The Saxons in England, Volume 1 (of 2): A history of the English commonwealth till the period of the Norman conquestKemble, John Mitchell
History
The Saxons in England, Volume 1 (of 2): A history of the English commonwealth till the period of the Norman conquest
Kemble, John Mitchell
Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066
Law of the Frisians.—Noble 80 shillings: freeman 53⅓; freedman 26⅔
shillings.
Law of the Visigoths.—Freeman (between the years of twenty and fifty)
300 shillings: freedman 150.
In the North, 100 silfrs was the wergyld of the freeman, and there is no
account of the jarl’s. The Old Swedish laws generally assign 40 marks;
this is the reckoning of the Upland, Sudermanland, and Eastgothland
laws. The Westgothland law has 39 marks; the Jutish 54; and the Gutalag,
three marks of gold.
The wergyld of the clergy is slightly different: among the Salic Franks,
deacon 300, priest 600, bishop 900 shillings. A late addition to the
Ripuarian law computes,—clericus 200, subdeacon 400, deacon 500, priest
600, bishop 900.
This is sufficient to give a general outline of the system: it will be
observed that these continental computations give no reckoning for the
king. Beyond doubt they were for the most part settled after the royal
power had become so fully developed as to cast aside all traces of its
original character and nature.
The Anglosaxon equivalents for these computations are by no means clear;
nor, as far as we can judge, are they altogether consistent. It is
probable that they varied not only in the several Anglosaxon kingdoms,
but were also subject to change at various periods, as the relative
value of life and produce altered. The Kentish law which names only the
eorl and ceorl, as the two classes of free men, does not give us the
exact amount of their wergylds, but it supplies us with some data by
which perhaps an approximation may be made to it. In Æðelberht’s law (§
2, 5, 8) the king’s _mundbyrd_ or protection is valued at fifty
shillings, the eorl’s or noble’s at twelve (§ 13, 14, compared with §
10, 15, 16, 17), and the ceorl’s or simple freeman’s at six (§ 15, 25,
88). Thus the three classes stand in the relation of fifty, twelve and
six; or taking the ceorl as unity, their respective values are 8⅓, 2 and
1: that is,
Ceorl:eorl::1:2.
Ceorl:king::1:8⅓.
Eorl :king::1:4⅙.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account