Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law: Being an Essay Supplemental to (1) 'The English Village Community', (2) 'The Tribal System in Wales'Seebohm, Frederic
History
Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law: Being an Essay Supplemental to (1) 'The English Village Community', (2) 'The Tribal System in Wales'
Seebohm, Frederic
Anglo-Saxons; Law, Anglo-Saxon; Law, Medieval; Tribes -- Great Britain
Not only in the currency, but also in other matters, extended empire
involved the breaking down of tribal peculiarities and greater
uniformity in legal provisions and practice.
[Sidenote: The Lex Salica still in force for Franks. And its family
holdings not yet extinct.]
To mention one instance suggested by our previous inquiry, we have
noticed how the extension of Frankish rule in Gaul from the Loire to the
Garonne increased the difficulties of maintaining two laws as to land.
Strangers under Roman law, as in the ‘de migrantibus,’ one by one were
settling among Franks holding alods or family holdings of terra Salica.
Extended conquests reversed the process, and in conquered provinces
immigrants living under Salic law became strangers amongst vicini living
under Roman, Burgundian, or Wisigothic law.
The family holdings of terra Salica must have now become the exception
and not the rule. This becomes evident in the provisions made for the
army.
In the Capitulare of A.D. 803,[128] _de exercitu promovendo_, it was
ordered that every free man (‘liber homo’) who, _de proprio suo_ or as a
benefice, had four _mansi vestiti_, that is mansi occupied by tenants,
should equip himself and attend ‘in hostem.’ And those not having so many
mansi were to club together so that for every four mansi a soldier should
be found. The possession of mansi had apparently become sufficiently
general to be taken as the typical form of landholding.
In A.D. 807[129] special arrangements were made for the case of the
recently conquered Frisians and Saxons.
If help should be needed in Spain, every five of the Saxons were to equip
a sixth. If the need arose nearer home, every two were to prepare a
third. Or if the need arose still closer at hand, all were to come. Of
the Frisians, counts and vassals and those who held benefices, all were
to come, and of those who were poorer every six were to equip a seventh.
There is no mention of mansi in the case of the Saxons and Frisians.
The Capitulare of A.D. 803 seems to show that in the longer settled
districts of the Empire the possession of so many mansi, _de proprio
suo_, was the prevalent form of landownership. So that, although the lex
Salica remained still in force, the number of Franks living under it
seems by this time to have borne a very small proportion to those living
under Roman and other laws.
Family holdings under the Lex Salica were, however, probably not quite
extinct. In the ‘Capitula generalia’ of A.D. 825[130] was inserted the
following clause providing specially for family holdings, which may
possibly have been holdings of _terra Salica_, though it is not so
directly stated.
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