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
It was from a study of the wergelds and the rights and liability of
relatives in their receipt and payment that some idea was gained of the
solidarity of the kindred under tribal custom. And this solidarity of the
kindred was found to be closely connected with the family character of
tribal land-holdings, of which the Cymric gwely was a typical example.
Where direct evidence of this family element was wanting the liability of
the kindred for the wergeld remained as an indication that it once had
existed.
[Sidenote: The normal wergeld of 200 gold solidi or 100 head of cattle.]
In reviewing the evidence of these matters and attempting to bring the
results to a focus, we begin with the fact that with comparatively
few exceptions the normal wergeld of the full or typical freeman
was everywhere so large--200 gold solidi, the heavy mina of gold,
traditionally representing 100 head of cattle. This wergeld was too large
by far for the individual slayer to pay, and possible only as a payment
from one group of kindred to another.
[Sidenote: The Anglo-Saxon wergelds brought with them into Britain.]
We have seen reason to infer from the Kentish, Wessex, and Mercian
wergelds that the Anglo-Saxon tribes shared in these traditions, and,
so to speak, brought their wergelds with them into Britain. And we have
found that Anglo-Saxon custom as regards the wergelds was substantially
similar to that of the Continental tribes.
[Sidenote: No feud or wergeld within the kindred.]
From Beowulf we learned that, as there could be no feud within the
kindred, a homicide within the kindred could not be avenged or compounded
for. There was no galanas or wergeld in such a case under either Cymric
or German custom, and evidence was found in the so-called Laws of Henry
I. that it had been so also under Anglo-Saxon custom. Up to the time of
the Norman Conquest the punishment of parricide was practically left by
the laws to the spiritual jurisdiction of the Church (_supra_, p. 335).
[Sidenote: Wergelds paid and received by paternal and maternal relations.]
The principle which required both paternal and maternal relations to
join in the payment and receipt of wergelds, and nearly always in the
proportion of two thirds and one third, was also common to Cymric and
German tribes. This principle depended upon a view of marriage likewise
common to both. A blood relationship was established as regards children
of a marriage, while husband and wife for many purposes remained in their
own kindreds. There being no blood relationship between husband and wife,
the husband’s kindred alone were liable for his crimes and the wife’s
alone for her crimes, and neither the husband nor the wife received any
portion of the other’s wergeld or was liable for his or her homicides.
Such was the custom under the Cymric codes and the laws of the Bretts and
Scots, and Anglo-Saxon custom as described in the so-called Laws of Henry
I. was similar.
[Sidenote: The half wergeld of strangers in blood.]
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