TITLE LIX. CONCERNING PRIVATE PROPERTY

1. If any man die and leave no sons, if the father and mother survive, they shall inherit.

2. If the father and mother do not survive, and he leave brothers or sisters, they shall inherit.

3. But if there are none, the sisters of the father shall inherit. 4. But if there are no sisters of the father, the sisters of the mother shall claim that inheritance.

5. If there are none of these, the nearest relatives on the father's side shall succeed to that inheritance.

6. But of Salic land no portion of the inheritance shall come to a woman: but the whole inheritance of the land shall come to the male sex.

TITLE LXII. CONCERNING WERGELD

1. If any one's father have been killed, the sons shall have half the compounding money (wergeld); and the other half the nearest relatives, as well on the mother's as on the father's side, shall divide among themselves.

2. But if there are no relatives, paternal or maternal, that portion shall go to the fisc.

CHAPTER XXI

KING ÆTHELBIRHT'S DOOMS1

These are the Dooms which King Ethelbirht established in the Days of Augustine.

1. The property of God and of the church, twelve-fold 2; a bishop's property, eleven-fold; a priest's property, nine-fold; a deacon's property, six-fold; a clerk's property, three-fold; 'church-frith,'3 two-fold; 'm... frith,' two-fold.

2. If the king calls his 'leod' to him, and any one there do

1 [From BENJAMIN THORPE'S "Ancient Laws and Institutes of England" (vol. i, Secular Laws); (comprising Laws enacted under the Anglo-Saxon Kings from Æthelbirht to Cnut, with an English Translation of the Saxon; the Laws called Edward the Confessor's; the Laws of William the Conqueror, and those ascribed to Henry the First; also, Monumenta Ecclesiastica Anglicana, from the seventh to the tenth century; and the ancient Latin version of the Anglo-Saxon laws, with a compendious glossary, &c.), printed by command of King William IV under the direction of the Commissioners on the Public Records of the Kingdom (1840).]

Æthelbirht, king of Kent, fourth in succession after Hengist, was baptized by Augustine in the year 597, and died, according to Beda, after a reign of 56 years, on the 24th of February 616. "Hist. Eccles." ii. 5. The laws of Æthelbirht, as well as those of the other Kentish kings, are taken from the "Textus Roffensis," the only ancient Ms. in which they are found. In this copy, which is of the twelfth century, each series is written continuously; the several laws being distinguished, though not always accurately, by a large initial letter. The numbers prefixed to the different laws are from the edition published by Hickes in his "Thesaurus," and were probably added by J. a Laet; for the convenience of reference which they afford, they are here retained.

2 There is no verb in this law to fix the sense; but we learn from Beda that it is to be understood of the property of the church when stolen... "Hist. Eccl." ii. 5.

3 The Church-frith is what in the later documents is called the Churchgrith, or right of sanctuary and protection given to those within its precincts. By the present law, any infraction of this privilege subjected the offender to a two-fold penalty, or twice the amount of the fine payable for an invasion of the ordinary frith, or what in modern times has been termed a breach of the peace.

4 I have been unable to discover whether this meant a particular class of persons, such as the Leudes of France: or whether it is used in the ordinary sense of 'people.' . . .

them evil, [let him compensate with] a two-fold 'bōt,'1 and L. shillings 2 to the king.

3. If the king drink at any one's home, and any one there do any 'lyswe,' 4 let him make two-fold 'bōt.'

4. If a freeman steal from the king, let him pay nine-fold.

5. If a man slay another in the king's 'tun,' 5 let him make 'bot' with L. shillings.

6. If any one slay a freeman, L. shillings to the king, as 'drihtinbeah.'6

7. If the king's 'ambiht-smith,' or 'laad-rinc,' slay a man, let him pay a half 'leod-geld.''

8. The king's 'mund-byrd,' L. shillings.

1 Wherever the term 'bote' occurs, it is to be understood of the compensation due to the injured party, as damages for the wrong sustained. This, as in cc. 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, may be due to the king in his personal or private capacity, as well as to others. The penalty due to the crown by way of fine was called the wite (see c. 9.). Both forfeitures are thus spoken of by Tacitus: 'Pars mulctæ regi vel civitati, pars ipsi, qui vindicatur, vel propinquis ejus exsolvitur.' "Germ." c. 12.

2 The value of the Kentish shilling is altogether a matter of inference. According to cc. 69, 70, 71, of these dooms, compared with cc. 53, 54, the shilling contained xx. scætts, and from a passage which will be found in another part [not reprinted], as a portion of the Mercian law, we learn that thirty thousand scætts were equal to one hundred and twenty pounds of silver. . . . Hence, according to Mercian law, 'a king's simple wer-gild is equal to the were of six thanes, that is, thirty thousand scatts, which make one hundred and twenty pounds.' By this it would appear that the pound contained 250 scætts, or 12 shillings, which would make the scætt nearly equal to the penny, and the shilling something less than an ounce of silver. By Alfred this term is used on one occasion as a translation of the Latin monasterium. . . In another passage it is applied in a far more extended sense. But here it seems to be equivalent to the 'curtis' of the Barbaric laws; the 'hof,' 'huwe,' of Upper and Lower Saxony. In OldFrisie, 'ham' meant either the hof, or house and land conjointly, or the house itself. The terms hof, huwe, hib, ham, and hide, are clearly synonymous; but it would be difficult to find any expressions now in use which would convey the sense of either.

The same term occurs below (c. 72.), with a slightly-varied orthography... The meaning must be left to the reader's conjecture,

5 In the Northern parts of this island this term is not altogether obsolete in its original sense; at least, it is not many years since in Scotland a single house was called a town;' in Ireland it is still called a township. The nature of such a settlement is thus described by Tacitus: Vicos locant non in nostrum morem, connexis et cohærentibus ædificiis: suam quisque domum spatio circumdat.' "Germ." c. 16. The economy of a royal vill, in even its minutest particulars, will be found in the Capitulare de Villis of Charlemagne.

Literally as a lord-ring. In the later dooms this fine is called the man-bote (See Edw. Conf. 12.), whether paid to the king or a subject. 7 The 'leod-geld,' or, as it is called, c. 31, the 'wer-geld,' was the sum paid to the family of a man who had been slain, as a compensation for the death of their kinsman. In the Latin documents these terms are usually translated, compositio, solutio, hominis occisi.'

6

8 Protection: but the fine here imposed is for an infraction of the round-byrd, or what in the later dooms is called 'mund-bryce.' this head are to be classed the penalties spoken of in cc. 2, 6.

Under

9. If a freeman steal from a freeman, let him make threefold 'bōt'; and let the king have the 'wite' and all the chattels. 10. If a man lie with the king's maiden,1 let him pay a 'bōt' of L. shillings.

11. If she be a grinding slave, let him pay a 'bōt' of xxv. shillings.

12. Let the king's 'fed-esl' [nurse?] be paid for with xx. shillings.

13. If a man slay another in an 'eorl's' 'tun,' let him make 'bōt' with XII. shillings.

14. If a man lie with an 'eorl's' 'birele,' 2 let him make 'bōt' with XII. shillings.

15. A'ceorl's' 'mund-byrd,' vI. shillings.

16. If a man lie with a 'ceorl's' 'birele,' let him make 'bōt' with VI. shillings; with a slave of the second [class], L. 'scætts' 3; with one of the third, XXX. 'scætts.'

17. If any one be the first 4 to make an inroad into a man's 'tun,' let him make 'bōt' with VI. shillings; let him who follows, with III. shillings; after, each, a shilling.

18. If a man furnish weapons to another where there is strife, though no evil be done, let him make 'bōt' with VI. shillings. 19. If 'weg-reaf' 5 be done, let him make 'bōt' with vi. shillings.

1 It is clear from the context that the person here spoken of was of the servile classes. The Salic Law notices a 'regis ancilla (Tit. 27.), and the Ripuarian law an ancilla regia' (Tit. 58, § 9, 14.), but without giving us any further knowledge of their duties. From cc. 14, 16. it might be inferred that the mægden-man was a cupbearer, if such an office in the royal household could be supposed to have been conferred on a female. In Beowulf the mead is distributed by females, but then they are royal personages.

2 A female cup-bearer.

3 It has been already stated, on the authority of a passage in the Mercian law, that there were 250 scætts in a pound of silver. An examination of those which remain gives an average of from 15 to 18 or 19 grains of silver, though some have been found to contain 20 grains. Ruding's "Annals of the Coinage," vol. i. p. 296.

4 The power of 'ge' in composition can only be gathered from the context in these early specimens of the Anglo-Saxon language; and though the translation adopts the import of the simple verb, it is evident that a forcible entry of some kind is here intended.

5 This appears to have been a similar offence with the Longobardie 'weg-worte (Ed. Rotharis, c. 26), and perhaps the later 'fore-steal,' when this was attended with robbery. It might be termed a highway robbery, were it not that this offence has acquired a technical sense which can hardly have been required to make out a case of weg-reaf. With this law it is conceived the succeeding one ought to be connected, and that their object is to declare, that for simple weg-reaf the fine should be 68., but for weg-reaf attended by homicide, 20s., in addition to the 'Leod. geld,' &c.

20. If the man be slain, let him make 'bōt' with xx. shillings. 21. If a man slay another,1 let him make 'bōt' with a half 'leod-geld' of c. shillings.

22. If a man slay another at an open grave, let him pay xx. shillings, and pay the whole 'leod' within XI. days.

23. If the slayer retire from the land, let his kindred pay a half 'leod.'

24. If any one bind a freeman, let him make 'bōt' with xx. shillings.

25. If any one slay a 'ceorl's' 'hlaf-æta,'' let him make ‘bōt' with VI. shillings.

26. If [any one] slay a 'læt' of the highest class, let him pay LXXX. shillings; if he slay any one of the second, let him pay LX. shillings; of the third, let him pay XL. shillings.

27. If a freeman commit 'edor'-breach,3 let him make 'bōt' with vI. shillings.

28. If any one take property from a dwelling, let him pay a three-fold 'bōt.'

29. If a freeman pass over an 'edor,' let him make ‘bōt' with IV. shillings.

30. If a man slay another, let him pay with his own money, and with any sound property whatever.

31. If a freeman lie with a freeman's wife, let him pay for it with his 'wer-geld,' and provide another wife with his own money, and bring her to the other.

32. If any one thrust through the 'riht ham-seyld,' let him adequately compensate.

33. If there be 'feax-fang,' 5 let there be L. scætts for 'bōt.' 34. If there be an exposure of the bone, let 'bōt' be made with III. shillings.

1 That is, if one freeman (ingenuus) kill another.

2 Literally the 'loaf-eater,' and consequently a domestic or menial

servant.

3 It is clear, from the laws of Alfred, c. 36, that edorbryce was the same offence against a ceorl that burhbryce was against a person of higher rank. It cannot therefore mean a mere breaking of his residence.

The practice here referred to, of purchasing the bride, will be illustrated below in the notes to the Kentish custumal respecting marriage forms, usually printed as a part of the laws of Edmund. It is thus alluded to in Theodoric's letter to Hermanfrid, king of Thuringen: Quapropter salutantes vos gratia competenti, indicamus nos venientibus legatis vestris impretiabilis quidem rei, sed more gentium suscepisse pretia destinata, equos argenteo colore vestitos, quales decuit esse nuptiales,' Bouquet, iv. p. 8. Cf. Tacitus, "Germ." c. 18.

A taking hold by the hair: 'Si illum per capillos comprehenderit similiter ter quatuor solidos componat.' Lex Frisionum, addit. tit. iii.