Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Several large kingdoms came to replace the many small ones. The
people were worshipping pagan gods when St. Augustine came to England
in 596 A.D. to Christianize them. King AEthelbert of Kent and his wife,
who had been raised Christian on the continent, met him when he
arrived. The King gave him land where there were ruins of an old city.
Augustine used stones from the ruins to build a church which was later
called Canterbury. He also built the first St. Paul's church in London.
Aethelbert and his men who fought with him and ate and lived in his
household [gesiths] became Christian. A succession of princesses went
out from Kent to marry other Saxon kings and convert them to
Christianity.
Augustine knew how to write, but King AEthelbert did not. The
King announced his laws at meetings of his people and his eorls would
decide the punishments. There was a fine of 120s. for disregarding a
command of the King. He and Augustine decided to write down some of
these laws, which now included the King's new law concerning the church.
These laws concern personal injury, killing, theft, burglary,
marriage, adultery, and inheritance. The blood feud's private revenge
for killing had been replaced by payment of compensation to the dead
man's kindred. One, or one's blood kindred, paid a man's "wergeld"
[worth] to his blood kindred for causing his wrongful death. The
wergeld [wer] of a king was an unpayable amount of about 7000s., of an
aetheling [a king-worthy man of the extended royal family] was 1500s.,
of an eorl, 300s., of a ceorl, 100s., of a laet [agricultural worker in
Kent, which class was between free and slave], 40-80s., and of a slave
nothing. At this time a shilling could buy a cow in Kent or a sheep
elsewhere. If a ceorl killed an eorl, he paid three times as much as an
eorl would have paid as murderer. Personal injury was compensated by a
"bot". The penalty for slander was tearing out of the tongue. If an
aetheling was guilty of this offense, his tongue was worth five times
that of a coerl, so he had to pay proportionately more to ransom it.
The crimes of murder, treachery to one's own lord, arson [burning a
house], house breaking, and open theft, were punishable by death and
forfeiture of all property.
The Law
"THESE ARE THE DOOMS [DECREES] WHICH KING AETHELBERHT
ESTABLISHED IN THE DAYS OF AUGUSTINE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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