen.¹⁶ ⁊ hig
gesetton woruldlice steora eac for ðam þingum
þe hig wistan þæt hig elles ne mihton manegum
gesteoran, ne fela manna nolde to godcundre
bote elles gebugan swa hy sceolde. ⁊ þa woruld-
bote hig gesetton gemæne, criste, ⁊ cynge, swa
hwar swa man nolde godcunde bote gebugan
mid rihte to bisceopa dihte. ⁊ þæt is þonon æ-
rest þæt hig gecwædon, þæt cyricgrið binnan
wagum, ⁊ cyninges handgrið stande efne un-
wemme. ⁊ gif hwa cristendom wyrde, oððe
hæþendom weorþige, wordes oððe weorces,
gylde swa wer swa wite, swa lahslitte, be þam
þe syo dæde sy. ⁊ gyf gehadod man gestalie,
oððe gefeohte,¹⁷ oððe forswerige, oððe forlicge,

40v

gebete þæt be þam þe¹⁸ seo dæde sy, swa be were, swa be
wite, swa be lahslitte, ⁊ for gode huru bete swa
canon tæce, ⁊ þæs borh finde, oððe carcern¹⁹ ge-
buge. ⁊ gif mæssepreost folc miswyssige æt freol-
se, oððe æt fæstene, gylde xxx. scillinga mid englum,
⁊ mid denum þreo healf mare. Gif preost to riht-
andagan crisman ne fecce, oððe fulluhtes for-
wyrne, þam þe þæs þearf sy, gylde wite mid en-
glum, ⁊ mid denum lahslit, þæt is twelf oran. ⁊æt
syblegerum þa witan geræddan, þæt cyng ah þone
uferan, ⁊ bisceop þone nyþeran, butan hit man
gebete for gode ⁊ for worulde, be þam þe seo dæ-
de sy, swa bisceop getæce. Gif twegen gebro-
ðra, oððe twegen genyhe magas wið an wif for-
licgan, beten swyþe georne swa swa man geþafige,
swa be wite, swa be lah(slitte), be þam þe seo dæde sy. Gif gehadod man hine forwyrce mid deaþscyl-
de, gewilde hine man, ⁊ healde to bisceopes dome. ⁊ gif deaþscyldig man scrift spræce gyrne, ne
him man næfre ne wyrne. ⁊ ealle godes gerih-
to, forðige man georne be godes mildse,²⁰ ⁊ be þam
witan, þe witan toledan. Gif hwa teoþunge for-
healde, gylde lahslit mid denum, wite mid englum. Gif hwa romfeoh forhealde, gylde lahslit mid

41r

denum, wite mid englum. Gif hwa leohtgesceot ne
gelæste, gylde lahslit mid denum, wite mid englum. Gif hwa sulhælmyssan ne sylle, gylde lahslit mid
denum, wite mid englum. Gif hwa ænigra godcun-
dra gerihto forwyrne, gylde lahslit mid denum,
wite mid englum. ⁊ gif he wigie, ⁊ man gewundie,
beo his weres scyldig. Gif he man to deaþe ge-
fylle, beo he þonne utlah, ⁊ his hente mid he-
arme, ælc þara þe riht wille. ⁊ gif he gewyrce
þæt hine man afylle, þurh þi hine man gean godes
ryht, oððe þæs cynges geonbyrde, gif man þæt
gesoðige, licge ægylde. Sunnandæges cypinge
gif hwa agynne, þolie þæs ceapes, ⁊ twelf orena
mid denum, ⁊ xxx scillinga mid englum. Gif frigman
freolsdæge wyrce, ðolie his freotes, oððe gylde
wite lahslite. Ðeowman þolie his hyde, oððe hyd-
gyldes. Gif hlaford his þeowan freolsdæge
nyde to weorce, gylde lahslitte inne on deone
lage, ⁊ wite mid englum. Gif frigman rihtfæ-
sten abrece, gylde wite, oððe lahslite. Gif hit
þeowman gedo, ðolie his hyde, oððe hydgyldes. Ordel ⁊ aðas syndon tocwedene freolsdagum, ⁊
rihtfæstendagum, ⁊ se ðe þæt abrece, gylde
lahslit mid denum, wite mid englum. Gif man

41v

wealdan mage, ne dyde man næfre on sunnandæ-
ges freolse ænigne forwyrhtne, ac wylde ⁊ he-
alde, þæt se freolsdæg agan sy. Gif limlæweo
lama þe forworht wære weorþe forlæten, ⁊ he
æfter þam ðreo niht alibbe. Siððan man mot
hylpan be bisceopes leafe, se ðe wylle beorgan
sare ⁊ saule. Gif wiccan oððe wigleras, manswo-
ran, oððe morðwyrhtan, oððe fule afylede
æbære, horcwenan, ahwar on lande wurðan
agytene, ðonne fyse hi man of earde, ⁊ clæn-
sie þa ðeode, oððe on earde forfare hy mid eal-
le, buton hig geswican þe deoppar gebetan.²¹ Gif man gehadodne
oððe ælðeodigne þurh enig ðing forræde
æt feo oððe æt feore, þonne sceal him cyng be-
on oððan eorl ðær on lande, ⁊ bisceop ðere þeo-
de for mæg, ⁊ for mundboran, buton he elles oðer²²
ne²³ hæbbe, ⁊ bete man georne be ðam þe seo dæde sy,
criste ⁊ cyninge, swa hit gebyrige, oððe þa dæde
wrece swiðe deope, þe cyning sy on ðeode.²⁴

Translation

These are the judgements which King Alfred and King Guthrum approved.²⁵

And, moreover, this is the decree which King Alfred and King Guthrum,²⁶ and afterwards King Edward and King Guthrum, approved and proclaimed when the English and the Danes fully entered into peace and friendship; and the counsellors also,²⁷ who were later, often and frequently renewed the very same, and augmented it with good.²⁸

This is the first thing which they proclaimed, that they would love one God, and each would earnestly cast off heathendom. And they set worldly punishments also for those things for which they knew they might not otherwise regulate for the majority, knowing many a person would not otherwise submit to sacred remedy as they should.²⁹ And thus they set a worldly remedy, in common with Christ and king, wherever a person would not submit legally to a sacred remedy as the bishops determine.³⁰

And, therefore, this is first which they proclaimed, that the right of church sanctuary,³¹ and likewise the king’s protection, should stand unviolated.

And if anyone should violate Christianity or honour heathendom, in word or deed, that one should pay either wergild³² or a fine – or lahslit –³³ according to what the deed is.

And if an ordained person should steal, or fight, or falsely swear or fornicate, he should atone for it according to what the deed is, either by wergild or by a fine [Old English (OE) ‘wite’] – or by lahslit – and should atone especially before God as canon [law] teaches,³⁴ and should find surety for this or else go to prison.

And if a mass-priest should mislead the people with respect to festival or fasting,³⁵ he should pay 30 shillings among the English, and among the Danish three half-marks.³⁶

If a priest should not fetch the chrism at the right time or should refuse baptism, even though it is necessary, he should pay a fine [OE ‘wite’] among the English, and among the Danish lahslit, that is twelve oras.³⁷

And for incest the counsellors are to judge – the king has authority over the higher-ranked; a bishop, the lower-ranked – unless a person atones before God and before the world, according to what the deed is, as the bishop directs.

If two brothers, or two near relatives, lie with one woman, they should atone with great earnestness,³⁸ accordingly as one may decide, either by a fine [OE, ‘wite’] or by lahslit, according to what the deed is.

If an ordained person should become guilty himself of a crime deserving death, one should rule over him and hold to the bishop’s judgment.

If a condemned person should earnestly wish to confess, no one should ever refuse him.

And one should earnestly carry out all of God’s laws according to God’s mercy, and according to the penalty³⁹ which the [king’s] counsellors bring forth.

If someone should withhold a tithe payment, one should pay lahslit among the Danes, a fine [OE ‘wite’] among the English.

If someone should withhold Rome-money,⁴⁰ one should pay lahslit among the Danes, a fine [OE ‘wite’] among the English.

If someone should not meet the payment of ‘light-tax’,⁴¹ one should pay lahslit among the Danes, a fine [OE ‘wite] among the English.

If someone should not give plough-alms, one should pay lahslit among the Danes, a fine [OE ‘wite’] among the English.⁴²

If someone refuses any sacred dues, one should pay lahslit among the Danes, a fine [OE ‘wite’] among the English.

And if he should fight and wound someone, he should be liable for his wergild.

If he should put someone to death, he should then be an outlaw; and each of those who wishes justice may pursue and seize him with authority.⁴³

And if he should himself slay someone – through which he himself would strive against both God’s law and that of the king – if one may prove it to be true, he shall lie [dead] without compensation.⁴⁴

If someone should begin Sunday trading, that one should suffer the loss of the goods, and pay twelve oras among the Danish and 30 shillings among the English.

If a freeman should work on a feast day,⁴⁵ he should suffer the loss of his liberty, or pay a fine [OE ‘wite’] or lahslit. A slave should suffer the loss of his hide or [pay] a fine in lieu of flogging.⁴⁶

If a lord should oblige his slave to work on a feast day, he should pay lahslit within the Danelaw, and a fine [OE ‘wite’] among the English.

If a freeman should break a lawful fast,⁴⁷ he should pay a fine [OE ‘wite’] or lahslit. If a slave does this, he should suffer the loss of his hide or [pay] the fine in lieu of flogging.

An ordeal⁴⁸ and oaths shall be forbidden on feast days and lawful fasting days, and he who breaks that should pay lahslit among the Danes, a fine [OE ‘wite’] among the English.

If one has the power to govern, one should never put to death a criminal on any Sunday festival, but one should subdue and hold him until the feast day is passed.

If a criminal, who was maimed of limb, should be left [for dead], and after that he lives three nights, afterwards he who wishes to spare suffering and soul may help him, by the bishop’s leave.

If witches⁴⁹ or sorcerers, perjurers or murderers, or foul, polluted, notorious whores should be found to be anywhere in the land, then one should drive them from the country and cleanse the nation, or destroy them altogether in the country, unless they cease and then repent deeply.

If one should plot, through any means, against an ordained person or a foreigner,⁵⁰ with respect to property or life, then the king – or a jarl there in [Danish] land⁵¹ – and a bishop of the people shall be as kin and as protector, unless he may have someone else. And one should, as is fitting, atone earnestly according to the deed that has been done to Christ and king,⁵² who is king among the people; or one should punish the deed very severely.

Websites

Bosworth-Toller. Bosworth Toller’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online

Early English Laws, Early English Laws: Home

Sawyer, The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, Electronic Sawyer: The Electronic Sawyer (cam.ac.uk)

Bibliography

Attenborough, F. L., The Laws of the Earliest English Kings (Russell and Russell, 1922).

Baker, P. S. (ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition (MS F) (D. S. Brewer, 2000).

Bately, J. M. (ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition (MS A) (D. S. Brewer, 1986).

Charles-Edwards, Thomas, ‘The Penitential of Theodore and the Iudicia Theodori’, in Archbishop Theodore: Commemorative Studies on His Life and Influence, ed. Michael Lapidge (Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 141-74.

Corèdon, Christopher, with Ann Williams, A Dictionary of Medieval Terms & Phrases (D. S. Brewer, 2004).

Cross, J. E. and Andrew Hamer, ed. and trans., Wulfstan’s Canon Law Collection (D. S. Brewer, 1999).

Cubbin, G. P. (ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition (MS D) (D. S. Brewer, 1996).

Cubitt, Catherine, ‘Bishops, Priests and Penance in Late Anglo-Saxon England’, Early Medieval Europe 14 (2006), pp. 41-63.

Downer, L. J. (ed.), Leges Henrici Primi (Clarendon Press, 1972).

Irvine, S. (ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition (MS E) (D. S. Brewer, 2004).

Jayakumar, S., ‘Some Reflections on the “Foreign Policies” of Edgar “the Peaceable”’, Haskins Society Journal 10 (2002), pp. 17-38.

Jurasinski, Stefan, The Old English Penitentials and Anglo-Saxon Law (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Keynes, Simon, ‘Alms’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes and Donald Scragg (Blackwell Publishing, 1999), p. 31.

Lambert, Tom, Law and Order in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2017).

Liebermann, F., Die Gesetze Der Angelsachsen Hrsg. Im Auftrage Der Savigny-Stiftung (Niemeyer, 1903). Available at Early English Laws.

Miglio, Viola Giulia, ‘Old Norse and Old English Language Contact: Scandinavian Legal Terminology in Anglo-Saxon Laws’, Nordicum-Mediterraneum 5 (1), available as an open access article at Old Norse and Old English Language Contact: Scandinavian Legal Terminology in Anglo-Saxon Laws - Nordicum-Mediterraneum (unak.is)

Monk, Christopher J., ‘Framing Sex: Sexual Discourse in Text and Image in Anglo-Saxon England (Manchester University, unpublished PhD thesis, 2012), available here.

Nightingale, Pamela, ‘The Ora, the Mark, and the Mancus: Weight-Standards and the Coinage in Eleventh-Century England: Part 2’, The Numismatic Chronicle, vol. 144 (1984), pp. 234-48.

O’Keeffe, K. O. (ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition (MS C) (D. S. Brewer, 2001).

Staffrod, Pauline, ‘Ealdorman’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes and Donald Scragg (Blackwell Publishing, 1999), pp. 152-53.

Taylor, S. (ed.), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition (MS B) (D. S. Brewer, 1983).

Thorpe, B., Ancient Laws and Institutes of England: Comprising Laws Enacted Under the Anglo-Saxon Kings from Aethelbirht to Cnut (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1840).

Whitelock, D., ‘Wulfstan and the So-Called Laws of Edward and Guthrum’, The English Historical Review 56 (1941), pp. 1-21. Available at JSTOR.

Wormald, P., “Quadripartitus”, Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy Essays in Honour of Sir James Holt, ed. Hudson J. and Garnett G. (Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 111-147.

Wormald, P., The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, Vol. 1 Legislation and Its Limits (Blackwell, 1999).

Yorke (a), B. A. E., ‘Councils, King’s’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes and Donald Scragg (Blackwell Publishing, 1999), pp. 124-25.

Yorke (b), B. A. E., ‘Guthrum’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes and Donald Scragg (Blackwell Publishing, 1999), p. 223.

Footnotes

1 An imposture, or forgery, written by Wulfstan, archbishop of York (1002-23), thus giving us the eleventh-century date.

2 Sincere thanks to Elise Fleming for proofreading this introduction, translation and notes.

3 See Whitelock’s paper “Wulfstan and the so-called Laws of Edward and Guthrum” (1941). See bibliography for the full reference.

4 See for references to Edward-Guthrum, Felix Liebermann, pp. 128-134; Benjamin Thorpe pp. 166-176; and Frederick Levi Attenborough, pp. 102-109. Please refer to the bibliography for full references.

5 See the introduction for Edward-Guthrum on Early English Laws [accessed 8th March 2023].

6 Translation by Christopher Monk; see his full translation below.

7 See Sawyer, charter numbers S393, S400, S405, S412, S413, S416, S417, S418, S418a and S434 [accessed 8th March 2023].

8 The Treaty of Wedmore (also known as the Treaty of Chippenham) established a peace between the West Saxons and the Danes following a decades long conflict. It also resulted in Guthrum, King of East Anglia, and several of his men being baptised in the Christian faith personally by Alfred the Great. For various accounts of the Treaty of Wedmore, see Taylor, pp. 36-37, for the Abingdon I Chronicle; Bately, pp. 50-51, for the Winchester or Parker Chronicle; Cubbin, p. 27, for the Worcester Chronicle; Baker, pp. 71-72, for the Bilingual Canterbury Epitome; O’Keeffe, pp. 61-62, for the Abingdon II Chronicle; and Irvine, pp. 50-51, for the Peterborough or Laud Chronicle. Full references are given in the bibliography.

9 In contrast to Wedmore, copies of Alfred-Guthrum still exist. The text established a boundary between south-west and north-east England and introduced new regulations to aid relations between the two sides. See Early English Laws [accessed 9th March 2023] for more information on this text. Alexander Thomas’ doctoral thesis, which examined the boundary Alfred-Guthrum created, can be found within the British Library’s EThOS catalogue.

10 Within his The Making of English Law book (see bibliography for full reference) Wormald follows Liebermann’s system of assigning sigla (abbreviations) to early English manuscripts and law texts. For example, Textus Roffensis is given the siglum H, Edward-Guthrum is abbreviated to EGu, and the Cambridge manuscript is referred to as B.

11 For this introduction, the four manuscripts known as the “London Collection” are also included. See Patrick Wormald’s chapter on the Quadripartitus, pp. 111-147, for a fuller explanation. A full reference can be found within the bibliography.

12 The Laws of Henry I provide a record of those enforced during the reign of the King. The Laws contain aspects of pre-Norman Conquest texts among other evident sources. See L. J. Downer’s book and Early English Laws [accessed 9th March 2023] for more information on this text. Full references can be found in the bibliography.

13 This includes a manuscript within the “London Collection” as well as Textus Roffensis itself.

14 A transcription and translation of Wergeld is being prepared for the Textus Roffensis pages on this website; see also Early English Laws [accessed 9th March 2023].

15 See Wormald, pp. 379-80; and Jayakumar, p. 23, note 30.

16 The first ‘e’ in ‘aweorpen’ is inserted above the line.

17 The ‘o’ in ‘gefeohte’ is inserted above the line.

18 ‘þe’ is inserted above the line.

19 The second ‘r’ of ‘carcern’ is inserted above the line.

20 The ‘l’ of ‘mildse’ is inserted above the line.

21 ‘þe deoppor gebetan’ appears in the left margin. The scribe provides an insertion mark after ‘geswican’ with a corresponding mark alongside the text in the margin.

22 ‘oðer’ appears in the right margin.

23 ‘ne’ appears in the left margin.

24 In the manuscript the text known as Wergeld – beginning ‘Twelf’ – has been appended as if it carries straight on from Peace of Edward and Guthrum; however, the two are discrete texts. A transcription and translation of Wergeld is forthcoming for the Textus Roffensis pages of this website.

25 The heading was likely provided by the Textus Roffensis scribe, rather than included in the manuscript he was copying.

26 Barbara Yorke explains that, ‘Guthrum was the leader of a Viking force which joined the Great Army in England in 871. He came close to overcoming King Alfred of Wessex in 878 when he forced him into hiding after a surprise attack. Later in the same year Guthrum was decisively defeated at the battle of Edington and agreed to be baptised with Alfred as his godfather. Guthrum retreated to rule the Viking settlers in East Anglia and issued coins in his baptismal name of Æthelstan. The text of a treaty survives which Guthrum made with Alfred between 878 and his death in 890.’ See Yorke (b) in the bibliography.

27 The king’s counsellors or advisers were known collectively in Old English as the witan, literally ‘wise ones’ or ‘wise men’; we might use the modern term ‘king’s council’ to approximate the collective role. Those advising the king included members of the royal house, archbishops and bishops, prominent abbots, ‘ealdormen’ and other leading laymen, such as thegns. Occasionally, the queen or queen-mother and abbesses would have been consulted; for further information, see the overview in Yorke (a); details in bibliography.

28 Wulfstan rather cunningly alludes to later royal counsellors augmenting the decree with ‘good’. It would seem that such ‘good’ included his own fabrications! Perhaps the fact that Alfred and Guthrum had actually produced a peace treaty, which included various laws relating to criminal and legal matters (this treaty is not preserved in Textus Roffensis), gave the archbishop enough truth upon which to build his fictional set of laws.

29 ‘remedy’, or ‘penance’.

30 ‘sacred remedy as the bishops determine’. The allusion is probably to the use of penitentials – handbooks used by priests – for determining the amount of fasting due as penance for a wide variety of sins. For the role of bishops in the practice of penance, see Cubitt. A number of English penitentials were circulating from as early as the eighth century, including one Anglo-Latin penitential attributed to (though not actually written by) Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury (668-90), and, during Wulfstan’s time, several vernacular penitentials. For more on the vernacular penitentials, see Jurasinski, and, especially in the context of sexual sins, Monk; for the penitential of Theodore, see Charles-Edwards, and, especially in the context of sexual sins, Monk, appendix 2, pp. 254-60; see the bibliography for all references.

31 ‘church sanctuary’, literally, ‘church-peace within the walls’.

32 ‘wer’ is used in the text, an abbreviation for wergild, which is the monetary value placed on the life of a free person, used in early English laws in matters of compensation and fines.

33 ‘or a fine [OE ‘wite] or lahslit’. Attention is paid from this point in the law-code to the corresponding English and Danish terms, wite and lahslit, which in this context both mean ‘fine’. Viola Giulia Miglio explains concerning the term lahslit: ‘The term is of Scandinavian origin, and enters OE as lahslit […]: it means “breach of the law” or “fine for perturbing the peace/ for a committed crime”. […] A cognate is not found in ON [Old Norse], but this OE term is equivalent to ON lögbrot “breaking of the law”.’ (Miglio, 4.3; see the bibliography)

34 Wulfstan seems to be alluding to his ‘Canon law’ collection, a collation of religious and moral laws and regulations written by or attributed to figures of authority in the Christian Church; an edition and translation of Wulfstan’s collection is available, written by J. E. Cross and Andrew Hamer (see Cross in the bibliography).

35 ‘festival or fasting’, referring to Christian festivals – or feast days – and fasting periods assigned by the Church.

36 The Danish mark was a weight-standard measurement, composed of eight oras. Pamela Nightingale observes that ‘there is no evidence’ that it ‘was adopted in England outside the Danelaw before Cnut’s conquest’. The ‘half-mark’ is first referred to in English sources in the treaty of Alfred and Guthrum where it is used as the weight for gold. She continues to note its appearance in the law-codes of the Danelaw but that ‘even there it seems to have survived more as a traditional fine, rather than as the normal accounting unit or standard of weight’ (Nightingale, p. 235; see bibliography).

37 There were eight oras in the Danish mark (Nightingale, p.234; see bibliography), so this is the same fine as in the previous clause.

38 To understand this, we need to take into account Canon law, which forbade the marriage of a surviving brother to his deceased brother’s widow, as she was considered the surviving brother’s sister (Cross, pp. 153-54, no. 139; see bibliography). Moreover, Canon law stated that the man who married his brother’s wife or the wife of a ’blood-relation’ was to be excommunicated (Cross, p. 154, no. 140). With this clarification, the ‘they’ evidently means the unlawfully married couple, who according to Canon law would be expected to separate, (Cross, p. 102, no. 85), not simply atone with acts of penance. We see, then, with this clause, that the theme of incest of the previous clause is continued.

39 ‘according to the penalty’: reading OE ‘þam witan’ as ‘þam wite’.

40 Alms payments to Rome began in England at least as early as the eighth century when Offa, king of the Mercians (r. 757-96) promised a sizeable sum (365 mancuses) each year to the pope for supporting the poor and for the provision of lights. In the time of Alfred, king of Wessex (r. 871-99), the practice of sending payments to Rome appears to have continued, though there is no clear evidence that at this point individual households contributed to this. That romfeoh, ‘Rome-money’, was expected to be paid by all Christian men by the mid-tenth century is clear – essentially, it developed into the tax known as ‘Peter’s pence’, levied at one penny per household payable annually by St Peter’s Day, August 1st (Keynes; see bibliography). The inclusion in this present set of laws of a punishment against anyone not paying this Church due supports the conclusion that Wulfstan was its author.

41 i.e. a tax to fund church candles.

42 ‘Plough alms’ evidently refers to a penny taxation at Easter for each plough within a village; see sulh-ælmesse in Bosworth-Toller, and Eleemosyna carucarum in Corèdon (see bibliography).

43 This alludes to the legally acceptable practice of feuding – taking vengeance through killing – by the family members of the victim in order to satisfy justice. Feuding, using violence, including killing, to avenge an affront to one’s honour, was culturally ingrained in early medieval societies in England; a useful discussion of how feuding was integrated into social order can be found in chapter 5 of Lambert (see bibliography).

44 That is, the family of the man committing homicide cannot claim compensation when vengeance is taken against him.

45 Or ‘festival’, i.e. on a religious holiday.

46 ‘loss of his hide [OE ‘hyde’], or ‘skin’, i.e. the slave is to be flogged; ‘a fine in lieu of flogging’, literally, the ‘hide-payment’ or ‘skin-payment’ (OE ‘hyd-gyldes’); the same penalty appears below.

47 In the sense that the fast is appointed according to Christian law or tradition, for example, the fasting period associated with Lent.

48 i.e. trial by ordeal.

49 Or, ‘wizards’.

50 Perhaps meaning a foreigner on pilgrimage.

51 ‘jarl’, translating OE ‘eorl’; eorl began to replace ealdorman during the reign of Cnut, king of England (r. 1016-35), both terms broadly meaning ‘nobleman’ (see Stafford, p. 153). In the context of this present law, where the focus is on distinguishing English and Danish legal terminology and practice, ‘jarl’ seems the most appropriate translation, as it was the title given to Danish chieftains within the Danelaw.

52 As the victim is under the protection of the king and bishop, the deed is, in effect, an assault on the honour of both Christ and the king.

Æthelstan’s Grately Code, c.926-c.930

Æthelstan’s Grately Code, dating to c. 926-c.930¹, concerns thievery, treachery to lords; the selling and buying of goods, Sunday trading, the punishments for arson and ‘secret’ murder by means of witchcraft; and the treatment of slaves. Transcription and translation from Old English of Textus Roffensis folios 32v-37r by Dr Christopher Monk.²

Background

Æthelstan was ‘king of the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes’ from either 924 or 925 to 927, and subsequently ‘king of the English’ from 927 until his death in October of 939 (Keynes, p. 514). He is often considered ‘the first English monarch’ (Foot, p. 10). Æthelstan’s major set of laws, known today as the Grately Code, survives in full in its original Old English only in Textus Roffensis. A truncated copy is found in an important compilation of Old English laws in a contemporaneous Cambridge University manuscript;³ and a few charred fragments from an early eleventh-century manuscript survive in the British Library.⁴ The text is known as the Grately Code because Grately, Hampshire, is the place from where the laws were probably issued. Though Grately is not mentioned in Textus Roffensis, the Latin version of the laws, that survives in the extensive legal collection known as Quadripartitus, produced during the reign of Henry I (r.1100-1135),⁵ does contain the statement that, ‘All this was established at the great assembly at Grately, at which Archbishop Wulfhelm was present and all the nobles and councillors whom King Athelstan could gather together.’ Dorothy Whitelock, whose English translation this is, suggests this may have come from a lost prologue to the law code (Whitelock, p. 422, and n. 1).

Content and themes

The main theme of Æthelstan’s Grately Code is thievery, but there are others too, including treachery to lords; the selling and buying of goods – Sunday trading is legislated against; the punishments for arson and murder, specifically ‘secret’ murder by means of witchcraft; and the treatment of slaves in various contexts is also touched upon. Within the Textus Roffensis web pages there is huge scope to develop further interpretive work about Æthelstan’s impact on law and order in early medieval England. For now, I would like to draw attention to two highlights within the Grately Code: the judicial process of the ordeals, and the concept of disobedience to the king.

The ordeals

I will be writing a more detailed post on the nature and significance of the judicial ordeals in early English laws but at this point I want to explain the basic principles of those ordeals mentioned in the Grately Code. The subsequent action taken against a ‘guilty’ person once the ordeal had finished varied significantly, depending on the circumstances of the crime and the person committing the crime; this is quite clear from reading Æthelstan’s pronouncements, below. I will endeavour to explore this aspect, too, in my future post. The ‘water-ordeal’, sometimes called the ‘cold water’ ordeal, refers to the plunging of an accused individual into cold water, probably a natural body of water, to the depth of one and a half ells, an ell probably being 45 inches or 114 cm (Zupko, p. 119). If the person sank, they were deemed without guilt; if they did not sink, then guilt was established.⁶ The ‘iron-ordeal’, sometimes called the ordeal by hot iron,⁷ involved the accused carrying in hand a piece of iron that had been heated on coals; it was carried for nine of his or her feet. This information is provided in the slightly later, anonymous law code known as Ordal; for my translation of this text go to Trial by Ordeal, mid-10th century — Rochester Cathedral. The Grately Code states that ‘there should be three nights before one undoes the hand’, an allusion to the part of the judicial process that involved the sealing – wrapping up in cloth – of the accused’s burnt hand and subsequent inspection of it for signs of innocence or guilt. Ordal is more explicit in its explanation of this part of the ordeal, stating that it should be determined on the third day ‘whether it be foul or clean inside the seal’. Neither text, however, clearly identifies the judicial significance of this: that if the hand is ‘foul’, then guilt is established; and if ‘clean’, then the individual is innocent. What is very interesting on this matter is the repeated use in the Grately Code of the Old English (OE) word ful to mean guilty. Sometimes, ful is used with direct reference to the ordeals, and at other times the judicial process of the ordeals is only implied. The core meaning of ful is ‘foul’, and in the context of disease and wounds means ‘festering’;⁸ this is how it is used in Ordal. Clearly, from the body of Old English legal texts, we can appreciate that the word also takes on a broader sense of ‘guilty’. Every time, however, that we read ful in the Grately Code, and elsewhere, we are tapping into a darkly visceral moment from early medieval history, to that point when the burnt hand of an accused had become infected, its foulness not merely indicating the beginnings of putrefaction but, more profoundly, guilt.

The threefold ordeal

It’s important to briefly look at the phrase ‘threefold ordeal’ that appears in the Grately Code, as its meaning is not explained therein. It is used directly in connection with the specific crimes of treachery to a lord, breaking into a church, and the deployment of witchcraft and sorcery leading to ‘murders’ – what might be usefully thought of as ‘secret’ killings.⁹ The use of the threefold ordeal is also implied for the crimes of arson and avenging a thief. We need, however, to turn to another Textus Roffensis law code, Be blaserum ⁊ be morðslihtum (‘Concerning arsonists and murders’), to grasp the meaning behind the use of ‘threefold’. Be Blaserum is an anonymous law code, and was perhaps a reformulating by local officials of Æthelstan’s commands about arson and murder – ‘at ground level’, as Wormald puts it (Wormald, pp. 367-38). You can find my translation of this law code here. Be blaserum shows that the ‘threefold’ aspect relates to two things: the accused must find three times as many ‘oath-supporters’ in order to avoid the ordeal; and, if unsuccessful in this, must face the iron-ordeal using a piece of iron three times as heavy as that used for the so-called ‘single’, or ‘simple’,¹⁰ ordeal. That is, the burning hot piece of iron would have weighed three pounds instead of the usual one. Though not part of the Grately Code, I should also mention another ordeal that had a ‘threefold’ aspect, namely the judgement by hot water.¹¹ Be blaserum explains that this required the accused to plunge the hand or arm into a cooking pot of boiling water to grasp a stone at the bottom, either ‘as far as the wrist’ for a ‘single’ ordeal or ‘up to his elbow’ for a ‘threefold’ ordeal. This three-fold feature of ordeals points to certain circumstances wherein more stringent measures were considered as necessary in the judicial process, something I will explore further in my future post.

The concept of disobedience to the king

There are numerous references within the laws of both Æthelstan and his predecessor, his father Edward the Elder (r. 899-924), to the payment of a fine for ‘disobedience’ (oferhyrness) to the king. It appears six times in the Grately Code. Tom Lambert observes regarding this ‘ideological concept’ that ‘[i]t seems to imply a royal right to issue commands not to engage in certain types of wrongdoing and to punish those who disobeyed’ (Lambert, p. 213). The types of wrongdoing associated with the ‘disobedience’ fine, argues Lambert, ‘could be characterised as breaches of legal procedure’ and ‘are all related to the proper functioning of legal structures’ (Lambert, pp. 213-14). In the example of the Grately Code, the fine is to be issued for those who refuse to attend assemblies; for the refusal to ride out on an enforcement raid (where a guilty person has his goods removed by the senior men of the borough and he is put under forced surety); for the receiving of another lord’s man who has been charged with a crime (thus helping him evade punishment); and finally, mentioned toward the end of the set of laws, it is to be issued against royal reeves who fail, fully or in part, to carry out the laws of the Grately Code. Lambert goes on to make the astute observation that we must not think that the ‘disobedience’ fine meant that that ‘kings had a general right to command their subjects and to punish disobedience’ outside the specific area of legal procedure (Lambert, p. 214).¹² He continues,

We certainly have no grounds for thinking that kings felt it appropriate to issue more sweeping commands encompassing forms of serious wrongdoing – commands that nobody commit theft or homicide, for example – and then to justify royal punishment of those acts with the theory that they constituted disobedience (Lambert, p. 214).

In other words, a king may issue a code of laws, but things like theft and homicide were viewed as crimes against the peace of the realm – everyone’s peace, we might say – not direct acts of disobedience to the king. Where certain duties to participate in communal legal procedures were not met, however, such was indeed viewed, at least by Æthelstan and his advisors, as disobedience to the king.

A note on reconstructions in the transcription

Water damage has affected the tops of all the Textus folios for the Grately Code, causing some of the text of the first few lines of each page to fade. Though most of the text is still legible, especially when using the zoom facility on the digital facsimile, some words are very difficult to make out. Therefore, the badly faded words in the opening few lines have been reconstructed in the transcript below by comparing the Cambridge University manuscript. Other reconstructions of other folios are guided by a sixteenth-century transcript of the British Library manuscript,¹³ made before it was largely destroyed in the infamous Cottonian fire of 1731.¹⁴ Reconstructions are shown in grey, rather than black, font.

Transcription

32v (select folio number to open facsimile)

Æþelstanes gerænesse. ¹⁵

33r

Ærest þæt man ne sparige nænne þeof ðe æt¹⁶
hæbbendre handa gefangen sy, ofer xii ¹⁷
winter, ⁊ ofer eahta peningas, ⁊¹⁸ gif hit hwa do,
forgylde ðone þeof be his were, ⁊ ne beo þam þeofe
na ðe geþingodre, oþþe hine be þam geladie. ¹⁹ Gif he hine þonne²⁰ werian²¹ wille oððe
oðfleo, ðonne ne sparige hine man.
Gif man ðeof on carcerne gebringe, ðæt he beo
xl nihta²² on carcerne, ⁊ hine man ðonne alyse²³ ut
mid cxx scillingum ⁊ ga seo mægþ him on borh ðæt he
æfre geswice. ⁊ gif he ofer ðæt stalige, forgildan hy
hine be his were, oþþe hine eft ðær inne gebrin-
gan. ⁊ gif hine hwa²⁴ forstande, forgilde
hine be his were, swa þam cyninge swa ðam ðe hit
mid ryhte togebyrige, ⁊ ælc man²⁵ ðara ðe þær mid
stande, gesylle ðam cyninge cxx scillinga to wite. Ond we cwædon
be þam hlafordleasan mannum, ðe man nan
ryht ætbegytan ne mæg, þæt man beode ðære
mægþe, ðæt hi hine to folcryhte gehamette,
⁊ him hlaford finden on folcgemote. ⁊ gif hi
hine ðonne begytan nyllen, oððe ne mægen to þam andagan, ²⁶
ðonne beo he syþþan flyma, ⁊ hine lecge for
ðeof se þe²⁷ him tocume, ⁊ se ðe hine ofer ðæt
feormige, forgylde hine be his were, oþþe he

33v

hine be ðam ladige. be ryhtes wærnunge.
Se hlaford se ryhtes wyrne, and for his yfelan
man²⁸ licge, ⁊ man ðone cing foregesece,²⁹ forgilde þæt
ceapgild, ⁊ gesylle þam cynge cxx scillinga. ⁊ se ðe
ðone cyng gesece³⁰ ær he him ryhtes bidde, swa oft swa him to gebyrie,³¹ gilde ðæt
ilce wite þe se oþer sceolde gif he him ryhtes
wyrnde. ⁊ se hlaford þe his ðeowan æt þyfþe ge-
wita sy, ⁊ hit him on open wurðe, ðolige ðæs þeo-
wan, ⁊ beo his weres³² scyldig æt frumcyrre. Gif he hit ofter do, beo he ealles scyldig þæs he
age, ⁊ eac swilce cynges hordera oððe ure gere-
fena swilc ðære ðeofa gewita wære ðe staledon,
beo he be ðam ilcan. be hlafordsearwum. Ond we cwædon be hlafordsearwe, ðæt he beo his
feores scyldig, gif he his ætsacan ne mihte, oþþe
eft on þam þrimfealdum ordale ful wære. ⁊ we cwædon be ciricbryce, gif he ful wære on ðam
ðryfealdan ordale, bete be þam þe seo domboc
secge. be wiccecræftum.
Ond we cwædon be þam wiccecræftum, ⁊ be libla-
cum, ⁊ be morðdædum, gif man þær³³ acweald wære,
⁊ he his ætsacan ne mihte, þæt he beo his feores
scyldig. Gif he þonne ætsacan wille, ⁊ on ðam
þrimfealdum ordale ful weorðe, þæt he beo cxx.

34r

nihta on carcerne, ⁊ nimen þa magas hine siððan
ut, ⁊ gesyllan þam cynge cxx scillinga, ⁊ forgildan
ðone wer his magum, ⁊ gangon him on borh,
ðæt he æfre swylces³⁴ geswice. be blæserum. Ða blysieras, and þa ðe ðeof wrecon, beon þæs il-
can ryhtes wyrðe, ⁊ se þe ðeof wrecan wille, ⁊
nanne man ne gewundige, gesylle þam cyninge
cxx. scillinga to wite³⁵ for ðan æthlype.³⁶ ⁊ we cwædon be ðam
anfealdum ordale æt þam mannum þe oft be-
ti_htlede wæron, ⁊ hy fule wurdon, ⁊ hy ni_ton
hwa hy on borh nime, gebringe man hy³⁷ on carcer-
ne, ⁊ man hy don ut swa hit her beforan gecweden³⁸
is. be landleasum mannum. Ond we cwædon gif hwylc landleas man folgode
on oþre scire, ⁊ eft his magas gesece, þæt
he hine on þa gerad feormige, ðæt he hine to
folcryhte gelæde,³⁹ gif he þær gylt gewyrce, oþþe forebete.⁴⁰
Se ðe yrfe befo, be yrfes ætfenge.
nemne him man v men his neahgebura, ⁊ begite
ðara v, i ðæt him midswerige, þæt he hit on folc
ryht him toteo, ⁊ se þe hit him geagnian wille,
nemne him man x men,⁴¹ ⁊ begite þara twegen, ⁊ sylle
þone að þæt hit on his æhte geboren wære,
butan þam⁴² rimaðe, ⁊ stande þæs cyreaþ ofer xx

34v

be hwearfe. penega.⁴³ ⁊ nan man ne hwyrfe nanes yrfes bu-
tan ðæs gerefan gewitnesse, oððe þæs mæsse-
preostes, oððe þæs landhlafordes, oþþe þæs
horderes, oððe oþres ungelygenes⁴⁴ mannes. Gif
hit hwa do, gesylle xxx scillinga to wite, ⁊ fo se land-
hlaford to þam hwearfe.⁴⁵ be wohre⁴⁶ gewitnesse.
Gif man þonne afinde þæt heora⁴⁷ ænig on wohre⁴⁸
gewitnesse wære, þæt næfre his gewitnes eft
naht ne forstande, ⁊ eac gesylle xxx scillinga to wite. Ond we cwædon, se ðe scyldunga⁴⁹ bæde æt ofslage-
num þeofe, ðæt he eode ðreora sum to,⁵⁰ twegen on fæde-
ran maga, ⁊ þridda on medren, ⁊ þone aþ syllen
ðæt hy on heora⁵¹ mæge⁵² nane þyfðe nyston, ðæt
he his feores wyrðe nære for ðam gilte, ⁊ hy gan
siððan xii sume, ⁊ gescyldigen hine swa hit
ær gecweden wæs. ⁊ gif ðæs deadan mægas ðider
cuman noldon to ðam andagan, gilde ælc ðe hit
ær sprece cxx scillinga. Ond we cwædon þæt man nænne ceap ne gecea-
pige butan porte ofer xx penega, ac ceapige
ðær binnan on þæs portgerefan gewitnesse,
oððe on⁵³ oþres unlygenes⁵⁴ mannes, oððe eft on þara
gerefena gewitnesse on folcgemote. Ond we cweðaþ ðæt ælc burh sy gebet xiiii.

35r

niht ofer gangdagas.⁵⁵ Oþer þæt ælc ceaping sy bin-
nan porte.⁵⁶ Þridda þæt an mynet, sy ofer eall ðæs
cynges onweald, ⁊ nan man ne mynetige butan on
porte. ⁊ gif se mynetere ful wurðe, slea man of
þa hand, ðe he ðæt ful mid worhte, ⁊ sette uppon⁵⁷
ða mynetsmiððan. ⁊ gif hit þonne tyhtle sy,
⁊ he hine ladi_an wille, ðonne ga he to þam hatum
isene, ⁊ ladige þa hand mid ðe man tyhð ðæt he
þæt facen mid worhte. ⁊ gif he on þam ordale ful
wurðe, do man þæt ilce swa hit ær beforan cwæð. On cantwarabyrig
vii myneteras, iiii ðæs cynges, ⁊ ii þæs⁵⁸ biscopes, i
ðæs abbodes. To hrofeceastre ii cynges, ⁊ i þæs⁵⁹ bi-
scopes. To lundenbyrig viii. To wintaceastre vi. To læwe ii. To hæstingaceastre i. Oþer to cisse-
ceastre. To hamtune ii. To wærham ii. To exece-
astre ii. To sceaftesbyrig ii. Elles to þam oþrum
burgum i.
Feorðe, þæt nan scyldwyrhta ne lecge nan scepes
fellon⁶⁰ scyld, ⁊ gif he hit do, gilde xxx scillinga.
Fifte, ðæt ælc man hæbbe æt þære syhl ii ge-
horsede men. Syxte, gif hwa æt þeofe medsceatt⁶¹ nime, ⁊
oþres ryht afylle, beo he⁶² his weres scyldig.

35v

Seofoðe, þæt nan man ne sylle nan hors ofer sæ, butan he
hit gifan wille. Ond we cwædon be þeowan men gif he ful wurþe
æt þam ordale þæt man gulde þæt ceapgild, ⁊
swinge hine man⁶³ ðriwa, oððe þæt oþer gild sealde, ⁊ sy
þæt wite be healfum wurðe æt þam ðeowum. Gif hwa gemot forsitte
þriwa, gilde ðæs cynges oferhyrnesse, ⁊ hit beo
seofon nihtum ær geboden ær ðæt gemot sy. Gif he þonne ryht wyrcan nylle, ne þa oferhyr-
nesse syllan, þonne ridan þa yldestan men to ealle
þe to⁶⁴ þære byrig hiron, ⁊ nimon eall ðæt he age, ⁊
setton hine on borh. Gif hwa þonne⁶⁵ nylle ridan mid
his geferan, gilde cynges oferhyrnesse. And⁶⁶ beode man on þam gemote ðæt man eall⁶⁷ friþi-
ge þæt se cyng friþian wille, ⁊ forga þyfðe be his
feore, ⁊ be eallum þam þe he⁶⁸ age, ⁊ se þe be witum
geswican nylle, ðonne ridan þa yldestan⁶⁹ men to ealle
þe⁷⁰ to þære byrig hyron, ⁊ nimon eall ðæt he age,
⁊ fo se cyng to healfum, to healfum ða men
ðe on þære rade beon, ⁊ setton hine on borh. Gif he
nite hwa hine aborgie hæfton hine. Gif he nylle hit⁷¹
geþafian, leton hine licgan⁷² butan he ætwinde. Gif
hwa hine wrecan wille, oððe hine fælæce, þonne

36r

beo he fah wið ðone cyng ⁊ wið ealle his freond. Gif he ætwinde, ⁊ hwa hine feormige, sy he his
weres scyldig, butan he hine ladian⁷³ durre, be þæs flyman were⁷⁴
þæt⁷⁵ he hine flyman nyste.
Gif hwa þingie for ordal, ðingie on ðam ceapgilde
þæt he mæge, ⁊ naht on ðam wite, butan hit
se gifan wille, þe hit togebyrige. ⁊ ne underfo nan
man oþres mannes man butan his leafe þe he
ær folgode. Gif hit hwa do agife þone man, ⁊ bete
cynges oferhyrnesse, ⁊ nan man ne tæce his ge-
tihtledan man fram him, ær he hæbbe ryht
geworht. Gif hwa ordales weddige, ðonne cume he þrim
nihtum ær to þam mæssepreoste þe hit halgian
scyle, and fede hine sylfne mid hlafe, ⁊ mid wæ-
tere, ⁷⁶ ⁊ sealte, ⁊ wyrtum ær he togan scyle, ⁊ ge-
stande him mæssan þæra þreora daga ælcne,
⁊ geoffrige⁷⁷ to, ⁊ ga to husle ðy dæge þe he to ðam
ordale gan scyle, ⁊ swerige ðonne þane að, þæt
he sy mid folcryhte unscyldig ðære tihtlan,
ær he to þam ordale ga. ⁊ gif hit sy⁷⁸ wæter, ðæt he
gedufe oþre healfe elne on þam rape. Gif hit
sy ysenordal, beon ðreo niht ær man þa hand
undo, ⁊ ofga ælc man his tihtlan mid foreaðe

36v

swa we ær cwædon, ⁊ beo þæra ælc fæstende on ægþera⁷⁹
hand⁸⁰ se ðær mid sy, on⁸¹ godes bebode, ⁊ ðæs ærcebi-
scopes, ⁊ ne beo ðær on naþre healfe⁸² na⁸³ ma manna
þonne xii. Gif se getihtloda man ðonne⁸⁴ maran we-
rude beo þonne twelfa sum, þonne beo þæt ordal
forad, butan hy him fram gan willan. Ond se þe yrfe bycge on gewitnesse, ⁊ hit eft
tyman scyle þonne onfo se⁸⁵ his, þe he hit ær ætbohte,
beo he swa freoh swa ðeow, swa hweðer⁸⁶ he sy. ⁊ ðæt
nan cyping ne sy sunnan dagum. Gif hit ðon-
ne hwa do, þolige ðæs ceapes, ⁊ gesylle xxx scillinga to wite.⁸⁷ Gif minra gerefa⁸⁸ hwylc þonne⁸⁹ þis don nylle, ⁊ læs
ymbe beo þonne we gecweden habbað, þonne gyl-
de he mine oferhyrnesse, ⁊ ic finde oþerne
ðe wile. And⁹⁰ se biscop amanige þa oferhyrnesse
æt þam gerefan, þe hit on his folgoþe sy. Se ðe of ðissa gerædnesse ga, gilde æt frum cirre
v pund, æt oþrum cirre his were,⁹¹ æt þriddan
cirre ðolige ealles þæs þe⁹² he age, ⁊ ure eal-
ra freondscipes. Ond se ðe man að swerige, ⁊ hit him on open
wurþe, ðæt he næfre eft aðwyrþe ne sy, ne
binnan nanum gehalgodum lictune ne licge
þeah he forðfare⁹³ butan he hæbbe ðæs biscopes

37r

gewitnesse ðe he on his scrift⁹⁴ scire sy, þæt he hit swa
gebett hæbbe swa him his scrift scrife, ⁊ his scrift
hit gecyþe þam biscope binnan xxx nihta
hweþer he to þære bote cirran wolde. Gif he swa
ne do, bete be þam þe se biscop him forgifan
wille.

Translation

Æthelstan’s laws

First, that one should not spare any thief who is caught red-handed, [who is] over 12 years, and [the value is] over eight pennies; and if one does so, he should pay for the thief according to his wergild⁹⁵ – and it will not be settled for the thief – or let him clear him [by an oath] by that [amount].

If he [the thief] wants to resist or flee,⁹⁶ then one should not spare him.

If one brings a thief into prison, in that case he will be in prison forty nights, and one may then redeem him with 120 shillings,⁹⁷ and the family will act as guarantor for him,⁹⁸ so that he should desist evermore.

And if he steals after that they should pay for him with his wergild, or bring him there again.

And if anyone stands up for him, he should pay for him with his wergild, whether to the king or to the one to whom it rightly belongs; and each one of those who stands by him, let them give to the king 120 shillings as a fine.

And we spoke concerning the lordless men, from whom one cannot obtain justice, that one should bid their family, so that they bring him home to [face] justice,⁹⁹ and find him a lord in the public assembly.

And if they then will not, or cannot, bring him on the appointed day, then he will afterwards be an outlaw, and he who comes upon him may kill him as a thief.¹⁰⁰ And he who harbours him after that, should pay for him with his wergild, or clear himself [by oath] to [the value of] that.¹⁰¹

Concerning refusal of justice¹⁰²

The lord who refuses justice, and takes the part of his evildoer,¹⁰³ and appeals to the king, he should pay back the market-price [of what is stolen], and give to the king 120 shillings.

And he who appeals to the king before he demands justice from him [the wrongdoer] – as often as it becomes him¹⁰⁴ – should pay the same fine as the other would have,¹⁰⁵ if he had refused him justice.¹⁰⁶

And the lord who is an accessory to theft by his slave, and this becomes known about him, should forfeit his slave,¹⁰⁷ and should be liable to his wergild in the first instance.¹⁰⁸

If he does it often, he should be liable for all that he owns; and, likewise, any of the king’s treasurers or of our reeves, who were accessories of the thieves who stole, should be subject to the same.

Concerning treachery against one’s lord

And we declared concerning treachery against one’s lord that he should be liable to forfeit his life if he is unable to deny it [the charge] or if he were afterwards found guilty at the threefold ordeal. And we declared concerning breaking into a church,¹⁰⁹ that if he were found guilty at the threefold ordeal, he should pay according to what the lawbook says.¹¹⁰

Concerning witchcrafts

And we declared concerning witchcrafts, and concerning sorceries,¹¹¹ and concerning murders,¹¹² if one were thereby killed, and he is unable to deny it, then he should be liable to forfeit his life.

If he then wishes to deny it, and at the threefold ordeal is found guilty, [we declared] that he be 120 nights in prison, and then the [guilty person’s] family will take him out and give to the king 120 shillings, and pay the wergild to his [the murdered person’s] family, and go surety for him so that he hereafter should desist from such.

Concerning arsonists

The arsonists and those who avenge a thief should be measured by the same judgment,¹¹³ and he who wishes to avenge a thief, but no one is wounded, should give to the king 120 shillings as a fine for the assault. And we declared concerning the single ordeal,¹¹⁴ with regard to those persons who often were accused and were found guilty, and they know no one to stand surety for them, one should bring them to prison, and one should release them as it was stated here before.

Concerning landless persons

And we declared that if any landless person took service in another shire and afterwards seek his family,¹¹⁵ he [the family member] may take him in [the landless man] on the condition that he lead him to justice, should he carry out an offence there, or else pay compensation.¹¹⁶

Concerning the taking possession of property¹¹⁷

He who seizes property, one should obtain for him 5 persons from his neighbours, and from the 5 get one who should swear with him that he claims it according to public law;¹¹⁸ but he who wishes to declare it as owned by himself,¹¹⁹ one should take for him 10 men, and from them two [oath-supporters], and he should give the oath that it was born on his land – the oath of all is not needed¹²⁰ – and this selected oath is to be valid [in cases] over 20 pennies.¹²¹

Concerning exchange [of property]

And no one is to exchange any property without the witness of the reeve, or the mass-priest, or the land-lord,¹²² or the treasurer or other trustworthy person.

If such is done, one should pay 30 shilling as a fine, and the land-lord is to take the exchanged property.

Concerning false witness

If one should then find that any of them gave false witness, never again shall his witness be valid; and also he should pay 30 shillings as a fine.

And we declared that he who may demand payment for a slain thief should come forward with three others,¹²³ two from the father’s kin and the third from the mother’s; and they are to give the oath that they have not known of any thievery in their relative – for which guilt he would not be worthy of life. And they [the slayers of the man]¹²⁴ shall then go with 12 others, and shall prove him [the slain thief] liable as it was declared before. And if the dead person’s family does not come forward at the appointed day, each one who spoke before of it [those demanding the payment] should pay 120 shillings.

And we declared that no one should trade any goods over 20 pennies outside the town,¹²⁵ but should trade there inside with the witness of the town-reeve,¹²⁶ or other trustworthy person; or thereafter with the witness of the reeves at a public assembly.

And we declare that each borough be repaired 14 nights after Rogationtide.¹²⁷

Second, that each market be within a town.

Third, that a single coinage be over all the king’s realm, and no one may mint outside of a town. And if the minter be found guilty, one should cut off the hand with which he committed the crime, and set it above the mint.¹²⁸

And when there is an accusation, and he wishes to clear himself, then he should go to the [ordeal] of hot iron, and he should redeem the hand with which he was accused of committing the crime.¹²⁹ And if he be found guilty in the ordeal, one should do the same as is stated before.

In Canterbury [there are to be] 7 minters, 4 of the king, two of the bishop,1 of the abbot. At Rochester, 2 of the king and one of the bishop. At London, 8. At Winchester, 6. At Lewes, 2. At Hastings, 1. Another at Chichester. At Southampton, 2. At Wareham, 2. At Exeter, 2. At Shaftesbury, 2. Otherwise, in the other boroughs, 1.

Fourth, that no shield-maker may lay sheepskin on a shield, and if he does he should pay 30 shillings.

Fifth, that each person should have in respect to the plough two mounted men.¹³⁰

Sixth, if anyone takes a bribe from a thief, and another’s rights are suppressed, he should be liable for his wergild.

Seventh, that no person may sell any horse overseas, unless he wishes to gift it.¹³¹

And we declared concerning an enslaved person, if he is found guilty at the ordeal, that one should pay the market value [of the stolen goods],¹³² and one should beat him three times, or else a second payment should be given; and the [public] fine with respect to slaves should be at half the rate.¹³³

If someone fails to attend an assembly three times, one should pay [a fine] for disobedience to the king; and it should be announced seven nights before the assembly happens.

If he then will not carry out what is right, nor will pay the disobedience fine, then the most senior men shall ride there, all who belong to the borough, and take all that he owns, and place him under surety.¹³⁴ If, however, anyone will not ride with his fellows, he should pay [a fine] for disobedience to the king.

And one should announce in the assembly that one should be at peace with all that the king should wish to be at peace with,¹³⁵ and refrain from theft on pain of death and by all that he may own. And he who does not wish to cease, [even] for [such] penalties, then the most senior men shall ride there, all who belong to the borough, and take all that he owns; and the king should take possession of half, and half to the men who are on the raid; and they should set him under surety.

If he does not know anyone to stand surety for him, they should imprison him. If he will not allow this, let him lie [dead] – unless he should escape.

If anyone wishes to avenge him or carry on a feud for him, then he will be at enmity with the king and with all his [the king’s] friends.

If he should escape, and someone harbours him, he should be liable for his wergild, unless he dares to clear himself – by the [amount of the] fugitive’s wergild – that he did not know him to be a fugitive.

If someone should make terms for the ordeal, he may make terms [based] on the market value, and not on the penalty, unless he, to whom it belongs, wishes to grant it.¹³⁶

And no one should receive the man of another without the permission of him whom he served before. If someone does so, he should give back the man, and pay [the fine of] disobedience to the king; and no one may dismiss from himself an accused man of his own before he has rendered justice.

If anyone should pledge [to undertake] the ordeal, then he should come the third night beforehand to the mass-priest who shall consecrate it [i.e. the ordeal], and he should sustain himself with bread and with water and salt and vegetables before he shall go thereto; and he should be present at mass each of those three days, and should make his offering, and go to the housel on the day on which he shall go to the ordeal;¹³⁷ and he should then swear the oath that he is, according to public law, innocent of the charge, before he goes to the ordeal.

And if it is [the ordeal of] water, that he should sink one and a half ells on the rope.¹³⁸ If it is the iron-ordeal, there should be three nights before one undoes the hand.¹³⁹ And let each person begin his accusation with a preliminary oath just as we declared before; and each of those, of both sides,¹⁴⁰ who are there should fast, according to God’s command and that of the archbishop; and there should not be on either side any more than 12 persons. If then the accused person be one in a company of more than twelve, then the ordeal should be void, unless they be willing to go from him.

And he who buys property before a witness, and afterwards has to vouch warranty for it, then he from whom he previously bought it should take back his [goods],¹⁴¹ be he free or slave,¹⁴² whichever he is.

And [we declared] that there be no trading on Sunday. If then anyone does this, he should forfeit the goods, and pay 30 shilling as a fine.

If any of my reeves is then unwilling to do this,¹⁴³ or does less than we have declared, then he should pay [the fine] of disobedience to me, and I shall find another who will. And the bishop, in whose district it be,¹⁴⁴ should exact the [fine of] disobedience from the reeve. He who departs from these laws should pay in the first instance 5 pounds, and on the second occasion his wergild; on the third occasion he should suffer the loss of all that he owns, and the friendship of us all.

And he who swears a false oath, and it comes into the open about him, [we have declared] that he never afterwards be oath-worthy, nor should be laid within any holy cemetery should he die,¹⁴⁵ unless he would have the testimony of the bishop in whose confession-shire he is,¹⁴⁶ that he has repented for it just as his confessor has prescribed for him. And his confessor should make it known to the bishop within 30 nights whether he was willing to turn to atonement. If he does not do so, he should pay according to what the bishop will allow him.¹⁴⁷

Bibliography

Bartlett, Robert, Trial by Fire and Water: The Medieval Judicial Ordeal (Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press, 1986).

Clark Hall, J. R., A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, fourth edition (University of Toronto Press, 1960).

Foot, Sarah, Æthelstan (Yale University Press, 2011).

Gilbey, Walter, Horses Past and Present (Vinton & Co., Ltd, 1900), available via Project Gutenberg EBook

Gittos, Helen, Liturgy, Architecture, and Sacred Places in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Keynes, Simon, ‘Appendix: Rulers of the English, c.450-1066’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg (Blackwell Publishing, 1999).

Lambert, Tom, Law & Order in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2017).

Liebermann, Felix, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 volumes (M. Niemeyer, 1903–16) (edition available via Early English Laws website for each law code).

Whitelock, Dorothy, English Historical Documents, Volume I, c.500-1042, second edition (Eyre Methuen/Oxford University Press, 1979).

Wormald, Patrick, The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century (Blackwell Publishing, 1999).

Zupko, Ronald E., A Dictionary of Weights and Measures for the British Isles: The Middle Ages To the Twentieth Century (American Philosophical Society, 1985).

Websites

Bosworth & Toller dictionary Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online (bosworthtoller.com)

British Library, Medieval manuscripts blog, Medieval manuscripts blog

Colin Flight’s website, Durobrivis

DOE. The Dictionary of Old English: A to I; limited free access here

Early English Laws, Early English Laws: Home

Parker Library On the Web: Manuscripts in the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Parker Library On the Web - Spotlight at Stanford

Footnotes

1 This is Dorothy Whitelock’s date: Whitelock, p. 417.

2 Many thanks indeed to Elise Fleming for kindly proofreading the commentary, translation and notes.

3 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 383, folios 14v-15v; the text starts at the bottom of 14v with the heading, ‘Be ðeofum.’ and ends abruptly at the bottom of 15v. Thus only about one fifth of the Grately Code is preserved in the Cambridge manuscript. The digital facsimile can be found here [accessed 22 February 2023].

4 London, British Library, Cotton MS Otho B.xi.

5 For more on Quadripartitus, see Wormald, pp. 236-44.

6 See the index in Bartlett, p. 178, ‘for specific historical examples of the use of the ‘cold water’ ordeal.

7 See the index in Bartlett, p. 178, for specific historical examples of the use of the ‘hot iron’ ordeal.

8 See DOE, fūl adj., 1, 1.a.ii and 1.a.iii; and for the legal meaning of ‘guilty’, see 4c.

9 Whitelock, p. 418, translates ‘be morðdædum’ (literally, ‘deeds of murder’) as ‘concerning[…] secret attempts on life’; similarly, Wormald, p. 367, in translating the law code Be blaserum ⁊ be morðslihtum, gives ‘about[…] underhand killings’ for ‘be þam morþslyhtum’ (literally, ‘concerning murder-slaughters’).

10 Bartlett, p. 31, uses ‘simple’ rather than ‘single’. The OE word anfeald, literally ‘one-fold’, can be translated either way, though DOE offers ‘simple’ in legal contexts: see ān-feald 2.f., ‘in legal phrases referring to the usual form of an oath, charge, ordeal, etc. without amplification or modification: anfeald aþ / lad / ordal / spræc / tihtle / wegild “simple oath / purgation / ordeal / suit / charge / compensation”. My view is that in the context of ordeals, anfeald specifically relates to measurement (a one pound weight in the iron-ordeal); moreover, where ordeals can also be þrimfeald – threefold, it makes good sense to translate anfeald as ‘single’ rather than ‘simple’.

11 See the index in Bartlett, p. 178, for historical examples of the use of ordeal by ‘cauldron’.

12 My own emphasis.

13 The transcript (London, British Library, Additional MS 43703) was made in 1562 by the antiquarian Laurence Nowell; a digital facsimile of the transcript is available on the Early English Laws website, here [accessed 22 February 2023]. Colin Flight’s transcript of the laws of Textus Roffensis has also proved useful in reconstructing illegible words, and is available here [accessed 22 February 2023].

14 A British Library blog post on the fire is available here [accessed 22 February 2023].

15 ‘gerædnesse’ is the more expected spelling, as is noted by Liebermann, Early English Laws: Liebermann edition [accessed 15 December 2022].

16 There is water damage at the top of the folio, which makes some words on the first six lines difficult or impossible to read. The affected words are shown in grey font and have been reconstructed based upon the text in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 383, folios 14v-15r. Also, in the top right margin, there is what appears to be a Latin annotation in a later, non-medieval hand; I cannot make out most of the words.

17 Flight has ‘xx’, but with the benefit of the zoom feature on the digital facsimile it is possible to see that ‘xii’ is written. This corresponds with both the Cambridge manuscript and the Nowell transcript, both of which have ‘twelf’ (‘twelve’).

18 ‘7’ is inserted above the line.

19 ‘þingodre.’ is followed by an insertion mark; the corresponding insertion mark in the right margin has the text (lines 5 and 6), ‘oþþe hine be þam geladie’, so I have inserted the text accordingly. Though the inserted text is faded, I can make out the spelling of the last word as ‘geladie’ and so have opted not to use the different ‘geladige’ from the Cambridge manuscript.

20 ‘þonne’ is inserted above the line.

21 There is an erasure between and a line connecting ‘weri’ and ‘an’.

22 There is a line written between ‘ni’ and ‘hta’.

23 ‘ne a’ is inserted above the line to correct ‘ðone lyse’ to ‘ðonne alyse’.

24 There is a space left after ‘hwa’.

25 ‘man’ is inserted above the line.

26 ‘to þam andagan’ was evidently added as a correction of an omission as it extends into the margin.

27 ‘þe’ is inserted above the line.

28 ‘man’ is inserted in the margin, to the side of ‘licge’.

29 The ‘ge’ of ‘foregesece’ is inserted above the line.

30 The ‘ge of ‘gesece’ is inserted above the line.

31 ‘swa oft swa him to gebyrie,’ appears in the left margin, along with an insertion mark, now badly faded; the corresponding insertion mark in the main body is inserted after ‘bidde,’.

32 Old English wer is used in this context as an abbreviation for wergild.

33 ‘þær’ is inserted above the line.

34 ‘swylces’ is inserted above the line.

35 ‘to wite’ is inserted above the line.

36 The ‘t’ of ‘æthlype’ is inserted above the line.

37 ‘hy’ is inserted above the line.

38 The ‘ge’ of ‘gecweden’ is inserted above the line.

39 The ‘ge’ of ‘gelæde’ is inserted above the line.

40 ‘oþer forebete’ is added later, extending into the margin.

41 ‘men,’ is inserted above the line.

42 ‘þam’ is inserted above the line.

43 The words ‘penega’, ‘[bu]-tan ðæs’ and ‘preostes’ at the beginning of the first three lines, shown in grey font, have been reconstructed by comparing Nowell’s transcription.

44 The second ‘e’ of ‘ungelygenes’

45 The ‘fe’ of ‘hwearfe’ is inserted above the line.

46 The ‘h’ of ‘wohre’ is inserted above the line.

47 The ‘o’ of ‘heora’ is inserted above the line.

48 The ‘h’ of ‘wohre’ is inserted above the line.

49 A mark along the line splits the word ‘scyld¬_unga’.

50 ‘to,’ is inserted above the line.

51 The ‘o’ of ‘heora’ is inserted above the line.

52 The ‘e’ of ‘mæge’ is inserted above the line.

53 ‘on’ is inserted above the line.

54 The first ‘e’ of ‘unlygenes’ is inserted above the line.

55 Comparison with the Nowell transcript has helped to clarify some of the faded words – those shown in grey font – at the top of this page.

56 The ‘e’ of ‘porte’ is inserted above the line.

57 The second ‘p’ of ‘uppon’ is inserted above the line.

58 ‘þæs’ is inserted above the line.

59 ‘þæs’ is inserted above the line.

60 The second ‘l’ of ‘fellon’ is inserted above the line.

61 The final ‘t’ of ‘medsceatt’ is inserted above the line.

62 ‘he’ is inserted above the line.

63 ‘man’ is inserted above the line.

64 ‘þe to’ is added in the left margin to correct an omission.

65 ‘þonne’ is inserted above the line.

66 The ‘A’ of ‘And’ is an alteration of ‘O’.

67 The second ‘l’ of ‘eall’ is inserted above the line.

68 ‘he’ is inserted above the line.

69 The ‘e’ of ‘yldestan’ is inserted above the line.

70 ‘þe’ is inserted into the left margin to correct an omission.

71 ‘hit’ is inserted into the right margin to correct an omission.

72 ‘gan’ of the word ‘licgan’ is inserted above the line.

73 A space with an ‘¬_’ splits the word ‘ladian’.

74 ‘þæs flyman were’ is inserted into the right margin to correct an omission.

75 The abbreviation for ‘þæt’ is inserted into the left margin to correct an omission.

76 The first ‘e’ of ‘tere’ is inserted above the line.

77 The ‘ge’ of ‘geoffrige’ is inserted above the line.

78 ‘sy’ is inserted above the line.

79 The ‘þera’ part of the word ‘ægþera’ is inserted into the right margin as a correction.

80 The words in grey font on this and the previous line have been reconstructed by comparing the Nowell transcript; however, ‘fastende’ is not clear in Nowell (Nowell has a rather untidy hand) but is just about decipherable using zoom on the Textus digital facsimile.

81 ‘on’ is inserted above the line.

82 The final ‘e’ of ‘healfe’ is inserted above the line.

83 ‘na’ is inserted above the line.

84 The first ‘n’ of ‘ðonne’ is inserted above the line.

85 ‘se’ is inserted above the line.

86 The ‘hwe’ of ‘hweðer’ is inserted above the line.

87 ‘to wite’ is inserted into the right margin to correct an omission.

88 The ‘a’ of ‘gerefa’ is separated from the rest of the word by the extended bar of the ‘f’.

89 ‘þonne’ is inserted above the line.

90 The original ‘O’ of ‘Ond’ is altered to ‘A’ (‘And’).

91 The final ‘e’ of ‘were’ is inserted above the line.

92 ‘þe’ is inserted above the line.

93 The ‘ð’ of ‘forðfare’ is inserted above the line.

94 ‘scrift’ is inserted above the line.

95 That is, the wergild of the thief. The wergild was the value of the life of a free person according to their rank; it was used in matters of law with respect to payment of compensation and fines.

96 ‘resist’, or ‘defend himself’, as Whitelock, p. 417, renders it. The sense, however, is not that the thief wishes to legally defend himself but rather that the thief, who has been caught in the act, attempts physically to resist capture.

97 120 shillings appears to equate to the wergild of a free person of the lowest class.

98 ‘family’, or ‘kindred’.

99 Compare DOE, ‘folc-riht noun […] 1. public law, customary law […] 2. to folcrihte lædan ‘to lead (someone acc.) to justice’.

100 More literally, ‘lay him as a thief’, with the sense of causing him to lie dead.

101 Following Liebermann, ‘oder reinige sich [durch Eid] im Werthe dieses [Wergelds]’, ‘or purify himself [by oath] to the worth of this [wergeld]; Early English Laws: Liebermann edition [accessed 16 December 2022]; Whitelock, p. 418, gives: ‘or to clear himself by an oath of that amount’. The basic sense is that the one accused of harbouring an outlawed thief must pay a wergild as a fine or clear himself from the accusation by swearing an oath; see the entry for ladian in the online Bosworth & Toller dictionary: Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online (bosworthtoller.com) [accessed 16 December 2022].

102 The refusal of justice relates to a lord’s denial or prevention of prosecution at his own court of an individual under his jurisdiction (a freeman who has sworn fealty to his lord), either by the lord taking the side of the culprit and then appealing to the king, or by ignoring or pre-empting due process at his own court by directly appealing to the king first.

103 See Clark Hall, ‘licgan […] 1. for take the part of’; Clark Hall cites this line in Æthelstan’s law as the example for this rather specific use of the verb. Literally, the meaning is that the lord ‘lies (down) for’ the evildoer. As an alternative, we could read ‘licge’ (‘lies’, as in ‘lies down’) to be an error for ‘leoge’ (‘lies’, as in ‘tells a lie’), giving us the sense that the lord lies for the culprit, in other words, he defends a guilty man who is under his jurisdiction.

104 Alluding to the importance of the lord regularly holding court.

105 ‘the other’, here, is referring back to the lord of the previous sentence who stands up for one of his guilty men.

106 In the sense of refusing to bring the criminal to justice.

107 It is unclear what happens to the slave.

108 The lord must pay a penalty fine equivalent to his own wergild – a slave would not have a wergild.

109 DOE also suggests cyric-bryce could perhaps also mean ‘sacrilege in a wider sense’.

110 Here referring to pre-existing laws, specifically, it would seem, to the laws of Alfred which state that if one steals anything in church one would pay compensation and a fine, and lose one’s hand; see Whitelock, p. 418, n. 3.

111 Other uses of lyblac ‘sorcery’ in Old English texts point to acts that cause harm; Bosworth & Toller define it as ‘the art of using drugs or potions for the purpose of poisoning, or for magical purposes’, bosworthtoller.com/21921 [accessed 12 February 2023].

112 The ‘murders’ here are, contextually, associated with the foregoing ‘witchcrafts’ and ‘sorceries’ and so may perhaps best be understood as surreptitious killings. Note that Whitelock (p. 418) gives ‘secret attempts on life’ and observes (p. 418, n. 4), ‘literally, “murders”. Open killing was not regarded as murder in Anglo-Saxon law.’

113 Presumably meaning that those accused of arson or who avenge a thief should face the threefold ordeal.

114 Or ‘simple ordeal’. The ‘single ordeal’, in the context of the ordeal by hot iron, refers to the one pound weight of the hot iron, as opposed to the three pound weight of the ‘threefold ordeal’.

115 In the sense of ‘if he should return to his family’, his kin group in the shire from where he originated.

116 Presumably, ‘there’ refers to ‘another shire’ in the earlier clause. Thus the one who takes in the returning landless relative, if it turns out they have committed an offence in the other shire, must be prepared to either take him back to face justice or pay the compensation on his behalf.

117 A more modern legal term would be ‘attachment’.

118 DOE, folc-riht 1, ‘public law, customary law’.

119 This is referring to the one who is accused of stealing the property.

120 More literally, ‘without the number-oath [OE rim-að]’, that is, the oath of the whole number of support witnesses.

121 DOE cyre-āþ, ‘selected oath, an oath sworn by an accused man and a selection of oath-takers nominated by the judge or the adversary of the accused man, in contrast to an oath butan cyre’; cyre A.1.a, ‘butan cyre “without selection (of the oath-takers by the judge or adversary)”’.

122 Or, ‘lord of the estate’, Whitelock, p. 419; i.e. the lord of the persons wishing to make the exchange.

123 This relates the circumstance of contested guilt after a person has been slain as a thief; the demand of the family members would be for the slain person’s wergild. Most likely this is the context where the victims of theft acted in vengeance against the thief, as they had the right to do if he was caught in the act, but where the family of the thief contest the guilt and provide three family members as compurgators and testify to his innocence.

124 Following Liebermann, who reads ‘they’ as the party who has slain the man, whereas Whitelock suggests it could possibly mean that the family of the slain person must prove him to be liable to be paid for, which I personally find too awkward; see Whitelock, p. 419, ns. 3 and 4.

125 OE port has the sense in this context of a town with market rights, perhaps one with a harbour; see Clark Hall, port.

126 Or, ‘port-reeve’.

127 OE gang-dæg, literally ‘walking day’, in the plural meaning Rogationtide, the three days preceding the Feast of the Ascension. Rogationtide in the early medieval period was associated with penance and prayer but also the blessing of crops and the local community by clergy, who would lead the laity in a procession around the landscape, walking barefoot and holding relics, crosses and holy books. There is evidence for less sombre celebrations among the laity: games, huge feasts and even horse-racing. For more information, see Gittos, pp. 134-39.

128 Literally, ‘mint-smithy’. Presumably, the hand would stand as a visible sign to all in the community that the particular metalworker responsible for illegal minting was dishonest.

129 Here, the order is confusing but it seems logical that the accusation and ordeal take place before guilt is established and the minter loses his hand. The redemption of his hand is therefore the saving of his hand.

130 The meaning of the Old English is not entirely clear. Liebermann in his German translation gives a ‘probable’ reading meaning ‘that everyone who owns a plough should keep 2 mounted men/warriors’; see Lieberman, p. 159 [accessed 24 February 2023]. Similarly, Whitelock, p. 420 and n. 3, translates it as ‘every man is to have two well-mounted men for every plough’ and notes that ‘If this refers to military service, the demand is much heavier than in later times, when there is some evidence that one man went from five hides.’ On balance, this probably does relate to the obligation of lords, who hold plough-lands, to provide horsemen to the king.

131 Walter Gilbey (1831-1914), a well-known horse-breeder of the Victorian period, offers his perspective on Æthelstan’s forbidding of the export of horses in his work Horses Past and Present (available online as a Project Gutenberg EBook): King Athelstan (925-940) is entitled to special mention, for it was he who passed the first of a long series of laws by which the export of horses was forbidden. Athelstan's law assigns no reason for this step; but the only possible motive for such a law must have been to check the trade which the high qualities of English-bred horses had brought into existence. At no period of our history have we possessed more horses than would supply our requirements, and Athelstan's prohibition of the export of horses beyond sea, unless they were sent as gifts, was undoubtedly due to a growing demand which threatened to produce scarcity. This king saw no objection to the importation of horses: he accepted several as gifts from Continental Sovereigns, and evidently attached much value to them, for in his will he made certain bequests of white horses and others which had been given him by Saxon friends.

132 The responsibility for recompensing the victim of theft with the market value of the stolen goods lay with the slave’s owner, though other early English laws suggest slaves themselves may have had personal money, in which case we may assume that this money would be used first. This payment may be read as additional to returning the goods.

133 This is alluding to the fine that goes into the public coffers; it is in addition to recompensing the victim of the theft. The slave’s owner is responsible for this.

134 Likely with the sense that he will be imprisoned if no-one stands surety for him; see the next law, below.

135 DOE gives for friþian ‘to be at peace with, protect, preserve, defend’; so the sense here appears to be that all should defend and uphold the king’s position in a judicial matter.

136 This appears to relate to someone interceding (see þingian in Bosworth Toller) in order to settle a dispute relating to theft; that is, the trial by ordeal does not take place because the intercessor is able to get the accused/thief and the accuser/victim to reach a settlement, though this settlement has to be based on the true value of the goods, not on the payment of a fine (which may be of less value), unless the accuser/victim grants the latter. This intercession thus guarantees that the accused/thief is spared the horror of the ordeal – which at any rate may well lead to a monetary penalty – and the accuser/victim obtains recompense.

137 OE husel survives in the archaic housel, meaning the administering and/or receiving of the Eucharist, i.e. holy communion.

138 ‘oþre healfe’, ‘one and a half’, following Whitelock, p. 421. An ell was a measurement for cloth in the late medieval period, ‘generally containing 45 inches (1.143m)’ according to A Dictionary of Weights and Measurements for the British Isles: The Middle Ages To the Twentieth Century, ed. Ronald E. Zupko (American Philosophical Society, 1985), p. 119.

139 The hand is bound after the ordeal of carrying the hot iron bar. It is then inspected three days later: if it is not infected, the person is deemed without guilt; if it is infected, guilt is established.

140 Literally, ‘of both hands’; Whitelock, p. 421, gives ‘of both parties’; it would seem, however, that the phrase alludes to the practice of the advocates of both the accused and the accuser physically lining up on the left-hand and right-hand sides inside the church, where the ordeal takes place; see by way of comparison, the instructions in the law known as Ordal.

141 The context appears to be where an accusation is made, subsequent to the sale, that the goods (quite possibly referring to livestock) were stolen, and the buyer then has to vouch that he bought them in good faith; and due to the fact that the sale was witnessed by an official, the buyer can return the goods and the seller is obliged to take them back. Thus the person unwittingly buying stolen goods is saved from being accused.

142 That a seller or buyer – which is not clear – may be a slave seems to imply that a slave, perhaps on behalf of his lord, may have been involved in the process of selling and/or buying.

143 The ‘this’ appears to refer to the upholding of the entire set of laws of the Grately code, rather than just the preceding law of Sunday trading; see the reference to those who deviate from ‘these laws’ (OE ‘ðissa gerædnesse’), which follows shortly after.

144 ‘district’, OE folgoþ; Whitelock, p. 421, gives ‘diocese’.

145 ‘die’, more literally, ‘go forth’.

146 ‘confession-shire’, a literal translation of ‘scrift-scire’; Francesca Tinti (Tinti, p. 34) explains that ‘the use of the term scriftscir indicates the importance of confession’ in defining the territories over which a church holds spiritual jurisdiction.

147 In other words, the oath-breaker may pay a monetary payment in lieu of an act of penance, the amount being determined by the bishop.

Concerning arsonists and murders, probably 10th century

Concerning arsonists and murders (Be blaserum ⁊ be morðslihtum), anonymous, probably the 2nd quarter of the 10th century. Translation from Old English of Textus Roffensis folio 31v-32r by Dr Christopher Monk.

Thought to be the earliest of the anonymous Old English law codes,¹ this text concerns the judicial process for those accused of arson or murder,² and it relates some of the particulars of trial by ordeal.³

It is this brief law that enables us to understand that a ‘threefold’ ordeal of iron, referred to elsewhere in the Old English laws (see, for example, Æthelstan’s Grately Code), involved increasing threefold the weight of the iron bar, to be carried by the accused, from one to three pounds. In another anonymous law, known as Ordal,⁴ we learn that the iron bar was heated upon coals and was carried by the accused for a measurement of nine of his, or her, feet.

This text is also important for showing that the crimes of arson and murder required greater support of one’s oath – the declaration of one’s innocence – if the accused were to escape the ordeal. The deepening of one’s oath threefold meant the accused had to find three times the usual number of people to publicly stand as ‘oath-supporters’.

Transcription

31v (select folio number to open facsimile)

_We cwædon be þam blaserum, cxxi⁵
⁊ be þam morþslyhtum, þæt man dypte þone
aþ be þryfealdum, ⁊ myclade þæt ordalysen
þæt hit gewege þry pund, ⁊ eode se man sylf

32r

to þe man tuge, ⁊ hæbbe se teond cyre, swa wæter-
ordal, swa ysenordal, swa hwæþer him leofra
sy. Gif he ðone að forþbringan ne mæg, ⁊
he þonne ful sy, stande on þæra yldesta man-
na dome, hweþer he lif age þe nage, þe to ðære
byrig hyran.

Translation

See Translation Notes

We declared concerning arsonists and concerning murders that one should deepen the oath threefold,⁶ and one should enlarge the ordeal-iron so that it should weigh three pounds, and the person who is the one accused should walk themself;⁷ and the accuser should have the choice, whether the water-ordeal or the iron-ordeal,⁸ whatever is pleasing to him.

If he [the accused] is unable to bring forth the oath,⁹ and he then be guilty [after the ordeal], it should stand on the judgement of the most senior men that belong to the borough court whether he keeps his life or not.

Bibliography

Wormald, Patrick. The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century (Blackwell, 1999).

Website

Early English Laws, Early English Laws: Home

Footnotes

1 See the introductory comments on the Early English Laws website.

2 Wormald, p. 367, gives ‘underhand killings’.

3 Many thanks to Elise Fleming for kindly proofreading the introduction, translation and notes.

4 Ordal follows this text just a few lines after it finishes, there being the fragmentary text known as Forfang in between the two.

5 The number (121) indicates that this short law is integrated into the law code of King Ine of Wessex (reigned 688-726), which itself is appended to the laws of Alfred the Great (reigned in Wessex 871-899).

6 That is, the accused person must find three times the usual number of people to act as supporters of his oath of denial.

7 OE man signifies a person of either sex. There was to be no representative serving as substitute; the accused person themself had to hold the heated iron and walk the length of the ordeal.

8 It is unclear whether the ‘water-ordeal’ here refers to the so-called ‘hot water’ ordeal (plunging one’s hand or arm into boiling water), described in Ordal, or the so-called ‘cold water’ ordeal (being plunged into a body of water to a certain depth), outlined in Æthelstan’s Grately Code.

9 That is, he is unable to assemble the increased number of oath-supporters.

Forfang: a reward for retrieving stolen property, probably 10th century

Forfang: a reward for retrieving stolen property. Anonymous, probably 2nd quarter of the 10th century. Transcription and translation from Old English of Textus Roffensis folio 32r by Dr Christopher Monk.

The three lines of this fragmentary text is the ‘summary clause’ of an anonymous code known today as Forfang,¹ which deals with the reward for retrieving stolen property, both human (i.e. slaves) and animal (specifically, horses). The Textus Roffensis scribe seems to have been working from a truncated exemplar, so he did not include the remaining text of this law (Wormald, p. 369). In fact, Forfang, a little peculiarly, is presented as if it is the final part of the previous law, which concerns arson and murder (which can be found here).²

The summary clause in isolation is confusing. It begins to make sense once we take into account what it is summarising. The full text of Forfang is found in the manuscript Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 383, at folio 9v, and the late Patrick Wormald’s interpretation of this is as follows:

The gist is that ‘wise men have ordained (witan habbað gerædd)’ that the reward is to be fifteen pence, whether for men (i.e. runaways) or horses, throughout the whole land, regardless of the number of shires traversed in the search. It had once been the case that rewards were proportionate to the distances involved, and paid at the rate of one penny for every shilling’s worth of goods stolen, but it was now thought unfair to burden the ‘small man’ with the cost of an excessive reward as well as extended travel. (Wormald, p. 369.)

The summary clause thus specifies that the reward the owner was to pay the finder for retrieving his stolen goods was now to be fixed at 15 pennies in every case.

Transcription

32r (select folio number to open facsimile)

Forfang ofer eall, sy hit on
anre scipe,³ sy hit on ma, fiftyne peningas,
⁊ æt ælcon smalon orfe, æfre æt scyllinge penig.

Translation

See Translation Notes

The reward everywhere, be it over one shire or more, [shall be] fifteen pennies, and so with the property of any small [man], ever before at one penny [per] one shilling[‘s worth of goods].

Bibliography

Wormald, Patrick. The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century (Blackwell, 1999).

Website

Parker Library On the Web: Manuscripts in the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Parker Library On the Web Home

Footnotes

1 Many thanks to Elise Fleming for proofreading the introduction, translation and notes.

2 For more on the transmission of Forfang, see Wormald, p. 370.

3 ‘scipe’ is an error for ‘scire’.

Æthelstan modifies the penalties for theft (c.930-39)

Concerning both the age at which a thief could be executed and the lower limit of the value of property stolen for which a thief could be put to death. Translation from Old English of Textus Roffensis folios 92v-93r by Dr Christopher Monk.

This text,¹ found only in Textus Roffensis, is a modification of King Æthelstan’s legislation on the penalties for theft.² It concerns both the age at which a thief could be executed and the lower limit of the value of property stolen for which a thief could be put to death.

In his first known pronouncements on theft, recorded in what is known as the Grately Code (issued at Grately, Hampshire, c.926-c.930),³ Æthelstan stated: ‘First, that one should not spare any thief who is caught red-handed, [who is] over 12 years, and [the value is] over eight pennies’.⁴ The modification, made by the king during a meeting with his counsel at Whittlebury,⁵ changes the age to 15 and the property value to 12 pennies.

Legal and cultural context

That thieves caught in the act could legitimately be killed was well established before Æthelstan; however, he insisted ‘on a stricter implementation of existing punishments’, as Tom Lambert notes in his study, Law & Order in Anglo-Saxon England (Lambert, p. 175).

After first granting an amnesty for thieves (seen in the Exeter Code, which also appears in Textus Roffensis), ‘such that those who committed theft could for a specified period compensate their victims without suffering any punishment’, the king, at Thunderfield (Surrey), ushered in what Lambert calls ‘the dawn of a new, distinctly merciless order’ (Lambert, p. 175). The Thunderfield Code states:

And if there is a thief who has committed theft since the council was held at Thunderfield, and is still engaged in thieving, he shall in no way be judged worthy of life, neither by claiming protection nor by making monetary payment, if the charge is truly substantiated against him – whether it is a freeman or a slave, a noble or commoner, or, if it is a woman, whether she is a mistress or maid – whosoever it may be, whether taken in the act or not taken in the act, if it is known for certainty [sic] – that is if he shall not make a statement of denial – or if the charge is proved in the ordeal, or if his guilt becomes known in any other way. (Lambert, pp. 175-76.)

The extension of execution to those not caught in the act was radical. And the removal of protection and monetary compensation was brutal. This is the context, then, in which the Whittlebury modification falls.

Æthelstan’s punishment of those who committed thievery was, indeed, ‘distinctly merciless’. However, we learn from the modification that the king found the execution of persons ‘so young’ – as young as twelve – and for ‘so little’ – as little as eight pennies – just a little uncomfortable. It seemed to him ‘too cruel’, we are told.

Lest, however, we are tempted to think of Æthelstan as a kind-hearted ruler, the modification still allowed for the killing of children younger than fifteen in certain circumstances, namely, where they put up a fight in resisting capture or attempted to flee.

If the child had his life spared, he was either to be imprisoned or his family were to redeem him with the full value of his wergild, that is, the legal price of his life, which was something every free person was granted according to their rank. Unfortunately, should the wergild payment not be forthcoming – perhaps the family could not afford it – then the child had to become enslaved.

Upholding peace

We may wonder why punishment for theft was so disproportionate and brutal. In the broader context of law and order in the centuries before the Norman Conquest of England, the treatment of thievery is a complex subject that merits more than a few sentences. However, we might summarise one key reason for the legislating of harsh punishment for thieves by referring to the final words of this modification law, in which King Æthelstan states: ‘If we uphold it thus, then I trust to God that our peace [‘frið’] will be better than it was before’.

The peace here alluded to might be best understood as communal – ‘our peace’ – the peaceful state of all the people, the whole kingdom. In Anglo-Saxon laws the supressing of theft is closely associated with this peace, as if there were a collective responsibility to remove the tyranny of thieves (see Lambert, pp. 207-210). We may thus read the ‘evermore frightening punishments’ for thieves (Lambert, p. 210) as an attempt at deterrence, and as the king taking the lead in upholding the peace of the kingdom.

At some point in its transmission the modification text was appended to another of Æthelstan’s law codes, also unique to Textus, which was issued at London, sometime after Thunderfield. You will notice that it begins with ‘Twelfthly’, following on from the previous eleven sections in the London Code.

Transcription

92v (select folio number to open facsimile)

_Twelfte, þæt se cyng cwæð nu eft at witlanby-
rig to his witan, ⁊ het cyðan þam arcebiscope be þeo-
drede biscop, þæt him to hreowlic þuhte, þæt man
swa geongne man cwealde oððe eft for swa
lytlan swa he geaxod hæfde, þæt man gehwær dyde. Cwæð þa þæt him þuhte, ⁊ þam þe he hit wiðrædde,
þæt man nænne gingran mann ne sloge þonne xv.
wintre man, buton he hine werian wolde, oððe
fleoge, ⁊ on hand gan nolde, þæt hine man þonne
lede, swa æt maran, swa æt læssan, swa hwæðer
hit þonne wære. ⁊ gif he þonne on hand gan
wille, þonne do hine man on carcern, swa

93r

hit æt greatanlea gecweden wæs, ⁊ hine be þam
ylcan lynige.⁶ Oððe gif he in carcern ne cume,
⁊ man nan næbbe, þæt hi hine niman be his ful-
lan were on borh, þæt he æfre ma ælces yfeles
geswice. Gif seo mægð him ut niman nelle,
ne him on borh gan, þonne swerige he swa him
bisceop tæce, þæt he ælces yfeles geswycan wille,
⁊ stande on þeowete be his were. Gif he þonne
ofer þæt stalie, slea man hine, oððe ho, swa man
þa yldran ær dyde. ⁊ se cyng cwæð eac, þæt
man nænne ne sloge for læssan yrfe þonne
xii. pænigas weorð, buton he fleon wille, oððe hine
werian, þæt man ne wandode þonne þeah hit læsse
wære. Gif we hit þus gehealdað, þonne gely-
fe ic to gode, þæt ure frið bið betera, þonne hit
æror wæs.

Translation

See Translation Notes

Twelfthly, that the king now spoke once more to his council at Whittlebury, and made it known to the archbishop,⁷ through Bishop Theodred,⁸ that to him it seemed too cruel that one so young a person should be slain, or for so little, as he had learned was done everywhere.

He then said that it seemed to him, and to those with whom he had discussed it, that one should not slay a young person less than fifteen years old,⁹ unless he wishes to fight,¹⁰ or flees, and does not wish to submit; in that case one may lay him low,¹¹ whether for a greater or lesser [offence], whichever it then might be.

And if, however, he wishes to submit, then one should put him in prison, as it was agreed at Grately, and, according to the same, let him be redeemed.¹²

Or if he does not go to prison, or none is available,¹³ that they take him under surety of his full wergild,¹⁴ that he for evermore cease from all evil.

If the kindred is unwilling to take him out [from prison], or stand surety for him, then he should swear as the bishop directs him, that he will cease from all evil, and he should stand in slavery for his wergild.¹⁵

If then he should steal after that, one should slay or hang him, as one would do with an older person.

And the king also said that one may not slay anyone for less than property worth 12 pennies; unless he wants to flee, or fight, in which case one should not hesitate, even though it were for less.

If we uphold it thus, then I trust to God that our peace will be better than it was before.

Bibliography

Lambert, Tom, Law & Order in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2017).

Lapidge et al, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg (Blackwell Publishing, 1999).

Whitelock, Dorothy, English Historical Documents c.500-1042, second edition (Eyre Methuen/Oxford University Press, 1979).

Websites

Early English Laws, Early English Laws: Home.

Bosworth Toller’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online, Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online (bosworthtoller.com).

Further reading

Wormald, Patrick, The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century (Blackwell, 1999).

Footnotes

Use your browsers 'back' button to jump back to the text.

1 Many thanks to Elise Fleming for proofreading the introduction, translation and notes.

2 Æthelstan was regarded as ‘king of the English’ from 927 until his death on 27 October 939. Prior to being king of the unified kingdom of the English, he was recognised as king in Mercia and his brother Ælfweard as king in Wessex, following the death of their father, Edward the Elder on 2 Aug. 924. As Ælfweard did not long survive his father, Æthelstan became king ‘of the Anglo-Saxons’, being consecrated as ‘king of the Anglo-Saxons and of the Danes’ on 4 September 925 (Lapidge et al, p. 514).

3 Whitelock’s date, p. 417.

4 ‘Ærest thæt man ne sparige nænne þeof þe æt hæbbendre handa gefangen sy, ofer xii winter, ⁊ ofer eahta peningas’, Textus Roffensis, folio 33r, opening lines. A full translation of the Grately Code is available on the Textus pages of this website.

5 Whittlebury today is a village in the south of Northamptonshire, close to the border of Buckinghamshire.

6 ‘lynige’ appears to be an error for ‘lysige’, as noted by Felix Liebermann: see Early English Laws: Liebermann edition [accessed 14 December 2022]. The verb, therefore, is lisian ‘to redeem’: see the entry at Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary online (bosworthtoller.com) [accessed 14 December 2022].

7 Wulfhelm, the archbishop of Canterbury, was appointed c. 926; his term ran until his death on 12 February 941.

8 Theodred, the bishop of London, was consecrated between 909 and 926; his term ran until his death, which was between 951 and 953.

9 Literally, ‘less than fifteen winters’.

10 Or, ‘defend himself’; Whitelock, p. 427, gives ‘unless he tried to defend himself’.

11 Or, ‘kill him’; Whitelock, p. 427, gives ‘in that case he was to be struck down’.

12 That is, according to the same agreement at Grately.

13 More literally, ‘or/and one has none’.

14 The ‘they’ here refers to those redeeming the criminal; we can presume this typically would have been the child’s parents or other relatives; see the clause that follows. The wergild (Old English wer is an abbreviated form of wergild) was the established monetary value of a free person’s life according to their rank. This amount would have to be paid in order to redeem the criminal.

15 That is, the child must become a slave in lieu of the unforthcoming wergild payment.

Concerning a woman’s betrothal, early 11th century

Be wifmannes beweddung (‘Concerning a woman’s betrothal’) (early-11th-century). Translation from Old English, commentary and notes on Textus Roffensis folios 94v-95r by Dr Christopher Monk.

This is a legal formula, probably originally dating to the early eleventh century, that establishes the prenuptial rights of a betrothed woman in England in the decades before the Norman Conquest, including her property entitlement on the death of her husband. It also provides us with insights into the betrothal practices of the period, such as the roles of kinsmen for both the woman and the man; and it addresses the obligation to have a priest present at the marriage, not only in order to bless the union but also to ensure the couple are not too closely related.

Transcription

94v (select folio number to open facsimile)

_Gif man mædan Be wifmannes beweddunge.
oððe wif weddian wille, ⁊ hit swa hire, ⁊ freon-
dan gelicige, ðonne is riht ðæt se brydguma
æfter godes rihte, ⁊ æfter woroldgerysnum
ærest behate, ⁊ on wedde sylle ðam ðe hire
forsprecan synd, þæt he on ða wisan hire ge-
ornige ðet he hy æfter godes rihte healdan
wille swa wær his wif sceal, ⁊ aborgian his frind
ðæt. Æfter ðam is witanne hwam ðæt foster-
lean gebyrige, weddige se brydguma eft þæs,
⁊ hit aborgian his frynd. Ðonne syððan cyþe se
brydguma hwæs he hire geunge wið þam ðet heo
his willan geceose, ⁊ hwæs he hire geunge gif
heo læng sy ðonne he. Gif hit swa geforword bið,
þonne is riht ðæt heo sy healfes yrfes wyrðe, ⁊
ealles gif hy cild gemæne habban bute heo eft
wær ceose, trymme he eal mid wedde þæt þæt
he behate, ⁊ aborgian frynd þæt. Gif hy þonne
ælces þinges sammæle beon, ðonne fon magas
to, ⁊ weddian heora magan to wife, ⁊ to rihtlife
ðam ðe hire girnde, ⁊ for to þam borge se ðe ðæs
weddes waldend sy. Gif hy man ðonne ut of
lande lædan wille on oðres þegnes land, ðonne
bið hire ræd ðæt frynd ða forword habban

95r

ðæt hire man nan woh to ne do. ⁊ gif heo gylt
gewyrce ðæt hy moton beon bote nyhst, gif heo
næfð of hwam heo bete[.]¹ æt þam giftan sceal mæsse-
preost beon mid rihte se sceal mid godes bletsun-
ge heora gesomnunge gederian an ealre gesund-
fulnesse. Wel is eac to warnianne ðæt man
wite ðæt hy ðurh mægsibbe to gelænge ne beon,
ðe læs ðe man eft twæme ðæt man ær awoh
tosomne gedydan.

Translation

See Translation Notes

Concerning a woman’s betrothal.

If one wishes to betroth a maiden or woman,² and it is pleasing to her and her kinsmen,³ then it is right that the [prospective] bridegroom, according to God’s laws and to worldly customs, should first make a promise, and give a pledge to those who are her spokespersons, that he desires her in such a way that he shall keep her as his wife, according to God’s law; and his kinsmen are to stand surety for it.

After that, it is to be known to whom the payment for [her] maintenance belongs:⁴ the bridegroom shall give a pledge as before, and his kinsmen stand surety for it.

Then, afterwards, the bridegroom should declare what he would give her should she accept his wish [to marry her], and what he would give her if she outlives him. If it be agreed upon, then it is right that she be worthy of half the property, and all of it if they have a child together, unless she were to choose another man; he should confirm all that he may promise with a pledge; and his kinsmen will stand surety for it.

If they then be in agreement over all these things, then the kin may take and betroth their kinswoman as wife, and to a lawful life, ⁵ to him who desired her, and he who is head of the betrothal shall be granted the surety payment.

If one should then wish to lead her out of the land into another thegn’s land, then it is advisable that kinsmen obtain for her the assurance that no one will do any harm to her; and, if she should commit a wrong, that they be allowed to substitute for paying compensation, if she does not have anything with which to make compensation.

At the marriage there shall be by law a mass-priest, who shall with God’s blessing join them together in all prosperity. It is also well to take heed that one knows that they are not through kinship too close, lest afterwards one must destroy what previously was wrongfully joined together.

Cited works

DMLBS. Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, available here

DOE. The Dictionary of Old English: A to I; limited free access here

Whitelock, Dorothy, English Historical Documents c.500-1042, second edition (Eyre Methuen/Oxford University Press, 1979).

Footnotes

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1 Clearly, this is the end of the clause concerning the matter of the bride being taken to a new land. For some reason the scribe has not indicated that a new clause, relating to the marriage ceremony, follows.

2 Implicit, perhaps, is that the ‘woman’ (‘wif’) is a widow; see Whitelock, p. 467.

3 Old English freond, ‘friend’, takes on the sense of ‘kinsman’ in certain contexts. Freond is used in the interlinear gloss of the Lindisfarne Gospels, corresponding to Latin cognatus ‘kinsman or relative by marriage’ (see DOE, frēond, 3; and DMLBS, cognatus, c).

4 The fosterlean, ‘payment for maintenance’ (DOE), appears to refer to a payment by the prospective husband that represents the cost to her parents of bringing up the woman as a child.

5 Whitelock, p. 468, offers ‘in lawful matrimony’.

The Laws of Wihtræd, 695 AD

These are the judgements of Wihtræd, king of the Kentish people. Translation from Old English of Textus Roffensis folios 5r-6v by Dr Christopher Monk.

The text is known only through the copy that survives in Textus Roffensis (c.1123). Wihtræd ascended the throne of the kingdom of Kent probably in the autumn of 691 and reigned until his death on 23rd April 725. He was for a brief period joint ruler with Swæfheard, an invader, the son of King Sebbi of the East Saxons, who ruled Kent from 688. But by July 694 it seems that Wihtræd was sole ruler.¹

Note on the Old English text

The arrangement of the text approximates that of the manuscript though word division has been normalised according to modern editorial convention. Where a single word is split over two lines, this is indicated by a hyphen. The basic punctuation mark (the punctus) has been converted to a comma wherever appropriate, though there is no attempt to re-order punctuation. Abbreviations, wherever they can be clearly understood, have been expanded and the expanded part is written in italics; however, the Tironian nota ‘7’ is preserved (this is equivalent to the modern ‘&’). Scribal alterations (erasures and overwriting) of individual letters are not noted, with the exception of one very obvious erasure (see footnote 5). Letters or words inserted above the line or in a margin have been included in the line proper and have been italicised. The insertion mark and corresponding text in the bottom margin of folio 6r have been represented as they appear in the manuscript; the lines of the text have therefore not been re-ordered. Any scribal errors relating to grammar or spelling have not been corrected in the text but are noted in footnotes.

Transcription

5r (select folio number to open facsimile)

Ðis synd wihtrædes
domas cantwara cyninges.² _Ðam mildestan cyninge cantwara, wihtræde
rixigendum þe fiftan wintra his rices,
þy, niguðan gebanne, sextan dæge rugernes, in
þære stowe þy hatte berghamstyde, ðær wæs
gesamnad eadigra geheahtendlic³ ymcyme, ðær
wæs birhtwald bretone heahbiscop, 7 se ærnæm-
da cyning, eac þan hrofesceastre bisceop se ilca
gybmund wæs haten, andward wæs 7 cwæð, ælc
had ciricean ðære mægðe anmodlice mid þy
hersuman folcy. Þær ða eadigan fundon mid

5v

ealra gemedum ðas domas, 7 cantwara rihtum
þeawum æcton swa hit hyr efter segeþ 7 cwyþ.
Ciricean freolsdome⁴ gafola 7 man for cyning ge-
bidde, 7 hine buton neadhæse heora willum weor-
þige_n.⁵ Ciricean mundbyrd sie ·l· scll swa cin-
ges. Vnrihthæmde mæn to rihtum life mid syn-
na hreowe tofon, oþþe of ciricean genaman,⁶ ascadene
sieN. Æltheodige mæn gif hio hiora hæmed
rihtan nyllað, of lande mid hiora æhtum 7 mid
synnum gewiten, swæse mæn in leodum ciriclicæs
gemanan ungestrodyne þoligen. Gif ðæs geweor-
þe gesiþcundne mannan ofer þis gemot þæt he un-
riht hæmed genime ofer cyngæs bebod 7 biscopes
7 boca dom, se þæt gebete his dryhtne ·c· scll, an
ald reht. Gif hit ceorlisc man sie, gebete ·L· scll,
7 gehwæder þæt hæmed mid hreowe forlæte. Gif
priost læfe unriht hæmed, oþþe fulwihðe,⁷ untru-
mes forsitte, oþþe to þon druncen sie þæt he ne mæ-
ge, sio he stille his þegnungæ oþ biscopes dom.
Gif bescoren man steorleas, gange him an gest-
liðnesse gefe him man ænes 7 þæt ne geweorðe bu-
ton he leafnesse hæbbe þæt hine man læng feor-
mige. Gif man his mæn an wiofode freols gefe,
se sie folcfry, freolsgefa age his erfe ænde

6r

wergeld, 7 munde þare hina, sie ofer mearce ðær he
wille. Gif esne ofer⁸ dryhtnes hæse þeowweorc wyr-
ce an sunnan æfen efter hire setlgange oþ monan
æfenes setlgang ·Lxxx· scll se dryhtne⁹ gebete. Gif
esne deþ his rade þæs dæges ·vi· se wið dryhten gebe-
te oþþe sine hyd. Gif friman þonne an ðane for-
bodenan timan sio he healsfange scyldig, 7 se man
se þæt arasie he age healf þæt wite 7 ðæt weorc. Gif ceorl
buton wifes wisdome deoflum gelde, he sie ealra his
æhtan scyldig, 7 healsfange, gif butwu deoflum
geldaþ, sion hio healsfange, scyldigo 7 ealra æhtan.
Gif þeuw deoflum geldaþ ·vi· scll gebete, oþþe his hyd.
Gif mon his heowum in fæsten flæsc gefe, frigne ge
þeowne halsfange alyse. Gif þeow ete his sylfes
ræde ·vi· scll oþþe his hyd. Biscopes word 7 cynin-
ges sie unlægne buton aþe. Mynstres aldor
hine cænne in preostes canne, preost hine clæn-
sie sylfæs soþe in his halgum hrægle ætforan
wiofode ðus cweþende, Veritatem dico in christo non
mentior, swylce diacon hine clænsie. Cliroc
feowra sum hine clænsie his heafodgemacene
7 ane his hand on wiofode oþre ætstanden aþ
abycgan. Gest hine clænsie sylfes aþe on wiofode ⁜¹⁰
7 ðissa ealra að sie unlegnæ. Ðanne is cirican
⁜ swylce cyninges ðeng.¹¹ Ceorlisc man hine feowra
sum his heafodgemacene on weofode,

6v

canne riht, gif man biscopes esne tihte oþþe cy-
ninges cænne hine an gerefan hand oþþe hine
gerefa clensie oþþe selle to swinganne. Gif man
gedes þeuwne esne in heora gemange, tihte his
dryhten hine his ane aþe geclænsie gif he husl-
genga sie, gif he huslgenga nis hæbbe him in aþe
oðirne æwdan godne,¹² oþþe gelde, oþþe selle to swin-
ganne. Gif folcesmannes esne tihte ciricanman-
nes esne oþþe ciricanmannes esne tihte folces-
mannes esne, his dryhten hine ane his aþe ge-
clensige. Gif man leud ofslea an þeofðe, licge
buton wyrgelde. Gif man frigne man æt hæb-
bendre handa gefo þanne wealde se cyning ðreo-
ra anes, oððe hine man cwelle, oþþe ofer sæ selle,
oþþe¹³ hine his wergelde alese. Se þe hine gefo 7 ge-
gange healfne hine age, gif hine man cwelle, geselle¹⁴
heom man ·Lxx· scll. Gif þeuw stele 7 hi man¹⁵
alese ·Lxx· scll swa hweder swa cyning wille, gif
hine man acwelle þam agende hi man¹⁶ healfne
agelde. Gif feorran cumen man oþþe fræmde
buton wege gange, 7 he þonne nawðer ne hryme,
ne he horn ne blawe, for ðeof he bið to profi-
anne oþþe to sleanne, oþþe to alysenne.

Translation¹⁷

See Translation Notes

These are the judgements of Wihtræd, king of the Kentish people

To the most gracious king of the Kentish people, Wihtræd – reigning in the fifth winter of his rule,¹⁸ in the ninth indiction, ¹⁹ the sixth day of Rugern²⁰ - there was gathered, in the place which is called Bearsted,²¹ a council of noble men. There was present Berhtwald,²² archbishop of Britain,²³ and the aforementioned king, also the bishop of Rochester who was called Gebmund.²⁴ And every ecclesiastic of that people’s Church spoke in unison with the loyal populace.²⁵ There, with the agreement of all, the noble men instituted these judgements,²⁶ and they added to the lawful customs of the Kentish people as it hereafter states and declares:

[There is to be] freedom of the Church from taxation; and one should pray for the king and do him honour of their own free will, without compulsion.

Violation of the protection of the Church shall be 50 shillings,²⁷ as the king’s.

Persons in unlawful sexual unions should take up a lawful life with repentance of sins,²⁸ or be excommunicated from the Church.

Foreign persons, if they will not make their sexual union lawful, they must depart from the land with their possessions and their sins; our own countrymen should suffer excommunication, without forfeiture of property.

If afterwards, in contravention of this meeting, it should happen that a sith-born²⁹ person takes up an unlawful sexual union, against the command of the king and bishops and the decrees of the books,³⁰ he should pay to his lord 100 shillings, according to ancient law.

If it is a man of the rank of ceorl,³¹ he should pay 50 shillings, and both should give up the sexual union with repentance.³²

If a priest allows an unlawful sexual union,³³ or neglects the baptism of the sick,³⁴ or is so drunk that he is incapable, he should refrain from his ministry until the bishop’s judgement.

If a tonsured man, not under rule,³⁵ seeks for himself hospitality, one may give it him once but it should not happen that one sustains him for longer, unless he has permission.³⁶

If a person gives his man freedom at the altar, he will have the freedom of the people;³⁷ the freedom-giver shall have his inheritance and wergild and protection of the household;³⁸ he [the freed man] may be over the border where he wishes.³⁹

If an unfree labourer,⁴⁰ by his lord’s bidding,⁴¹ carries out slave-work between the sunset on the eve of Sunday and sunset on the eve of Monday,⁴² the lord should pay 80 shillings.⁴³

If an unfree labourer does it on that day by his own counsel, to his lord he should pay six [shillings], or his hide.⁴⁴

If a freeman [works] in this forbidden time, he should be liable for healsfang;⁴⁵ and the one who discovers it, ⁴⁶ he shall have half the fine or the work.⁴⁷

If a ceorl, without his wife’s knowledge, should make an offering to devils,⁴⁸ he shall be liable for all his property, or healsfang; if both make an offering to devils, they shall [both] be liable to healsfang or all [their] property.⁴⁹

If a slave makes an offering to devils, he should pay 6 shillings,⁵⁰ or his hide.

If a person gives meat to his household during fasting,⁵¹ he should redeem both freemen and slave with healsfang.

If a slave eats such, of his own counsel, 6 shillings or his hide.

The word of a bishop and a king shall be incontrovertible without an oath.⁵²

A head of a minster⁵³ should clear himself upon a priest’s exculpation;⁵⁴ a priest should acquit himself with his own truth in his holy vestments before the altar, declaring thus: ‘I speak truth in Christ, I do not lie’;⁵⁵ a deacon should similarly acquit himself.⁵⁶

A cleric should acquit himself as one of four of his rank,⁵⁷ but only his hand on the altar; the others should stand by to defend the oath.⁵⁸

A stranger should acquit himself with his own oath at the altar; similarly, a king’s thegn.⁵⁹ A person of the rank of ceorl,⁶⁰ as one of four of his rank, at the altar. And the oath of all these shall not be questioned.

Hereafter is the right of exculpation of the Church: if a person accuses an unfree labourer of a bishop or king, he should clear himself by the hand of the reeve;⁶¹ either the reeve acquits him or delivers him to be flogged.⁶²

If a person accuses a community’s bonded servant in their midst,⁶³ his lord should acquit him with his oath alone, if he is a communicant; if he is not a communicant, he should have with him another, an oath-supporter, otherwise he should pay, or deliver him to be flogged.⁶⁴

If a layman’s unfree labourer accuses a churchman’s unfree labourer, his lord should acquit him with his oath alone.

If a person slays a man who is thieving, [the one killed] is to lie [dead] without wergild.⁶⁵

If a person captures a free man red-handed,⁶⁶ then the king should rule one of three things: either one should kill him, or sell him overseas, or release him for [the price of] his wergild.

He who captures and delivers him should obtain half for [surrendering] him;⁶⁷ if he is killed, one should give them 70 shillings.

If a slave steals and one redeems him, that one should give 70 shillings; if he is killed, half of his [value] is to be paid to the owner,⁶⁸ whichever the king wishes.⁶⁹

If a person who comes from afar, or a foreigner, goes off the highway, and he then neither shouts out nor does he blow a horn, he should be considered a thief, to be either killed or redeemed.⁷⁰

Cited works

Blair, John, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society (Oxford University Press, 2005).

Cheney, C. R. (ed.) and Michael Jones (revised by), A Handbook of Dates for Students of British History, New Edition (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

DOE, The Dictionary of Old English: A to I online, ed. Angus Cameron, Ashley Crandell Amos, Antonette diPaolo Healey, et al (Dictionary of Old English Project, 2018); available to subscribers or free but with limited access. Click here

Kelly, S. E. (ed.), Charters of St Augustine’s Abbey Canterbury and Minster-in-Thanet, Anglo-Saxon Charters IV (Oxford University Press, 1995).

Monk, Christopher, ‘Defending Rihthæmed: the Normalizing of Marital Sexuality in the Anglo-Saxon Penitentials’, in SELIM. Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature, vol. 18 (2011), pp. 7-48, published online 2019. Click here

Oliver, Lisi, The Beginnings of English Law (University of Toronto Press, 2002).

The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg (Blackwell Publishing, 1999).

Whitelock, Dorothy (ed.), English Historical Documents c.500-1042, Second Edition (Eyre Methuen and Oxford University Press, 1979).

Footnotes

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1 For a detailed chronology of the kings of Kent, see S. E. Kelly, pp. 195-203; Wihtræd and Swæfheard are discussed at pp. 196-98; a summary of the chronology is given on p. 203.

2 The rubric (heading in red ink) is provided by the Textus Roffensis scribe; it is not considered to be part of the original law code.

3 Oliver, p. 152, emends this to geþeahtendlic.

4 The word spacing here is particularly confusing, as noted by Oliver, p. 152 and p. 153, note e. I have followed Oliver’s example in order to give better sense.

5 The manuscript has an erasure between the letters e and n.

6 In line with Oliver, p. 154, this should be emended to gemanan, meaning ‘community’, and in the context here relates to excommunication; see the translation, below.

7 Oliver, p. 154, emends this to fulwihte.

8 Oliver, pp. 156-57, suggests this should read of not ofer, and thus translates it as ‘according to’ rather than ‘against’. Whitelock, p. 157 translates it the same. I follow their example in my own translation, below.

9 Oliver, p. 156, emends this to dryhten.

10 The main Textus Roffensis scribe realised he had omitted some text from his exemplar and so provided an insertion mark – a red dotted black cross with a long descender terminating in a red curl – to indicate where the omitted text, appearing in the bottom margin and correspondingly marked, should be.

11 Oliver, p. 158, corrects ðeng to ðegn, i.e. ‘thegn’.

12 The letter n is inserted above the line.

13 The letter þ is inserted above the line.

14 selle is added in the right margin.

15 Oliver, p. 162, emends this to hine man.

16 Oliver, p. 162, emends this to hine man and suggests him man may be preferable grammatically.

17 My thanks go to Elise Fleming for kindly proofreading the translation and notes.

18 Or, ‘fifth year’.

19 The indiction was a method of reckoning time, originally going back to imperial Rome, and was used as an element in the dating of documents. It is based on a cycle of fifteen years, the first being counted from the year 312. For a detailed explanation, see Cheney and Jones, pp. 2-4.

20 Rugern, meaning ‘rye-harvest’, giving us a probable date for Wihtræd’s law code of 6th September, in the year 695; see Whitelock, p. 396, introduction.

21 Near Maidstone, Kent.

22 There are various spellings of his name; I’m using that used in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, p. 63; Oliver, p. 153, uses Brihtwald; Whitelock, p. 396, uses Brihtwold.

23 In effect, archbishop of Canterbury, as there was no archbishopric in York until 735. He was elected as archbishop in 692 (consecrated in 693) and his term ended at his death in 731.

24 Appointed about 678, died between 699 and 716.

25 Literally, ‘folk’, from Old English folc.

26 Or, ‘decrees’.

27 The mundbyrd was the legally recognised expectation of peace or ‘protection’ offered by any free person in their home or, as with the king, within their jurisdiction; here it is extended to the institution of the Church. In effect, were someone to cause a breach of the peace inside a church, they would have violated that protection and incur a penalty, a fine of 50 shillings, a considerable amount of money.

28 Unlawful sexual unions would not only have included those living together without marriage but any who were married to someone to whom they were too closely related, according to the rules of consanguinity of the Church at that time. In that sense, these unions would be irregular and unlawful, and anyone realising the unlawful status of their own union was expected to end the union and repent, otherwise be excommunicated. Also included would be bigamous or adulterous unions, where a spouse had been put away unlawfully to enable one to remarry someone else. Oliver discusses unlawful matrimony in Wihtræd’s law at pp. 167-8; for a more detailed and broader discussion of the concept of ‘unlawful sexual union’ in early medieval England, see Monk, pp. 23-34.

29 Or ‘gesith-born’, which appears to refer to an individual of a high rank, not a mere ceorl, the lowest rank of freeman. See Whitelock, p. 396, n. 4, where the comparison to eorlcund ‘of noble birth’ is made.

30 Probably referring to Scripture and canon law. Note Oliver’s comment, p. 167, that this clause may correspond to one laid out by the Synod of Hertford in 672: ‘On marriage. That nothing be allowed but lawful wedlock. Let none be guilty of incest, and let none leave his own wife except for fornication, as the holy gospel teaches.’ My own emphasis.

31 Translating ceorlisc man, a free person of the lowest rank, a ceorl.

32 Presumably meaning that both the higher and lower ranked persons are expected to end the unlawful union.

33 The inference is that the priest has officiated at an unlawful marriage.

34 Though ‘baptism’ is the clear meaning here, it seems likely that this stood for, or should be understood as alluding to, the neglect of any sacramental office for the sick, including the administering of confession. Oliver notes the similar rulings against clerical abuses in the roughly contemporaneous ‘Penitentials of Theodore’: Oliver, pp. 168-69.

35 I.e. not under monastic rule; one who has left his monastic community without permission.

36 Both Whitelock, p. 397, note 2, and Oliver, p. 169, make mention of the ruling at the Synod of Hertford in 672 against clerics wandering from diocese to diocese at will, perhaps suggesting that this law would have been applied to secular clerics as well as those in monastic orders. Interestingly, the synod ruling places equal culpability on the one showing undue hospitality; like the errant cleric, he risks excommunication should the cleric not return when summoned by his bishop.

37 Literally, ‘be folk-free’.

38 The wergild, ‘man-price’, was the amount of money legally equating to one’s life, and it had to be paid, by the slayer, to the next of kin should that one be killed; the amount varied according to rank. Oliver, p. 170, discusses the possible meanings of this clause: ‘First, the previous owner is responsible for protecting the claims to inheritance, wergild, and protection of the new freeman, who may well not have any free kinsmen to help guaranteed these rights. Second, should the newly freed man die without naming his beneficiaries, his inheritance reverts to the previous owner. If he has been killed, the wergild would also be paid to that owner; if anyone stands under the freedman’s protection, that protection is similarly taken up by the owner.’

39 Indicative of the fact that slaves were typically captives from warfare with other Germanic kingdoms in Britain, or indeed from among the colonised British natives. Such a manumitted person may wish to return to his own people, ‘over the border’.

40 An unfree individual who is temporarily bonded to a master to carry out agricultural work; see the discussion of esne at Slaves and the Unfree in the Laws of Æthelberht — Rochester Cathedral.

41 Following previous translators in amending Old English ‘ofer’ to ‘of’; see Oliver, pp. 156-7.

42 I.e. between Saturday sunset and Sunday sunset, marking the Sabbath period.

43 Oliver, p. 157, considers ‘shillings’ to be an error for ‘sceattas’ in view of what she reads as an unreasonably high fine. For a helpful discussion relating to this and the following clauses concerning the transgressing of Church laws concerning the Sabbath, pagan idolatry, and fasting, see Oliver, pp. 170-174.

44 Alternatively, ‘or be flogged’.

45 The healsfang is in essence a fine; it may have been at some point in history a monetary substitution for corporal punishment. DOE, heals-fang: ‘(in laws) a legal payment to be paid as a due or fine, or to be received by/on account of an injured party; a portion (possibly ten to twenty percent) of ‘wergild’; the term may originally have denoted a crime (lit. ‘seizing by the neck of throat’, cf. feaxfang ‘seizing by the hair’) for which it was also the penalty, or it may have described a form of corporal punishment for which it became a monetary substitution, i.e. the cost of saving one’s neck.’

46 This is overt encouragement for neighbours to expose one another if they fail to keep the sabbath laws.

47 Seemingly meaning half the profit from the work carried out, the other half presumably going to the public coffers. Oliver, p. 157, note g, observes that it is possible to translate Old English ‘and’ here as the adversative ‘or’, giving ‘half the fine or the work’.

48 The essential meaning of the Old English verb gyldan, used here, is ‘to pay (back), render’. It is used elsewhere in the context of worship of pagan deities: see DOE, gyldan, C. However, I am reluctant to translate it as ‘sacrifice’, as is given as an option in DOE (and, indeed, is Whitelock’s choice, p. 397), as this immediately biases our reading of what is actually being alluded to here in this text; it implies the killing of something in a ceremonial sacrifice and fosters rather melodramatic notions of devil worship, things that are not justified by the choice of wording. Thus, ‘make an offering’ seems to me more judicious.

49 The implication in this clause is that the wife does not lose her personal property or have to pay healsfang for herself should she be unaware of her husband’s actions, and, moreover, that the wife was viewed legally as a separate entity.

50 Both this clause and the one below concerning fasting are interesting for showing that slaves in Kent at this time could potentially have their own money.

51 A religiously determined period of fasting, such as during Lent, when meat was forbidden.

52 The bishop and king do not need to make an oath at the altar: their word was truth!

53 ‘Minster’ has quite a broad meaning in relation to early medieval England; note John Blair’s definition: ‘A complex ecclesiastical settlement which is headed by an abbess, abbot, or man in priest’s orders; which contains nuns, monks, priests, or laity in a variety of possible combinations, and is united to a greater or lesser extent by their liturgy and devotions; which may perform or supervise pastoral care to the laity, perhaps receiving dues and exerting parochial authority; and which may sometimes act as a bishop’s seat, while not depending for its existence or importance on that function.’ Blair, p. 3, italics his own. Note that during Wihtræd’s time, Minster-in-Thanet (founded in Kent around 660) was an abbey run by an abbess, so I would suggest that this law points to the probability that certain women at this time in Kent had the legal right to swear oaths.

54 DOE, cennan, B.2.c.ii: ‘with reflexive: to clear oneself, exculpate oneself’; the use of this verb in this very specific sense occurs only in Wihtræd’s laws. The exculpation, or clearance, refers to the public oath or declaration of one’s innocence in the face of an accusation of wrongdoing; it results in one’s acquittal. Note from the preceding clause that a bishop or king does not need to make such an oath. Oliver discusses exculpation at pp. 174-77.

55 The words to be uttered are in Latin: Veritatem dico in Christo, non mentior.

56 The verb clænsian, ‘to cleanse’, is used here in the sense of acquitting or clearing oneself, rather than in the sense of expiating or atoning for wrongdoing. See DOE, clǣnsian, 5.

57 Or, ‘order’; in this case one from among the minor ecclesiastical orders. Oliver, p. 159, note d, suggests ‘cleric’ ‘includes the positions of doorkeeper, psalmist, reader, exorcist, acolyte, and subdeacon’.

58 He has to bring along three others to defend his oath, though only he touches the altar. This seems similar to the arrangement for ‘oath-supporters’, referred to below in the clause concerning the accusation against a community’s bonded servant, and which is also in place in the Laws of Hlothere and Eadric.

59 A nobleman in service to the king; see Oliver, p. 175.

60 Or, ‘freeman’; literally, a ‘ceorlish man’.

61 The bailiff of the estate or area to which the unfree labourer belonged; see Oliver, p. 176.

62 Or, ‘beaten’.

63 The structure of the preceding clauses suggests the ‘community’ here equates to the ‘minster’, so this bonded labourer, an esne (see note 40, above), belongs to a monastery or other religious community.

64 A communicant (Old English husel-genga) is someone who receives Holy Communion. However, the precise use of the term here is unclear. Oliver, p. 176, discusses several possibilities. It may simply refer to whether the ‘lord’, or owner, of the bonded servant is a member of the particular religious community concerned. A possible alternative meaning is that this clause alludes to a clerical member, who regularly receives Holy Communion, as opposed to a member of the laity within the community who is not a regular communicant. Though perhaps more convoluted, I would also suggest a further possibility, that the ‘he’ who is or is not the communicant is actually the bonded servant. This would mean that this individual’s status as a Christian – one who receives Holy Communion – has a bearing on the determining of his innocence. If he is a Christian, his lord/owner’s oath is sufficient; if he’s not a Christian, then the owner must bring along an oath supporter to back up his swearing to the bonded servant’s innocence. As there are no other sources upon which we can draw to help us understand exactly what was happening in this regard in Kentish communities at the end of the seventh century, we have to leave the matter open.

65 I.e. no ‘man-price’ would be due to the slain person’s next of kin. A person had the right to kill someone who was attempting theft.

66 I.e. the thief has the goods on his person.

67 Presumably half of the money from selling him, or half the wergild.

68 Oliver, p. 163, note d, suggests the ‘owner’ here means the owner of the property that was stolen, not the slave-owner, who is legally culpable for allowing his slave to commit the crime. This makes sense. The choice before the king then is: the slave-owner can redeem his thieving slave with a payment of 70 shillings, which goes to the owner of the stolen goods; or, if the slave is executed, the owner of the stolen property is compensated with half that amount. See Oliver, pp. 178-79.

69 I have made the translation less awkward by moving ‘swa hweder swa cyning wille’, ‘whichever the king wishes’, from the middle to the end of the sentence.

70 This clause mirrors one in the laws of Ine, king of the West Saxons (r. 688-726). Dating to between 688 and 694, these laws slightly pre-date Wihtræd’s; see Oliver, pp. 179-80; Whitelock, p. 32, introduction.

The Laws of Hlothere and Eadric, c.673-c.686

These are the judgements which Hlothere and Eadric, kings of the Kentish people, set down. Translation from Old English of Textus Roffensis folios 3v-5r by Dr Christopher Monk.

The text is known only through the copy that survives in Textus Roffensis (c.1123). Hlothere reigned as king of Kent between July 673 and February 685, when he was killed by the South Saxons led by his nephew, Eadric. Eadric then reigned for about a year and a half, until the summer or autumn of 686. Though the laws, in the form in which they survive, might be interpreted as evidence of joint rulership of the two kings, not uncommon in late seventh-century Kent, it is nowhere stated in early histories that this was the case. It is probably more accurate to say that the text we now have is a conflation of their laws, originally issued separately by each king but, at some point, collated together. It is possible that Eadric reissued his uncle’s law code during his own reign and augmented it.¹

Transcription

3v (select folio number to open facsimile)

Þis syndon þa domas ðe hloþhæ-
re 7 eadric cantwara cyningas asettoN. _hloþhære, 7 eadric cantwara cyningas ecton þa
æ, þa ðe heora aldoras ær geworhtoN
ðyssum domum þe hyr efter sægeþ. Gif man-
nes esne eorlcundne mannan ofslæhð, þane ðe
sio þreom hundum scll gylde, se agend þone
banan agefe, 7 do þær þrio manwyrð to. Gif
se bane oþbyrste feorþe manwyrð he to gedo,
7 hine gecænne mid godum æwdum, þæt he þane
banan begeten ne mihte. Gif mannes esne

4r

frigne mannan ofslæhð þane þe sie, hund scillin-
ga gelde, se agend þone banan agefe, 7 oþer man-
wyrð þærto. Gif bana oþbyrste, twam manwyr-
þum hine man forgelde, 7 hine gecænne mid go-
dum æwdum, þæt he þane banan begeten ne mihte.
Gif frigman mannan forstele, gif he eft cuma,
stermelda secge an andweardne, gecænne hine
gif he mæge, hæbbe þare freora rim æwdaman-
na, 7 ænne mid in aþe, æghwilc man æt þam tune
þe he tohyre gif he þæt ne mæge gelde swa he gono
hage.² Gif ceorl acwyle be libbendum wife 7 bearne,
riht is þæt hit þæt bearn medder folgige, 7 him man
an his fæderingmagum wilsumne berigean ge-
felle³ his feoh to healdenne, oþ þæt he ·x· wintra sie.
Gif man oþrum mæn feoh forstele, 7 se agend hit
eft ætfo, geteme to cynges sele gif he mæge,
7 þane æt gebrenge þe him sealde, gif he þæt ne
mæge læte an, 7 fo se agend to. Gif man oþerne
sace tihte, 7 he þane mannan mote an medle oþþe an þin-
ge, symble se man þam oðrum byrigean, gesel-
le 7 þam riht awyrce þe to hiom cantwara de-
man gescrifen. Gif he ðonne byrigan forwær-
ne ·xii· scillingas agylde þam cyninge, 7 sio se⁴
sacy swa open swa hio ær wes. Gif man oþerne

4v

tihte siþþan he him byrigan gesealdne hæbbe,
7 ðonne ymb ·iii· niht gesecæn hiom sæmend bu-
ton þam, ufor leofre sio þe þa tihtlan age. Siþ-
þan sio sace gesemed sio an seofan nihtum se
man þam oþrum riht gedo, gecwime an feo
oððe an aþe, swa hwæder swa him leofre sio,
gif he þonne þæt nylle, gelde þonne ·c· buton aðe,
siþþan ane neaht ofer þæt, gesem hie. ⁵Gif man
mannan an oþres flette manswara hateþ, oððe
hine mid bismærwordum scandlice grete, scil-
ling agelde þam þe þæt flet age, 7 ·vi· scill, þam þe
he þæt word togecwæde, 7 cyninge ·xii· scll for-
gelde. Gif man oþrum steop asette, ðær mæn
drincen buton scylde, an eald riht, scll agelde
þam þe þæt flet age, 7 ·vi· scll þam þe man þone
steap aset, 7 cynge ·xii· scll. Gif man wæpn
abregde þær mæn drincen, 7 ðær man nan
yfel ne deþ, scilling, þan þe þæt flet age, 7 cynin-
ge ·xii· scll. Gif þæt flet geblodgad wyrþe, for-
gylde þem mæn his mundbyrd, 7 cyninge ·L·
scill. Gif man cuman feormæþ ·iii· niht an
his agenum hame, cepeman oþþe oðerne þe
sio ofer mearce cuman, 7 hine þonne his mete
fede, 7 he þonne ænigum mæn yfel gedo se man

5r

þane oðerne æt rihte gebrenge oþþe riht forewyrce.
Gif cantwara ænig in lundenwic feoh gebycge, hæbbe
him þonne twegen oððe ðreo unfacne ceorlas to
gewitnesse, oþþe cyninges wicgerefan, gif hit man
eft æt þam mæn in cænt ætfo þonne tæme he
to wic to cyngæs sele to þam mæn ðe him sealde, gif
he þane wite 7 æt þam teame gebrengen mæge, gif
he þæt ne mæge, gekyþe ðanne in wiofode mid his
gewitena anum oþþe mid cyninges wicgerefan,
þæt he þæt feoh undeornunga his cuþan ceape in wic
gebohte, 7 him man þanne his weorð agefe, gif he
þanne þæt ne mæge gecyþan mid rihtre canne, læte
þanne, an, 7 se agend tofo.

Translation

See Translation Notes

These are the judgements⁶ which Hlothere and Eadric, kings of the Kentish people, set down.⁷

Hlothere and Eadric, kings of the people of Kent, added to the law which their predecessors had made these judgments, which are stated hereafter:

If someone’s unfree labourer⁸ slays a man of noble birth – for whom one compensates with three hundred shillings⁹ – the owner should give up the killer and also add the value of three men.¹⁰

If the killer escapes, he should add the value of a fourth man and clear himself, with good oath-supporters,¹¹ [swearing] that he could not seize the killer.

If someone’s unfree labourer slays a free man – for whom one compensates with a hundred shillings – the owner should give up the killer and also the value of a man.

If the killer escapes, one should compensate with the value of two men and clear himself, with good oath-supporters, [swearing] that he could not seize the killer.

If a freeman steals someone, if the latter afterwards comes as informer, he should state what happened in front of him.¹² If he is able, he [the accused] should clear himself. Each man should have a number of free oath-supporters, and one with him during the oath [should be] from the village to which he belongs;¹³ if he cannot do that, he should compensate according to what he has.¹⁴

If a man¹⁵ should die leaving a wife and child, it is right that the child goes with the mother;¹⁶ and for him there should be one from among his father’s kin who willingly gives surety to uphold his property,¹⁷ until he is ten winters old.

If a person steals another person’s property, and the owner afterwards claims it, he [the accused] should vouch to warranty in the king’s hall, if he is able to, and bring there the one who sold it to him;¹⁸ if he cannot do that, let him relinquish [the property] and the owner take possession of it.

If anyone brings a charge against another, and he meets that person at an assembly or meeting, that person should always give surety to the other, and act according to the ruling which the judges of the Kentish people impose upon them.

If he then refuses surety, he should pay to the king 12 shillings,¹⁹ and the charge is to remain open as it was before.

If anyone brings a charge against another, after surety has been given him, then they should seek for themselves an arbitrator within three nights, unless the one who brings the charge prefers it to be later.

After the charge is settled, within seven nights the person should make it right by the other, satisfying him with property or an oath, whichever is preferable to him. If then he will not do that, he then should give 100 [shillings], without oath,²⁰ one night following the arbitration.

If anyone in another’s dwelling calls a person a perjurer or addresses him with shameful insults, he must pay a shilling to him who owns that dwelling, and 6 shillings to the one to whom he spoke that utterance, and he should pay to the king 12 shillings.

If, where people are drinking, anyone takes away the cup of another, who is without guilt,²¹ he should according to ancient rights give a shilling to the one who owns the dwelling, and 6 shillings to the one from whom the cup was taken, and to the king 12 shillings.

If anyone draws a weapon where people are drinking, but no harm is done there, a shilling to the one who owns the dwelling, and to the king 12 shillings.

If blood is shed at that dwelling,²² he should pay the man the fine for the breach of the peace,²³ and to the king 50 shillings.

If anyone provides for a stranger in his own home for three nights – a merchant or another who has come across the border – and he feeds him his food, and he [the guest] then does harm to any person, the man [the host] should bring the other to justice otherwise make forfeiture.²⁴

If any Kentish person buys property in London,²⁵ he should then have for himself two or three unblemished men,²⁶ or the king’s town-reeve, as witness. If a person afterwards lays claim to it [the goods] from the man in Kent, then the latter should, in the king’s hall of that town [i.e., in London], vouch to warranty concerning the person who sold it to him,²⁷ if he knows that one and is able to bring him to that vouching. If he cannot do that, then he should declare at the altar, along with one of his witnesses or with the king’s town-reeve, that he bought that property and be given back the price paid. If then he cannot declare that, in the knowledge of the law, he should relinquish the property, and the owner is to take possession.

Cited works

DOE, The Dictionary of Old English: A to I online, ed. Angus Cameron, Ashley Crandell Amos, Antonette diPaolo Healey et al. (Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project, 2018); for limited online access to the dictionary Click here

Kelly, S. E. (ed.), Charters of St Augustine’s Abbey Canterbury and Minster-in-Thanet (Oxford University Press, 1995).

Oliver, Lisi, The Beginnings of English Law (University of Toronto Press, 2002).

Whitelock, Dorothy, English Historical Documents, Volume I c.500-1042, second edition (Eyre Methuen/Oxford University Press, 19789).

Footnotes

Use your browsers 'back' button to jump back to the text.

1 See the introduction to the laws in Whitelock, p. 394; and, more broadly, on the chronology of the Kentish kings, Kelly, pp. 195-203.

2 Lisi Oliver amends this to ‘gonah age’: Oliver, p. 128.

3 Oliver corrects this to ‘geselle’: Oliver, p. 128

4 Oliver amends this to seo: Oliver, p. 130.

5 Oliver amends this to ‘gesem[eþ] hie’: Oliver, p. 130 and p. 131, note b.

6 Or ‘decrees’.

7 The heading is provided by the Textus Roffensis scribe; it is not thought to be part of the original text of these laws.

8 The esne, here translated as ‘unfree labourer’, but for which ‘servant’ is also possible, was in early Kentish society someone who, though not a full slave, was nevertheless ‘owned’, or temporarily bonded to a master. For more information, see: Slaves and the Unfree in the Laws of Æthelberht.

9 The amount of compensation due any free person, sometimes called a wergild or ‘man-price’, is fixed by law according to rank.

10 Literally, ‘three man-worths’.

11 The oath-supporter, or oath-helper, publicly vouched for the truthfulness of the one swearing an oath. For further information, see Oliver, pp. 144-46.

12 I.e., the victim (or perhaps his owner, if he is unfree) is to make the accusation in the ‘presence’ (see and-weardnes DOE) of the perpetrator. Dorothy Whitelock captures the sense rather nicely: ‘he is to accuse him to his face’; see Whitelock, p. 394.

13 This clause is difficult to translate and interpret. I lean towards Oliver’s interpretation that the accused is ‘supported by a number of free oath supporters, at least one of whom must be from the accused man’s township’. Alternatively, as Liebermann, one of the earliest editors of this text, has it, ‘each of the oath supporters must be from the village to which the accused man belongs, but that only one of the oath-swearers is actually required to stand with the defendant in the oath’. See Oliver, pp. 145-46.

14 Oliver, p. 146, explains: ‘If the defendant is unable to swear that he is guiltless, he pays the fine to the extent to which he is able.’

15 The word ceorl is used, which has various meanings depending upon context. Oliver, p. 129, offers ‘freeman’; Whitelock, p, 394, gives ‘husband’.

16 Literally, the meaning is the child should ‘follow’ or ‘accompany’ the mother; the sense seems to be that the child remains under the protection of the mother. In other words, the mother takes on the role attributed legally to the father, i.e., that of protector.

17 Or, ‘maintain his property’.

18 He must publicly swear that he was openly, hence lawfully, sold the goods; see below for the similar scenario in London.

19 In effect, the fine is paid to the public coffers of the King.

20 Oliver, p. 140, explains that ‘without oath’ means the guilty person ‘gives up his right to swear his innocence at a later time’, which is the same conclusion Whitelock, p. 395, n. 2, reaches. Oliver, pp. 139-41, discusses and lays out the process of bringing a charge.

21 I.e., the act is unprovoked. To take someone’s cup is akin to a verbal insult, to dishonouring someone.

22 More literally, ‘if that dwelling should become bloodied’.

23 Mundbyrd more simply means ‘protection’, and is used in a legal sense to refer to the price for violating someone’s protection. In this case, according to the long-standing cultural traditions of the Kentish people, the owner of the dwelling owes his guests protection, so the act of violence is an infringement of this protection, therefore the perpetrator must compensate him for dishonouring the owner. There is no mention here of compensation for the victim which would have undoubtedly been due to any innocent person, so it seems, as Oliver notes, that we should understand the reckoning of such compensation as subsumed under the existing personal injury laws laid out in the laws of Æthelberht of Kent, for which see: Æthelberht’s Code, c.600 CE. For the full discussion of disturbances of the peace, see Oliver, pp. 136-38.

24 The phrase ‘riht forewyrce’ more literally has the sense of ‘for-work what is right’, that is, one should face justice on behalf of, or instead of, the wrongdoer.

25 The use of ‘feoh’ alludes to ‘property’ such as livestock or any moveable goods. London was a centre of commerce even in the seventh century. Though part of the kingdom of the East Saxons, it was subject to overlordship of Kent during the seventh century. For more on this, see Oliver, pp. 142-44.

26 Translating ‘ceorlas’, in this context indicating free men.

27 The purchaser must bring the seller to the king’s hall so that the seller can publicly confirm that he was the seller of the goods in the London market.

Æthelberht’s Code, c.600 CE

These are the judgements which King Æthelberht set down in Augustine’s day. Translation from Old English of Textus Roffensis folios 1r-3v by Dr Christopher Monk.

In this video I read from the first two folios of Æthelberht’s Code, followed by a translation. See below for translations of the entire code.

The literal, word-by-word, line-by-line translation, below, is offered to enable an understanding of the relationship between Old English and present-day English vocabulary, and as a means of aiding non-specialists to locate the text in the Textus Roffensis digital facsimile. It should be born in mind that the word-order in Old English often differs from that in present-day English. A non-literal translation, which provides the full sense of the original language, is also provided below.

Please note Text written within square brackets, on the lines of Old English, indicates where the letters are no longer readable in the manuscript but can nevertheless be understood to have been there originally. Words in square brackets in the translation are given to aid understanding or to indicate the implied meaning of the original language. Scribal abbreviations have been expanded where it is obvious how they should read; the expansions are indicated by italics. Occasionally, the scribe writes a word across the end of one line and the beginning of the next; this is indicated below by the use of a hyphen.

Transcription

Jump to Translation

1r (select folio number to open facsimile)

Þis syndon þa domas þe æðelbirht cyning
asette on aGVSTinus dæge. _GODES FEOH· ⁊ CI-
ricean¹ ·xii· gylde. Biscopes feoh ·
·xi· gylde. Preostes feoh ·ix· gylde.
Diacones feoh ·vi· gylde. Clero-
ces⁴ feoh ·iii· gylde. Ciric friþ ·
ii· gylde. M[æðl]friþ ·ii· gylde. Gif cyning his
leode to him gehateþ ⁊ heom mon þær yfel gedo ·
ii· bote ⁊ cyninge ·L· scillinga. Gif cyning æt
mannes ham drincæþ, ⁊ ðær man⁵ lyswæs hwæt
gedo, twibote gebete. Gif frigman cyninge
stele ·ix· gylde forgylde. Gif in cyninges tu-
ne⁹ man mannan ofslea ·L· scill.¹⁰ Gif man
frigne mannan ofsleahþ, cyninge ·L· scill to
drihtinbeage. Gif cyninges ambiht-smið oþþe
laadrincmannan ofslehð, [me]duman leod-gelde
forgelde. Cyninges mundbyrd ·L· scillinga. Gif
frigman freum stelþ ·iii· gebete, ⁊ cyning age þ
wite ⁊ ealle þa æhtan. Gif man wiþ cyninges mæg-
denman¹⁵ geligeþ ·L· scillinga gebete. Gif hio grin-
dende¹⁶ þeowa sio ·xxv· scillinga gebete. Sio þridde
xii· scillingas. Cyninges fedesl ·xx· scillinga
forgelde. Gif on eorles tune man mannan

1v

[ ]¹⁸ ofslæhþ ·xii· scill gebete. Gif wið eorles
birele man geligeþ ·xii· scill gebete. Ceorles mund-
byrd²⁰ ·vi· scillingas. Gif wið ceorles birelan man
geligeþ ·vi· scillingum²¹ gebete. Aet þære oþere ðeo-
wan²² ·L· scætta. Aet þare þriddan ·xxx· scætta. Gif
man in mannes tun ærest geirneþ ·vi· scillingum
gebete. Se þe æfter irneþ ·iii· scillingas. Siððan ge-
hwylc²⁵ scilling. Gif man mannan wæpnum bebyreþ
ðær ceas weorð, ⁊ man nænig yfel ne gedeþ ·vi· scillin-
gum²⁷ gebete. Gif wegreaf sy gedon ·vi· scillingum
gebete. Gif man þone man ofslæhð ·xx· scillingum
gebete. Gif man mannan ofslæhð, medume leod-
geld ·c· scillinga gebete. Gif man mannan ofslæhð
æt openum græfe ·xx· scillinga forgelde,²⁹ ⁊ in ·xl·
nihta ealne leod³⁰ forgelde. Gif bana of lande
gewiteþ, ða mag[as] healfne leod forgelden. Gif man
frigne man geb[indeþ] ·xx· scill gebete. Gif man
ceorlæs hlafætan ofslæhð ·vi· scillingum gebete.
Gif læt ofslæhð þone selestan ·Lxxx· scill³³ forgelde.
Gif þane oþerne ofslæhð ·Lx· scillingum forgelde.
Ðane þriddan ·xL· scillingum forgelden. Gif friman
edorbrecþe gedeþ ·vi· scillingum gebete. Gif man
inne feoh genimeþ, se man ·iii· gelde gebete. Gif
friman edor gegangeð ·iiii. scillingum gebete.

2r

Gif man mannan ofslea agene scætte, ⁊ unfacne feo
gehwyilce gelde. Gif friman wið fries mannes wif
geligeþ, his wergelde abicge, ⁊ oðer wif his agenum
scætte begete, ⁊ ðæm oðrum æt þam gebrenge.
Gif man r[i]hthamscyld þurh stinð, mid weorðe for-
gelde. Gif feaxfang geweorð ·L· sceatta to bote.
Gif banes blice weorðeþ ·iii· scillingum gebete. Gif

banes bite weorð ·iiii· scillingum gebete. Gif sio
uterre hion gebrocen weorðeþ ·x· scillingum ge-
bete. Gif butu sien ·xx· scillingum gebete. Gif
eaxle gelæmed weorþeð ·xxx· scill gebete. Gif
oþer eare nawiht gehereð ·xxv· scill gebete.
Gif eare of weorð aslagen ·xii· scill gebete. Gif
eare þirel weorðeþ ·iii· scill gebete. Gif eare
sceard weorðeþ ·vi· scill gebete. Gif eage of we-
orð⁴² ·L· scillingum gebete. Gif muð oþþe eage woh
weorðeþ ·xii· scill gebete. Gif nasu ðyrel weorð
viiii· scillingum gebete. Gif hit sio an hleore
iii· scill gebete. Gif butu ðyrele sien ·vi· scill
gebete. Gif nasu ælcor sceard weorð gehwylc ·
vi· scill gebete. Gif ðirel weorþ ·vi· scill gebete.
Se þe cinban forslæhð, mid ·xx· scillingum for-
gelde. Æt þam feower toðum fyrestum æt
gehwylcum ·vi· scillingas. Se toþ se þanne

2v

bi standeþ ·iiii· scill. Se þe ðonne bi ðam standeþ ·
iii· scill. And þonne siþþan gehwylc scilling. Gif
spræc awyrd weorþ ·xii· scillingas. Gif widoba-
ne gebroced weorðeþ ·vi· scill gebete. Se þe earm
þurh stinð ·vi· scillingum gebete. G[if][e]arm
forbrocen weorð ·vi· scill gebete. Gif þuman of
aslæhð ·xx· scill. Gif ðuman nægl of weorðeþ·
iii· scill gebete. Gif man scytefinger of aslæhð·
viiii· scill gebete. Gif man middelfinger of aslæhð·
iiii· scill gebete. Gif man goldfinger of aslæhð·
vi· scill gebete. Gif man þone lytlan finger of
aslæhð ·xi· scill gebete. Æt þam neglum ge-
hwylcum, scilling. Æt þam lærestan wlitewam-
me ·iii· scillingas. And æt þam maran ·vi· scill.
Gif man oþerne mid fyste in naso slæhð ·iii· scill.
Gif dynt sie, scilling. Gif he heahre handa dyn-
tes onfehð, scill forgelde. Gif dynt sweart sie
buton wædum ·xxx· scætta gebete. Gif hit sie
binnan wædum, gehwylc ·xx· scætta gebete.
Gif hrif wund weorðeþ ·xii· scill gebete. Gif he
þurhðirel weorðeþ ·xx· scill gebete. Gif man
gegemed weorðeþ ·xxx· scill gebete. Gif man
cearwund sie ·xxx· scill gebete. Gif man ge-
kyndelice lim awyrdeþ, þrym leudgeldum hine

3r

man forgelde. Gif he þurhstinð ·vi· scill gebete.
Gif man inbestinð ·vi· scill gebete. Gif þeoh gebro-
cen weorðeþ ·xii· scillingum gebete. Gif he healt
weorð, þær motan freond seman. Gif rib forbro-
cen weorð ·iii· scill gebete. Gif man þeoh ðurhstingþ
stice gehwilce ·vi· scillingas. Gyfe⁵³ ofer ynce scilling,
æt twam yncum twegen, ofer þry ·iii· scll.⁵⁴ Gif
wælt wund weorðeþ ·iii· scillingas gebete. Gif fot
of weorðeþ ·L· scillingum forgelden.⁵⁵ Gif seo my-
cle⁵⁷ ta of weorðeþ ·x· scll forgelden. Æt þam o-
ðrum⁵⁹ taum gehwilcum healf gelde, ealswa æt þam
fingrum ys cwiden. Gif þare mycclan taan nægl
of weorþeð ·xxx· scætta to bote. Æt þam oþrum
gehwilcum ·x· scættas gebete. Gif friwif locbore
leswæs hwæt gedeþ ·xxx· scll gebete. Mægþ-
bot⁶¹ sy swa friges mannes. Mund þare betstan
widuwan eorlcundre ·L· scillinga gebete. Ðare
oþre ·xx· scll, ðare þriddan ·xii· scll. Þare
feorðan ·vi· scll. Gif man widuwan unagne ge-
nimeþ⁶³ ·ii· gelde seo mund sy. Gif man mægþ
gebigeð ceapi geceapod sy, gif hit unfacne is,
gif hit þonne facne is, ef þær æt ham gebren-
ge⁶⁷ ⁊ him man his scæt agefe. Gif hio cwic bearn
gebyreþ healfne scæt age, gif ceorl ær swylteþ.

3v

Gif mid bearnum bugan wille, healfne scæt age. Gif ceorl
agan wile swa an bearn. Gif hio bearn ne gebyreþ fæ-
deringmagas⁷¹ fioh agan, ⁊ morgengyfe. Gif man
mægþman nede genimeþ, ðam agende ·L· scillinga, ⁊
eft æt þam agende, sinne willan ætgebicge. Gif hio
oþrum mæn in sceat bewyddod sy ·xx· scillinga ge-
bete.⁷⁵ Gif gængang⁷⁶ geweorðeþ ·xxxv· scill, ⁊ cyninge
xv· scillingas. Gif man mid esnes cwynan geligeþ
be cwicum ceorle ·ii· gebete. Gif esne⁷⁸ oþerne⁷⁹ ofslea unsyn-
nigne,⁸¹ ealne weorðe forgelde. Gif esnes eage ⁊ foot
of weorðeþ aslagen, ealne weorðe hine forgelde.
Gif man mannes esne gebindeþ ·vi· scll gebete. Ðeo-
wæs⁸² wegreaf se ·iii· scillingas. Gif þeow steleþ ·
ii· gelde gebete.

Literal translation

These are the judgements which Æthelberht king set in Augustine’s day.

God's property & [the] Church’s, 12[-fold] compensation.²

[A]³ bishop’s property 11[-fold] compensation.

[A] priest’s property, 9[-fold] compensation.

[A] deacon’s property, 6[-fold] compensation.

[A] cleric’s property, 3[-fold] compensation.

[Infringement of] Church peace 2[-fold] compensation.

[Infringement of] assembly peace, 2[-fold] compensation.

If [the] king his people to him summons & to them [a] person there evil does 2[-fold] restitution & [to the] king 50 shillings.

If [the] king at [a] person’s home drinks,⁶ & there [a] person corrupt anything does,⁷ double-restitution [one] should pay.

If [a] freeman [from the] king steals, 9[-fold] compensation [he] should pay.⁸

If in [the] king’s house¹¹ [a] person someone slays, 50 shillings.

If one [a] free person slays, [to the] king 50 shillings as lord-money.

If [the] king’s official-smith¹² or escort [one] slays, average man-price [one should] pay.

[Violation of the] King’s protection, 50 shillings.

If [a] freeman [from a] freeman steals, 3[-fold] [one] should pay, & [the] king owns that fine or¹³ all the possessions.¹⁴

If one with [the] king’s maiden lies, 50 shillings [one] should pay.

If she [a] grinding slave be, 25 shillings [one] should pay.

Be [she] third[-class], 12 shillings.

[For the] King’s feeding, 20 shillings [one] should pay.¹⁷

If in [a] nobleman’s house [a] person someone slays, 12 shillings [one] should pay.

If with [a] nobleman’s cupbearer one lies, 12 shillings [one] should pay.

[For violation of a] ceorl’s protection,¹⁹ 6 shillings.

If with ceorl’s cupbearer onelies, 6 shillings [one] should pay. For the second-[rank] slave, 50 sceattas.²³ For the third[-rank], 30 sceattas.

If [a] person into someone’s house first breaks,²⁴ 6 shillings [one] should pay.

He who next breaks [in], 3 shillings.

After, each one [a] shilling.

If [a] person [for] someone weapons supplies where [a] quarrel occurs, but one not any evil not does,²⁶ 6 shillings [one] should pay. If highway robbery²⁸ is done, 6 shillings [one] should pay. If one the person slays, 20 shillings [one] should pay.

If [a] person someone slays, [an] average man-price of 100 shillings [one] should pay.

If [a] person someone slays, at [the] open grave 20 shillings [one] should pay, & in 40 nights all man[-price] [one] should pay.

If [the] killer from [the] land departs, the kin half [the] man[-price] should pay.

If one a free-man³¹ binds, 20 shillings [one] should pay.

If one [a] ceorl’s loaf-eater³² slays, 6 shillings [one] should pay.

If [a] freed-man³⁴ [one] slays of the highest rank, 80 shillings [one] should pay.

If the second[-rank] [one] slays, 60 shillings [one] should pay.

[If] the third[-rank], 40 shillings [one] should pay. If [a] freeman hedge-breaking³⁵ does, 6 shillings [one] should pay. If one within property takes, that one 3[-fold] compensation should pay.

If [a] person someone slays, [with one’s] own money or unblemished property, whichever, [one] should pay.

If [a] freeman with free man’s wife lies, [with] his wergild [he] should pay recompense, & another wife [with] his own money obtain, & to the other [man] at home³⁶ [he] should bring [her].

If [a] person [the] rihtmanscyld³⁷ through pierces, with [its] worth [one] should pay back.

If seizing of hair occurs, 50 sceattas as recompense.

If [a] bone’s cutting occurs, [with] 4 shillings [one] should compensate.

If the outer hion³⁹ broken becomes, [with] 10 shillings[one] should compensate.

If both be [broken], [with] 20 shillings [one] should compensate.

If[a] shoulder lamed becomes, 30 shillings [one] should pay.

If either ear nothing hears,⁴⁰ 30 shillings [one] should pay.

If [an] ear off becomes struck,⁴¹ 12 shillings [one] should pay.

If [an] ear pierced becomes, 3 shillings [one] should pay.

If [an] eargashed becomes, 6 shillings [one] should pay.

If [an] eye off becomes,⁴³ [with] 50 shillings [one] should compensate.

If [the] mouth or [an] eye damaged becomes, 12 shillings [one] should pay.

If [a] nose pierced becomes[with] 9 shillings [one] should compensate.

If it be on [the] cheek, 3 shillings [one] should pay.

If both [cheeks] pierced be, 6 shillings[one] should pay.

If [a] nose otherwise gashed becomes, [for] each [gash] 6 shillings [one] should pay.

If [?the throat]⁴⁴ gashed becomes, 6 shillings [one] should pay.

He who [the] jawbone breaks, with 20 shillings [he]

should make good.

For the four teeth foremost for

each 6 shillings.

The tooth which then beside stands, 4 shillings.

The [one] which then beside that [one] stands, 3 shillings.

And then thereafter, each [a] shilling.

If speech harmed becomes, 12 shillings.

If [a] collarbone broken becomes, 6 shillings [one] should pay.

He who [an] arm through stabs, 6 shillings [one] should pay.

If [an] arm broken becomes, 6 shillings [one] should pay.

If [a] thumb off [one] strikes, 20 shillings.

If [a] thumbnail off becomes,⁴⁵ 3 shilllings [one] should pay.

If one [a] shooting-finger⁴⁶ off strikes, 9 shillings [one] should pay.

If one [a] middle finger off strikes, 4 shillings [one] should pay.

If one [a] gold-finger⁴⁷ off strikes, 6 shillings [one] should pay.

If one the little finger offstrikes, 11 shillings [one] should pay.

For⁴⁸ the nails⁴⁹ each, [a] shilling.

For the least facial disfigurement, 3 shillings.

And for the greater, 6 shillings.

If [a] person another [person] with [a] fist in [the] nose strikes, 3 shillings.

If [a] blow [it] be, [a] shilling.

If he [from a] raised hand blow receives, [a] shilling [one] should make good.

If [a] blow black be⁵⁰outside clothing, 30 sceattas [one] should pay.

If it be inside clothing, [for] each [bruise] 20 sceattas [one] should pay.

If [a] belly wound becomes, 12 shillings [one] should pay.

If he pierced-through becomes, 20 shillings [one] should pay.

If [a] person healed becomes, 30 shillings [one] should pay.⁵¹

If [a] persongrievously wounded be, 30 shillings.

If [a] person [the] genital limb damages,⁵² [with] three man-prices himone should compensate.

If he through-stabs [it], 6 shillings [he] should pay.

If [a] person into-stabs [it], 6 shillings [one] should pay.

If [a] thigh brokenbecomes, [with] 12 shillings [one] should compensate.

If he lame becomes, then must friends arbitrate.

If [a] rib brokenbecomes, 3 shillings [one] should pay.

If [a] person [a] thigh through-stabs, [for] stab each, 6 shillings.

If [the stab wound is] over [an] inch, [a] shilling; for two inches, two [shillings]; over three [inches], 3 shillings.

If a welt-wound occurs, 3 shillings [one] should pay.

If [a] foot off becomes,⁵⁶ with 50 shillings [one] should compensate.

If the big toe off becomes,⁵⁸ [with] 10 shillings [one] should pay.

For the other toes, each half [the] payment, as for the fingers is discussed.

If the big toenail off becomes, 30 sceattas as recompense.

For the others, each 10 sceattas [one] should pay.

If [a] free-woman key-holder corrupt anything does, 30 shillings [she] should pay.⁶⁰

Maiden-compensation is that of [a] free person.⁶²

[For violation of the] protection of the foremost widow [of] noble kin, 50 shillings [one] should pay.

Of the second [rank], 20 shillings; of the third, 12 shillings.

Of the fourth, 6 shillings.

If one [a] widow unowned takes, 2[-fold] compensation the protection should be.⁶⁴

If one [a] maidenbuys [with a] [bride-]price, [the] transaction should be,⁶⁵ if it honest is;⁶⁶ if it, then, dishonest is, afterward there to [her] home [he] should bring [her] and [to] him one his money should repay.⁶⁸

If she [a] living child bears, half [the] wealth [she] should obtain, if [the] husband first dies.

If with [the] children to live [she] should wish, half [the] wealth [she] should obtain.⁶⁹

If [another] husband to obtain [she] should wish, [a provision] as [for] one child.⁷⁰

If she [a] child not bears, [her] father’s kin [the] property [they] obtain, and [the] morning gift.⁷²

If one [a] maiden [by] force takes, [to] the owner⁷³ 50 shillings, &afterward from the owner, his consent [one] should buy.⁷⁴

If she [to] another man by payment betrothed be, 20 shillings [he] should pay.⁷⁷

If [a] return [of the maiden] occurs, 35 shillings, & [to the] king15 shillings.

If one with [a] servant’s wife lies while alive [the] husband [is], 2[-fold] [one] should pay.⁸⁰

If [a] servant another slays [who is] innocent, [the] entire worth [of the victim] [one] should make good.

If a servant’s eye or footoff becomes cut, [the] entire worth [to] him [one] should pay.

If [a] person someone’s servant binds, 6 shillings [one] should pay.

[For a] slave’s highway robbery, [payment] should be 3 shillings.

If [a] slave steals 2[-fold] compensation [one] should pay.⁸³

Complete translation

These are the judgements which King Æthelberht set down in Augustine’s day.⁸⁴

God’s property and the Church’s, [one should make good] with a 12-fold compensation.

A bishop’s property, with an 11-fold compensation.

A priest’s property, with a 9-fold compensation.

A deacon’s property, with a 6-fold compensation.

A cleric’s property, with a 3-fold compensation.

[Infringement of] church peace, with a 2-fold compensation.

[Infringement of] assembly peace, with a 2-fold compensation.

If the king summons his people to him and one does evil to them there, a 2-fold restitution and 50 shillings to the king.

If the king is drinking at someone’s home and one does anything corrupt there, one should pay double restitution.

If a freeman steals from the king, he should make good with a 9-fold compensation.

If one slays someone in the king’s house, one should pay 50 shillings.

If one slays a freeman, 50 shillings to the king as lord-money.

If one slays a court-smith or escort of the king, one should pay an average man-price.

[For violation of] the king’s protection, 50 shillings.

If a freeman steals from a freeman, he should pay back 3-fold, and the fine belongs to the king – or all the possessions.⁸⁵

If one lies with a king’s maiden, one should pay 50 shillings.

Should she be a grinding slave, one should pay 25 shillings.

Should she be third class, 12 shillings.

For the feeding of the king, one should pay 20 shillings.

If one slays someone in a nobleman’s house, one should pay 12 shillings.

If one lies with a nobleman’s cupbearer, one should pay 12 shillings.

[For violation of] a ceorl’s protection, 6 shillings.

If one lies with a ceorl’s cupbearer, one should pay 6 shillings.

For the second-rank slave, 50 sceattas.

For the third-rank, 30 sceattas.

If one breaks into someone’s house first, one should pay 6 shillings.

He who breaks in next, 3 shillings.

After that, each one a shilling.

If one supplies weapons for someone where a quarrel occurs, and yet no harm occurs, one should pay 6 shillings.

If highway robbery is committed, one should pay 6 shillings.

If one slays the person, one should pay 20 shillings.

If one slays someone, one should pay an average man-price of 100 shillings.

If one slays someone, one should pay 20 shillings at the open grave and pay the whole of the man-price within forty nights.

If the killer departs the land, the kinsmen should pay half the man-price.

If one binds a freeman, one should pay 20 shillings.

If one slays a member of a ceorl’s household, one should pay 6 shillings.

If one slays a freed man of the highest rank, one should pay 80 shillings.

If one slays one of the second rank, one should pay 60 shillings.

If of the third rank, one should pay 40 shillings.

If a freeman breaks into an enclosure, he should pay 6 shillings.

If one takes property from within, that one should pay with a three-fold compensation.

If a freeman enters an enclosure, he should pay 4 shillings.

If one slays someone, he should pay compensation with his own money or unblemished property, whichever.

If a freeman lies with a wife of another freeman, he should give recompense with his wergild [‘man-price’] and obtain another wife with his own money and bring her to the other man at his home.

If a person pierces through a rihthamscyld, one should make good with its value.⁸⁶

If seizing of the hair occurs, 50 sceattas as recompense.

If exposure of a bone occurs, one should compensate with 3 shillings.

If cutting of a bone occurs, one should compensate with 4 shillings.

If the outer hion becomes broken, one should compensate with 10 shillings.⁸⁷

If both should be broken,⁸⁸ one should compensate with 20 shillings.

If a shoulder is made lame, one should compensate with 30 shillings.

If either ear is made deaf, one should compensate with 25 shillings.

If an ear is struck off, one should compensate with 12 shillings.

If an ear is pierced [or, perhaps, ‘perforated’], one should compensate with 3 shillings.

If an ear is gashed, one should compensate with 6 shillings.

If an eye is lost, one should compensate with 50 shillings.

If a mouth or an eye is damaged [or ‘made crooked’], one should compensate with 12 shillings.

If a nose is pierced, one should compensate with 9 shillings.

If it be on the cheek, one should compensate with 3 shillings.

If both [cheeks] are pierced, one should compensate with 6 shillings.

If a nose becomes otherwise gashed, one should compensate for each [gash] with 6 shillings.

If [the throat] becomes pierced, one should compensate with 6 shillings.⁸⁹

He who breaks the jawbone, he should make good with 20 shillings.

For the four front teeth, 6 shillings each.

The tooth which then stands besides, 4 shillings.

The one which then stands to the side of that one, 3 shillings.

Then each one after that, a shilling.

If speech becomes damaged, 12 shillings.

If a collarbone is broken, one should compensate with 6 shillings.

He who stabs through an arm, he should compensate with 6 shillings.

If an arm is broken, one should compensate with 6 shillings.

If one strikes off of thumb, 20 shillings.

If a thumbnail becomes detached, one should compensate with 3 shillings.

If one strikes off a shooting finger [i.e., forefinger], one should compensate with 9 shillings.

If one strikes off a middle finger, one should compensate with 4 shillings.

If one strikes off a gold-finger [i.e., ring finger], one should compensate with 6 shillings.

If one strikes off the little finger, one should compensate with 11 shillings.

For each of the fingernails, a shilling. For the least facial disfigurement, 3 shillings.

And for the greater, 6 shillings.

If one strikes another in the nose with a fist, 3 shillings.

If it should be a blow, a shilling.

If he receives a blow from a raised hand, one should make recompense of a shilling.

If a blow leaves a bruise outside the clothing, one should pay 30 sceattas.

If it is inside the clothing, one should pay 20 sceattas.

If a belly wound occurs, one should compensate with 12 shillings.

If he is pierced through, one should compensate with 20 shillings.

If a person becomes healed, one should compensate with 30 shillings.⁹⁰

If a person should be grievously wounded, one should compensate with 30 shillings.

If one destroys the genital limb,⁹¹ he should compensate him with three man-prices.⁹²

If he stabs through it, he should compensate with 6 shillings. If one stabs into it, one should compensate with 6 shillings.

If a thigh becomes broken, one should compensate with 12 shillings.

If he becomes lame, then friends must arbitrate.⁹³

If a rib is broken, one should compensate with 3 shillings.

If a person stabs through a thigh, for each stab 6 shillings.

If a wound is over an inch, a shilling.

For two inches, two shillings.

Over three, three shillings.

If a welt-wound occurs, one should pay 3 shillings.

If a foot is cut off, one should compensate with 50 shillings.

If the big toe is cut off, one should pay 10 shillings.

For the other toes, one should pay half the payment decided elsewhere for the fingers.

If the big toenail becomes removed, 30 sceattas as recompense.

For each of the others, one should pay 10 sceattas.

If a free-woman key-holder does anything corrupt, she should pay 30 shillings.⁹⁴

Maiden-compensation is that of a free man [or ‘person’].

[For violation of the] protection of the foremost widow of noble rank, one should pay 50 shillings.

Of the second rank, 20 shillings.

Of the third, 12 shillings.

Of the fourth, 6 shillings.

If one takes an unowned widow, [violation of her] protection should be a 2-fold compensation.⁹⁵

If a man buys a maiden with a [bride-]price, the transaction should stand if there is no deception.⁹⁶

If then there is deception, afterwards he shall bring [her] to [her] home, and one should repay him his money.

If she bears a living child, she should obtain half the wealth [or ‘property’] if the husband dies first.

If she should wish to live with the children, she should obtain half the wealth [or ‘property’].⁹⁷

If she should wish to obtain another husband, [a provision] as for one child.

If she does not bear a child, her father’s kin should obtain her property and the morning-gift.

If one takes a maiden by force, to the owner one should pay 50 shillings, and afterwards one must procure from the owner his consent [to marry her].

If she be betrothed through goods to another man, one should pay 20 shillings.

If a return [of the maiden] happens, 35 shillings and 15 shillings to the king.

If one lies with a hired labourer’s wife while the husband is alive, one should pay back 2-fold.

If a hired labourer [or ‘servant’] should slay another who is innocent, one should pay back [to the victim’s master] the entire worth [of the victim].

If a servant’s eye, or foot, is removed, one should pay to him the entire worth.

If one binds another’s servant, one should compensate with 6 shillings.

For a slave’s highway robbery, [compensation] shall be 3 shillings.

If a slave steals, there should be paid a 2-fold compensation.

Further Reading

Books

Tom Lambert, Law and Order in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2017)

Lisi Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law (University of Toronto Press, 2002).

Journal articles

Christine Fell, ‘A “friwif locbore” revisited’, Anglo-Saxon England 13 (1984), pp. 157–66.

Carole Hough, ‘The early Kentish “divorce laws”: a reconsideration of Æthelberht, chs. 79 and 80’, Anglo-Saxon England 23 (1994), 19–34.

Footnotes

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1 ‘Ciricean’ (‘Church’s’) is written over two lines.

2 The sense of this and the next few clauses is that if someone steals or damages the said property, that person must make good, or pay back, a compensatory amount beyond the value of the goods concerned, from twelve-fold down to two-fold, according to rank.

3 There is no indefinite article (‘a’) in Old English.

4 ‘Cleroces’ (‘Cleric’s’) is written over two lines.

5 ‘man’ (and its variant spellings, e.g., ‘mon’, above) can mean a person of any gender, so can be translated as ‘a person’ or ‘one’, or something similar.

6 Or ‘is drinking’.

7 Meaning: ‘and a person does anything corrupt there’.

8 Or ‘make good’.

9 ‘tune’ (‘house’) is written over two lines.

10 An abbreviated form is used here, and elsewhere in the law-code. I have not expanded it because it is not clear what the grammatical case of the noun is.

11 Or ‘household’, ‘estate’, or ‘dwelling’.

12 Or ‘court-smith’; this seems to be referring to an official blacksmith (or another craftsman, e.g., a carpenter) of the king’s household or court.

13 Or ‘&’. See Lisi Oliver’s discussion on why ‘or’ is the probable sense here: The Beginnings of English Law (2002), p. 65, note d.

14 The sense here, as I understand it, is that if the thief does not pay the fine owed to the king, all his possessions are seized.

15 ‘mægdenman’ (‘maiden’) is written over two lines.

16 ‘grindende’ (‘grinding’) is written over two lines.

17 If a person defaulted on his responsibility to provide the king with sustenance as he moved around his realm, or he wished to commute it to a monetary payment, he owed 20 shillings to the king; see Lisi Oliver, ‘Cyninges fedesl: The Feeding of the King in Æthelberht ch. 12’, Anglo-Saxon England 27 (1998), pp. 59-75.

18 Text has been erased.

19 A ceorl was the lowest rank of freeman.

20 ‘mundbyrd’ (‘protection’) is written across two lines.

21 The abbreviation ‘-ū’, here and elsewhere, has been expanded. The spelling ‘scillingum’ is the first of several uses of what Oliver refers to as ‘the dative of quantity’ and may be translated properly as ‘with 6 shillings one should pay’. See Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 32-4.

22 The ‘n’ has been added above the ‘a’.

23 Oliver explains: ‘The Kentish shilling was a gold piece containing 20 sceattas; the sceatta was a smaller gold piece equal in weight to a grain of barley.’ See The Beginnings of English Law, p. 67, note d.

24 i.e., is the leader among a group breaking into the house.

25 ‘gehwylc’ (‘each one’) is written across two lines.

26 Old English has a double negative.

27 ‘scillingum’ (‘shillings’) is written across two lines.

28 ‘highway robbery’ translates ‘weg-reaf’, literally ‘[high]way plunder’.

29 The verb forgieldan (‘forgelde’) has the same essential meaning – ‘to pay’ – as the verb betan (‘gebete’), which has up to this point been the preferred term. More subtly, ‘forgelde’ literally means ‘for-yield’, with the sense of ‘pay back’, whereas ‘gebete’ has the sense of ‘make amends’, and in later writings is associated with penance.

30 The manuscript reads ‘leo-d’. At this point, and following, leod is used as short-hand for leod-geld (‘man-price’).

31 Or ‘free person’.

32 The sense of hlafæta is a member of one’s household, a dependent.

33 ‘scill’ is inserted above the final ‘x’.

34 A læt, a ‘freed-man’, seems to refer to a former slave freed through a process of manumission, though not someone who has yet obtained the status of freeman; for more details, including a discussion of ‘the three generations’ (corresponding to the three classes in this law-code) ‘required for the descendants of a freedman to acquire full freedom’, see, David A. E. Pelteret, Slavery in Early Medieval England: From the Reign of Alfred until the Twelfth Century (Boydell, 1995), pp. 294-96; see also Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 91-3.

35 A literal rendering of ‘edor-brecþe’, it appears to refer to breaking into an enclosure, violating someone’s property; see Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, p. 69, note c.

36 ‘at home’ translates ‘æt þam’ though this assumes either ‘þam’ (‘that’) is an error for ‘ham’ (‘home’) or that ‘æt þam’ (‘at that [one’s home]’) is idiomatic; see Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, p. 69, note f.

37 ‘rihthamscyld’ is not attested elsewhere in Old English works and its meaning is uncertain.

38 Here, and elsewhere in this law-code, the Old English word for ‘shillings’ is in the dative case, indicating ‘with 3 shillings’, etc. This use of the ‘dative of quantity’ does lead me here, and in other clauses that follow, to translate betan (‘gebete’) as ‘compensate’ rather than simply ‘pay’, but ‘pay’ would still work.

39 The meaning of ‘hion’ is unclear as it is not used anywhere else in Old English texts; Oliver tentatively offers ‘?=covering of the skull’ for ‘outer hion’, The Beginnings of English Law, p. 71. I suggest the injury may be the exposing of the skull. Oliver discusses in detail the problem of the translation at pp. 101-2.

40 Or ‘is made deaf’.

41 Meaning ‘If an ear is struck off’.

42 ‘weorð’ (‘becomes’) is written across two lines.

43 Meaning ‘If an eye is lost’.

44 The scribe has missed out what it is that is being pierced; it has been suggested that throtu ‘throat’ was intended; see Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, p. 70, note c.

45 Meaning ‘is stuck off’ or ‘becomes detached’.

46 i.e., the forefinger.

47 i.e., the ring-finger.

48 Literally, ‘At’.

49 This seems to refer to the finger nails, as the thumbnail has already been mentioned.

50 Meaning ‘if a blow [to the body] leaves a bruise’.

51 This is probably referring to the assailant paying costs to compensate the victim for any medical treatment received; see Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 104-5.

52 Or ‘destroys’.

53 A rather tall ‘f’ has been added later after ‘Gy’, and the ‘e’ is added over the ‘o’ of the following word.

54 The abbreviation for ‘shillings’ is modified at this point, and in several places after this, omitting the ‘i’.

55 The ‘-n’, both here and in the next clause, is a scribal error: it should read ‘forgelde’ to make sense.

56 Meaning ‘if a foot is cut off’.

57 ‘mycle’ is written over two lines.

58 Meaning ‘if the big toe is cut off’.

59 ‘oðrum’ is written across two lines.

60 This clause is discussed in detail by Christine Fell, ‘A “friwif locbore” Revisited’, Anglo-Saxon England 13 (1984), pp. 157-66; see also Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 110-11.

61 ‘Mægþbot’ is written across two lines. A point is added after ‘bot’ to separate it from the following word, ‘sy’; I haven’t reproduced it here.

62 Or ‘free man’. This clause appears to equate free women to free men in terms of compensation; see Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, p. 106.

63 ‘genimeþ’ is written across two lines.

64 The ‘unowned’ widow probably refers to a widow without kin to protect her. Such a widow receives a recompense twice that of a protected widow. See further, Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 111-12.

65 i.e., it should stand. For a discussion of the ‘price’ for obtaining a wife, see Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 106-7.

66 Possibly an allusion to the virginity of the maiden.

67 ‘gebrenge’ is written across two lines.

68 i.e., it is repaid by the kin, usually the father, who received the bride-price.

69 For a discussion of this and the following clause, see Carole Hough, ‘The early Kentish “divorce laws”: a reconsideration of Æthelberht, chs. 79 and 80’, Anglo-Saxon England 23 (1994), 19–34. Oliver summarises Hough’s argument in The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 112-14, explaining that this relates to widowhood, not divorce.

70 This is the earliest reference to the Kentish practice of ‘gravelkind’ by which inheritances were divided among all the children; see Oliver, The Beginnings of Early English Law, pp. 113-14.

71 ‘fæderingmagas’ (‘father’s kin’) is written across two lines.

72 The ‘morning gift’ appears to refer to a gift the wife receives after consummation of a marriage: see Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 106-7.

73 i.e., the owner of her protection, from among her kin, typically the maiden’s father; for a discussion of this and the following two clauses, see Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 108-9

74 i.e., he should pay a bride-price in order to marry the maiden.

75 ‘gebete’ is written across two lines.

76 The final ‘g’ has been squeezed in later and is elongated to fit it in.

77 To the betrothed man, it would seem.

78 The esne, at this time in Kent, was probably a poor, landless labourer who hired himself out to his lord; he was above a slave as can be seen by the fact that his marital rights were protected; however, note below the allusion to binding an esne, which suggest the lack of any real freedom; see Pelteret, Slavery in Early Medieval England, pp. 271-72.

79 ‘oþerne’ inserted above the line.

80 Oliver explains this means two-fold what he would have paid had the woman been unmarried: The Beginnings of English Law, p. 79.

81 ‘unsynningne’ (‘innocent’) is written across two lines.

82 ‘þeowæs’ (‘slave’s) is written across two lines.

83 Oliver discusses the question of who pays the compensation for crimes committed by a slave (and those referred to as ‘esne’): The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 114-16.

84 This heading is provided by the Textus Roffensis scribe and is not normally considered to be part of the original lawcode.

85 The sense here, as I understand it, is that if the thief does not pay the fine owed to the king, all his possessions are seized.

86 The word rihthamscyld is not attested elsewhere in Old English writings and its meaning is uncertain, so I have not translated it.

87 The meaning of hion is unclear as it is not used anywhere else in Old English texts; so I have left it untranslated. Lisi Oliver tentatively offers ‘?=covering of the skull’ for ‘outer hion’, see The Beginnings of English Law, p. 71. I suggest the injury may be the exposing of the skull.

88 This may refer to the skull being both exposed and fractured.

89 The scribe has missed out what it is that is being pierced; it has been suggested that throtu ‘throat’ was intended; see Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, p. 70, note c.

90 This is probably referring to the assailant paying medical fees; see Oliver, Beginnings of English Law, pp. 104-5.

91 A euphemism for the penis.

92 The high payment, i.e., the equivalent of the value of three men, may be viewed as compensating the injured man for loss of future children.

93 It is possible that the injury would require the use of a crutch and so it would have an impact on the use of an arm too, requiring further compensation, to be decided upon by the concerned parties; see Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 99-100.

94 Old English ‘friwif locbore’, literally, ‘free-woman lock-bearer’, translated here as ‘key-holder’, most likely signifies a house-keeper with responsibility for a household and its stores; see Christine Fell, ‘A “friwif locbore” revisited’, Anglo-Saxon England 13 (1984), pp. 157–66; and Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 110-11.

95 The ‘unowned’ widow probably refers to a widow without kin to protect her. Such a widow receives a recompense twice that of a protected widow. See further, Oliver, The Beginnings of English Law, pp. 111-12.

96 Possibly alluding to the maiden’s virginity.

97 For a discussion of this and the following clause, see Carole Hough, ‘The early Kentish “divorce laws”: a reconsideration of Æthelberht, chs. 79 and 80’, Anglo-Saxon England 23 (1994), 19–34.

Concerning Laws of the Mercians, probably 9th century

The anonymous tract known as Be Mircna Laga (‘Concerning Laws of the Mercians’), probably ninth-century¹. Textus Roffensis, f. 39v. Translated from Old English and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

Transcription

39v (select folio number to open facsimile)

Ceorles wergyld is on Mircna laga cc scillinga. Đegenes wergyld is syx swa micel, þæt byð xii hun-
scillinga. Đonne byð cyninges anfeald wergild
syx þegena wergyld be Mircna laga, þæt is xxx
þusend sceatta, þæt bið ealles cxx punda. Swa
micel is þæs wergyldes on.² And for þam cynedo-
me gebyrað oþer swilc to bote on cynegylde. Se wer³ gebyreð magum, ⁊ seo cynebot þam
leodum.

Translation

See Translation Notes

In the laws of the Mercians, a ceorl’s wergild is 200 shillings.⁴ A thegn’s wergild is six times as much,⁵ that is 12 hundred shillings. Then, according to Mercian laws, the single wergild of a king is the same as the wergild of six thegns, that is 30 thousand pennies,⁶ which is 120 pounds in total. It is the greatest of the wergilds in [the ‘folk-right’ of the people, according to Mercian laws].⁷ And for that kingdom there happens to be a further compensation within the king-payment. The wergild belongs to his family, and the king-bot to the people.⁸

Footnotes

1 Though this legal tract is associated with a compilation of texts made by Wulfstan of York, archbishop from 1002 to 1023, there is nothing to suggest Wulfstan composed it. On the contrary, the material deals with the kingdom of Mercia, and as Mercia ceased to have an independent kingdom after the 880s, the text likely dates to before that time: see Patrick Wormald, The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, vol. 1 (Blackwell, 1999), pp. 391–93. It has been suggested that Be Mircna Laga may derive from traditions of Mercian oral law: see Tom Lambert, Law and Order in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 74.

2 ‘Swa micel is þæs wergyldes on folces folcriht be Myrcna laga.’ The scribe accidentally omitted the second half of the sentence, which does however appear in two other manuscripts that contain a copy of this text.

3 Wer is here used as shorthand for wergild.

4 A ceorl is the lowest ranked freeman in Anglo-Saxon society. The wergild (literally ‘man-payment’) was the monetary value placed on a free person’s life in the context of compensation laws.

5 A thegn (or ‘thane’) is a higher ranked freeman, owing loyalty directly to his lord, or to the king.

6 Or ‘sceats’/‘sceattas’.

7 The bracketed text is missing in the Old English; see note.

8 Old English cynebot, meaning something like ‘king’s compensation’. I’ve preserved the Old English element -bot, here, in order to distinguish it from the -gild (also -gyld) element that appears in wergild and cynegild, and which essentially also has the meaning of ‘payment’ or ‘compensation’.

It He Bequeathed, c.975-c.1025 AD

Hit becwæð (‘It he bequeathed’), a formula for asserting the right to hold bequeathed land, c. 975–c.1025¹. Textus Roffensis ff. 95r–95v. Translated from Old English and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

Transcription

95r (select folio number to open facsimile)

_hit becwæð, ⁊ becwæl
se ðe hit ahte mid fullan folcrihte swa swa

95v

hit his yldran mid feo, ⁊ mid feore rihte begea-
tan, ⁊ letan, ⁊ læfdan ðam to gewealde ðe hy
wel uðan, ⁊ >swa< ic hit hæbbe swa hit se sealde þe to
syllanne ahte unbryde, ⁊ unforboden, ⁊ ic
agnian wylle to agenre æhte ðæt ðæt ic hæb-
be, ⁊ næfre ðæt yntan ne plot, ne ploh, ne turf,
ne toft, ne furh, ne fotmæl, ne land, ne læse, ne
fersc, ne mersc,² ne ruhnerum, wudes ne feldes,
landes ne strandes wealtes, ne wæteres, butan
ðæt læste ða hwile ðe ic libbe, forþam nise tinan
on life ðe æfre gehyrde ðæt man cwydde oððon
crafode hine on hundrede oððon ahwar on ge-
mote on ceapstowe oþþe on cyricware ða hwile þe
he lifde unsac he wæs on life beo on legere swa swa
he mote, do swa ic lære beo ðe be þinum, ⁊ læt ine
be minum ne gyrne ic ðines ne læðes ne landes,
ne sace ne socne, ne ðu mines ne ðærft ne myn-
te ic ðe nan ðing.

Translation

See Translation Notes

It he bequeathed,³ and he died: he who owned it with full folk-right,⁴ just as his ancestors obtained it with cattle and with life-right, and allotted and left it to his keeping, which they granted well. And so I have it just as he who owned the right to give gave it, both honestly and lawfully. And I wish to own that which I have as my own property, and never to intend for you anything,⁵ not plot or ploughland, turf or toft,⁶ furrow or footmark, land or pasture, freshwater or marsh land, clearing, wood or field, of land or of shore, of woodland or of water, but that it may last as long as I live. For there is not a tithing-man⁷ alive who has ever heard that it was claimed or craved, in a hundred-court or any other meeting, in a market-place or at church, for the time he was alive:⁸ guiltless he was in life; let him be so in death, as he must. Do as I instruct: you be with yours and leave me to mine; I do not desire what is yours, not lea or land, sake or soke,⁹ and you do not need what is mine, nor do I intend to leave you anything.¹⁰

Footnotes

1 This text is anonymous and undated; however, scholars suggest a date of composition between the late tenth and early eleventh centuries; see http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/becw/ [accessed 14.02.2018].

2 ‘It’: in context, a piece of land.

3 Folk-right, the right of customary law.

4 ‘never to intend for you’, translating ‘næfre þe myntan’, a correction of Textus Roffensis’ ‘næfre ðæt yntan’, and which appears in the only other manuscript containing Hit becwæð: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 383, folios 59r–59v, at folio 59v, line 2: www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/manuscripts/b/?tp=s&nb=2086 [accessed 14.02.18]. In his own translation of Hit becwæð, Patrick Wormald translates myntan with the modern legal term ‘devise’, meaning to leave land by means of a will: The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century (Blackwell, 2001), pp. 384–85.

5 Old English toft, probably a Scandinavian loan-word, meaning ‘a piece of ground’: see Bosworth and Toller Dictionary online: http://www.bosworthtoller.com/030678 [accessed 14.02.18].

6 ‘tithing-man’: translating ‘tinan’ (? accusative of tin [variant of tien]), ‘ten’, a ‘ten-man’, an allusion to the ‘tithingmen’, who had responsibilities assisting at the hundred court. See Tom Lambert, Law and Order in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 247.

7 ‘he was alive’, referring to the man who bequeathed the property.

8 ‘sake and soke’ (Old English, sac and socn) was a ‘standard way of referring to the right to receive legal revenues’ from owned land: Lambert, Law and Order, p. 134.

9 See above, n. 4.

10 ‘-c’ corrects a ‘-t’.

Concerning the Mercian Oath, early-11th-century

Be Mirciscan Aðe (‘Concerning the Mercian Oath), early-11th-century. Textus Roffensis, f. 39v. Translated from Old English and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

The title is based on the rubric in the Cambridge manuscript, Corpus Christi College, MS 201, p. 102. This short legal tract is essentially an extract from a larger one composed, most likely, by Wulfstan, archbishop of York (r. 1002–23). However, Wulfstan added the clause comparing oaths of mass-priests and thegns and also the clause mentioning ‘the seven orders of the church’ to earlier Mercian material which forms the clause concerning the ‘twelfth-hundred man’, and which may date to as early as the ninth-century. See Patrick Wormald, The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, vol. 1 (Blackwell, 1999), pp. 392–94.

The text was copied by the principal scribe of Textus Roffensis, who completed his work around 1123.

Transcription

39v (select folio number to open facsimile)

_Mæssepreostes að, ⁊ woruldþegenes is on En-
gla lage geteald efendyre.⁊ for þam seofon
cyrichadan þe se mæssepreost þurh Godes
gife geþeah þæt he hæfde he bið þegenrihtes
wyrþe. _Twelfhyndes mannes að, forstent vi ceorla aþ,
for ðam gif man þone twelfhyndan >man< wrecan
sceolde, he bið full wrecen on syx ceorlan, ⁊ his
wergyld bið vi ceorla wergyld.

Translation

An oath of a mass-priest and of a worldly thegn is in English law reckoned as equally dear.

And because the mass-priest received what he had through God’s gift of the seven orders of the church, he will have the rights of a thegn.

An oath of a twelve-hundred man is equal to an oath of six ceorls,¹ because if one should avenge the twelve-hundred man, he will be fully avenged on six ceorls, and his wergild is the wergild of six ceorls.

Footnotes

1 A ceorl (or ‘churl’) was a freeman of the lowest order. This text refers to a king’s wergild and therefore can be seen as old-fashioned, as kings in Mercia had long ceased by the time Wulfstan either wrote or emended the law-code, the last king being Ceolwulf II who died in 879.

Laws of the Northumbrians, mid-10th century

Norðleoda Laga (‘Laws of the Northumbrians’), mid-tenth-century¹. Textus Roffensis, ff. 93v–94r. Translated from Old English and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

Transcription

Jump to Translation

93v

Be wergylde.

_Cynges wergild is inne mid Englum on folcriht

94r

xxx þusend þrymsa, Xv þusend ðrymsa byð
þæs weres, ⁊ xv þusend þæs cynedomes. Se wer
gebyreð þam magum, ⁊ seo cynebot þam leodum. Æ þelinges wergyld is xv þusend þrymsa. Bisceo-
pes, ⁊ ealdermannes viii þusend þrymsa. Hol-
des ⁊ hehgerefan iiii þusend þrymsa. Mæsse-
þegenes, ⁊ woruld-þegenes, ii þusend þrymsa. Ceorles wergyld is cc ⁊ vi ⁊ Lx þrymsa, þæt þæt bið
twa hund scillinga be Myrcna lage. 7 gif Wilisc
man geþeo þæt he hæbbe hywisc landes, ⁊ mage
cynges gafel forð bringan, þonne byð his wer-
gyld cc xx scillinga. 7 gif he ne geþeo butan to
healfre hide, þonne sy his wergyld Lxxx scillinga. 7 gif he ænig land næbbe, ⁊ þeh freoh sy, forgylde
man hine mid Lxx scillinga. 7 gif ceorlisc man ge-
þeo þæt he hæbbe v hida landes to cynges utware,
⁊ man hine ofslea, forgylde man hine mid ii
þusend þrymsa. 7 þeh he geþeo þæt he hæbbe helm
⁊ byrnan, ⁊ goldfæted sweord, gif he æ land
nafaþ, he byþ ceorl swa þeah. 7 gif his sunu ⁊ his suna
sunu þæt geþeoð, þæt hy swa micel landes
habbað, syððan byþ se ofspring gesiðcundes
cynnes, be twam ðusendum þrymsa. 7 gif hig
þæt nabbað ne to þam geþeon ne magan, gylde man
cyrlisce.²

Translation

See Translation Notes

Concerning Wergild

Among the English,³ the king’s wergild is, according to folk-right,⁴ 30 thousand thrymsa:⁵ 15 thousand thrymsa the man’s, 15 thousand the kingdom’s. The wer[gild] belongs to the family, and the ‘king-bot’ to the people.⁶

An atheling’s wergild is 15 thousand thrymsa.⁷

A bishop’s and an ealdorman’s, 8 thousand thrymsa.⁸

A hold’s and a high-reeve’s, 4 thousand thrymsa.⁹

A priestly thegn’s and a worldly thegn’s, 2 thousand thrymsa.¹⁰

A ceorl’s wergild is 266 thrymsa, which is two hundred shillings according to the law of the Mercians.¹¹

And if a Welshman thrives so that he has a hide of land, and can bring forth the king’s tribute, then his wergild is 220 shillings.¹² But if he thrives only as far as half a hide, then is wergeld is 80 shillings. And if he does not have any land, but he is nevertheless free, one must compensate him with 70 shillings.

And if someone of ceorlish rank prospers so that he has five hides of land, as king’s warland,¹³ and someone kills him, that one should compensate him with 2 thousand thrymsa.¹⁴ However, though he may prosper to the extent that he has a helmet and a byrnie and a gold-hilted sword, if he does not hold such land, he is a ceorl. And if his son and his son’s son prosper so that they hold much land, thereafter the offspring will become gesith-born kin with [a wergild] of two thousand thrymsa.¹⁵ And if they do not have that nor are able to prosper, one should compensate according to the rank of ceorl.

Footnotes

1 The text may have been amended by Wulfstan, archbishop of York (r. 1002–23), but the original can be dated to no later than the mid-tenth century due to its mention of a Northumbrian king, the last of whom, Eric Haraldsson (Eric Bloodaxe), was defeated in 954.

2 The scribe has bracketed off ‘cyrlice’ below the final ruled line rather than place it overleaf.

3 The wergild (‘man-payment’) was the monetary value put on the life of a free person within Anglo-Saxon compensation laws.

4 Or ‘Angles’.

5 Or ‘law of the people’. Patrick Wormald offers ‘customary law’: The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, vol. 1 (Blackwell, 1999), p. 392.

6 ‘Thrymsa [trymes]. A[nglo-]S[axon] gold or silver coin minted from c. 630, at first copying Roman style, then after c. 660 adopting distinctive AS decoration. Though initially issued in gold, by c. 650 the thrymsa was being alloyed with silver; by 675 it was a wholly silver coin. In c. 1000 the thrymsa was equal in value to 3d [i.e. three pennies].’ A Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases, ed. Christopher Corèdon with Ann Williams (D. S. Brewer, 2005).

7 In texts discussing wergilds, Old English wer (‘man’) is often synonymous with wergild. In this particular passage, the sense is that half of the entire wergild is for the ‘man’, i.e. the king, and is given to the king’s family as his personal wergild. The other half is for the kingdom, and as the ‘king-bot’ (or ‘king-compensation’) it essentially compensates the king’s people, for whom the king acted as protector.

8 Or ‘prince’. An atheling (or ‘ætheling’) was a member of the royal family, either the heir to or considered worthy of the throne.

9 An ealdorman was the highest ranked nobleman in Anglo-Saxon society. We should note the equivalency of status given a bishop; this may have been one of archbishop Wulfstan’s amendments.

10 A hold was a title introduced by the Danish rulers of Northumbria, and is the Scandinavian equivalent to the highreeve.

11 A thegn (‘thane’) was essentially an aristocratic servant of a lord, or a king, and held a position in Anglo-Saxon society above ordinary freemen, i.e. ceorls, but below ealdormen. In this passage, a mass-priest is attributed the same status as a regular thegn. As with the attribution for bishop and ealdorman, this may represent archbishop Wulfstan’s involvement in amending the original text.

12 A ceorl was the lowest-ranked freeman in Anglo-Saxon society.

13 Old English ‘wilisc man’: ‘foreign person’, i.e. not English. Wilisc, from which ‘Welsh’ is derived, is often used in texts to describe Britons who were integrated into Anglo-Saxon society after the Germanic tribes invaded Britain and became the dominant force in most of what we now call England. It is particularly used with reference to the unfree or slaves. Here it appears to be used for individual Britons who have acquired a degree of autonomy, though we should note that their wergild does not equate with that of an English ceorl.

14 The king’s ‘warland’ (cyninges utwaru) was rateable land for which public services and/or taxation were owed. See Rosamond Faith, The English Peasantry and the Growth of Lordship (Leicester University Press, 1997), p. 90.

15 This shows that a prosperous ceorl could climb to a status equivalent to a thegn.

16 Essentially, a gesith-born man held the status of a thegn, as he was the son of a gesitha, a follower or retainer of the king. So, we are seeing, here, the potential for families from the rank of ceorl to climb the social ladder.

Articles of William I, 1066-1087 AD

Textus Roffensis ff. 80r–81v. Translated from Latin and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

Transcription

80r (select folio number to open facsimile)

hic intimatur quid Willelmus rex An-
glorum cum principibus suis constituit, post conquisitio-
_In primis quod super omnia unum uellet Deum >nem Anglię.
per totum regnum suum uenerari, unam fidem
Christi semper inuiolatam custodiri, pacem et secu-
ritatem inter Anglos et Normannos seruari.

80v

_[S]tatuimus¹ etiam ut omnis liber homo fędere et sacra-
mento affirmet, quod infra et extra Angliam Wil-
lelmo regi fideles esse uolunt, terras et honorem
illius omni fidelitate cum eo seruare, et ante eum
contra inimicos defendere. Volo autem ut omnes
homines quos mecum adduxi, aut post me uene-
runt, sint in pace mea et quiete. Et si quis de illis
occisus fuerit, dominus eius habeat infra quinque
dies homicidam eius si potuerit. Sin autem,
incipiat persoluere mihi quadraginta sex marcas
argenti, quamdiu substantia illius domini perdura-
uerit. Vbi uero substantia domini defecerit, to-
tus hundredus in quo occisio facta est, commu-
niter persoluat quod remanet. Et omnis Francige-
na qui tempore regis Eaduuardi propinqui mei,
fuit in Anglia particeps consuetudinum An-
glorum, quod ipsi dicunt on hlote et an scote,
persoluatur secundum legem Anglorum. Hoc decretum
sancitum est in Ciuitate Claudia. _Interdicimus etiam, ut nulla uiua pecunia uenda-
tur aut ematur nisi infra ciuitates, et hoc ante
tres fideles testes, nec aliquam rem >id est prohibitam< uetustam
sine fideiussore et waranto. Quodsi aliter
fecerit, soluat et persoluat, et postea foris-

81r

facturam. _Decretum est etiam ibi, ut si Francigena ap-
pellauerit Anglum de periurio, aut mordro,
furto, homicidio, ran, quod Angli dicunt apertam
rapinam[,] quę negari non potest, Anglus se defen-
dat per quod melius uoluerit, aut iudicio ferri,
aut duello. Si autem Anglus infirmus fuerit,
inueniat alium qui pro eo faciat. Si quis eorum uictus
fuerit, emendet xl solidos regi. Si Anglus
Francigenem appellauerit, et probare noluerit
iudicio aut duello, uolo tamen Francigenam
purgare se sacramento non fracto.
_hoc quoque pręcipio et uolo, ut omnes habeant et
teneant legem Eaduuardi regis, in terris et in
omnibus rebus, adauctis iis, quę constitui ad u-
tilitatem populi Anglorum. _Omnis homo qui uoluerit se teneri pro libero
sit in plegio, ut plegius teneat et habeat illum
ad iusticiam si quid offenderit. Et si quisquam ta-
lium euaserit, uideant plegii ut simpliciter
soluant quod calumniatum est, et purgent se, quia
in euaso nullam fraudem nouerunt. _Requiratur hundred et comitatus, sicut ( ) ante-
cessores nostri statuerunt. Et qui iuste uenire de-

81v

berent et uenire noluerint, semel summoueantur,
et si secundo uenire noluerint, accipiatur unus
bos, et summoueantur tertio. Et si non tertio ue-
nerint, accipiatur alius bos, quarta autem *>uice< si non ue-
nerint, reddatur de rebus hominis illius qui ue-
nire noluerit quod calumniatum est, quod dicitur
ceapgeld, et insuper forisfactura regis. _Ego prohibeo ut nullus uendat hominem ex-
tra patriam, super plenam forisfacturam meam._Interdico etiam ne quis occidatur
aut suspendatur pro aliqua culpa, sed eruan-
tur oculi et testiculi abscidantur, et hoc prę-
ceptum non sit uiolatum, super forisfacturam
meam plenam.

Translation

See Translation Notes

Here is shown what William, king of the English, with his principal men, decreed after the conquest of England.

First, above all, he would wish that one God is to be worshipped throughout the whole of his kingdom, one inviolable Christian faith always to be observed, and peace and security between the English and Normans to be protected. We wish, furthermore, that each free person may affirm faithfully by oath that, within and beyond England, they wish to be faithful to King William, to protect his lands and honour with all fidelity to him, and to defend him against his enemies.

I wish, moreover, that all persons whom I have brought with me, and those who subsequently came, may live in peace and quiet. And if any one of these is killed, his lord should hold his murderer within five days, if possible.² If not, he should begin to pay to me forty-six silver marks, as long as the wealth of that lord shall hold out. Whenever, in truth, the wealth of that lord should fail, the entire hundred in which the murder took place should together pay whatever is remaining.³

And each Frenchman who was in England at the time of king Edward, my relative, participating in the customs of the English, should pay that which is called lot and scot,⁴ according to the laws of the English. This decree was ratified in Gloucester.

Furthermore, we enjoin that no livestock may be sold or bought except inside towns, and in front of three faithful witnesses, nor any thing of long-standing – it is prohibited – without a guarantor and warrantor. But if he does otherwise, he should give back [the goods] and pay back [the money], and afterwards be fined.⁵

Furthermore, the decree, here, is that if a Frenchman should accuse an Englishman of perjury, or murder, theft, homicide, or ran⁶ (which is what the English call violent robbery),⁷ which cannot be denied, the Englishman may defend himself by whichever honest means he wishes, either trial by iron or duel.⁸ If, however, the Englishman is infirm, he may find another to take his place. If one of them is defeated, he should make amends of 40 shillings to the king. If an Englishman should accuse a Frenchman, but he does not wish to accept trial by duel, I wish nevertheless the Frenchmen to clear himself by an unbreakable oath.

This also I instruct and desire, that all may have and hold the law of King Edward,⁹ with regard to lands and all things, augmented by those laws which for usefulness to the English people will be constituted.

Every person who wishes to remain a freeman should be under pledge, so that if anyone should offend, the pledger may keep in custody that person for justice.¹⁰ And if any of such are acquitted, simply let the pledgers see to it that they free the one falsely accused, and exonerate him, because they found no crime in the acquitted one.

It is required that the hundred and shire be just as our predecessors established.¹¹ And those who lawfully are obliged to come but do not wish to come, on the first occasion are withdrawn; and if on the second occasion they do not wish to come, one ox may be accepted, and on the third occasion are withdrawn. And if they do not come on the third, another ox may be accepted. If, however, they do not come on the fourth occasion in succession, from the things of that person who does not wish to come, one may render to the one who is falsely accused what is called cheapgild,¹² and this in addition to the king’s fine.

I forbid anyone, upon my full penalty, to sell a man outside his homeland.¹³

I forbid, moreover, that anyone be slain or hanged for any crime, but eyes may be plucked out and testicles cut off; and this command should not be violated, upon my full penalty.

Footnotes

1 The original ‘S’ is missing due to damage.

2 The grammar is ambiguous as to whose lord is being referred to. However, the rest of the passage indicates that the murderer’s lord had the responsibility to imprison the murderer. It is, of course, quite possible that the lord of the murderer and the lord of the victim would be the same person, as both murderer and victim may have lived in the same area.

3 The hundred was a local administrative unit in later Anglo-Saxon England (especially from the tenth century), and was both a measure of land and the area served by a hundred-court. In the Midlands, hundreds were often assessed at a hundred hides, hence the name; however, in the south, this clear correspondence between size and name did not exist. See Sean Miller, ‘Hundreds’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge et al (Blackwell, 2001), pp. 243–44. Hundreds and hundred-courts continued into the post-Conquest period.

4 ‘Scot and lot. A tax, i.e. scot, levied on members of a borough in varying proportions or shares, i.e. lot. Behind it was the idea that those who shared in the obligations and responsibilities by paying tax would also share in the privileges. It was a mark of status.’ A Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases, ed. Christopher Corèdon with Ann Williams (D. S. Brewer, 2005).

5 This assumes that the goods being sold, without guarantor and warrantor, are stolen goods. The fine goes to the king.

6 Old English ran, ‘open robbery’: J. R. Clark Hall, A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Fourth Edition (University of Toronto Press, 1960, repr. 2004).

7 The Latin, here, is rapina, from which we derive the modern ‘rape’; however, the meaning of rapina is far broader, essentially meaning violent plundering or robbery, though it may also include abduction, including that of a woman, which may well have led to rape in the modern sense. See Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources: online here. [accessed 13 December 2017].

8 Trial by hot iron: see C. Monk, The Anonymous Law Known as Ordal [‘Ordeal’]: Textus Roffensis, ff. 32r–32v Online here. Trial by combat, the duel, was unknown in Anglo-Saxon England.

9 Edward the Confessor, r. 1042–66. There are no known laws written by Edward. William appears to be referring to the body of early English laws that had built up and were used during Edward’s reign, including the latest pre-Norman Conquest laws by Cnut, r. 1016–35. Textus Roffensis (ff. 58r–80r), contains what is popularly referred to as the Institutes of Cnut, a Latin translation of a compilation of Old English laws by Cnut, Alfred, Edgar, Æthelred the Unready, and various short anonymous treatises. This was produced sometime after the Conquest, and gives us an idea of what William was alluding to by his ‘law of Edward’.

10 On plegium liberale (‘free pledge’), more generally referred to as frankpledge, see John Hudson, The Formation of the English Common Law: Law and Society in England from the Norman Conquest to Magna Carta (Longman, 1996), pp. 63–66.

11 The hundred-court and shire-court were both features of Anglo-Saxon legal administration.

12 Compensation for stolen property. From Old English ceapgyld.

13 To sell into slavery.

The King's Peace, late 10th century

Pax (‘Peace’), anonymous, late 10th-century. Textus Roffensis, f. 38r. Translated from Old English and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

This Old English version is unique to Textus Roffensis. This relates to physical boundaries or limits of the ‘King’s peace’.

Transcription

38r (select folio number to open facsimile)

_Ðus feor sceal beon þæs cinges grið, fram
his burhgeate þær he is sittende, on feo-
wer healfe his. Ð>æt< is iii mila 7 iii furlang, 7
iii æcera bræde, 7 ix fota, 7 ix scæftamunda,
7 ix berecorna.

Translation

See Translation Notes

Thus far shall be the king’s peace¹ from his city gate [or ‘gatehouse’] where he is seated, on its four sides. That is 3 miles, and 3 furlongs, and 3 acres, and 9 feet, and 9 spans, and 9 barleycorns.

Footnotes

1 OE grið, having the sense of a delimited area of sanctuary or protection.

How the person must swear an oath, c.900 AD

Hu se man sceal swerie (‘How the person must swear an oath’),¹ c. 900². Textus Roffensis, ff. 38v–39v. Translated from Old English and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

Transcription

38v (select folio number to open facsimile)

_On ðone Drihten Hu se man sceal swerie.³
þe ðes haligdom is forehalig, ic wille beon N⁴
hold, ⁊ getriwe, ⁊ eal lufian ðæt he lufað, ⁊ eal
ascunian ðæt he ascunað æfter Godes rihte, ⁊
æfter woroldgerysnum, ⁊ næfre willes ne gewe-
aldes, wordes ne weorces owiht don ðæs him
laðre bið, wið þam ðe he me healde swa ic earnian
wille, ⁊ eall þæt læste þæt uncer formæl wæs þa
ic to him gebeah, ⁊ his willan geceas. _On ðone Drihten þe ðes haligdom is forehalig
swa ic spæce drife mid fullan folcrihte butan bræde,
⁊ butan swice, ⁊ butan æghwylcum facne, swa me
forstolen wæs ðæt orf N ðæt ic onspece, ⁊ þæt
ic mid N befangen hæbbe.
_On ðone Drihten næs ic æt ræde, ne æt dæde,
ne gewita, ne gewyrhta, ðær man mid unrihte N
orf ætferede. Ac swa ic ( ) orf hæbbe swa ic
hit mid rihte begeat, ⁊ swa ic >hit< tyme swa hit me se
sealde ðe ic hit nu on hand sette, ⁊ swa ic orf hæb-
be swa ic orf hæbbe⁵ swa hit me se sealde ðe hit to
syllanne agte, ⁊ >swa< ic orf hæbbe swa hit of minum
agnum ðingum com ⁊ swa hit on folcriht min agen
æht is, ⁊ min infoster. _On ðone Drihten, ne teo ic N, ne for hete, ne

39r

for hele, ne for unrihtre feohgyrnesse, ne ic
nan soðre nat bute swa min secga me sæde, ⁊ ic
sylf to soðe talige ðæt he mines orfes þeof wære. _On ðone Drihten,
ic eom unscyldig ægðer ge dæde ge dihtes æt þære
tihtlan ðe N me tihð. _On ðone Drihten, se að is clæne ⁊ unmæne, ðe N swor. _On ælmihtiges Godes naman ðu me >be
clæne þæt þæt ðu me sealdest, ⁊ fulle ware wið
æftersp>r æce on ða gewitennesse ðe unc ða mid
wæs N. _On ælmihtiges Godes naman, swa ic her N, on
soðre gewitnesse stande unabeden, ⁊ ungeboht
to swa ic hit minum egum oferseah, ⁊ minum earum
oferhyrde ðæt ðæt ic him mid sæcge. _On ælmihtiges Godes naman, nyste ic on ðam
ðingum þe þu ymbe specst ful ne facn, ne wac ne
wom, to ðære dæityde ðe ic hit þe sealde, ac hit
ægðer wæs ge hal, ge clæne butan ælcon facne. _On lifiendes Godes naman
swa ic feos bidde swa ic gywanan hæbbe ðæs þe me
N behet ða ic him min sealde. _On lifiendes Godes naman, ne ðearf ic N

39v

sceatt, ne scylling, ne penig, ne peniges weorð,
ac eal ic him gelæste ðæt ðæt ic him scolde
swa forð swa uncre wordgecwydu fyrmest
wæroN.

Translation

See Translation Notes

How the person must swear an oath.

In the Lord,⁶ whose holiness is foremost: to [name of lord]⁷ I wish to be loyal and true, and to love all that he loves, and to shun all that he shuns according to God’s law and secular customs, and neither willingly nor intentionally to carry out either a word or deed which to him is hateful; I wish to live up to the regard with which he may hold me; and everything agreed between us I will carry out when I submit to him;⁸ and his will I have chosen.

In the Lord, whose holiness is foremost: thus I prosecute my suit, with full folk-right, without fraud and without guile, and without anything false; and thus from me was stolen the livestock by [name of defendant]; that [livestock] I lay claim to, and that [livestock] with [name of helper] I have seized.⁹

In the Lord: I was neither, in counsel or in deed, a witness or an accomplice at the place where a person unlawfully took away livestock from [name of plaintiff]. Moreover, therefore, I have livestock which I rightfully obtained, and thus I guarantee that he sold it to me, which I now confirm by swearing;¹⁰ and so I have livestock just as he sold it to me, which he delivered up as seller; and so by my own means I have livestock as it came; and it, according to folk-right, is my own property, mine to rear.

In the Lord: I accuse [name of defendant], not from malice, nor as a pretext, nor for unrighteous gain, nor, in truth, do I know anything besides that which my informant told me, and I myself truthfully do state that he was a thief of my livestock.

In the Lord: I am innocent, both in deed and intent, of the charge of which [name of plaintiff] accuses me.

In the Lord: the oath which [name of defendant or plaintiff] swore is pure and without falsehood.

In the name of Almighty God: you promised me that you sold it to me whole and clean, and in full awareness against an after-claim, for which [name of witness of transaction] was the witness for us both.

In the name of Almighty God: as I here stand for [names of parties to transaction] in true witness, unbidden and unbought, that I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears that which I declare on their behalf.

In the name of Almighty God: I did not know of the things of which you speak, neither filth nor fault, blight nor blot,¹¹ at the time which I sold it to you; rather it was both whole and clean, without any blemish.

In the name of the Living God: thus I make request for [my] goods as I do not have those which [name of defendant] promised me when I paid him.

In the name of the Living God: I did not steal from [name of plaintiff], neither a sceat nor a shilling,¹² a penny nor a penny’s worth; rather I furnished him everything I was obliged thenceforth [to give], just as we had firmly agreed verbally.

Footnotes

1 Also referred to by scholars as Swerian (‘to swear an oath’). We should note carefully that se man should not automatically be assumed to specifically mean ‘the man’, as man (a variant of mann), though grammatically masculine, is used in Old English to mean ‘person’, either male or female. That women did swear oaths, were ‘oath-worthy’, in Anglo-Saxon England, particularly in the contexts of disputes and defence against false accusation, is well attested. See Carole Hough, ‘Women’, in The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Michael Lapidge et al (Blackwell, 1999), pp. 485–87, esp. p. 486.

2 Patrick Wormald observes: ‘An assortment of oath formulae is likely to have a whole variety of dates. Some may indeed go back a long way. […] Most of the transactions covered by Swerian formulae were at least as old as seventh-century laws. But the date of the collection as a whole cannot of course be earlier than the latest formula it contains.’ He proceeds to make a reasonable argument for a date from 900 onwards. See The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, vol. 1 (Blackwell, 1999), p. 384. Swerian was copied by the principal scribe of Textus Roffensis, who completed his work around 1123.

3 The rubric heading (red ink) has been set on the same line as the text proper.

4 The abbreviation ‘N’ (which in the manuscript resembles a stretched ‘H’ with a small symbol above it, and a full-stop both before and after the letter) is borrowed from Latin scribal practice: see note 4 above.

5 ‘swa ic orf hæbbe’ is accidentally repeated by the scribe.

6 ‘In the Lord’ appears to be an invocation of God/Christ as Lord to witness the oath, similar to modern day ‘I swear by Almighty God that…’.

7 At this point in the manuscript the abbreviation ‘.Ñ.’ is used, borrowed from Latin scribal practice, where it stands for nomine (i.e. ‘name’, in either the dative or ablative case). In Old English scribal practice, a form of the Old English word nama (‘name’) should be understood. The oath-taker supplies the relevant name of a person, in this first instance the name of the lord to whom loyalty is being sworn.

8 Grammatically, the oath-maker could be swearing to submit either to ‘it’, i.e. the aforementioned agreement (‘þæt formæl’), or ‘him’, i.e. his lord.

9 Alternatively, referring to the defendant, ‘whom I accuse, and whom … I have seized’, though grammatically such a translation is problematic.

10 Literally, ‘which I now set down in hand’.

11 I have tried to preserve the performative effect of the alliteration of the original language, though the second alliterative pair in Old English actually plays on the sound of ‘w’: woc (‘weakness’) and wom (‘stain/blot’). The alliteration is intentional, underscoring the power of words in the context of oath-making.

12 Sceat (roughly pronounced shat), plural sceattas: a small silver coin.

Trial by Ordeal, mid-10th century

The anonymous law known as Ordal [‘Ordeal’] concerns the infamous administering of trial by ordeal: by water and by fire. Textus Roffensis, ff. 32r-32v. Translated from Old English and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

Transcription

32r (select folio number to open facsimile)

Dom Be haten isene, an[d] wætere.

_And of þam ordale we be>be
dum, 7 þæs arcebiscopes, 7 ealra bisc>eæt nan
mann ne cume innon þære ciricean siððan
man þæt fyr inbyrð, þe man þæt ordal mid hæ-
tan sceal, buton se mæssepreost, 7 se ðe þar-
to gan sceal, 7 beo þær gemeten nygon fet,
of þam stacan to þære mearce, be þæs mannes
fotan þe þarto gæð. 7 gif hit þonne wæter
sy, hæte man hit oð hit hleope to wylme,
7 sy þæt alfæt isen, oððe æren, leaden oððe
læmen. 7 gif hit anfeald tyh[t]le sy, dufe
seo hand æfter þam stane, oð þa wriste. 7
gif hit þryfeald sy, oð þæne elbogan. 7 þon-
ne þæt ordal geara sy, þonne gan twegen menn

32v

inn of ægðre healfe, 7 beon hig anræde þæt
hit swa hat sy, swa we ær cwædon, 7 gan inn
emfela manna of ægðre healfe, 7 stande on
twa healfe þæs ordales andlang þære cy-
ricean, 7 þa beon ealle fæstende, 7 fram heo-
ra wife gehealdene þære nyhte, 7 sprænge
se mæssepreost halig wæter ofer hig ealle,
7 heora ælc abyrige þæs halig wæteres,
7 sylle heom eallu[m] cyssan boc, 7 cristes rode
tacn, 7 na bete nan man þæt fyr na læng>[e]< þon-
ne man þa halgunge onginne, ac licge þæt isen
uppan þam gledan, oð þæt þa æftemestan collan,
lecge hit man syððan uppan þam stapelan,
7 ne sy þær nan oðer spæc inne buton þæt
hig biddan god ælmihtig georne, þæt he þæt soðe-
ste geswytelie, 7 ga he to, 7 inseglige man
þa hand, 7 sete man ofer þæne þriddan dæg,
swa hwæðer, swa heo beo ful swa clæne bin-
nan þam insegle, 7 se þe þas lage abrece,
beo þæt ordal on him forad, 7 gilde þam
cyninge cxx scillinga to wite.

Translation

See Translation Notes

Judgement by hot iron or water

And with this ordeal, we are commanding the command of God and the archbishop and all bishops:

No one may come into the church – except the mass-priest and the one who shall undertake the ordeal¹ – after the one who carries in the fire, who heats up the ordeal.

And, there, measure nine feet from the stake to the finish mark,² according to the measure of the foot of the one who undertakes the ordeal.

And, then, if it be water, heat it until it rapidly boils; and the cooking pot may be iron or brazen, leaden or earthen. And if it be a single accusation, he should plunge his hand after the stone, as far as the wrist. And if it be threefold, up to his elbow.

And when the ordeal is prepared, then from each side two men go in;³ and they shall reach agreement that it be as hot as we first said; and let equally as many persons of either side go in and stand on both sides of the ordeal, along the church. And all should have fasted and should abstain from their wife for the night. And the mass-priest shall sprinkle holy water over them all; and each of them shall taste of the holy water; and he shall give them the book⁴ to kiss and make the sign of the cross of Christ.

And no one may strengthen nor lengthen the fire when once the hallowing⁵ commences; but lay the iron upon the coals until they die down. Put it afterwards upon the post, and there let not anyone speak within, except that he beseech God Almighty earnestly, so that He the truth may reveal.

And let the accused⁶ go forth; and seal his hand; and let it be determined over on the third day, whether it be foul or clean inside the seal.⁷ And whoever shall break this law, the ordeal on [account of] him shall be void, and he shall render the king 120 shillings as punishment.⁸

Footnotes

1 Literally, ‘the one who shall go thereto’; a similar phrase is used in the next paragraph.

2 i.e. the starting and finishing points the accused must walk between with the piece of hot iron in his hand.

3 i.e. from among the supporters of the defendant and plaintiff.

4 i.e. the Bible or a Gospel book.

5 or ‘sanctification’.

6 ‘him’.

7 It was determined if there was present any infection in the hand (e.g. visible puss): infection was the mark of the guilty; cleanness, the innocent.

8 The so-called ‘disobedience fine’: this seems to suggest that if the rules of the ordeal are not followed, then the ordeal is void and a fine must also be paid to the king.

Corpse Robbery, late 10th century

Walreaf (‘Spoil of the Slain/Corpse Robbery’) (probably late 10th century’), Textus Roffensis, f. 32v. Translated from Old English and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

This anonymous lawcode fragment forbids the robbery of corpses. Possibly Scandinavian in origin as it uses the term niðing meaning ‘outlaw’.

Transcription

32v (select folio number to open facsimile)

Walreaf is niðinges dæde. Gif hwa of sacen
wille, do þæt mid eahta 7 feowertig fulborenra
þegena.

Translation

See Translation Notes

Corpse robbery is an outlaw’s deed.

If someone should wish to be acquitted thereof, do so with forty-eight full-born [or ‘noble-born’] thegns.¹

Footnotes

1 i.e. the accused requires the oath of 48 thegns to refute the charge.

Edmund’s First Code, 942-6 AD

Edmund’s First Code: Textus Roffensis, ff. 44r-45r. Translated from the Old English and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

Transcription

44r (select folio number to open facsimile)

Eadmundes cyninges _EADMUND cyning < asetnysse.
gesomnode mycelne sinoð to lundebyrig

44v

on ða halgan easterlicon tid ægðer gegodcun-
dra hada ge woroldcundra, ðær hwæs oDa, 7
wulfstan arcebisceop, 7 mænige oðre biscopas
smeagende ymbe heora saula ræd, 7 ðara ðe
him underðeodde wæron. Dæt is ærest
ðæt ða halgan hadas ðe godes folc læran scy-
lan lyfes bysne, ðæt hi heora clænnesse he-
aldan be heora hade, swa wer-hades, swa wif
hades, swa hweðer hit sy. Gif hy swa ne don
þonne syn hy ðæs wyrðe ðe on ðam canone
cwæð, ðæt is ðæt hy ðolian worold-æhta, 7
gehalgodre legerstowe, buton hy gebetan. Teoðunge we bebeodaþ ælcum cristenum men
be his cristendome, 7 cyric-sceat, > 7 ælmes
feoh, gif hit hwa don nelle, sy he amansumod. Gif hwa cristenes mannes blod ageote, ne cu-
me he na on ðas cyninges ansyne, ær he on
dæd-bote ga swa biscop him tæce, 7 his scrift
him wissige. Se ðe wið nunnan hæme, gehal-
godre legerstowe ne sy he wyrðe, bute he
gebete, ðe ma ðe manslaga, ðæt hylce we
cwædon be æwbryce. Eac we gecwædon þæt ælc
biscop bete godes hus on his agnum, 7 eac þo-
ne cyning myngige ðæt ealle godes cyrcan

45r

syn wel be-hweorfene swa us mucel þearf is.

Da ðe mansweriað, 7 lyblat wyrcað, syn hy
a fram ælcum godes dæle aworpene, buten
hy to rihtre dædbote gecyrraN.

Translation

See Translation Notes

The law of King Edmund¹

King Edmund assembled a great council² at London on the holy Eastertide, both divine and worldly ranks. Oda³ and Archbishop Wulfstan⁴ were there, and many other bishops inquiring about the counsel of their souls and of those who were subject to them.⁵

What is first is that those in holy orders fulfil an exemplary life, in order to teach God’s people; that they hold their cleanness⁶ according to their office, whether they be male or female.

If they do not do so, then they shall be treated accordingly as is stated in the rule,⁷ namely, they forfeit worldly possessions and a holy burial, unless they repent.

We command tithing for each Christian, in conformity with Christendom, and church-scot,⁸ and alms-giving. If anyone does not do this, he shall be excommunicated.

If someone sheds the blood of a Christian, he may not come into the presence⁹ of the king until he repents, just as the bishop shall teach and show him his penance.

He who has sex with a nun, he shall not be worthy of a holy burial, no more than a murderer, unless he shall repent. Such waywardness we refer to as adultery.

Also, we say that every bishop shall reform the house of God by himself; and he shall also remind the king that all of God’s church be widely spread, as is our great need.

Those who swear falsely and work sorcery, they shall be cast off forever from every portion of God, unless they turn to lawful penitence.

Footnotes

1 King Edmund ruled 939–946.

2 ‘synod’.

3 Oda, archbishop of Canterbury, 941–958.

4 Wulfstan I, archbishop of York, 931–956; not to be confused with the more famous Wulfstan, archbishop of York, 1002–1023.

5 or ‘him’, i.e. the king.

6 i.e. remain celibate.

7 ‘canon’.

8 a tax paid to the church.

9 literally, ‘face’.

Æthelred’s Woodstock Code, 997 AD

Æthelred’s Woodstock Code, also known as I Æthelred. This law is dated to the year 997. Textus Roffensis, ff. 46r–47r. Translated from Old English and edited by Dr Christopher Monk.

Transcription

46r (select folio number to open facsimile)

Æþelredes cyninges geræd-
_ÐIS is seo gerædnys ðe æþelred < nisse.
cyning 7 his witan geræddon eallon
folce to friþes bote æt wudestoce, on myrce-
nalande æfter engla lage, þæt is þæt ælc freo-man
getreowne borh hæbbe, þæt se borh hine to ælcon
rihte gehealde gif >he betyhtlad wurðe. Gif
he ðonne tyht-bysig sy, gange to þam þryfeal-
dan ordale. Gif se hlaford sæcge þæt him naðer
ne burste, ne að, ne ordal syððan þæt gemot wæs
æt bromdune. Nime se hlaford him twegen ge-
treowe þegenas, innan þam hundrede, 7 sweri-
an þæt him næfre að ne burste, ne he þeof-gyld
ne gulde, butan he þone gerefan hæbbe, þe

46v

þæs wyrðe sy, þe þæt don mæge. Gif se að þonne
forð-cume, ceose se man þonne þe þær be-tyht
let sy, swa hweðer he wylle, swa anfeald ordal,
swa pundes wurþne að, innan þam þrim hun-
dredan ofer þrittig peninga. Dif hy þonne
aþ syllan ne durron, gange to þam þryfealdan
ordale. Dif he þonne ful wurðe, æt þam for-
man cyrre bete þam teonde twygylde, 7 þam
hlaforde his were, 7 sette getreowe borgas þæt he
ælces yfeles geswice eft. 7 æt þam oþran cyr-
re, ne sy þær nan oðer bot butan þæt hlaford[;]
gif he þonne ut-hleape 7 þæt ordal forbuge, gyl-
de se borh þam teonde his ceap-gyld, 7 þam hla-
forde his were, þe his wites wyrðe sy. 7 gyf
mon þone hlaford teo þæt he be his ræde utt-
hleope, 7 ær unriht worhte, nime him fif
þegnas to, 7 beo him sylf sixta, 7 ladie hine þæs.
7 gif seo lad forð cume, beo he þæs weres wur-
ðe. 7 gif heo forð ne cume, fo se cyning to
þam were, 7 beo se þeof ut-lah wið eall folc; 7 hæb-
be ælc hlaford his hired-men, on his agenon
borge. Gif he ðonne betyhtled wurðe, 7 he utt
oþhleape, gylde se hlaford þæs mannes were þam
cyninge. 7 gif man þone hlaford teo þæt he

47r

be his ræde ut-hleope, ladie hine mid fif þeg-
num, 7 beo him sylf sixta. Gif him seo lad byr-
ste, gylde þam cynge his were, 7 sy se man ut-lah.
7 beo se cyng ælc þæra wita wyrðe þe þa men ge-
wyrcen þe bocland habban, 7 ne bete nan man
for nanre tyhtlan butan hit sy >þæs< cynges gere-
fan gewitnesse. 7 gif þeow-man ful wurðe
æt þam ordale, mearcie man hine æt ðam for-
man cyrre, 7 æt ðam oðrum cyrre ne sy þær
nan oþer bot buton þæt heafod. 7 þæt nan
man ne do naþor ne ne bycge, ne ne hwirfe bu-
ton he borh hæbbe, 7 gewitnesse. Gif hit þon-
ne hwa do fo se land-hlaford to, 7 healde þæt orf
oð þæt man wite hwa hit age mid rihte. 7 gif
hwylc man sy þe eallon folce ungetrywe sy, fa-
re þæs cynges gerefa to, 7 gebringe hine un-
der borge, þæt hine man to rihte gelæde, þam þe
him onspræcon. Gif he ðonne borh næbbe,
slea mon hine, 7 on ful lecge, 7 gif hwa hine
forenne forstande, beon hy begen anes rihtes
wyrðe. 7 se þe þys forsytte, 7 hit geforðian
nylle, swa ure ealra cwide is, sylle þam cynge
cxx scllingas.

Translation

See Translation Notes

Decree of King Æthelred

This is the decree which King Æthelred and his council decreed at Woodstock for all the people as a remedy of peace in Mercia according to English law:

That is, that every freeman have a trustworthy surety, that the surety hold him to all justice, if he be charged.

If he then be accused, he should go to the three-fold ordeal.

If the lord should declare that neither oath nor ordeal failed for him since the assembly at Bromdune:¹ let the lord take for him two trustworthy thegns, from within the hundred, and swear that neither oath failed for him nor did he pay a thief’s fine – unless he has the reeve, who is worthy to do this, and he may do this.

If the oath then is forthcoming, then let the person who be accused choose whichever he will, whether the single ordeal, or the oath worth a pound within the three hundred, [if the suit is] over thirty pennies.

If then they dare not give an oath, let him go to the three-fold ordeal.

If then he be judged guilty, at the first occurrence he shall compensate the plaintiff two-fold and the lord with his wergeld; and let trustworthy sureties be appointed so that he henceforth desist from every evil.

And at the second occurrence, let there not be any other compensation there except his head.²

If he should then escape and avoid the ordeal, let the surety compensate the plaintiff with the market price of his goods, and to the lord his wergeld, who is entitled to his fine.

And if someone should accuse the lord, that it was by his counsel that he escaped and committed the wrong, let him [the lord] take five thegns, and be himself a sixth, and defend himself from this. And if the defence is forthcoming, let him be entitled to the wergeld. And if it be not forthcoming, let the king take the wergeld, and let the thief become an outlaw against all the people.

And let every lord have his retainers³ in his own surety. If he [a retainer] then should stand accused and he should escape, let the lord pay the man’s wergeld to the king.

And if someone should accuse the lord, that it was by his counsel that he escaped, let him defend himself with five thegns, and be himself a sixth. If for him the defence should fail, let him pay the king his wergild and let the man be an outlaw.

And let the king be entitled to every fine which the men who have bookland pay out, and let no one compound⁴ for any accusation unless it be by witness of the king’s reeve.

And if a slave is judged guilty at the ordeal, one should brand him at the first occurrence, and at the second occurrence, there should be no other pay-back there except his head.

And that no one neither sell nor barter unless he have surety and a witness.

If then someone should do this, let the land-lord take and hold the property⁵ until he understands who owns it rightfully.

And if someone should be untrustworthy to all the people, one should go to the king’s reeve and bring him [the untrustworthy one] under surety, so that one may bring him to justice, to those who accused him.

If he then does not have surety, let him be slain, and lie in guilt; and if someone should defend him beforehand, may they both prove at once to be straight.

And he who obstructs this, and does not wish to carry it out, just as we all say: let him give the king 120 shillings.

Footnotes

1 Bromdune, unidentified; possibly the same as Brumdon in Dorset (Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: available here [accessed 07/07/2017]

2 Actually reads ‘the lord’ (‘þæt hlaford’); but compare the later clause regarding the slave, where ‘the head’ (‘þæt heafod’) is given. It is likely either hlaford was used in error, or it was being used metaphorically, since the lord is indeed the head of his people.

3 literally, ‘household-men’.

4 compound: ‘forbear from prosecuting (a felony) in exchange for money or other consideration’ (Oxford Dictionary of English).

5 or ‘livestock’.