Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
82. If a man carry off a maiden by force, let him pay 50 shillings to
the owner, and afterwards buy [the object of] his will from the owner.
83. If she be betrothed to another man in money [at a bride price], let
him [who carried her off] make bot with 20 shillings.
84. If she become gaengang [pregnant], 35 shillings; and 15 shillings to
the King.
85. If a man lie with an esne's wife, her husband still living, let him
make twofold bot.
86. If one esne slay another unoffending, let him pay for him at his
full worth.
87. If an esne's eye and foot be struck out or off, let him be paid for
at his full worth.
88. If any one bind another man's esne, let him make bot with 6
shillings.
89. Let [compensation for] weg reaf [highway robbery] of a theow [slave]
be 3 shillings.
90. If a theow steal, let him make twofold bot [twice the value of the
stolen goods]."
- Judicial Procedure -
The King and his freemen would hear and decide cases of wrongful
behavior such as breach of the peace. Punishment would be given to the
offender by the community.
There were occasional meetings of "hundreds", which were 100
households, to settle widespread disputes. The chief officer was
"hundreder" or "constable". He was responsible for keeping the peace of
the hundred.
The Druid priests decided all disputes of the Celts.
- - - Chapter 2 - - -
- The Times: 600-900 -
The country was inhabited by Anglo-Saxons. The French called it
"Angleterre", which means the angle or end of the earth. It was called
"Angle land", which later became "England".
A community was usually an extended family. Its members lived a village
in which a stone church was the most prominent building. They lived in
one-room huts with walls and roofs made of wood, mud, and straw.
Hangings covered the cracks in the walls to keep the wind out. Smoke
from a fire in the middle of the room filtered out of cracks in the
roof. Grain was ground at home by rotating by hand one stone disk on
another stone disk. Some villages had a mill powered by the flow of
water or by horses. All freeholders had the duty of watch [at night] and
ward [during the day], of following the hue and cry to chase an
offender, and of taking the oath of peace. These three duties were
constant until 1195.
Farmland surrounded the villages and was farmed by the community as a
whole under the direction of a lord. There was silver, copper, iron,
tin, gold, and various types of stones from remote lead mines and
quarries in the nation. Silver pennies replaced the smaller scaetts.
Freemen paid "scot" and bore "lot" according to their means for local
purposes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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