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THE HISTORY OF Peter N. Williams |
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Chapter Six: Anglo-Saxon
Law
From the Roman historian Tacitus we get a picture of the
administration of law on the Continent long before the Saxons settled in
It was not long after the conversions of the Saxon
peoples to Christianity that written laws began to be enacted in England to
provide appropriate penalties for offences against the Church (and therefore
against God). King Aethelbert of
The basis of Kentish society in Aethelbert's time was the
free-peasant landholder. As an independent person, he had many rights, and
though he had no claim to nobility, he was subject to no lord below the king
himself. As head of a family, he was entitled to compensation for the
breaking of his household peace. If he were to be slain, the killer had to
compensate his kinfolk and also pay the king.
Other Kentish laws date from the reigns of Hlothhere and Eadric, brother and eldest son respectively of Egbert. They show a somewhat elaborate development of legal procedure, but they also recognize a title to nobility which is derived from birth and not from service to a king. More significant, however, is the fact that the men who direct the pleas in popular assemblies are not ministers of the king, but "the judges of the Kentish people." All in all, the laws show a form of society little affected by the growth of royal power or aristocratic privilege.
Under Wihtraed (695-96), laws were set down mainly to
deal with ecclesiastical matters. They were primarily to provide penalties
for unlawful marriages, heathen practices, neglect of holy days or fast days,
and to define the process under which accused persons might establish their
innocence. The Church and its leading ministers were given special
privileges, including exemption from taxation.
By the early part of the l0th Century, the government had
begun to regard the kin as legally responsible for the good behavior of its
members. There had been earlier passages that ignored or deliberately
weakened this primitive function of kin. For example, a ceorl who wished to
clear himself at the altar must produce not a group of his kinsmen, but three
men who are merely of his own class. Mere oaths from his own family circle
were looked upon with suspicion by the authorities, and thus encroachments
upon the power of the kin to protect its own members constituted a rapid
advancement of English law before the end of the 7th Century.
Ine's laws point to a complicated social order in which
the aristocratic ideal was already important. The free peasant was the
independent master of a household. He filled a responsible position in the
state, and the law protected the honor and peace of his household. He owed
personal service in the national militia (the fyrd); and unlawful entry
through the hedge around his premises was a grave offense. In disputes
concerning land rights, which he farmed in association with his fellows, it
was necessary for the King and his Council to provide settlement. The free
peasant was thus responsible to no authority below the king for his breaches
of local custom.
In 896, Alfred occupied
The occasion marked the achievement of a new stage in the advance of the English peoples towards political unity. The acceptance of Alfred's overlordship expressed a feeling that he stood for interests common to the whole English race. Earlier rulers had to rely on the armed forces at their disposal for any such claims.
The Code of Alfred has a significance in English history
which is entirely independent of its subject matter, for he gives himself the
title of King of the
Following Alfred's example, unlike their counterparts on the Continent, English kings retained their right to exercise legislative powers. Showing the nature of one who had once depended upon the loyalty of his men for survival, they include provisions protecting the weaker members of society against oppression, limiting the ancient custom of the blood-feud and emphasizing the duty of a man to his lord. As a footnote, Alfred insisted that to clear himself, a man of lower rank that a kings' thegn must produce the oaths of eleven men of his own class and one of the Kings' thegns.
It is now time to turn back to the Danish (Viking or
Norsemen) invasion of _____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Originally published at http://www.picturesofengland.com/history/#
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