Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776
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Title: Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776
Author: S. A. Reilly
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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR LEGAL HERITAGE: KING AETHELBERT - KING GEORGE III, 600 A.D. - 1776 ***
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Copyright (C) 2004 S. A. Reilly
OUR LEGAL HERITAGE
King AEthelbert - King George III, 1776
600 A.D. - 1776
By
S. A. Reilly, Attorney
175 E. Delaware Place
Chicago, Illinois 60611-7715
S-Reilly@att.net
Copyright (C) 2004
Preface
This book was written to appreciate what laws have been in existence
for a long time and therefore have proven their success in maintaining a
stable society. Its purpose is also to see the historical context in
which our legal doctrines developed. It includes the inception of the
common law system, which was praised because it made law which was not
handed down by an absolutist king; the origin of the jury system; the
meaning of the Magna Carta provisions in their historical context; and
the emergence of attorneys.
This book is a primer. One may read it without prior knowledge of
history or law, although it will be more meaningful to attorneys than to
others. It can serve as an introduction on which to base further reading
in English legal history. It defines terms unique to English legal
history. However, the meaning of some terms in King Aethelbert's code in
Chapter 1 are unknown or inexact.
In the Table of Contents, the title of each chapter denotes an
important legal development in the given time period for that chapter.
Each chapter is divided into three sections: The Times, The Law, and
Judicial Procedure.
The Times section sets a background and context in which to better
understand the law of that period. The usual subject matter of history
such as battles, wars, royal intrigues, periods of corruption, and
international relations are omitted as not helping to understand the
process of civilization and development of the law. Standard practices
are described, but there are often variations with locality. Also,
change did not come abruptly, but with vacillations, e.g. the change
from pagan to Christian belief and the change to allowance of loans for
interest. The scientific revolution was accepted only slowly. There were
often many attempts made for change before it actually occurred, e.g.
gaining Parliamentary power over the king's privileges, such as
taxation.
The Law section describes the law governing the behavior and conduct of
the populace. It includes law of that time which is the same, similar,
or a building block to the law of today. In earlier times this is both
statutory law and the common law of the courts. The Magna Carta, which
is quoted in Chapter 7, is the first statute of England and is listed
first in the "Statutes of the Realm" and the "Statutes at Large". The
law sections of Chapters 7 - 18 mainly quote or paraphrase almost all of
these statutes. Excluded are statutes which do not help us understand
the development of our law, such as statutes governing Wales after its
conquest and statutes on succession rights to the throne.
The Judicial Procedure section describes the process of applying the
law and trying cases, and jurisdictions. It also contains some examples
of cases.
For easy comparison, amounts of money expressed in pounds or marks
[Danish denomination] have often been converted to the smaller
denominations of shillings and pence. There are twenty shillings in a
pound. A mark in silver is two-thirds of a pound. Shillings are
abbreviated: "s." There are twelve pennies or pence in a Norman
shilling. Pence are abbreviated "d." Six shillings and two pence is
denoted 6s.2d. A scaett was a coin of silver and copper of lesser
denomination than a shilling. There were no coins of the denomination of
shilling during Anglo-Saxon times.
The sources and reference books from which information was obtained are
listed in a bibliography instead of being contained in tedious
footnotes. There is no index to pages because the electronic text will
print out its pages differently on different computers with different
computer settings. Instead, a word search may be done on the electronic
text.
Dedication and Acknowledgements
A Vassar College faculty member once dedicated her book to her
students, but for whom it would have been written much earlier. This
book "Our Legal Heritage" is dedicated to the faculty of Vassar College,
without whom it would never have been written. Much appreciation goes to
Professor James Curtin of Loyola Law School for his review and comments
on this book's medieval period: Chapters 4-10, and especially his
comment that "I learned quite a bit about life in those days from your
work." Thanks go to Loyola University Law School Professor George
Anastaplo for introducing me to Professor Curtin. Much appreciation goes
to Professor Lacey Baldwin Smith of Northwestern University's History
Department for his review and comments on this book's Tudor and Stuart
periods: Chapters 11-17, especially his comment that he learned a lot.
Thanks go to Northwestern University Law School Professor Steven Presser
for introducing me to Professor Smith. Finally, many thanks go to fellow
Mensan William Wedgeworth for proof-reading the entire book.
Table of Contents
Chapters:
1. Tort law as the first written law: to 600
2. Oaths and perjury: 600-900
3. Marriage law: 900-1066
4. Martial "law": 1066-1100
5. Criminal law and prosecution: 1100-1154
6. Common Law for all freemen: 1154-1215
7. Magna Carta: the first statute: 1215-1272
8. Land law: 1272-1348
9. Legislating the economy: 1348-1399
10. Equity from Chancery Court: 1399-1485
11. Use-trust of land: 1485-1509
12. Wills and testaments of lands and goods: 1509-1558
13. Consideration and contract Law: 1558-1601
14. Welfare for the poor: 1601-1625
15. Independence of the courts: 1625-1642
16. Freedom of religion: 1642-1660
17. Habeas Corpus: 1660-1702
18. Service of Process instead of arrest: 1702-1776
19. Epilogue: 1776-2000
Appendix: Sovereigns of England
Bibliography
- - - Chapter 1 - - -
- The Times: before 600 A.D. -
The settlement of England goes back thousands of years. At first,
people hunted and gathered their food. They wore animal skins over their
bodies for warmth and around their feet for protection when walking.
These skins were sewn together with bone needles and threads made from
animal sinews. They carried small items by hooking them onto their
belts. They used bone and stone tools, e.g. for preparing skins. Their
uncombed hair was held by thistlethorns, animal spines, or straight bone
hair pins. They wore conical hats of bound rush and lived in rush
shelters.
Early clans, headed by kings, lived in huts on top of hills or other
high places and fortified by circular or contour earth ditches and banks
behind which they could gather for protection. They were probably dug
with antler picks and wood spades. The people lived in rectangular huts
with four wood posts supporting a roof. The walls were made of saplings,
and a mixture of mud and straw. Cooking was in a clay oven inside or
over an open fire on the outside. Water was carried in animal skins or
leather pouches from springs lower on the hill up to the settlement.
Forests abounded with wolves, bears, deer, wild boars, and wild cattle.
They could more easily be seen from the hill tops. Pathways extended
through this camp of huts and for many miles beyond.
For wives, men married women of their clan or bought or captured other
women, perhaps with the help of a best man. They carried their unwilling
wives over the thresholds of their huts, which were sometimes in places
kept secret from her family. The first month of marriage was called the
honeymoon because the couple was given mead, a drink with fermented
honey and herbs, for the first month of their marriage. A wife wore a
gold wedding band on the ring finger of her left hand to show that she
was married.
Women usually stayed at home caring for children, preparing meals, and
making baskets. They also made wool felt and spun and wove wool into a
coarse cloth. Flax was grown and woven into a coarse linen cloth.
Spinning the strands into one continuous thread was done on a stick,
which the woman could carry about and spin at anytime when her hands
were free. The weaving was done on an upright or warp-weighted loom.
People of means draped the cloth around their bodies and fastened it
with a metal brooch inlayed with gold, gems, and shell, which were glued
on with glue that was obtained from melting animal hooves. People drank
from hollowed- out animal horns, which they could carry from belts. They
could tie things with rawhide strips or rope braids they made. Kings
drank from animal horns decorated with gold or from cups of amber,
shale, or pure gold. Men and women wore pendants and necklaces of
colorful stones, shells, amber beads, bones, and deer teeth. They
skinned and cut animals with hand-axes and knives made of flint dug up
from pits and formed by hitting flakes off. The speared fish with barbed
bone prongs or wrapped bait around a flint, bone, or shell fish hook. On
the coast, they made bone harpoons for deep-sea fish. The flint ax was
used to shape wood and bone and was just strong enough to fell a tree,
although the process was very slow.
The king, who was tall and strong, led his men in hunting groups to
kill deer and other wild animals in the forests and to fish in the
streams. Some men brought their hunting dogs on leashes to follow scent
trails to the animal. The men threw stones and spears with flint points
at the animals. They used wood clubs to beat them, at the same time
using wood shields to protect their bodies. They watched the phases of
the moon and learned to predict when it would be full and give the most
light for night hunting. This began the concept of a month. Circles of
stone like Stonehenge were built with alignments to paths of the moon.
If hunting groups from two clans tried to follow the same deer, there
might be a fight between the clans or a blood feud. After the battle,
the clan would bring back its dead and wounded. A priest officiated over
a funeral for a dead man. His wife would often also go on the funeral
pyre with him.
The priest also officiated over sacrifices of humans, who were usually
offenders found guilty of transgressions. Sacrifices were usually made
in time of war or pestilence, and usually before the winter made food
scarce.
The clan ate deer that had been cooked on a spit over a fire, and
fruits and vegetables which had been gathered by the women. They drank
water from springs. In the spring, food was plentiful. There were eggs
of different colors in nests and many hare to eat. The goddess Easter
was celebrated at this time.
Later, there was farming and domestication of animals such as horses,
pigs, sheep, goats, chicken, and cattle. Of these, the pig was the most
important meat supply, being killed and salted for winter use. Next in
importance were the cattle. Sheep were kept primarily for their wool.
Flocks and herds were taken to pastures. The male cattle, with wood
yokes, pulled ploughs in the fields of barley and wheat. The female goat
and cow provided milk, butter, and cheese. The chickens provided eggs.
The hoe, spade, and grinding stone were used. Thread was spun with a
hand-held spindle which one hand held while the other hand alternately
formed the thread from a mass and then wound it around the spindle. A
coarse cloth was woven and worn as a tunic which had been cut from the
cloth. Kings wore tunics decorated with sheet gold. Decorated pottery
was made from clay and used to hold liquids and for food preparation and
consumption. During the period of "lent" [from the word "lencten", which
means spring], it was forbidden to eat any meat or fish. This was the
season in which many animals were born and grew to maturity. Wood carts
with four wheels were used to transport produce and manure. Horses were
used for transportation of people or goods. Wood dug-out boats and
paddles were used to fish on rivers or on the seacoast.
Clans had settlements near rivers. Each settlement had a meadow, for
the mowing of hay, and a simple mill, with round timber huts, covered
with branches or thatch or turf supported by a ring of posts. Inside was
a hearth with smoke going up through a hole in the roof, and a cauldron
for cooking food. There was an upright loom in the darkness. The floor
was swept clean. At the door were spears or bags of slingstones ready
for immediate use. The King lived in the largest hut. Gullies outside
carried off excess water. Each hut had a garden for fruit and
vegetables. A goat or cow might be tied out of reach of the garden.
There was a fence or hedge surrounding and protecting the garden area
and dwelling. Buckets and cauldrons which had originated from the
Mediterranean were used. Querns with the top circular stone turned by
hand over the bottom stone were used for grinding grain. There were
ovens to dry and roast grain. Grain was first eaten as a porridge or
cereal. There were square wood granaries on stilts and wood racks on
which to dry hay. Grain was stored in concealed pits in the earth which
were lined with drystone or basket work or clay and made airtight by
sealing with clay or dung. Old pits were converted into waste dumps,
burials, or latrines. Outside the fence were an acre or two of fields of
wheat and barley, and sometimes oats and rye. Wheat and rye were sown in
the fall, and oats and barley in the spring. Sowing was by men or two
oxen drawing a simple scratch plough. The crops were all harvested in
the summer. In this two-field system, land was held by peasants in units
designed to support a single extended family. These fields were usually
enclosed with a hedge to keep animals from eating the crop and to define
the territory of the settlement from that of its neighbors. Flax was
grown and made into linen cloth. Beyond the fields were pastures for
cattle and sheep grazing. There was often an area for beehives. This was
subsistence level farming.
Pottery was given symmetry when formed with use of a wheel and heated
in increasingly hot kilns. From kilns used for pottery, it was noticed
that lumps of gold or copper ore within would melt and assume the shape
of what they had been resting on. These were the first metals, and could
be beaten into various shapes, such as ornaments. Then the liquid ore
was poured into moulds carved out of stones to make axes [small pointed
tool for piercing holes in leather, wood, or other soft materials] and
daggers, which were reheated and hammered to become strong.
Copper-tipped drills, chisels, punches and awls were also made.
The bodies of deceased were buried far away from any village in wood
coffins, except for kings, who were placed in large stone coffins after
being wrapped in linen. Buried with them were a few personal items, such
as copper daggers, flat copper axes, and awls. The deceased was buried
in a coffin with a stone on top deep in the earth to keep the spirit of
the dead from coming out to haunt the living.
It was learned that tin added to the copper made a stronger metal:
bronze. Stone hammers, and bronze and iron tools, were used to make
cooking pots, weapons, breast plates, and horse bits, which were formed
from moulds and/or forged by bronze smiths and blacksmiths from iron
extracted from iron ore heated in bowl- shaped hearths. Typically one
man operated the bellows to keep the fire hot while another did the
hammering. Bronze was made into sickles for harvesting, razors for
shaving, tweezers, straight hair pins, safety pins for clothes, armlets,
neck-rings, and mirrors. Weapons included bows and arrows, flint and
copper daggers, bronze swords and spears, stone axes, and shields of
wood with bronze mountings. The bows and arrows probably evolved from
spear throwing rods. Kings in body armor fought with chariots drawn by
two horses. The horse harnesses had bronze fittings. The chariots had
wood wheels, later with iron rims. When bronze came into use, there was
a demand for its constituent parts: copper and tin, which were traded by
rafts on waterways and the sea. When iron came into use, there were
wrought iron axes, saws, adzes [ax with curved blade used to dress
wood], files, ploughshares, harrows [set of spikes to break clods of
earth on ploughed land and also to cover seed when sewn], scythes,
billhooks [thick knife with hooked point used to prune shrubs], and
spits for hearths. Lead was mined. There was some glassmaking of beads.
Wrought iron bars were used as currency.
Hillforts now had wooden palisades on top of their banks to protect the
enclosed farmsteads and villages from stock wandering off or being taken
by rustlers, and from attacks by wild animals or other people. Later a
rampart was added from which sentries could patrol. These were supported
by timber and/or stone structures. Timbers were probably transported by
carts or dragged by oxen. At the entrances were several openings only
one of which really allowed entry. The others went between banks into
dead ends and served as traps in which to kill the enemy from above.
Gates were of wood, some hung from hinges on posts which could be
locked. Later guard chambers were added, some with space for hearths and
beds. Sometimes further concentric circles of banks and ditches, and
perhaps a second rampart, were added around these forts. They could
reach to 14 acres. The ramparts are sufficiently widely spaced to make
sling-shotting out from them highly effective, but to minimize the
dangers from sling-shotting from without. The additional banks and
ditches could be used to create cattle corridors or to protect against
spear-thrown firebrands. However, few forts had springs of water within
them, indicating that attacks on them were probably expected to be
short. Attacks usually began with warriors bristling with weapons and
blowing war trumpets shouting insults to the foe, while their kings
dashed about in chariots. Sometimes champions from each side fought in
single combat. They took the heads of those they killed to hang from
their belts or place on wood spikes at the gates. Prisoners, including
women and children, might become slaves. Kings sometimes lived in
separate palisades where they kept their horses and chariots.
Circles of big stones like Stonehenge were rebuilt so that the sun's
position with respect to the stones would indicate the day of longest
sunlight and the day of shortest sunlight. Between these days there was
an optimum time to harvest the crops before fall, when plants dried up
and leaves fell from the trees. The winter solstice, when the days began
to get longer was cause for celebration. In the next season, there was
an optimum time to plant seeds so they could spring up from the ground
as new growth. So farming gave rise to the concept of a year. Certain
changes of the year were celebrated, such as Easter, named for the
Goddess of the Dawn, which occurred in the east (after lent); May Day
celebrating the revival of life; Lammas around July, when the wheat crop
was ready for harvesting; and on October 31 the Celtic eve of Samhain,
when the spirits of the dead came back to visit homes and demand food or
else cast an evil spell on the refusing homes; and at which masked and
costumed inhabitants representing the souls of the dead paraded to the
outskirts of the settlements to lead the ghosts away from their homes;
and at which animals and humans, who might be deemed to be possessed by
spirits, were sacrificed or killed perhaps as examples, in huge bonfires
[bonefires] as those assembled looked out for spirits and evil beings.
There was an agricultural revolution from the two-field system in which
one field was fallow to the three-field system, in which there were
three large fields for the heavy and fertile land. Each field was
divided into long and narrow strips. Each strip represented a day's work
with the plough. One field had wheat, or perhaps rye, another had
barley, oats, beans, or peas, and the third was fallow. It had been
observed that legumes such as peas and beans restored the soil. These
were rotated yearly. There was a newly invented plough that was heavy
and made of wood and later had an attached iron blade. The plough had a
mould-board which caught the soil stirred by the plough blade and threw
it into a ridge alongside the furrow dug by the plough blade. This
plough was too heavy for two oxen and was pulled by a team of about
eight to ten oxen. Each ox was owned by a different man as was the
plough, because no one peasant could afford the complete set. Each
freeman was allotted certain strips in each field to bear crops. His
strips were far from each other, which insured some very fertile and
some only fair soil, and some land near his village dwelling and some
far away. These strips he cultivated, sowed with seed, and harvested for
himself and his family. After the harvest, they reverted to common
ownership for grazing by pigs, sheep, and geese. As soon as haymaking
was over, the meadows became common grazing land for horses, cows, and
oxen. Not just any inhabitant, but usually only those who owned a piece
of land in the parish were entitled to graze their animals on the common
land, and each owner had this right of pasture for a definite number of
animals. The faster horse replaced the ox as the primary work animal.
Other farm implements were: coulters, which gave free passage to the
plough by cutting weeds and turf, picks, spades and shovels, reaping
hooks and scythes, and sledge hammers and anvils. Strips of land for
agriculture were added from waste land as the community grew. Waste
lands were moors bristling with brushwood, or gorse, heather and wanton
weeds, reed-coated marshes, quaking peat-bogs, or woods grown haphazard
on sand or rock. With iron axes, forests could be cleared to provide
more arable land.
Some villages had a smith, a wheelwright, and a cooper. There were
villages which had one or two market days in each week. Cattle, sheep,
pigs, poultry, calves, and hare were sold there. London was a town on
the Thames River under the protection of the Celtic river god Lud: Lud's
town. It's huts were probably built over the water, as was Celtic
custom. It was a port for foreign trade. Near the town was Ludhill. Each
Celtic tribe in England made its own coinage. Silver and bronze were
first used, and then gold. The metal was put into a round form and then
placed between two engraved dies, which were hit.
Flint workers mined with deer antler picks and ox shoulder blade
shovels for flint to grind into axes, spearheads, and arrowheads. Mine
shafts were up to thirty feet deep and necessitated the use of chalk
lamps fueled by animal fat with wicks of moss. The flint was hauled up
in baskets.
Common men and women were now buried in tombs within memorial burial
mounds of earth with stone entrances and interior chambers. A man's
weapons and shield were buried with him and a woman's spindle and
weaving baton, and perhaps beads or pottery with her. At times, mounds
of earth would simply be covered over piles of corpses and ashes in
urns. In these mass graves, some corpses had spear holes or sword cuts,
indicating death by violence. The Druid priests, the learned class of
the Celts, taught the Celts to believe in reincarnation of the soul
after death of one body into another body. They also threw prized
possessions into lakes and rivers as sacrifices to water gods. They
placed images of gods and goddesses in shrines, which were sometimes
large enough to be temples. They thought of their gods as supernatural
magicians.
With the ability to grow food and the acquisition of land by conquest
by invading groups, the population grew. There were different classes of
men. The freemen were eorls [noble freemen] or ceorls [ordinary free
farmers]. Slaves were not free. Freemen had long hair and beards.
Slaves' hair was shorn from their heads so that they were bald. Slaves
were chained and often traded. Prisoners taken in battle, especially
native Britons taken by invading groups, became slaves. A slave who was
captured or purchased was a "theow". An "esne" was a slave who worked
for hire. A "weallas" was a Welsh slave. Criminals became slaves of the
person wronged or of the king. Sometimes a father pressed by need sold
his children or his wife into bondage. Debtors, who increased in number
during famine, which occurred regularly, became slaves by giving up the
freeman's sword and spear, picking up a slave's mattock [pick ax for the
soils], and placing their head within a lord's or lady's hands. They
were called wite- theows. The original meaning of the word lord was
"loaf-giver". Children with a slave parent were slaves. The slaves lived
in huts around the homes of big landholders, which were made of logs and
consisted on one large room or hall. An open hearth was in the middle of
the earthen floor of the hall, which was strewn with rushes. There was a
hole in the roof to let out the smoke. Here the landholder and his men
would eat meat, bread, salt, hot spiced ale, and mead while listening to
minstrels sing about the heroic deeds of their ancestors. Richer men
drank wine. There were festivals which lasted several days, in which
warriors feasted, drank, gambled, boasted, and slept where they fell.
Physical strength and endurance in adversity were admired traits.
Slaves often were used as grain grinders, ploughmen, sowers, haywards,
woodwards, shepherds, goatherds, swineherds, oxherds, cowherds,
dairymaids, and barnmen. Slaves had no legal rights. A lord could kill
his slave at will. A wrong done to a slave was regarded as done to his
owner. If a person killed another man's slave, he had to compensate him
with the slave's purchase price. The slave owner had to answer for the
offenses of his slaves against others, as for the mischief done by his
cattle. Since a slave had no property, he could not be fined for crimes,
but was whipped, mutilated, or killed.
During famine, acorns, beans, peas, and even bark were ground down to
supplement flour when grain stocks grew low. People scoured the
hedgerows for herbs, roots, nettles, and wild grasses, which were
usually left for the pigs. Sometimes people were driven to infanticide
or group suicide by jumping together off a cliff or into the water.
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 [much later a county]
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 paid a man's "wergeld" [worth] to his 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. 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, 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
1. [Theft of] the property of God and of the church [shall be
compensated], twelve fold; a bishop's property, eleven fold; a priest's
property, nine fold; a deacon's property, six fold; a cleric's property,
three fold; church frith [breach of the peace of the church; right of
sanctuary and protection given to those within its precincts], two fold
[that of ordinary breach of the public peace]; m......frith [breach of
the peace of a meeting place], two fold.
2. If the King calls his leod [his people] to him, and any one there do
them evil, [let him compensate with] a twofold bot [damages for the
injury], and 50 shillings to the King.
3. If the King drink at any one's home, and any one there do any lyswe
[evil deed], let him make twofold bot.
4. If a freeman steal from the King, let him repay nine fold.
5. If a man slay another in the King's tun [enclosed dwelling premises],
let him make bot with 50 shillings.
6. If any one slay a freeman, 50 shillings to the King, as drihtin beah
[payment to a lord in compensation for killing his freeman].
7. If the King's ambiht smith [smith or carpenter] or laad rine [man who
walks before the King or guide or escort], slay a man, let him pay a
half leod geld.
8. [Offenses against anyone or anyplace under] the King's mund byrd
[protection or patronage], 50 shillings
9. If a freeman steal from a freeman, let him make threefold bot; and
let the King have the wite [fine] and all the chattels [necessary to pay
the fine]. (Chattels was a variant of "cattle".)
10. If a man lie with the King's maiden [female servant], let him pay a
bot of 50 shillings.
11. If she be a grinding slave, let him pay a bot of 25 shillings.The
third [class of servant] 12 shillings.
12. Let the King's fed esl [woman who serves him food or nurse] be paid
for with 20 shillings.
13. If a man slay another in an eorl's tun [premises], let [him] make
bot with 12 shillings.
14. If a man lie with an eorl's birele [female cupbearer], let him make
bot with 12 shillings.
15. [Offenses against a person or place under] a ceorl's mund byrd
[protection], 6 shillings.
16. If a man lie with a ceorl's birele [female cupbearer], let him make
bot with 6 shillings; with a slave of the second [class], 50 scaetts;
with one of the third, 30 scaetts.
17. If any one be the first to invade a man's tun [premises], let him
make bot with 6 shillings; let him who follows, with 3 shillings; after,
each, a shilling.
18. If a man furnish weapons to another where there is a quarrel, though
no injury results, let him make bot with 6 shillings.
19. If a weg reaf [highway robbery] be done [with weapons furnished by
another], let him [the man who provided the weapons] make bot with 6
shillings.
20. If the man be slain, let him [the man who provided the weapons] make
bot with 20 shillings.
21. If a [free] man slay another, let him make bot with a half leod
geld [wergeld for manslaughter] of 100 shillings.
22. If a man slay another, at the open grave let him pay 20 shillings,
and pay the whole leod within 40 days.
23. If the slayer departs from the land, let his kindred pay a half
leod.
24. If any one bind a freeman, let him make bot with 20 shillings.
25. If any one slay a ceorl's hlaf aeta [loaf or bread eater; domestic
or menial servant], let him make bot with 6 shillings.
26. If [anyone] slay a laet of the highest class, let him pay 80
shillings; of the second class, let him pay 60 shillings; of the third
class, let him pay 40 shillings.
27. If a freeman commit edor breach [breaking through the fenced
enclosure and forcibly entering a ceorl's dwelling], let him make bot
with 6 shillings.
28. If any one take property from a dwelling, let him pay a three- fold
bot.
29. If a freeman goes with hostile intent through an edor [the fence
enclosing a dwelling], let him make bot with 4 shillings.
30. If [in so doing] a man slay another, let him pay with his own money,
and with any sound property whatever.
31. If a freeman lie with a freeman's wife, let him pay for it with his
wer geld, and obtain another wife with his own money, and bring her to
the other [man's dwelling].
32. If any one thrusts through the riht ham scyld [legal means of
protecting one's home], let him adequately compensate.
33. If there be feax fang [seizing someone by the hair], let there be 50
sceatts for bot.
34. If there be an exposure of the bone, let bot be made with 3
shillings.
35. If there be an injury to the bone, let bot be made with 4 shillings.
36. If the outer hion [outer membrane covering the brain] be broken, let
bot be made with 10 shillings.
37. If it be both [outer and inner membranes covering the brain], let
bot be made with 20 shillings.
38. If a shoulder be lamed, let bot be made with 30 shillings.
39. If an ear be struck off, let bot be made with 12 shillings.
40. If the other ear hear not, let bot be made with 25 shillings.
41. If an ear be pierced, let bot be made with 3 shillings.
42. If an ear be mutilated, let bot be made with 6 shillings.
43. If an eye be [struck] out, let bot be made with 50 shillings.
44. If the mouth or an eye be injured, let bot be made with 12
shillings.
45. If the nose be pierced, let bot be made with 9 shillings.
46. If it be one ala, let bot be made with 3 shillings.
47. If both be pierced, let bot be made with 6 shillings.
48. If the nose be otherwise mutilated, for each [cut, let] bot be made
with 6 shillings.
49. If it be pierced, let bot be made with 6 shillings.
50. Let him who breaks the jaw bone pay for it with 20 shillings.
51. For each of the four front teeth, 6 shillings; for the tooth which
stands next to them 4 shillings; for that which stands next to that, 3
shillings; and then afterwards, for each a shilling.
52. If the speech be injured, 12 shillings. If the collar bone be
broken, let bot be made with 6 shillings.
53. Let him who stabs [another] through an arm, make bot with 6
shillings. If an arm be broken, let him make bot with 6 shillings.
54. If a thumb be struck off, 20 shillings. If a thumb nail be off, let
bot be made with 3 shillings. If the shooting [fore] finger be struck
off, let bot be made with 8 shillings. If the middle finger be
struck off, let bot be made with 4 shillings. If the gold [ring] finger
be struck off, let bot be made with 6 shillings. If the little finger be
struck off, let bot be made with 11 shillings.
55. For every nail, a shilling.
56. For the smallest disfigurement of the face, 3 shillings; and for the
greater, 6 shillings.
57. If any one strike another with his fist on the nose, 3 shillings.
58. If there be a bruise [on the nose], a shilling; if he receive a
right hand bruise [from protecting his face with his arm], let him [the
striker] pay a shilling.
59. If the bruise [on the arm] be black in a part not covered by the
clothes, let bot be made with 30 scaetts.
60. If it be covered by the clothes, let bot for each be made with 20
scaetts.
61. If the belly be wounded, let bot be made with 12 shillings; if it be
pierced through, let bot be made with 20 shillings.
62. If any one be gegemed [pregnant], let bot be made with 30 shillings.
63. If any one be cear wund [badly wounded], let bot be made with 3
shillings.
64. If any one destroy [another's] organ of generation [penis], let him
pay him with 3 leod gelds: if he pierce it through, let him make bot
with 6 shillings; if it be pierced within, let him make bot with 6
shillings.
65. If a thigh be broken, let bot be made with 12 shillings; if the man
become halt [lame], then friends must arbitrate.
66. If a rib be broken, let bot be made with 3 shillings.
67. If [the skin of] a thigh be pierced through, for each stab 6
shillings; if [the wound be] above an inch [deep], a shilling; for two
inches, 2; above three, 3 shillings.
68. If a sinew be wounded, let bot be made with 3 shillings.
69. If a foot be cut off, let 50 shillings be paid.
70. If a great toe be cut off, let 10 shillings be paid.
71. For each of the other toes, let one half that for the corresponding
finger be paid.
72. If the nail of a great toe be cut off, 30 scaetts for bot; for each
of the others, make bot with 10 scaetts.
73. If a freewoman loc bore [with long hair] commit any leswe [evil
deed], let her make a bot of 30 shillings.
74. Let maiden bot [compensation for injury to an unmarried woman] be as
that of a freeman.
75. For [breach of] the mund [protection] of a widow of the best class,
of an eorl's degree, let the bot be 50 shillings; of the second, 20
shillings; of the third, 12 shillings; of the fourth, 6 shillings.
76. If a man carry off a widow not under his own protection by right,
let the mund be twofold.
77. If a man buy a maiden with cattle, let the bargain stand, if it be
without fraud; but if there be fraud, let him bring her home again, and
let his property be restored to him.
78. If she bear a live child, she shall have half the property, if the
husband die first.
79. If she wish to go away with her children, she shall have half the
property.
80. If the husband wish to keep them [the children], [she shall have the
same portion] as one child.
81. If she bear no child, her paternal kindred shall have the fioh [her
money and chattels] and the morgen gyfe [morning gift: a gift made to
the bride by her husband on the morning following the consummation of
the marriage].
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.
Offa, the strongest of the Saxon kings, minted high-quality silver
pennies. He traded woolen coats for lava grindstones with Emperor
Charlemagne, who used a silver denarius coin. There were 12 denarii to
the solidus and 20 soldi to the pound of silver. These denominations
were taken by England as 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to
the pound. The pound sign, an "L" with a hash mark derived from the word
Libra, which meant weighing scales.
Everyone in the village went to church on Sunday and brought gifts such
as grain to the priest. Later, contributions in the form of money became
customary, and then expected. They were called "tithes" and were spent
for church repair, the clergy, and poor and needy laborers. Local custom
determined the amount. There was also church-scot: a payment to the
clergy in lieu of the first fruits of the land. The priest was the
chaplain of a landlord and his parish was coextensive with that
landlord's holding and could include one to several villages. The priest
and other men who helped him, lived in the church building. Some
churches had lead roofs and iron hinges, latches, and locks on their
doors. The land underneath had been given to the church by former kings
and persons who wanted the church to say prayers to help their souls go
from purgatory to heaven and who also selected the first priest. The
priest conducted Christianized Easter ceremonies in the spring and
(Christ's mass) ceremonies in winter in place of the pagan Yuletide
festivities. Burning incense took the place of pagan burnt animal
offerings, which were accompanied by incense to disguise the odor of
burning flesh. Holy water replaced haunted wells and streams. Christian
incantations replaced sorcerer's spells. Nuns assisted priests in
celebrating mass and administering the sacraments. They alone
consecrated new nuns. Vestry meetings were community meetings held for
church purposes. The people said their prayers in English, and the
priest conducted the services in English. A person joined his hands in
prayer as if to offer them for binding together in submission.
The church baptized babies and officiated or gave blessings at marriage
ceremonies. It also said prayers for the dying, gave them funerals, and
buried them. There were burial service fees, candle dues, and plough
alms. A piece of stone with the dead person's name marked his grave. It
was thought that putting the name on the grave would assist
identification of that person for being taken to heaven. The church
heard the last wish or will of the person dying concerning who he wanted
to have his property. The church taught that it was not necessary to
bury possessions with the deceased. The church taught boys and girls.
man carried a horn slung on his shoulder as he went about his work so
that he could at once send out a warning to his fellow villagers or call
them in chasing a thief or other offender. The forests were full of
outlaws, so strangers who did not blow a horn to announce themselves
were presumed to be fugitive offenders who could be shot on sight. An
eorl could call upon the ceorl farmers for about forty days to fight off
an invading group.
There were several kingdoms, whose boundaries kept changing due to
warfare, which was a sin according to the church. They were each
governed by a king and witan of wise men who met at a witanegemot, which
was usually held three times a year, mostly on great church festivals
and at the end of the harvest. The king and witan chose the witan's
members of bishops, eorldormen, and thegns [landholding farmers]. The
king and hereditary claims played a major part in the selection of the
eorldormen, who were the highest military leaders and often of the royal
family. They were also chief magistrates of large jurisdictional areas
of land. The witan included officers of the king's household and perhaps
other of his retinue. There was little distinction then between his
gesith, fighting men, guards, household companions, dependents, and
servants. The king was sometimes accompanied by his wife and sons at the
witanagemot. A king was selected by the witan according to his
worthiness, usually from among the royal family, and could be deposed by
it. The witan and king decided on laws, taxes, and transfers of land.
They made determinations of war and peace and directed the army and the
fleet. The king wore a crown or royal helmet. He extended certain
protections by the king's peace. He could erect castles and bridges and
could provide a special protection to strangers.
A king had not only a wergeld to be paid to his family if he were
killed, but a "cynebot" of equal amount that would be paid to his
kingdom's people. A king's household had a chamberlain for the royal
bedchamber, a marshall to oversee the horses and military equipment, a
steward as head of household, and a cupbearer. The king had income from
fines for breach of his peace; fines and forfeitures from courts dealing
with criminal and civil cases; salvage from ship wrecks; treasure trove
[assets hidden or buried in times of war]; treasures of the earth such
as gold and silver; mines; saltworks; tolls and other dues of markets,
ports, and the routes by land and by river generally; heriot from heirs
of his special dependents for possession of land (usually in kind,
principally in horses and weapons). He also had rights of purveyance
[hospitality and maintenance when traveling]. The king had private
lands, which he could dispose of by his will. He also had crown lands,
which belonged to his office and could not be alienated without consent
of the witan. Crown lands often included palaces and their appendant
farms, and burhs. It was a queen's duty to run the royal estate. Also, a
queen could possess, manage, and dispose of lands in her name. Violent
queens waged wars. Kingdoms were often allied by marriage between their
royal families. There were also royal marriages to royalty on the
continent.
The houses of the wealthy had ornamented silk hangings on the walls.
Some had fine white ox horn shaved so thin they were transparent for
windows. Brightly colored drapery, often purple, and fly nets surrounded
their beds, which were covered with the fur of animals. They slept in
bed clothes on pillows stuffed with straw. Tables plated with silver and
gems held silver candlesticks, gold and silver goblets and cups, and
lamps of gold, silver, or glass. They used silver mirrors and silver
writing pens. There were covered seats, benches, and footstools with the
head and feet of animals at their extremities. They ate from a table
covered with a cloth. Servants brought in food on spits, from which they
ate. Food was boiled, broiled, or baked. The wealthy ate wheat bread and
others ate barley bread. Ale made from barley was passed around in a
cup. Mead made from honey was also drunk.
Men wore long-sleeved wool and linen garments reaching almost to the
knee, around which they wore a belt tied in a knot. Men often wore a
gold ring on the fourth finger of the right hand. Leather shoes were
fastened with leather thongs around the ankle. Their hair was parted in
the middle and combed down each side in waving ringlets. The beard was
parted in the middle of the chin, so that it ended in two points. The
clergy did not wear beards. Great men wore gold-embroidered clothes,
gilt buckles and brooches, and drank from drinking horns mounted in
silver gilt or in gold. Well- to-do women wore brightly colored robes
with waist bands, headbands, necklaces, gem bracelets, and rings. Their
long hair was in ringlets and they put rouge on their cheeks. They had
beads, pins, needles, tweezers of bronze, and workboxes of bronze, some
highly ornamented. They were often doing needlework. Silk was affordable
only by the wealthy.
Most families kept a pig and pork was the primary meat. There were also
sheep, goats, cows, deer, hare, and fowl. Fowl was obtained by fowlers
who trapped them. The inland waters yielded eels, salmon, and trout. In
the fall, meat was salted to preserve it for winter meals. There were
orchards growing figs, nuts, grapes, almonds, pears, and apples. Also
produced were beans, lentils, onions, eggs, cheese, and butter. Pepper
and cinnamon were imported.
Fishing from the sea yielded herrings, sturgeon, porpoise, oysters,
crabs, and other fish. Sometimes a whale was driven into an inlet by a
group of boats. Whale skins were used to make ropes.
The roads were not much more than trails. They were often so narrow
that two pack horses could hardly pass each other. The pack horses each
carried two bales or two baskets slung over their backs, which balanced
each other. The soft soil was compacted into a deep ditch which rains,
floods, and tides, if near the sea, soon turned into a river. Traveling
a far distance was unsafe as there were robbers on the roads. Traveling
strangers were distrusted. It was usual to wash one's feet in a hot tub
after traveling and to dry them with a rough wool cloth.
There were superstitions about the content of dreams, the events of the
moon, and the flights and voices of birds were often seen as signs or
omens of future events. Herbal mixtures were drunk for sickness and
maladies. From the witch hazel plant was made a mild alcoholic
astringent, which was probably used to clean cuts and sooth abrasions.
In the peaceful latter part of the 600s, Theodore, who had been a monk
in Rome, was appointed archbishop and visited all the island speaking
about the right rule of life and ordaining bishops to oversee the
priests. Each kingdom was split up into dioceses each with one bishop.
Thereafter, bishops were selected by the king and his witan, usually
after consulting the clergy and even the people of the diocese. The
bishops came to be the most permanent element of society. They had their
sees in villages or rural monasteries. The bishops came to have the same
wergeld as an eorldorman: 1200s., which was the price of about 500 oxen.
A priest had the wergeld as a landholding farmer [thegn], or 300s. The
bishops spoke Latin, but the priests of the local parishes spoke
English. Theodore was the first archbishop whom all the English church
obeyed. He taught sacred and secular literature, the books of holy writ,
ecclesiastical poetry, astronomy, arithmetic, and sacred music. Theodore
discouraged slavery by denying Christian burial to the kidnapper and
forbidding the sale of children over the age of seven. A slave became
entitled to two loaves a day and to his holydays. A slave was allowed to
buy his or his children's freedom. In 673, Theodore started annual
national ecclesiastical assemblies, for instance for the witnessing of
important actions. The bishops, some abbots, the king, and the
eorldormen were usually present. From them the people learned the
benefit of common national action. There were two archbishops: one of
Canterbury in the south and one of York in the north. They governed the
bishops and could meet with them to issue canons that would be equally
valid all over the land. A bishop's house contained some clerks,
priests, monks, and nun and was a retreat for the weary missionary and a
school for the young. The bishop had a deacon who acted as a secretary
and companion in travel, and sometimes as an interpreter. Ink was made
from the outer husks of walnuts steeped in vinegar.
The learned ecclesiastical life flourished in monastic communities, in
which both monks and nuns lived. Hilda, a noble's daughter, became the
first nun in Northumbria and abbess of one of its monasteries. There she
taught justice, piety, chastity, peace, and charity. Several monks
taught there later became bishops. Kings and princes often asked her
advice. Many abbesses came to run monastic communities; they were from
royal families. Women, especially from royal families, fled to
monasteries to obtain shelter from unwanted marriage or to avoid their
husbands. Kings and eorldormen retired to them.
Danish Vikings made several invasions in the 800s for which a danegeld
tax on land was assessed on everyone every ten to twenty years. The
amount was determined by the witan and was typically 2s. per hide of
land. (A hide was probably the amount of land which could support a
family or household for a year or as much land as could be tilled
annually by a single plough.) It was stored in a strong box under the
King's bed. King Alfred the Great, who had lived for awhile in Rome,
unified the country to defeat the invaders. He established
fortifications called "burhs", usually on hill tops or other strategic
locations on the borders to control the main road and river routes into
his realm. The burhs were seminal towns. They were typically walled
enclosures with towers and an outer ditch and mound, instead of the
hedge or fence enclosure of a tun. Inside were several wooden thatched
huts and a couple of churches, which were lit by earthen oil lamps. The
populace met at burhgemotes. The land area protected by each burh became
known as a "shire", which means a share of a larger whole. The shire or
local landowners were responsible for repairing the burh fortifications.
There were about thirty shires.
Alfred gathered together fighting men who were at his disposal, which
included eorldormen with their hearthbands (retinues of men each of whom
had chosen to swear to fight to the death for their eorldorman, and some
of whom were of high rank), the King's thegns, shire thegns (local
landholding farmers, who were required to bring fighting equipment such
as swords, helmets, chain mail, and horses), and ordinary freemen, i.e.
ceorls (who carried food, dug fortifications, and sometimes fought).
Since the King was compelled to call out the whole population to arms,
the distinction between the king's thegns from other landholders
disappeared. Some great lords organized men under them, whom they
provisioned. These vassals took a personal oath to their lord "on
condition that he keep me as I am willing to deserve, and fulfill all
that was agreed on when I became his man, and chose his will as mine."
Alfred had a small navy of longships with 60 oars to fight the Viking
longships.
Alfred divided his army into two parts so that one half of the men were
fighting while the other half was at home sowing and harvesting for
those fighting. Thus, any small-scale independent farming was supplanted
by the open-field system, cultivation of common land, more large private
estates headed by a lord, and a more stratified society in which the
king and important families more powerful and the peasants more
curtailed. The witan became mere witnesses. Many free coerls of the
older days became bonded. The village community tended to become a large
private estate headed by a lord. But the lord does not have the power to
encroach upon the rights of common that exist within the community.
In 886, a treaty between Alfred and the Vikings divided the country
along the war front and made the wergeld of every free farmer, whether
English or Viking, 200s. Men of higher rank were given a wergeld of 4
1/2 marks of pure gold. A mark was probably a Viking denomination and a
mark of gold was equal to nine marks of silver in later times and
probably in this time. The word "earl" replaced the word "eorldormen"
and the word "thegn" replaced the word "aetheling" after the Danish
settlement. The ironed pleats of Viking clothing indicated a high status
of the wearer. The Vikings brought combs and the practice of regular
hair-combing to England.
King Alfred gave land with jurisdictional powers within its boundaries
such as the following: "This is the bequest which King Alfred make
unequivocally to Shaftesbury, to the praise of God and St. Mary and all
the saints of God, for the benefit of my soul, namely a hundred hides as
they stand with their produce and their men, and my daughter AEthelgifu
to the convent along with the inheritance, since she took the veil on
account of bad health; and the jurisdiction to the convent, which I
myself possessed, namely obstruction and attacks on a man's house and
breach of protection. And the estates which I have granted to the
foundation are 40 hides at Donhead and Compton, 20 hides at Handley and
Gussage 10 hides at Tarrant, 15 hides at Iwerve and 15 hides at
Fontmell.
The witnesses of this are Edward my son and Archbishop AEthelred and
Bishop Ealhferth and Bishop AEthelhead and Earl Wulfhere and Earl
Eadwulf and Earl Cuthred and Abbot Tunberht and Milred my thegn and
AEthelwulf and Osric and Brihtulf and Cyma. If anyone alters this, he
shall have the curse of God and St. Mary and all the saints of God
forever to all eternity. Amen."
Sons usually succeeded their fathers on the same land as shown by this
lifetime lease: "Bishop Denewulf and the community at Winchester lease
to Alfred for his lifetime 40 hides of land at Alresford, in accordance
with the lease which Bishop Tunbriht had granted to his parents and
which had run out, on condition that he renders every year at the
autumnal equinox three pounds as rent, and church dues, and the work
connected with church dues; and when the need arises, his men shall be
ready both for harvesting and hunting; and after his death the property
shall pass undisputed to St. Peter's.
These are the signatures of the councilors and of the members of the
community who gave their consent, namely ..."
Alfred invented a graduated candle with spaces indicating one hour of
burning, which could be used as a clock. He used a ventilated cow's horn
to put around the top of the candle to prevent its blowing out, and then
devised a wooden lantern with a horn window. He described the world as
like a yolk in the middle of an egg whose shell moves around it. This
agreed with the position of Ptolemy Claudius of Alexandria, who showed
the curvature of the earth from north to south by observing that the
Polar Star was higher in the north and lower in the south. That it was
curved from east to west followed from the observation that two clocks
placed one west and one east would record a different time for the same
eclipse of the moon.
Alfred wrote poems on the worthiness of wisdom and knowledge in
preference to material pleasures, pride, and fame, in dealing with
life's sorrow and strife. His observations on human nature and his
proverbs include:
1. As one sows, so will he mow.
2. Every man's doom [judgment] returns to his door.
3. He who will not learn while young, will repent of it when old.
4. Weal [prosperity] without wisdom is worthless.
5. Though a man had 70 acres sown with red gold, and the gold grew like
grass, yet he is not a whit the worthier unless he gain friends for
himself.
6. Gold is but a stone unless a wise man has it.
7. It's hard to row against the sea flood; so it is against misfortune.
8. He who toils in his youth to win wealth, so that he may enjoy ease
in his old age, has well bestowed his toil.
9. Many a man loses his soul through silver.
10. Wealth may pass away, but wisdom will remain, and no man may perish
who has it for his comrade.
11. Don't choose a wife for her beauty nor for wealth, but study her
disposition.
12. Many an apple is bright without and bitter within.
13. Don't believe the man of many words.
14. With a few words a wise man can compass much.
15. Make friends at market, and at church, with poor and with rich.
16. Though one man wielded all the world, and all the joy that dwells
therein, he could not therewith keep his life.
17. Don't chide with a fool.
18. A fool's bolt is soon shot.
19. If you have a child, teach it men's manners while it is little. If
you let him have his own will, he will cause you much sorrow when he
comes of age.
20. He who spares the rod and lets a young child rule, shall rue it when
the child grows old.
21. Either drinking or not drinking is, with wisdom, good.
22. Relatives often quarrel together.
23. The barkless dog bites ill.
24. Be wise of word and wary of speech, then all shall love you.
25. We may outride, but not outwit, the old man.
26. Be not so mad as to tell your friend all your thoughts.
27. If you and your friend fall out, then your enemy will know what your
friend knew before.
28. Don't choose a deceitful man as a friend, for he will do you harm.
29. The false one will betray you when you least expect it.
30. Don't choose a scornful false friend, for he will steal your goods
and deny the theft.
31. Take to yourself a steadfast man who is wise in word and deed; he
will prove a true friend in need.
To restore education and religion, Alfred disseminated the Anglo- Saxon
Chronicles; the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English
Nation; the "Consolidation of Philosophy" by Roman philosopher Boethius,
which related the use of adversity to develop the soul, and described
the goodness of God and how the highest happiness comes from spiritual
values and the soul, which are eternal, rather than from material or
earthly pursuits, which are temporal; and Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care,
which he had translated into English and was the fundamental book on the
duty of a bishop, which included a duty to teach laymen; and Orosius'
History of the World, which he had translated into English. Alfred's
advice to pastors was to live as they had been taught from books and to
teach this manner of life to others. To be avoided was pride, the mind's
deception of seeking glory in the name of doing good works, and the
corruption of high office. Bede was England's first scholar, first
theologian, and first historian. He wrote poetry, theological books,
homilies, and textbooks on grammar, rhetoric [public speaking and
debating], arithmetic, and astronomy. He adhered to the doctrine that
death entered the world by the sin of Adam, the first man. He began the
practice of dating years from the birth of Christ and believed that the
earth was round. Over the earth was a fiery spherical firmament. Above
this were the waters of the heavens. Above this were the upper heavens,
which contained the angels and was tempered with ice. He declared that
comets portend downfalls of kingdoms, pestilence, war, winds, or heat.
This reflected the church's view that a comet was a ball of fire flung
from the right hand of an angry God as a warning to mankind, usually for
disbelief. Storms were begun by the devil.
A famous poem, the oral legend of Beowulf, a hero who led his men into
adventures and performed great feats and fought monsters and dragons,
was put into writing with a Christian theme. In it, loyalty to one's
lord is a paramount virtue. Also available in writing was the story of
King Arthur's twelve victorious battles against the pagan Saxons,
authored by Nennius.
There were professional story tellers attached to great men. Others
wandered from court to court, receiving gifts for their story telling.
Men usually told oral legends of their own feats and those of their
ancestors after supper.
Alfred had monasteries rebuilt with learned and moral men heading them.
He built a nunnery which was headed by his daughter as prioress. He
built a strong wall with four gates around London, which he had taken
into his control. He appointed his son-in-law, who was one of his
eorldormen, to be alderman [older man] to govern London and to be the
shire's earl. A later king built a palace in London, although Winchester
was still the royal capital town. When the king traveled, he and his
retinue were fed by the local people at their expense.
After Alfred's death, his daughter Aethelflared ruled the country for
seven years. She had more fortified burhs built and led soldiers to
victories.
Under the royalty were the nobles. An earl headed each shire as
representative of the King. The term "earl" came to denote an office
instead of a nobleman. He led the array of his shire to do battle if the
shire was attacked. He executed all royal commands. An earl received
grants of land and could claim hospitality and maintenance for himself,
his officers, and his servants. He presided over the shire court. He
received one-third of the fines from the profits of justice and
collected as well a third of the revenues derived from tolls and duties
levied in the boroughs of his shire. The office tended to be hereditary.
Royal representatives called "reeves" started to assist them. The reeve
took security from every person for the maintenance of the public peace.
He also tracked cattle thieves, brought suspects to court, gave
judgments according to the doom books, and delivered offenders to
punishment.
Under the earls were the thegns. By service to the King, it was
possible for a coerl to rise to become a thegn and to be given land by
the King. Other thegns performed functions of magistrates. A thegn was
later identified as a person with five hides of land, a kitchen, a
church, a bell house, a judicial place at the burhgemote [a right of
magistracy], and an appointment in the King's hall. He was bound to
service in war by virtue of his landholding instead of by his
relationship to the king. Nobility was now a territorial attribute,
rather than one of birth. The wergeld of a thegn was 1200s. when that of
a ceorl or ordinary freeman was 200s. The wergeld of an earl or bishop
was four times that of a thegn: 5800s. The wergeld of a king or
archbishop was six times that of a thegn: 7200s. The higher a man's
wergeld, the higher was his legal status in the scale of punishment,
giving credible evidence, and participation in legal proceedings. The
sokemen were freemen who had inherited their own land, chose their own
lord, and attended and were subject to their lord's court. That is,
their lord has soke [soc] jurisdiction over them. A ceorl typically had
a single hide of land. A smallholder rented land of about 30 acres from
a landlord, which he paid by doing work on the lord's demesne [household
or messuage] land, paying money rent, or paying a food rent such as in
eggs or chickens. Smallholders made up about two fifths of the
population. A cottager had one to five acres of land and depended on
others for his living. Among these were shepherds, ploughmen,
swineherds, and blacksmiths. They also participated in the agricultural
work, especially at harvest time.
It was possible for a thegn to become an earl, probably by the
possession of forty hides. He might even acquire enough land to qualify
him for the witan. Women could be present at the witanagemot and
shiregemote [meeting of the people of the shire]. They could sue and be
sued in the courts. They could independently inherit, possess, and
dispose of property. A wife's inheritance was her own and under no
control of her husband.
Marriage required the consent of the lady and her friends. The man also
had to arrange for the foster lean, that is, remuneration for rearing
and support of expected children. He also declared the amount of money
or land he would give the lady for her consent, that is, the morgengift,
and what he would bequeath her in case of his death. It was given to her
on the morning after the wedding night. The family of the bride was paid
a "mund" for transferring the rightful protection they possessed over
her to the family of the husband. If the husband died and his kindred
did not accept the terms sanctioned by law, her kindred could repurchase
the rightful protection. If she remarried within a year of his death,
she had to forfeit the morgengift and his nearest kin received the lands
and possessions she had. The word for man was "waepnedmenn" or weaponed
person. A woman was "wifmenn" or wife person, with "wif" being derived
from the word for weaving.
Great men and monasteries had millers, smiths, carpenters, architects,
agriculturists, fishermen, weavers, embroiders, dyers, and illuminators.
For entertainment, minstrels sang ballads about heroes or Bible
stories, harpers played, jesters joked, and tumblers threw and caught
balls and knives. There was gambling, dice games, and chasing deer with
hounds.
Fraternal guilds were established for mutual advantage and protection.
A guild imposed fines for any injury of one member by another member. It
assisted in paying any murder fine imposed on a member. It avenged the
murder of a member and abided by the consequences. It buried its members
and purchased masses for his soul.
Mercantile guilds in seaports carried out commercial speculations not
possible by the capital of only one person.
There were some ale houses, probably part of certain dwellings.
The danegeld tax of 1s. and later 2s. upon every hide of land came to
be imposed for maintaining forces sufficient to clear the British seas
of Danish pirates or to buy off the ravages of Danish invaders.
- The Law -
Alfred issued a set of laws to cover the whole country, which were
drawn from the best laws of each region. There was no real distinction
between the concepts of law, morals, and religion.
The importance of telling the truth and keeping one's word are
expressed by this law: "1. At the first we teach that it is most needful
that every man warily keep his oath and his wed. If any one be
constrained to either of these wrongfully, either to treason against his
lord, or to any unlawful aid; then it is juster to belie than to
fulfill. But if he pledge himself to that which is lawful to fulfill,
and in that belie himself, let him submissively deliver up his weapon
and his goods to the keeping of his friends, and be in prison forty days
in a King's tun: let him there suffer whatever the bishop may prescribe
to him..." Let his kinsmen feed him, if he has no food. If he escapes,
let him be held a fugitive and be excommunicate of the church.
The word of a bishop and of the king were incontrovertible without an
oath.
The Ten Commandments were written down as this law:
"The Lord spake these words to Moses, and thus said: I am the Lord thy
God. I led thee out of the land of the Egyptians, and of their bondage.
1. Love thou not other strange gods above me.
2. Utter thou not my name idly, for thou shalt not be guiltless towards
me if thou utter my name idly.
3. Remember that thou hallow the rest day. Work for yourselves six
days, and on the seventh rest. For in six days, Christ wrought the
heavens and the earth, the seas, and all creatures that are in them, and
rested on the seventh day: and therefore the Lord hallowed it.
4. Honor thy father and thy mother whom the Lord hath given thee,that
thou mayst be the longer living on earth.
5. Slay thou not.
6. Commit thou not adultery.
7. Steal thou not.
8. Say thou not false witness.
9. Covet thou not thy neighbor's goods unjustly.
10. Make thou not to thyself golden or silver gods."
If any one fights in the king's hall, or draws his weapon, and he be
taken; be it in the king's doom, either death, or life, as he may be
willing to grant him. If he escape, and be taken again, let him pay for
himself according to his wergeld, and make bot for the offense, as well
wer as wite, according as he may have wrought.
If a man fights before a king's ealdorman in the gemot, let him make
bot with wer and wite as it may be right; and before this 120s. to the
ealdorman as wite. If he disturbs the folkmote by drawing his weapon,
120s. to the ealdorman as wite. If any of this happens before a king's
ealdorman's junior, or a king's priest, 30s. as wite.
If any one fights in a ceorlish man's dwelling, let him make bot of 6s.
to the ceorl. If he draws his weapon but doesn't fight, let it be half
of that. If, however, either of these happens to a man with a wergeld of
600s., let it increase threefold of the ceorlish bot; and if to a man
with a wergeld of 1200s., let it increase twofold of the bot of the man
with a wergeld of 600s. Breach of the king's dwelling [breaking and
entering] shall be 120s.; an archbishop's, 90s.; any other bishop's, and
an ealdorman's, 60s.;. a 1200s. wergeld man's, 30s.; a 600s. wergeld
man's, 15s.; and a ceorl's 5s.
If any one plot against the king's life, of himself, or by harboring of
exiles, or of his men; let him be liable with his life and in all that
he has; or let him prove himself according to his lord's wer.
If any one with a band or gang of men slays an unoffending man, let him
who acknowledges the deathblow pay wer and wite. If the slain man had a
wergeld of 200s, let every one who was of the gang pay 30s. as gangbot.
If he had a wergeld of 600s., let every one pay 60s. as gangbot. If he
had a wergeld of 1200s., let every one pay 120s. If a gang does this,
and afterwards denies it on oath, let them all be accused, and let them
then all pay the wer in common; and all, one wite, such as shall belong
to the wer.
If any one lends his weapon to another so he may kill some one with it,
they may join together if they will in the wer. If they will not join
together, let him who lent the weapon pay of the wer a third part, and
of the wite a third part.
With his lord a man may fight free of liability for homicide, if any
one attack the lord: thus may the lord fight for his man. Likewise, a
man may fight with his born kinsman, if a man attack him wrongfully,
except against his lord. And a man may fight free of liability for
homicide, if he finds another with his lawful wife, within closed doors,
or under one covering, or with his lawfully born daughter, or with his
lawfully born sister, or with his mother, who was given to his father as
his lawful wife. If a man knows his foe is sitting at his home, he may
not fight with him before he demands justice of him. If he has such
power that he can beset his foe, and besiege him within, let him keep
him within for seven days, and not attack him if he will remains within.
And, then, after seven days, if he surrenders, and gives up his weapons,
let him be kept safe for thirty days, and let notice of him be given to
his kinsmen and his friends. But if he does not have sufficient power to
besiege him within, let him ride to the ealdorman, and beg aid of him.
If he will not aid him, let him ride to the king before he fights. In
like manner also, if a man come upon his foe, and he did not know
beforehand that he was staying at his home; if he is willing to give up
his weapons, let him be kept for thirty days, and let notice of him be
given to his friends; if he will not give up his weapons, then he may
attack him. If he is willing to surrender, and to give up his weapons,
and any one after that attack him, let him pay as well wer as wound, as
he may do, and wite, and let him have forfeited his compensation to his
kin. Every church shall have this peace: if a fugitive flee to one for
sanctuary, no one may drag him out for seven days. If he is willing to
give up his weapons to his foes, let him stay thirty days, and then let
notice of him be given to his kinsmen. If any man confess in church any
offenses which had not been before revealed, let him be half forgiven.
If a man from one holdgetael wishes to seek a lord in another
holdgetael, let him do it with the knowledge of the ealdorman whom he
before followed in his shire. If he does it without his knowledge, let
him who treats him as his man pay 120s. as wite, one-half to the king in
the shire where he before followed and one-half in that into which he
comes. If he has done anything wrong where he was before, let him make
bot for it who has there received him as his man; and to the king 120s.
as wite.
"If any one steals so that his wife and children don't know it, he
shall pay 60 shillings as wite. But if he steals with the knowledge of
all his household, they shall all go into slavery. A boy of ten years
may be privy to a theft."
"If one who takes a thief, or holds him for the person who took him,
lets the thief go, or conceals the theft, he shall pay for the thief
according to his wer. If he is an eorldormen, he shall forfeit his
shire, unless the king is willing to be merciful to him."
If any one steal in a church, let him pay the lawful penalty and the
wite, and let the hand be struck off with which he did it. If he will
redeem the hand, and that be allowed him, let him pay as may belong to
his wer.
If a man slanders another, the penalty is no lighter thing than that
his tongue be cut out; which must not be redeemed at any cheaper rate
than it is estimated at according to his wer.
If one deceives an unbetrothed woman and sleep with her, he must pay
for her and have her afterwards to wife. But if her father not approve,
he should pay money according to her dowry.
"If a man seize hold of the breast of a ceorlish woman, let him make
bot to her with 5 shillings. If he throw her down and do not lie with
her, let him make bot with 10 shillings. If he lie with her, let him
make bot with 60 shillings. If another man had before lain with her,
then let the bot be half that. If this befall a woman more nobly born,
let the bot increase according to the wer."
"If any one, with libidinous intent, seize a nun either by her raiment
or by her breast without her leave, let the bot be twofold, as we have
before ordained concerning a laywoman."
"If a man commit a rape upon a ceorl's female slave, he must pay bot to
the ceorl of 5 shillings and a wite [fine to the King] of 60 shillings.
If a male theow rape a female theow, let him make bot with his
testicles."
For the first dog bite, the owner pays 6 shillings, for the second, 12
shillings, for the third, 30 shillings.
An ox which gores someone to death shall be stoned.
If one steals or slays another's ox, he must give two oxen for it.
The man who has land left to him by his kindred must not give it away
from his kindred, if there is a writing or witness that such was
forbidden by those men who at first acquired it, and by those who gave
it to him; and then let that be declared in the presence of the king and
of the bishop, before his kinsmen.
- Judicial Procedure -
Cases were held at monthly meetings of the hundred court. The king or
one of his reeves, conducted the trial by compurgation.
In compurgation, the one complaining, called the "plaintiff", and the
one defending, called the "defendant", each told their story and put his
hand on the Bible and swore "By God this oath is clean and true". A slip
or a stammer would mean he lost the case. Otherwise, community members
would stand up to swear on behalf of the plaintiff or the defendant as
to their reputation for veracity. The value of a man's oath was
commensurate with his value or wergeld. A man's brothers were usually
his compurgators. If these "compurgators" were too few, usually twelve
in number, or recited poorly, their party lost. If this process was
inconclusive, the parties could bring witnesses to declare such
knowledge as they had as neighbors. These witnesses, male and female,
swore to particular points determined by the court.
If the witnesses failed, the defendant was told to go to church and to
take the sacrament only if he or she were innocent. If he or she took
the sacrament, he or she was tried by the process of "ordeal", which was
administered by the church. In the ordeal by cold water, he was given a
drink of holy water and then bound hand and foot and thrown into water.
If he floated, he was guilty. If he sank, he was innocent. It was not
necessary to drown to be deemed innocent. In the ordeal by hot water, he
had to pick up a stone from inside a boiling cauldron. If his hand was
healing in three days, he was innocent. If it was festering, he was
guilty. A similar ordeal was that of hot iron, in which one had to carry
in his hands a hot iron for a certain distance. The results of the
ordeal were taken to indicate the will of God. Presumably a person
convicted of murder, i.e. killing by stealth, or robbery [taking from a
person's robe, that is, his person or breaking into his home to steal]
would be hung and his possessions confiscated. A bishop's oath was
incontrovertible. Accused archbishops and bishops could clear themselves
with an oath that they were guiltless. Lesser ranks could clear
themselves with the oaths of three compurgators of their rank or, for
more serious offenses, undergo the ordeal of the consecrated morsel. For
this, one would swallow a morsel; if he choked on it, he was guilty.
Any inanimate or animate object or personal chattel which was found by
a court to be the immediate cause of death was forfeited as "deodand",
for instance, a tree from which a man fell to his death, a beast which
killed a man, a sword of a third party not the slayer that was used to
kill a man. The deodand was to go to the dead man's kin so they could
wreak their vengeance on it, which in turn would cause the dead man to
lie in peace.
This is a lawsuit regarding rights to feed pigs in a certain woodland:
"In the year 825 which had passed since the birth of Christ, and in the
course of the second Indiction, and during the reign of Beornwulf, King
of Mercia, a council meeting was held in the famous place called
Clofesho, and there the said King Beornwulf and his bishops and his
earls and all the councilors of this nation were assembled. Then there
was a very noteworthy suit about wood pasture at Sinton, towards the
west in Scirhylte. The reeves in charge of the pigherds wished to extend
the pasture farther, and take in more of the wood than the ancient
rights permitted. Then the bishop and the advisors of the community said
that they would not admit liability for more than had been appointed in
AEthelbald's day, namely mast for 300 swine, and that the bishop and the
community should have two thirds of the wood and of the mast. The
Archbishop Wulfred and all the councilors determined that the bishop and
the community might declare on oath that it was so appointed in
AEthelbald's time and that they were not trying to obtain more, and the
bishop immediately gave security to Earl Eadwulf to furnish the oath
before all the councilors, and it was produced in 30 days at the
bishop's see at Worcester. At that time Hama was the reeve in charge of
the pigherds at Sinton, and he rode until he reached Worcester, and
watched and observed the oath, as Earl Eadwulf bade him, but did not
challenge it. Here are the names and designations of those who were
assembled at the council meeting ..."
- - - Chapter 3 - - -
- The Times: 900-1066 -
There were many large landholders such as the King, earls, and bishops.
Earls were noblemen by birth, and often relatives of the King. They were
his army commanders and the highest civil officials, each responsible
for a shire. A breach of the public peace of an earl would occasion a
fine. Lower in social status were freemen: sokemen, and then, in
decreasing order, villani [villeins], bordarii, and cottarii. The servi
were the slaves. Probably all who were not slaves were freemen.
Kings typically granted land in exchange for services of military
duties, maintaining fortresses, and repairing bridges. Less common
services required by landlords include equipping a guard ship and
guarding the coast, guarding the lord, military watch, maintaining the
deer fence at the King's residence, alms giving, and church dues. Since
this land was granted in return for service, there were limitations on
its heritability and often an heir had to pay a heriot to the landlord
to obtain the land. A heriot was originally the armor of a man killed,
which went to the King. The heriot of a thegn who had soken [or
jurisdiction over their own lands] came to be about 80s.; of a kings'
thegn about four lances, two coats of mail, two swords, and 125s.; of an
earl about eight horses, four saddled and four unsaddled, eight lances,
four coats of mail, four swords, and 500s.
There were several thousand thegns, rich and poor, who held land
directly of the King. Some thegns had soken and others did not. Free
farmers who had sought protection from thegns in time of war now took
them as their lords. A freeman could chose his lord, following him in
war and working his land in peace. All able-bodied freemen were liable
to military service in the fyrd [national militia], but not in a lord's
private wars. In return, the lord would protect him against encroaching
neighbors, back him in the courts of law, and feed him in times of
famine. But often, lords raided each other's farmers, who fled into the
hills or woods for safety. Often a lord's fighting men stayed with him
at his large house, but later were given land with inhabitants on it,
who became his tenants. The lords were the ruling class and the greatest
of them sat in the King's council along with bishops, abbots, and
officers of the King's household. The lesser lords were local magnates,
who officiated at the shire and hundred courts.
Staghunting, foxhunting, and hawking were reserved for lords who did
not work with their hands. Every free born person had the right to hunt
other game.
There was a great expansion of arable land. Some land had been
specifically allocated to certain individuals. Some was common land,
held by communities. If a family came to pay the dues and fines on
certain common land, it could become personal to that family and was
then known as heirland. Most land came to be privately held from
community-witnessed allotments or inheritance. Bookland was those
holdings written down in books. This land was usually land that had been
given to the church or monasteries because church clerics could write.
So many thegns gave land to the church, usually a hide, that the church
held 1/3 of the land of the realm. Folkland was that land that was left
over after allotments had been made to the freemen and which was not
common land. It was public land and a national asset and could be
converted to heirland or bookland only by action of the king and witan.
It could also be rented by services to the state via charter. A holder
of folkland might express a wish, e.g. by testamentary action, for a
certain disposition of it, such as an estate for life or lives for a
certain individual. But a distinct act by the king and witan was
necessary for this wish to take effect. Small private transactions of
land could be done by "livery of seisin" in the presence of neighbors.
All estates in land could be let, lent, or leased by its holders, and
was then known as "loenland".
Ploughs and wagons could be drawn by four or more oxen or horses in
sets of two behind each other. Oxenshoes and horseshoes prevented
lameness due to cracked hooves. Horse collars especially fitted for
horses, replaced oxen yoke that had been used on horses. The horse
collar did not restrict breathing and enabled horses to use the same
strength of oxen. Also, horses had better endurance and faster speed.
A free holder's house was wood, perhaps with a stone foundation, and
roofed with thatch or tiles. There was a main room or hall, with bed
chambers around it. Beyond was the kitchen, perhaps outside under a
lean-to. These buildings were surrounded by a bank or stiff hedge.
Simple people lived in huts made from wood and mud, with one door and
no windows. They slept around a wood-burning fire in the middle of the
earthen floor. They wore shapeless clothes of goat hair and unprocessed
wool from their sheep. They ate rough brown bread, vegetable and grain
broth, ale from barley, bacon, beans, milk, cabbage, onion, apples,
plums, cherries, and honey for sweetening or mead. Vegetables grown in
the country included onions, leeks, celery, lettuce, radish, carrots,
garlic, shallots, parsnip, dill, chervil, marigold, coriander, and
poppy. In the summer, they ate boiled or raw veal and wild fowl such as
ducks, geese, or pigeons, and game snared in the forest. Poultry was a
luxury food, but recognized as therapeutic for invalids, especially in
broth form [chicken soup]. Venison was highly prized. There were still
some wild boar, which were hunted with long spears, a greyhound dog, and
hunting horns. They sometimes mated with the domestic pigs which roamed
the woodlands. In September, the old and infirm pigs were slaughtered
and their sides of bacon smoked in the rafters for about a month. Their
intestines provided skin for sausages. In the fall, cattle were
slaughtered and salted for food during the winter because there was no
more pasture for them. However, some cows and breed animals were kept
through the winter.
For their meals, people used wooden platters, sometimes earthenware
plates, drinking horns, drinking cups from ash or alderwood turned on a
foot-peddled pole lathe, and bottles made of leather. Their bowls, pans,
and pitchers were made by the potter's wheel. Water could be boiled in
pots made of iron, brass, lead, or clay. Water could be carried in
leather bags because leather working preservative techniques improved so
that tanning prevented stretching or decaying. At the back of each hut
was a hole in the ground used as a latrine, which flies frequented. Moss
was used for toilet paper. Parasitical worms in the stool were
ubiquitous.
Most of the simple people lived in villages of about 20 homes circling
a village green or lining a single winding lane. There were only first
names, and these were usually passed down family lines. To grind their
grain, the villagers used hand mills with crank and gear, or a communal
mill, usually built of oak, driven by power transmitted through a solid
oak shaft, banded with iron as reinforcement, to internal gear wheels of
elm. Almost every village had a watermill. It might be run by water
shooting over or flowing under the wheel.
Clothing for men and women was made from coarse wool, silk, and linen
and was usually brown in color. Only the wealthy could afford to wear
linen or silk. Men also wore leather clothing, such as neckpieces,
breeches, ankle leathers, shoes, and boots. Boots were worn when
fighting. They carried knives or axes under metal belts. They could
carry items by tying leather pouches onto their belts with their
drawstrings. They wore leather gloves for warmth and for heavy working
with their hands.
People were as tall, strong and healthy as in the late 1900s, not
having yet endured the later malnourishment and overcrowding that was
its worst in the 1700s and 1800s. Their teeth were very healthy. Most
adults died in their 40s, after becoming arthritic from hard labor.
People in their 50s were deemed venerable. Boys of twelve were
considered old enough to swear an oath of allegiance to the king. Girls
married in their early teens, often to men significantly older.
The lands of the large landholding lords were administered by freemen.
They had wheat, barley, oats, and rye fields, orchards, vineyards for
wine, and beekeeping areas for honey. On this land lived not only farm
laborers, cattle herders, shepherds, goatherds, and pigherds, but
craftsmen such as goldsmiths, hawkkeepers, dogkeepers, horsekeepers,
huntsmen, foresters, builders, weaponsmiths, embroiders, bronze smiths,
blacksmiths, watermill wrights, wheelwrights, wagon wrights, iron nail
makers, potters, soap makers (made from wood ashes reacting chemically
with fats or oils), tailors, shoemakers, salters (made salt at the
"wyches", which later became towns ending with '-wich'), bakers, cooks,
and gardeners. Most men did carpentry work. Master carpenters worked
with ax, hammer, and saw to make houses, doors, bridges, milk buckets,
washtubs, and trunks. Blacksmiths made gates, huge door hinges, locks,
latches, bolts, and horseshoes. The lord loaned these people land on
which to live for their life, called a "life estate", in return for
their services. The loan could continue to their widows or children who
took up the craft. Mills were usually powered by water. Candles were
made from beeswax, which exuded a bright and steady light and pleasant
smell, or from mutton fat, which had an unpleasant odor. The wheeled
plough and iron-bladed plough made the furrows. One man held the plough
and another walked with the oxen, coaxing them forward with a stick and
shouts. Seeds were held in an apron for seeding. Farm implements
included spades, shovels, rakes, hoes, buckets, barrels, flails, and
sieves. Plants were pruned to direct their growth and to increase their
yield. Everyone got together for feasts at key stages of the farming,
such as the harvest. Easter was the biggest feast. When the lord was in
the field, his lady held their estate. There were common lands of these
estates as well as of communities. Any proposed new settler had to be
admitted at the court of this estate.
The land of some lords included fishing villages along the coasts. From
the sea were caught herrings, salmon, porpoises, sturgeon, oysters,
crabs, mussels, cockles, winkles, plaice, flounder, and lobsters.
Sometimes whales were driven into an inlet by many boats. River fish
included eels, pike, minnows, burbot, trout, and lampreys. They were
caught by brushwood weirs, net, bait, hooks, and baskets. Oysters were
so numerous that they were eaten by the poor. The king's peace extended
over the waterways. If mills, fisheries, weirs, or other structures were
set up to block them, they were to be destroyed and a penalty paid to
the king.
Other lords had land with iron mining industries. Ore was dug from the
ground and combined with wood charcoal in a shaft furnace to be smelted
into liquid form. Wood charcoal was derived from controlled charring of
the wood at high temperatures without using oxygen. This burned
impurities from it and left a purer carbon, which burned better than
wood. The pure iron was extracted from this liquid and formed into bars.
To keep the fire hot, the furnaces were frequently placed at windswept
crossings of valleys or on the tops of hills.
Some lords had markets on their land, for which they charged a toll for
participation. There were about fifty markets in the nation. Cattle and
slaves (from the word "slav") were the usual medium of exchange. An ox
was still worth about 30d. Shaking hands was symbolic of an agreement
for a sale, which had to be carried out in front of witnesses at the
market for any property worth over 20d. The higher the value of the
property, the more witnesses were required. Witnesses were also required
for the exchange of property and to vouch for cattle having being born
on the property of a person claiming them. People traveled to markets on
deep, sunken roads and narrow bridges kept in repair by certain men who
did this work as their service to the King. The king's peace extended to
a couple of high roads, i.e. highways, running the length of the country
and a couple running its width.
Salt was used throughout the nation to preserve meat over the winter.
Inland saltworks had an elaborate and specialized organization. The
chief one used saltpans and furnaces to extract salt from natural brine
springs. They formed little manufacturing enclaves in the midst of
agricultural land, and they were considered to be neither large private
estates headed by a lord nor appurtenant to such. They belonged jointly
to the king and the local earl, who shared, at a proportion of two to
one, the proceeds of the tolls upon the sale of salt and methods of
carriage on the ancient salt ways according to cartload, horse load, or
man load. Sometimes there were investors in a portion of the works who
lived quite at distance away. The sales of salt were mostly retail, but
some bought to resell. Peddlers carried salt to sell from village to
village.
Some smiths traveled for their work, for instance, stonewrights
building arches and windows in churches, and lead workers putting lead
roofs on churches.
An example of a grant of hides of land is: "[God has endowed King Edred
with England], wherefore he enriches and honors men, both ecclesiastic
and lay, who can justly deserve it. The truth of this can be
acknowledged by the thegn AElfsige Hunlafing through his acquisition of
the estate of 5 hides at Alwalton for himself and his heirs, free from
every burden except the repair of fortifications, the building of
bridges and military service; a prudent landowner church dues, burial
fees and tithes. [This land] is to be held for all time and granted
along with the things both great and small belonging to it."
A Bishop gave land to a faithful attendant for his life and two other
lives as follows: "In 904 A.D., I, Bishop Werfrith, with the permission
and leave of my honorable community in Worcester, grant to Wulfsige, my
reeve, for his loyal efficiency and humble obedience, one hide of land
at Aston as Herred held it, that is, surrounded by a dyke, for three
lives and then after three lives the estate shall be given back without
any controversy to Worcester."
At seaports on the coast, goods were loaded onto vessels owned by
English merchants to be transported to other English seaports. London
was a market town on the north side of the Thames River and the primary
port and trading center for foreign merchants. Streets that probably
date from this time include Milk, Bread, and Wood Streets, and Honey
Lane. There were open air markets such as Billingsgate. There were
wooden quays over much of the river front. Houses were made of wood,
with one sunken floor, or a ground floor with a cellar beneath. Some had
central stone hearths and earth latrines. There were crude pottery
cooking pots, beakers and lamps, wool cloth, a little silk, simple
leather shoes, pewter jewelry, looms, and quernstones (for grinding
flour). Wool, skins, hides, wheat, meal, beer, lead, cheese, salt, and
honey were exported. Wine (mostly for the church), fish, timber, pitch,
pepper, garlic, spices, copper, gems, gold, silk, dyes, oil, brass,
sulphur, glass, slaves, and elephant and walrus ivory were imported.
Goods from the continent were sold at open stalls in certain streets.
Furs and slaves were traded. There was a royal levy on exports by
foreigners merchants. Southwark, across the Thames River from London,was
reachable by a bridge. Southwark contained sleazy docks, prisons, gaming
houses, and brothels.
Guilds in London were first associations of neighbors for the purposes
of mutual assistance. They were fraternities of persons by voluntary
compact to assist each other in poverty, including their widows or
orphans and the portioning of poor maids, and to protect each other from
injury. Their essential features are and continue to be in the future:
1) oath of initiation, 2) entrance fee in money or in kind and a common
fund, 3) annual feast and mass, 4) meetings at least three times yearly
for guild business, 5) obligation to attend all funerals of members, to
bear the body if need be from a distance, and to provide masses for the
dead, 6) the duty of friendly help in cases of sickness, imprisonment,
house burning, shipwreck, or robbery, 7) rules for decent behavior at
meetings, and 8) provisions for settling disputes without recourse to
the law. Both the masses and the feast were attended by the women.
Frequently the guilds also had a religious ceremonial to affirm their
bonds of fidelity. They readily became connected with the exercise of
trades and with the training of apprentices. They promoted and took on
public purposes such as the repairing of roads and bridges, the relief
of pilgrims, the maintenance of schools and almshouses, and the periodic
performance of pageants and miracle plays telling scriptural history,
which could last for several days. The devil often was prominent in
miracle plays.
Many of these London guilds were known by the name of their founding
member. There were also Frith Guilds (peace guilds) and a Knights'
Guild. The Frith Guild's main object was to enforce the King's laws,
especially the prevalent problem of theft. They were especially
established by bishops and reeves. Members met monthly and contributed
about 4d. to a common fund, which paid a compensation for items stolen.
They each paid 1s. towards the pursuit of the thief. The members were
grouped in tens. Members with horses were to track the thief. Members
without horses worked in the place of the absent horse owners until
their return. When caught, the thief was tried and executed.
Overwhelming force was used if his kindred tried to protect him. His
property was used to compensate the victim for his loss and then divided
between the thief's wife, if she was innocent, the King, and the guild.
Owners of slaves paid into a fund to give one half compensation to those
who lost slaves by theft or escape, and recaptured slaves were to be
stoned to death or hanged. The members of the peace guild also feasted
and drank together. When one died, the others each sang a song or paid
for the singing of fifty psalms for his soul and gave a loaf.
The Knights' Guild was composed of thirteen military persons to whom
King Edgar granted certain waste land in the east of London, toward
Aldgate, and also Portsoken, which ran outside the eastern wall of the
city to the Thames, for prescribed services performed, probably defense
of the vulnerable east side of the city. This concession was confirmed
by King Edward the Confessor in a charter at the suit of certain
citizens of London, the successors of these knights. Edward granted them
sac and soke [cause and suit] jurisdiction over their men.
Edward the Confessor made these rules for London:
1. Be it known that within the space of three miles from all parts
outside of the city a man ought not to hold or hinder another, and also
should not do business with him if he wish to come to the city under its
peace. But when he arrives in the city, then let the market be the same
to the rich man as to the poor.
2. Be it also known that a man who is from the court of the king or the
barons ought not to lodge in the house of any citizen of London for
three nights, either by privilege or by custom, except by consent of the
host. For if he force the host to lodge him in his house and there be
killed by the host, let the host choose six from his relatives and let
him as the seventh swear that he killed him for the said cause. And thus
he will remain quit of the murder of the deceased towards the king
and relatives and lords of the deceased.
3. And after he has entered the city, let a foreign merchant be lodged
wherever it please him. But if he bring dyed cloth, let him see to it
that he does not sell his merchandise at retail, but that he sell not
less than a dozen pieces at a time. And if he bring pepper, or cumin, or
ginger, or alum, or brasil wood, or resin, or incense, let him sell not
less than fifteen pounds at a time. But if he bring belts, let him sell
not less than a thousand at a time. And if he bring cloths of silk,
or wool or linen, let him see that he cut them not, but sell them whole.
But if he bring wax, let him sell not less than one quartanum. Also a
foreign merchant may not buy dyed cloth, nor make the dye in the city,
nor do any work which belongs by right to the citizens.
4. Also no foreign merchant with his partner may set up any market
within the city for reselling goods in the city, nor may he approach a
citizen for making a bargain, nor may he stop longer in the City.
Every week in London there was a folkmote at St. Paul's churchyard,
where majority decision was a tradition. By 1032, it had lost much of
its power to the husting [household assembly in Danish] court. The
folkmote then had responsibility for order and was the sole authority
for proclaiming outlaws. It met three times a year at St. Paul's
churchyard and there acclaimed the sheriff and justiciar, or if the king
had chosen his officer, heard who was chosen and listened to his charge.
It also yearly arranged the watch and dealt with risks of fire. It was
divided into wards, each governed by an alderman who presided over the
wardmote, and represented his ward at the folkmote. Each guild became a
ward. The chief alderman was the portreeve. London paid one-eighth of
all the taxes of England.
Later in the towns, merchant guilds grew out of charity associations
whose members were bound by oath to each other and got together for a
guild feast every month. Some traders of these merchant guilds became so
prosperous that they became landholders. Many market places were
dominated by a merchant guild, which had a monopoly of the local trade.
In the great mercantile towns all the land and houses would be held by
merchants and their dependents, all freeholders were connected with a
trade, and everyone who had a claim on public office or magistry would
be a member of the guild. The merchant guild could admit into their
guild country villeins, who became freemen if unclaimed by their lords
for a year and a day. Every merchant who had made three long voyages on
his own behalf and at his own cost ranked as a thegn. There were also
some craft guilds composed of handicraftsmen or artisans. Escaped bonded
agricultural workers, poor people, and traders without land migrated to
towns to live, but were not citizens.
Towns were largely self-sufficient, but salt and iron came from a
distance. The King's established in every shire at least one town with a
market place where purchases would be witnessed, and a mint where
reliable money was coined by a moneyer, who put his name on his coins.
There were eight moneyers in London. Coins were issued to be of value
for only a couple of years. Then one had to exchange them for newly
issued ones at a rate of about 10 old for 8 or 9 new. The difference
constituted a tax. Roughly 10% of the people lived in towns. Some took
surnames such as Tanner, Weaver, or Carpenter. Some had affectionate or
derisive nicknames such as clear-hand, fresh friend, soft bread, foul
beard, money taker, or penny purse. Craftsmen in the 1000s included
goldsmiths, embroiderers, illuminators of manuscripts, and armorers.
Edward the Confessor, named such for his piety, was a king of 24 years
who was widely respected for his intelligence, resourcefulness, good
judgment, and wisdom. His educated Queen Edith, whom he relied on for
advice and cheerful courage, was a stabilizing influence on him. They
were served by a number of thegns, who had duties in the household,
which was composed of the hall, the courtyard, and the bedchamber. They
were important men - thegns by rank. They were landholders, often in
several areas, and held leading positions in the shires. They were also
priests and clerics, who maintained the religious services and performed
tasks for which literacy was necessary. Edward was the first king to
have a "Chancellor". He kept a royal seal and was the chief royal
chaplain. He did all the secretarial work of the household and court,
drew up and sealed the royal writs, conducted the king's correspondence,
and kept all the royal accounts. The word "chancellor" signified a
screen behind which the secretarial work of the household was done. He
had the special duty of securing and administering the royal revenue
from vacant benefices. The most important royal officers were the
chamberlains, who took care of the royal bedchamber and adjoining
wardrobe used for dressing and storage of valuables, and the priests.
These royal officers had at first been responsible only for domestic
duties, but gradually came to assume public administrative tasks.
Edward wanted to avoid the pressures and dangers of living in the rich
and powerful City of London. So he rebuilt a monastic church, an abbey,
and a palace at Westminster about two miles upstream. He started the
growth of Westminster as a center of royal and political power; kings'
councils met there. Royal coronations took place at the abbey. Since
Edward traveled a lot, he established a storehouse-treasury at
Winchester to supplement his traveling wardrobe. At this time, Spanish
stallions were imported to improve English horses. London came to have
the largest and best trained army in England.
The court invited many of the greatest magnates and prelates [highest
ecclesiastical officials, such as bishops] of the land to the great
ecclesiastical festivals, when the king held more solemn courts and
feasted with his vassals for several days. These included all the great
earls, the majority of bishops, some abbots, and a number of thegns and
clerics. Edward had a witan of wise men to advise him, but sometimes the
King would speak in the hall after dinner and listen to what comments
were made from the mead-benches. As the court moved about the country,
many men came to pay their respects and attend to local business. Edward
started the practice of King's touching people to cure them of scrofula,
a disease which affected the glands, especially in the head and neck. It
was done in the context of a religious ceremony.
The main governmental activities were: war, collection of revenue,
religious education, and administration of justice. For war, the shires
had to provide a certain number of men and the ports quotas of ships
with crews. The king was the patron of the English church. He gave the
church peace and protection. He presided over church councils and
appointed bishops. As for the administration of justice, the public
courts were almost all under members of Edward's court, bishops, earls,
and reeves. Edward's mind was often troubled and disturbed by the threat
that law and justice would be overthrown, by the pervasiveness of
disputes and discord, by the raging of wicked presumption, by money
interfering with right and justice, and by avarice kindling all of
these. He saw it as his duty to courageously oppose the wicked by taking
good men as models, by enriching the churches of God, by relieving those
oppressed by wicked judges, and by judging equitably between the
powerful and the humble. He was so greatly revered that a comet was
thought to accompany his death.
The king established the office of the Chancery to draft documents and
keep records. It created the writ, which was a small piece of parchment
[sheep skin] addressed to a royal official or dependent commanding him
to perform some task for the King. By the 1000s A.D., the writ contained
a seal: a lump of wax with the impress of the Great Seal of England
which hung from the bottom of the document. Writing was done with a
sharpened goose-wing quill. Ink was obtained from mixing fluid from the
galls made by wasps for their eggs on oak trees, rainwater or vinegar,
gum arabic, and iron salts for color.
A King's grant of land entailed two documents: a charter giving
boundaries and conditions and a writ, usually addressed to the shire
court, listing the judicial and financial privileges conveyed with the
land. These were usually sac and soke [possession of jurisdiction of a
private court of a noble or institution to execute the laws and
administer justice over inhabitants and tenants of the estate], toll
[right to have a market and to collect a payment on the sale of cattle
and other property on the estate] and team [probably the right to hold a
court to determine the honesty of a man accused of illegal possession of
cattle or of buying stolen cattle by inquiring of the alleged seller or
a warrantor, even if an outsider], and infangenetheof [the authority to
hang and take the chattels of a thief caught on the estate].
The town of Coventry consisted of a large monastery estate and a large
private estate headed by a lord. The monastery was granted by Edward the
Confessor full freedom and these jurisdictions: sac and soke, toll and
team, hamsocne [the authority to fine a person for breaking into and
making entry by force into the dwelling of another], forestall [the
authority to fine a person for robbing others on the road], bloodwite
[the authority to impose a forfeiture for assault involving bloodshed],
fightwite [the authority to fine for fighting], weordwite [the authority
to fine for manslaughter, but not for willful murder], and mundbryce
[the authority to fine for any breach of the peace, such as trespass on
lands].
Every man was expected to have a lord to whom he gave fealty. He swore
by this fealty oath: "By the Lord, before whom this relic is holy, I
will be to faithful and true, and love all that he loves, and shun all
that he shuns, according to God's law, and according to the world's
principle, and never, by will nor by force, by word nor by work, do
ought of what is loathful to him; on condition that he keep me as I am
willing to deserve, and all that fulfill that our agreement was, when I
to him submitted and chose his will." If a man was homeless or lordless,
his brothers were expected to find him such, e.g. in the folkmote.
Otherwise, he was to be treated as a fugitive and could be slain, and
anyone who had harbored him would pay a penalty. Brothers were also
expected to protect their minor kinsmen.
Marriages were determined by men asking women to marry them. If a woman
said yes, he paid a sum to her kin for her "mund" [jurisdiction or
protection over her] and gave his oath to them to maintain and support
the woman and any children born. As security for this oath, he gave a
valuable object or "wed". The couple were then betrothed. Marriage
ceremonies were performed by priests in churches. The groom had to bring
friends to his wedding as sureties to guarantee his oath to maintain and
support his wife and children. Those who swore to take care of the
children were called their "godfathers". The marriage was written into
church records. After witnessing the wedding, friends ate the great
loaf, or first bread made by the bride. This was the forerunner of the
wedding cake. They drank special ale, the "bride ale" (from hence the
work "bridal"), to the health of the couple.
Women could own land, houses, and furniture and other property. They
could even make wills that disinherited their sons. This marriage
agreement with an Archbishop's sister provides her with land, money, and
horsemen:
"Here in this document is stated the agreement which Wulfric and the
archbishop made when he obtained the archbishop's sister as his wife,
namely he promised her the estates at Orleton and Ribbesford for her
lifetime, and promised her that he would obtain the estate at Knightwick
for her for three lives from the community at Winchcombe, and gave her
the estate at Alton to grant and bestow upon whomsoever she pleased
during her lifetime or at her death, as she preferred, and promised her
50 mancuses of gold and 30 men and 30 horses.
The witnesses that this agreement was made as stated were Archbishop
Wulfstan and Earl Leofwine and Bishop AEthelstan and Abbot AElfweard and
the monk Brihtheah and many good men in addition to them, both
ecclesiastics and laymen. There are two copies of this agreement, one in
the possession of the archbishop at Worcester and the other in the
possession of Bishop AEthelstan at Hereford."
This marriage agreement provided the wife with money, land, farm
animals and farm laborers; it also names sureties, the survivor of whom
would receive all this property:
"Here is declared in this document the agreement which Godwine made with
Brihtric when he wooed his daughter. In the first place he gave her a
pound's weight of gold, to induce her to accept his suit, and he granted
her the estate at Street with all that belongs to it, and 150 acres at
Burmarsh and in addition 30 oxen and 20 cows and 10 horses and 10
slaves.
This agreement was made at Kingston before King Cnut, with the
cognizance of Archbishop Lyfing and the community at Christchurch, and
Abbot AElfmaer and the community at St. Augustine's, and the sheriff
AEthelwine and Sired the old and Godwine, Wulfheah's son, and AElfsige
cild and Eadmaer of Burham and Godwine, Wulfstan's son, and Carl, the
King's cniht. And when the maiden was brought from Brightling AElfgar,
Sired's son, and Frerth, the priest of Forlstone, and the priests
Leofwine and Wulfsige from Dover, and Edred, Eadhelm's son, and
Leofwine, Waerhelm's son, and Cenwold rust and Leofwine, son of Godwine
of Horton, and Leofwine the Red and Godwine, Eadgifu's son, and Leofsunu
his brother acted as security for all this. And whichever of them lives
the longer shall succeed to all the property both in land and everything
else which I have given them. Every trustworthy man in Kent and Sussex,
whether thegn or commoner, is cognizant of these terms.
There are three of these documents; one is at Christchurch, another at
St. Augustine's, and Brihtric himself has the third."
Nuns and monks lived in segregated nunneries and monasteries on church
land and grew their own food. The local bishop usually was also an abbot
of a monastery. The priests and nuns wore long robes with loose belts
and did not carry weapons. Their life was ordered by the ringing of the
bell to start certain activities, such as prayer; meals; meetings; work
in the fields, gardens, or workshops; and copying and illuminating
books. They chanted to pay homage and to communicate with God or his
saints. They taught justice, piety, chastity, peace, and charity; and
cared for the sick. Caring for the sick entailed mostly praying to God
as it was thought that only God could cure. They bathed a few times a
year. They got their drinking water from upstream of where they had
located their latrines over running water. The large monasteries had
libraries, dormitories, guesthouses, kitchens, butteries to store wine,
bakehouses, breweries, dairies, granaries, barns, fishponds, orchards,
vineyards, gardens, workshops, laundries, lavatories with long stone or
marble washing troughs, and towels. Slavery was diminished by the church
by excommunication for the sale of a child over seven. The clergy taught
that manumission of slaves was good for the soul of the dead, so it
became frequent in wills. The clergy were to abstain from red meat and
wine and were to be celibate. But there were periods of laxity.
Punishment was by the cane or scourge.
The Archbishop of Canterbury began anointing new kings at the time of
coronation to emphasize that the king was ruler by the grace of God. As
God's minister, the king could only do right. From 973, the new king
swore to protect the Christian church, to prevent inequities to all
subjects, and to render good justice, which became a standard oath.
It was believed that there was a celestial hierarchy, with heavenly
hosts in specific places. The heavenly bodies revolved in circles around
the earthly world on crystal spheres of their own, which were serene,
harmonious, and eternal. This contrasted with the change, death, and
decay that occurred in the earthly world. Also in this world,
Aristotle's four elements of earth, air, fire, and water sought their
natural places, e.g. bubbles of air rising through water. The planets
were called wanderers because their motion did not fit the circular
scheme.
God intervened in daily life, especially if worshipped. Saints such as
Bede and Hilda performed miracles, especially ones of curing. Their
spirits could be contacted through their relics, which rested at the
altars of churches. When someone was said to have the devil in him,
people took it quite literally. A real Jack Frost nipped noses and
fingers and made the ground too hard to work. Little people, elves,
trolls, and fairies inhabited the fears and imaginings of people. The
forest was the mysterious home of spirits. People prayed to God to help
them in their troubles and from the work of the devil. Since natural
causes of events were unknown, people attributed events to wills like
their own. Illness was thought to be caused by demons. People hung
charms around their neck for cure and treatments of magic and herbs were
given. Some had hallucinogenic effects, which were probably useful for
pain. For instance, the remedy for "mental vacancy and folly" was a
drink of "fennel, agrimony, cockle, and marche". Blood- letting by
leeches and cautery were used for most maladies, which were thought to
be caused by imbalance of the four bodily humors: sanguine, phlegmatic,
choleric, and melancholic. These four humors reflected the four basic
elements air, water, fire, and earth. Blood was hot and moist like air;
phlegm was cold and moist like water; choler or yellow bile was hot and
dry like fire; and melancholy or black bile was cold and dry like earth.
Bede had explained that when blood predominates, it makes people joyful,
glad, sociable, laughing, and talking a great deal. Phlegm renders them
slow, sleepy, and forgetful. Red cholic makes them thin, though eating
much, swift, bold, wrathful, and agile. Black cholic makes them serious
of settled disposition, even sad. To relieve brain pressure and/or maybe
to exorcise evil spirits, holes were made in skulls by a drill with a
metal tip that was caused to turn back and forth by a strap wrapped
around a wooden handle. A king's daughter Edith inspired a cult of holy
wells, whose waters were thought to alleviate eye conditions. Warmth and
rest were also used for illness. Agrimony boiled in milk was thought to
relieve impotence in men.
It was known that the liver casted out impurities in the blood. The
stages of fetal growth were known. The soul was not thought to enter a
fetus until after the third month, so presumably abortions within three
months were allowable.
The days of the week were Sun day, Moon day, Tiw's day (Viking god of
war), Woden's day (Viking god of victory, master magician, calmer of
storms, and raiser of the dead), Thor's day (Viking god of thunder),
Frig's day (Viking goddess of fertility and growing things), and
Saturn's day (Roman god). Special days of the year were celebrated:
Christmas, the birthday of Jesus Christ; the twelve days of Yuletide (a
Viking tradition) when candles were lit and houses decorated with
evergreen and there were festivities around the burning of the biggest
log available; Plough Monday for resumption of work after Yuletide;
February 14th with a feast celebrating Saint Valentinus, a Roman bishop
martyr who had married young lovers in secret when marriage was
forbidden to encourage men to fight in war; New Year's Day on March 25th
when seed was sown and people banged on drums and blew horns to banish
spirits who destroy crops with disease; Easter, the day of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ; Whitsunday, celebrating the descent of the
Holy Spirit on the apostles of Jesus and named for the white worn by
baptismal candidates; May Day when flowers and greenery was gathered
from the woods to decorate houses and churches, Morris dancers leapt
through their villages with bells, hobby horses, and waving scarves, and
people danced around a May pole holding colorful ribbons tied at the top
so they became entwined around the pole; Lammas on August 1st, when the
first bread baked from the wheat harvest was consecrated; Harvest Home
when the last harvest load was brought home while an effigy of a goddess
was carried with reapers singing and piping behind, and October 31st,
the eve of the Christian designated All Hallow Day, which then became
known as All Hallow Even, or Halloween. People dressed as demons,
hobgoblins, and witches to keep spirits away from possessing them. Trick
or treating began with Christian beggars asking for "soul cake" biscuits
in return for praying for dead relatives. Ticktacktoe and backgammon
were played.
There were riddles such as:
I am a strange creature, for I satisfy women ... I grow very
tall, erect in a bed. I'm hairy underneath. From time to time A
beautiful girl, the brave daughter Of some fellow dares to hold me
Grips my reddish skin, robs me of my head And puts me in the
pantry. At once that girl With plaited hair who has confined me
Remembers our meeting. Her eye moistens. What am I? An onion.
A man came walking where he knew She stood in a corner, stepped
forwards; The bold fellow plucked up his own Skirt by hand,
stuck something stiff Beneath her belt as she stood, Worked his
will. They both wiggled. The man hurried; his trusty helper
Plied a handy task, but tired At length, less strong than she,
Weary of the work. Thick beneath Her belt swelled the thing good men
Praise with their hearts and purses. What am I? A milk
churn.
The languages of invaders had produced a hybrid language that was
roughly understood throughout the country. The existence of Europe,
Africa, Asia, and India were known. Jerusalem was thought to be at the
center of the world. There was an annual tax of a penny on every hearth,
Peter's pence, to be collected and sent to the pope in Rome.
Ecclesiastical benefices were to pay church- scot, a payment in lieu of
first fruits of the land, to the pope.
- The Law -
The king and witan deliberated on the making of new laws, both secular
and spiritual, at the regularly held witanagemot. There was a standard
legal requirement of holding every man accountable, though expressed in
different ways, such as the following three:
Every freeman who does not hold land must find a lord to answer for
him. The act of homage was symbolized by holding his hands together
between those of his lord. Every lord shall be personally responsible as
surety for the men of his household. [This included female lords.] (King
Athelstan)
"And every man shall see that he has a surety, and this surety shall
bring and keep him to [the performance of] every lawful duty.
1. And if anyone does wrong and escapes, his surety shall incur what
the other should have incurred.
2. If the case be that of a thief and his surety can lay hold of him
within twelve months, he shall deliver him up to justice, and what he
has paid shall be returned to him." (King Edgar)
Every freeman who holds land, except lords with considerable landed
property, must be in a local tithing, usually ten to twelve men, in
which they serve as personal sureties for each other's peaceful
behavior. If one of the ten landholders in a tithing is accused of an
offense, the others have to produce him in court or pay a fine plus pay
the injured party for the offense, unless they could prove that they had
no complicity in it. If the man is found guilty but can not pay, his
tithing must pay his fine. The chief officer is the "tithing man" or
"capital pledge". There were probably ten tithings in a hundred. (King
Edward the Confessor).
Everyone was to take an oath not to steal, which one's surety would
compel one to keep.
No one may receive another lord's man without the permission of this
lord and only if the man is blameless towards every hand. The penalty is
the bot for disobedience. No lord was to dismiss any of his men who had
been accused, until he had made compensation and done right.
"No woman or maiden shall be forced to marry a man she dislikes or
given for money."
"Violence to a widow or maiden is punishable by payment of one's
wergeld."
No man may have more wives than one.
No man may marry among his own kin within six degrees of relationship
or with the widow of a man as nearly related to him as that, or with a
near relative of his first wife's, or his god- mother, or a divorced
woman. Incest is punishable by payment of one's wergeld or a fine or
forfeiture of all his possessions.
Grounds for divorce were mutual consent or adultery or desertion.
Adultery was prohibited for men as well as for women. The penalty was
payment of a bot or denial of burial in consecrated ground. A law of
Canute provided that if a wife was guilty of adultery, she forfeited all
her property to her husband and her nose and ears, but this law did not
survive him.
Laymen may marry a second time, and a young widow may again take a
husband, but they will not receive a blessing and must do penance for
their incontinence.
Prostitutes were to be driven out of the land or destroyed in the land,
unless they cease from their wickedness and make amends to the utmost of
their ability.
Neither husband nor wife could sell family property without the other's
consent.
If there was a marriage agreement, it determined the wife's "dower",
which would be hers upon his death. Otherwise, if a man who held his
land in socage [owned it freely and not subject to a larger landholder]
died before his wife, she got half this property. If there were minor
children, she received all this property.
Inheritance of land to adult children was by the custom of the land
held. In some places, the custom was for the oldest son to take it and
in other places, the custom was for the youngest son to take it.
Usually, the sons each took an equal portion by partition, but the
eldest son had the right to buy out the others as to the chief messuage
[manor; dwelling and supporting land and buildings] as long as he
compensated them with property of equal value. If there were no
legitimate sons, then each daughter took an equal share when she
married.
In London, one-third of the personal property of a decedent went to his
wife, one-third went to his children in equal shares, and one-third he
could bequeath as he wished.
"If a man dies intestate [without a will], his lord shall have heriot
[horses, weapons, shields, and helmets] of his property according to the
deceased's rank and [the rest of] the property shall be divided among
his wife, children, and near kinsmen."
A man could justifiably kill an adulterer in the act with the man's
wife, daughter, sister, or mother. In Kent, a lord could fine any
bondswoman of his who had become pregnant without his permission
[childwyte].
A man could kill in defense of his own life, the life of his kinsmen,
his lord, or a man whose lord he was. The offender was "caught
red-handed" if the blood of his victim was still on him. Self-help was
available for hamsocne [breaking into a man's house to assault him].
Murder is punished by death as follows: "If any man break the King's
peace given by hand or seal, so that he slay the man to whom the peace
was given, both his life and lands shall be in the King's power if he be
taken, and if he cannot be taken he shall be held an outlaw by all, and
if anyone shall be able to slay him he shall have his spoils by law."
The king's peace usually extended to important designated individuals,
churches, assemblies, those traveling to courts or assemblies, and
particular times and places. Often a king would extend his peace to
fugitives from violent feuds if they asked the king, earls, and bishops
for time to pay compensation for their misdeeds. From this came the
practice of giving a portion of the "profits of justice" to such men who
tried the fugitive. The king's peace came to be extended to those most
vulnerable to violence: foreigners, strangers, and kinless persons.
"If anyone by force break or enter any man's court or house to slay or
wound or assault a man, he shall pay 100s. to the King as fine."
"If anyone slay a man within his court or his house, himself and all
his substance are at the King's will, save the dower of his wife if he
have endowed her."
If a person fights and wounds anyone, he is liable for his wer. If he
fells a man to death, he is then an outlaw and is to be seized by
raising the hue and cry. And if anyone kills him for resisting God's law
or the king's, there will be no compensation for his death.
A man could kill a thief over twelve years in the act of carrying off
his property over 8d., e.g. the thief hand-habbende [a thief found with
the stolen goods in his hand] or the thief back-berend [a thief found
carrying stolen goods on his back].
Cattle theft could be dealt with only by speedy pursuit. A person who
had involuntarily lost possession of cattle is to at once raise the hue
and cry. He was to inform the hundredman, who then called the
tithingmen. All these neighbors had to then follow the trail of the cow
to its taker, or pay 30d. to the hundred for the first offense; and 60d.
for the second offense, half to the hundred and half to the lord; and
half a pound [10s.] for the third offense; and forfeiture of all his
property and declared outlaw for the fourth offense. If the hundred
pursued a track into another hundred, notice was to be given to that
hundredman. If he did not go with them, he had to pay 30s. to the king.
If a thief was brought into prison, he was to be released after 40 days
if he paid his fine of 120s. His kindred could become his sureties, to
pay according to his wer if he stole again. If a thief forfeited his
freedom and gave himself up, but his kindred forsook him, and he does
not know of anyone who will make bot for him; let him then do
theow-work, and let the wer abate for the kindred.
Measures and weights of goods for sale shall be correct.
Every man shall have a warrantor to his market transactions and no one
shall buy and sell except in a market town; but he shall have the
witness of the portreeve or of other men of credit, who can be trusted.
Moneyers accused of minting money outside a designated market were to
go to the ordeal of the hot iron with the hand that was accused of doing
the fraud. If he was found guilty, his hand that did the offense was to
be struck off and be set up on the money- smithy.
No marketing, business, or hunting may be done on Sundays.
No one may bind a freeman, shave his head in derision, or shave off his
beard. Shaving was a sign of enslavement, which could be incurred by not
paying one's fines for offenses committed.
No clergy may gamble or participate in games of chance.
The Laws for London were:
"1. The gates called Aldersgate and Cripplegate were in charge of
guards.
2. If a small ship came to Billingsgate, one halfpenny was paid as
toll; if a larger ship with sails, one penny was paid.
1) If a hulk or merchantman arrives and lies there, four pence is
paid as toll.
2) From a ship with a cargo of planks, one plank is given as toll.
3) On three days of the week toll for cloth [is paid] on Sunday and
Tuesday and Thursday.
4) A merchant who came to the bridge with a boat containing fish
paid one halfpenny as toll, and for a larger ship one penny."
5 - 8) Foreigners with wine or blubber fish or other goods and
their tolls. (Foreigners were allowed to buy wool, melted sheep fat
[tallow], and three live pigs for their ships.)
"3. If the town reeve or the village reeve or any other official accuses
anyone of having withheld toll, and the man replies that he has kept
back no toll which it was his legal duty to pay, he shall swear to this
with six others and shall be quit of the charge.
1) If he declares that he has paid toll, he shall produce the man
to whom he paid it, and shall be quit of the charge.
2) If, however, he cannot produce the man to whom he paid it, he
shall pay the actual toll and as much again and five pounds to the King.
3) If he vouches the taxgatherer to warranty [asserting] that he
paid toll to him, and the latter denies it, he shall clear himself by
the ordeal and by no other means of proof.
4. And we [the king and his counselors] have decreed that a man who,
within the town, makes forcible entry into another man's house without
permission and commits a breach of the peace of the worst kind and he
who assaults an innocent person on the King's highway, if he is slain,
shall lie in an unhonored grave.
1) If, before demanding justice, he has recourse to violence, but
does not lose his life thereby, he shall pay five pounds for breach of
the King's peace.
2) If he values the goodwill of the town itself, he shall pay us
thirty shillings as compensation, if the King will grant us this
concession."
5. No base coin or coin defective in quality or weight, foreign or
English, may be used by a foreigner or an Englishman. (In 956, a person
found guilty of illicit coining was punished by loss of a hand.)
- Judicial Procedure -
There were courts for different geographical communities. The
arrangement of the whole kingdom into shires was completed by 975 after
being united under King Edgar.
A shire was a larger area of land, headed by an earl. A shire reeve or
"sheriff" represented the royal interests in the shires and in the shire
courts. This officer came to be selected by the king and earl of the
shire to be a judicial and financial deputy of the earl and to execute
the law. The office of sheriff, which was not hereditary, was also
responsible for the administration of royal lands and royal accounts.
The sheriff summoned the freemen holding land in the shire, four men
selected by each community or township, and all public officers to meet
twice a year at their "shiremote". Actually only the great lords - the
bishops, earls, and thegns - attended. The shire court was primarily
concerned with issues of the larger landholders. Here the freemen
interpreted the customary law of the locality. The earl declared the
secular law and the bishop declared the spiritual law. They also
declared the sentence of the judges. The earl usually took a third of
the profits, such as fines and forfeits, of the shire court, and the
bishop took a share. In time, the earls each came to supervise several
shires and the sheriff became head of the shire and assumed the earl's
duties there, such as heading the county fyrd. The shire court also
heard cases which had been refused justice at the hundredmote and cases
of keeping the peace of the shire.
The hundred was a division of the shire, having come to refer to a
geographical area rather than a number of households. The monthly
hundredmote could be attended by any freeman holding land (or a lord's
steward), but was usually attended only by reeve, thegns, parish priest,
and four representatives selected by each agrarian community or village
- usually villeins. Here transfers of land were witnessed. A reeve,
sometimes the sheriff, presided over local criminal and peace and order
issues ["leet jurisdiction", which derived from sac and soc
jurisdiction] and civil cases at the hundred court. All residents were
expected to attend the leet court. The sheriff usually held each hundred
court in turn. The suitors to these courts were the same as those of the
shire courts. They were the judges who declared the law and ordered the
form of proof, such as compurgatory oath and ordeal. They were
customarily thegns, often twelve in number. They, as well as the king
and the earl, received part of the profits of justice. Summary procedure
was followed when a criminal was caught in the act or seized after a hue
and cry. Every freeman over age twelve had to be in a hundred and had to
follow the hue and cry.
"No one shall make distraint [seizure of personal property out of the
possession of an alleged wrongdoer into the custody of the party
injured, to procure a satisfaction for a wrong committed] of property
until he has appealed for justice in the hundred court and shire court".
In 997, King Ethelred in a law code ordered the sheriff and twelve
leading magnates of each shire to swear to accuse no innocent man, nor
conceal any guilty one. This was the germ of the later assize, and later
still the jury.
The integrity of the judicial system was protected by certain
penalties: for swearing a false oath, bot as determined by a cleric who
has heard his confession, or, if he has not confessed, denial of burial
in consecrated ground. Also a perjurer lost his oath-worthiness.
Swearing a false oath or perjury was also punishable by loss of one's
hand or half one's wergeld. A lord denying justice, as by upholding an
evildoing thegn of his, had to pay 120s. to the king for his
disobedience. Furthermore, if a lord protected a theow of his who had
stolen, he had to forfeit the theow and pay his wer, for the first
offense, and he was liable for all he property, for subsequent offenses.
There was a bot for anyone harboring a convicted offender. If anyone
failed to attend the gemot thrice after being summoned, he was to pay
the king a fine for his disobedience. If he did not pay this fine or do
right, the chief men of the burh were to ride to him, and take all his
property to put into surety. If he did not know of a person who would be
his surety, he was to be imprisoned. Failing that, he was to be killed.
But if he escaped, anyone who harbored him, knowing him to be a
fugitive, would be liable pay his wer. Anyone who avenged a thief
without wounding anyone, had to pay the king 120s. as wite for the
assault.
"And if anyone is so rich or belongs to so powerful a kindred, that he
cannot be restrained from crime or from protecting and harboring
criminals, he shall be led out of his native district with his wife and
children, and all his goods, to any part of the kingdom which the King
chooses, be he noble or commoner, whoever he may be - with the provision
that he shall never return to his native district. And henceforth, let
him never be encountered by anyone in that district; otherwise he shall
be treated as a thief caught in the act."
This lawsuit between a son and his mother over land was heard at a
shire meeting: "Here it is declared in this document that a shire
meeting sat at Aylton in King Cnut's time. There were present Bishop
AEthelstan and Earl Ranig and Edwin, the Earl's son, and Leofwine,
Wulfsige's son, and Thurkil the White; and Tofi the Proud came there on
the King's business, and Bryning the sheriff was present, and
AEthelweard of Frome and Leofwine of Frome and Godric of Stoke and all
the thegns of Herefordshire. Then Edwin, Enneawnes son, came traveling
to the meeting and sued his own mother for a certain piece of land,
namely Wellington and Cradley. Then the bishop asked whose business it
was to answer for his mother, and Thurkil the White replied that it was
his business to do so, if he knew the claim. As he did not know the
claim, three thegns were chosen from the meeting [to ride] to the place
where she was, namely at Fawley, and these were Leofwine of Frome and
AEthelsige the Red and Winsige the seaman, and when they came to her
they asked her what claim she had to the lands for which her son was
suing her. Then she said that she had no land that in any way belonged
to him, and was strongly incensed against her son, and summoned to her
kinswoman, Leofflaed, Thurkil's wife, and in front of them said to her
as follows: 'Here sits Leofflaed, my kinswoman, to whom, after my death,
I grant my land and my gold, my clothing and my raiment and all that I
possess.' And then she said to the thegns: 'Act like thegns, and duly
announce my message to the meeting before all the worthy men, and tell
them to whom I have granted my land and all my property, and not a thing
to my own son, and ask them to be witnesses of this.' And they did so;
they rode to the meeting and informed all the worthy men of the charge
that she had laid upon them. Then Thurkil the White stood up in the
meeting and asked all the thegns to give his wife the lands unreservedly
which her kinswoman had granted her, and they did so. Then Thurkil rode
to St. AEthelbert's minister, with the consent and cognizance of the
whole assembly, and had it recorded in a gospel book."
Courts controlled by lords of large private estates had various kinds
of jurisdiction recognized by the King: sac and soke [possession of
legal powers of execution and profits of justice held by a noble or
institution over inhabitants and tenants of the estate, exercised
through a private court], toll [right to collect a payment on the sale
of cattle and property] and team [right to hold a court to determine the
honesty of a man accused of illegal possession of cattle],
infangenetheof [the authority to judge and to hang and take the chattels
of a thief caught on the property], and utfangenetheof [the authority to
judge and to hand and take the chattels of a thief dwelling out of his
liberty, and committing theft without the same, if he were caught within
the lord's property]. Some lords were even given jurisdiction over
breach of the royal peace, ambush and treacherous manslaughter,
harboring of outlaws, forced entry into a residence, and failure to
answer a military summons. Often this court's jurisdiction overlapped
that of the hundred court and sometimes a whole hundred had passed under
the jurisdiction of an abbot, bishop, or earl.
A lord and his noble lady, or his steward, presided at this court. The
law was administered here on the same principles as at the hundred
court. Judges of the leet of the court of a large private estate were
chosen from the constables and four representatives selected from each
community, village, or town.
The vill [similar to village] was the smallest community for judicial
purposes. There were several vills in a hundred.
Before a dispute went to the hundred court, it might be taken care of
by the head tithing man, e.g. cases between vills, between neighbors,
and some compensations and settlements, namely concerning pastures,
meadows, harvests, and contests between neighbors.
In London, the Hustings Court met weekly and decided such issues as
wills and bequests and commerce matters. The folkmote of all citizens
met three times a year. Each ward had a leet court [for minor criminal
matters].
The king and his witan decided the complaints and issues of the
nobility and those cases which had not received justice in the hundred
or shire court. The witan had a criminal jurisdiction and could imprison
or outlaw a person. The witan could even compel the king to return any
land he might have unjustly taken. Specially punishable by the king was
"oferhyrnesse": contempt of the king's law. It covered refusal of
justice, neglect of summons to gemot or pursuit of thieves, disobedience
to the king's officers, sounding the king's coin, accepting another
man's dependent without his leave, buying outside markets, and refusing
to pay Peter's pence.
The forests were peculiarly subject to the absolute will of the king.
They were outside the common law. Their unique customs and laws
protected the peace of the animals rather than the king's subjects. Only
special officials on special commissions heard their cases.
The form of oaths for compurgation were specified for theft of cattle,
unsoundness of property bought, and money owed for a sale. The defendant
denied the accusation by sweating that "By the Lord, I am guiltless,
both in deed and counsel, and of the charge of which ... accuses me." A
compurgator swore that "By the Lord, the oath is clean and unperjured
which ... has sworn.". A witness swore that "In the name of Almighty
God, as I here for ... in true witness stand, unbidden and unbought, so
I with my eyes oversaw, and with my ears overheard, that which I with
him say."
If a theow man was guilty at the ordeal, he was not only to give
compensation, but was to be scourged thrice, or a second geld be given;
and be the wite of half value for theows.
- - - Chapter 4 - - -
- The Times: 1066-1100 -
William came from Normandy to conquer England. He claimed that the
former King, Edward, the Confessor, had promised the throne to him when
they were growing up together in Normandy, if Edward became King of
England and had no children. The Conquerer's men and horses came in
boats powered by oars and sails. The conquest did not take long because
of the superiority of his military expertise to that of the English. He
organized his army into three groups: archers with bows and arrows,
horsemen with swords and stirrups, and footmen with hand weapons. Each
group played a specific role in a strategy planned in advance. The
English army was only composed of footmen with hand weapons such as
spears and shields. They fought in a line holding up their shields to
overlap each other and form a shieldwall. The defeat of the English was
thought to have been presaged by a comet.
At Westminster, he made an oath to defend God's holy churches and their
rulers, to rule the whole people subject to him with righteousness and
royal providence, to enact and hold fast right law, and to utterly
forbid rapine and unrighteous judgments. This was in keeping with the
traditional oath of a new king.
Declaring the English who fought against him to be traitors, the
Conquerer declared their land confiscated. But he allowed those who were
willing to acknowledge him to redeem their land by a payment of money.
As William conquered the land of the realm, he parceled it out among the
barons who fought with him so that each baron was given the holdings of
an Anglo-Saxon predecessor, scattered though they were. The barons again
made oaths of personal loyalty to him [fealty]. They agreed to hold the
land as his vassals with future military services to him and receipt of
his protection. They gave him homage by placing their hands within his
and saying "I become your man for the tenement I hold of you, and I will
bear you faith in life and member [limb] and earthly honor against all
men". They held their land "of their lord", the King, by knight's
service. The king had "enfeoffed" them [given them a fief: a source of
income] with land. The theory that by right all land was the King's and
that land was held by others only at his gift and in return for
specified service was new to English thought. The original duration of a
knight's fee until about 1100 was for his life; thereafter it was
heritable. The word "knight" came to replace the word "thegn" as a
person who received his position and land by fighting for the King. The
exact obligation of knight's service was to furnish a fully armed
horseman to serve at his own expense for forty days in the year. This
service was not limited to defense of the country, but included fighting
abroad. The baron led his own knights under his banner. The foot
soldiers were from the fyrd or were mercenaries. Every free man was
sworn to join in the defense of the king, his lands and his honor,
within England and without.
The Saxon governing class was destroyed. The independent power of
earls, who had been drawn from three great family houses, was curtailed.
Most died or fled the country. Some men were allowed to redeem their
land by money payment if they showed loyalty to the Conquerer. Well-born
women crowded into nunneries to escape Norman violence. The people were
deprived of their most popular leaders, who were excluded from all
positions of trust and profit, especially all the clergy. The earldoms
became fiefs instead of magistracies.
The Conquerer was a stern and fierce man and ruled as an autocrat by
terror. Whenever the people revolted or resisted his mandates, he seized
their lands or destroyed the crops and laid waste the countryside and so
that they starved to death. This example pacified others. His rule was
strong, resolute, wise, and wary. He was not arbitrary or oppressive.
The Conquerer had a strict system of policing the nation. Instead of the
Anglo-Saxon self-government throughout the districts and hundreds of
resident authorities in local courts, he aimed at substituting for it
the absolute rule of the barons under military rule so favorable to the
centralizing power of the Crown. He used secret police and spies and the
terrorism this system involved. This especially curbed the minor barons
and preserved the public peace.
The English people, who outnumbered the Normans by 300 to 1, were
disarmed. Curfew bells were rung at 7:00 PM when everyone had to remain
in their own dwellings on pain of death and all fires and candles were
to be put out. This prevented any nightly gatherings, assassinations, or
seditions. Order was brought to the kingdom so that no man dare kill
another, no matter how great the injury he had received. The Conquerer
extended the King's peace on the highways, i.e. roads on high ground, to
include the whole nation. Any individual of any rank could travel from
end to end of the land unharmed. Before, prudent travelers would travel
only in groups of twenty.
The barons subjugated the English who were on their newly acquired
land. There began a hierarchy of seisin [rightful occupation] of land so
that there could be no land without its lord. Also, every lord had a
superior lord with the king as the overlord or supreme landlord. One
piece of land may be held by several tenures. For instance, A, holding
by barons' service of the King, may enfeoff B, a church, to hold of him
on the terms of praying for the souls of his ancestors, and B may
enfeoff a freeman C to hold of the church by giving it a certain
percentage of his crops every year. There were about 200 barons who held
land directly of the King. Other fighting men were the knights, who were
tenants or subtenants of a baron. Knighthood began as a reward for valor
on the field of battle by the king or a noble. The value of a knight's
fee was 400s. [20 pounds] per year. Altogether there were about 5000
fighting men holding land.
The essence of Norman feudalism was that the land remained under the
lord, whatever the vassal might do. The lord had the duty to defend the
vassals on his land. The vassal owed military service to the lord and
also the service of attending the courts of the hundred and the county
[formerly "shire"], which were courts of the King, administering old
customary law. They were the King's courts on the principle that a crime
anywhere was a breach of the King's peace. The King's peace that had
covered his residence and household had extended to places where he
might travel, such as highways, rivers, bridges, churches, monasteries,
markets, and towns, and then encompassed every place, replacing the
general public peace. Infraction of the King's peace incurred fines to
the King.
This feudal bond based on occupancy of land rather than on personal
ties was uniform throughout the realm. No longer could a man choose his
lord and transfer his land with him to a new lord. He held his land at
the will of his lord, to be terminated anytime the lord decided to do
so. A tenant could not alienate his land without permission of his lord.
In later eras, tenancies would be held for the life of the tenant, and
even later, for his life and those of his heirs.
This uniformity of land organization plus the new requirement that
every freeman take an oath of loyalty directly to the king to assist him
in preserving his lands and honor and defending him against his enemies,
which oath would supersede any oath to any other man, gave the nation a
new unity. The king could call men directly to the fyrd, summon them to
his court, and tax them without intervention of their lords. And the
people learned to look to the king for protection from abuse by their
lords.
English villani, bordarii, cottarii, and servi on the land of the
barons were subjugated into a condition of "villeinage" servitude and
became "tied to the land" so that they could not leave the land without
their lord's permission, except to go on a pilgrimage. The villeins
formed a new bottom class as the population's percentage of slaves
declined dramatically. They held their land of their lord, the baron. To
guard against uprisings of the conquered people, the barons used villein
labor to build about a hundred great stone castles, with moats and walls
with towers around them, at easily defensible positions such as hilltops
all over the nation.
A castle could be built only with permission of the King. A typical
castle had a stone building of about four floors [a keep] on a small,
steep hill. Later it also had an open area surrounded by a stone
curtain-wall with towers at the corners. Around the outside of the wall
were ditches and banks and perhaps a moat. One traveled over these via a
drawbridge let down at the gatehouse of the enclosing wall. On either
side of the gatehouse were chambers for the guards. Arrows could be shot
through slits in the enclosing walls. Inside the enclosed area might be
stables, a granary, barracks for the soldiers, and workshops. The only
winter feed was hay, for which the horses, breeding animals, milkcow,
and workoxen had a priority over other animals. The bulk of the cattle
were usually slaughtered and salted.
The castle building typically was entered by an outer wood staircase to
the guard room on the second floor. The first [ground] floor had a well
and was used as a storehouse and/or dungeons for prisoners. The second
floor had a two-storied great hall, with small rooms and aisles around
it within the thick walls. There was also a chapel area on the second
floor. There were small areas of the third floor which could be used for
sleeping. The floors were wood and were reached by a spiral stone
staircase in one corner of the building. Sometimes there was a reservoir
of water on an upper level with pipes carrying the water to floors
below. Each floor had a fireplace with a slanted flue going through the
wall to the outside. There were latrines in the corner walls with a pit
or shaft down the exterior of the wall, sometimes to the moat. Furs and
wool clothes were hung on the walls there in the summer to deter the
moths. The first floor had only arrow slits in the walls, but the higher
floors had small windows.
Some curtain-wall castles did not have a central building. In these,
the hall was built along the inside of the walls, as were other
continuous buildings. The kitchens and chapels were in the towers.
Lodgings were in buildings along the curtain-walls, or on several floors
of the towers.
The great hall was the main room of the castle. The hall was used for
meals and meetings at which the lord received homages, recovered fees,
and held the view of frankpledge [free pledge in Latin], in which
freemen agreed to be sureties for each other. At the main table, the
lord and his lady sat on benches with backs or chairs. The table was
covered first with a wool cloth that reached to the floor, and then by a
smaller white linen cloth. Everyone else sat on benches at trestle
tables, which consisted of planks on trestles and could be dismantled,
e.g. at night. Over the main door were the family arms. On the walls
were swords ready for instant use. On the upper parts of the walls could
be fox skins and perhaps a polecat skin, and keepers' and huntsmen's
poles. There were often hawk perches overhead. At the midday dinner,
courses were ceremonially brought in to music, and ritual bows were made
to the lord. The food at the head table was often tasted first by a
servant as a precaution against poison. Hounds, spaniels, and terriers
lay near the hearth and cats, often with litters, nestled nearby. They
might share in dinner, but the lord may keep a short stick near him to
defend morsels he meant for himself. Hunting, dove cotes, and carp pools
provided fresh meat. Fish was compulsory eating on Fridays, on fast
days, and during Lent. Cooking was done outside on an open fire,
roasting on spits and boiling in pots. Some spits were mechanized with a
cogged wheel and a weight at the end of a string. Other spits were
turned by a long handle, or a small boy shielded from the heat by a wet
blanket, or by dogs on a treadmill. Underneath the spit was a dripping
pan to hold the falling juices and fat. Mutton fat was used for candles.
Bread, pies, and pastry dishes were baked in an oven: a hole in a
fireproof stone wall fitted with an iron door, in which wood was first
burnt to heat the oven walls. It could also be used for drying fruit or
melting tallow. Fruits were also preserved in honey. Salt was stored in
a niche in the wall near the hearth and put on the table in a salt
cellar which became more elaborate over the years. Salt was very
valuable and gave rise to the praise of a man as the salt of the earth.
Costly imported spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, pepper,
and a small quantity of sugar were kept in chests. Pepper was always on
the table to disguise the taste of tainted meat. Spices were tried for
medicinal use. Drinks included wine, ale, cider from apples, perry from
pears, and mead. People carried and used their own knives. There were no
forks. Spoons were of silver or wood. People also ate with their fingers
and washed their hands before and after meals. It was impolite to dig
into the salt bowl with a knife not previously wiped on bread or napkin,
which was linen. It was unmannerly to wipe one's knife or one's greasy
fingers on the tablecloth or, to use the tablecloth to blow one's nose.
Feasts were stately occasions with costly tables and splendid apparel.
There were practical jokes, innocent frolics, and witty verbal debating
with repartee. They played chess, checkers, and various games with cards
and dice. Most people could sing and some could play the lute.
Lighting of the hall at night was by oil lamps or candles on stands or
on wall fixtures. For outside activities, a lantern [a candle shielded
by a metal cage with panels of finely shaved horn: lant horn] was used.
The residence of the lord's family and guests was at a screened off area
at the extreme end of the hall or on a higher floor. Chests stored
garments and jewels. Iron keys and locks were used for chests and doors.
The great bed had a wooden frame and springs made of interlaced rope or
strips of leather. It was covered with a feather mattress, sheets,
quilts, fur covers, and pillows. Drapery around the bed kept out cold
drafts and provided privacy. There was a water bowl for washing in the
morning. A chamber pot was kept under the bed for nighttime use. Hay was
used as toilet paper. The lord's personal servants slept nearby on
benches or trundle beds. Most of the gentlemen servants slept communally
in a "knight's chamber". The floor of the hall was strewn with straw, on
which common folk could sleep at night. There were stools on which to
sit. Cup boards (boards on which to store cups) and chests stored spices
and plate. One-piece iron shears were available to cut cloth. Handheld
spindles were used for weaving; one hand held the spindle [a small stick
weighted at one end] while the other hand alternately formed the thread
and wound it around the spindle. On the roofs there were rampart walks
for sentry patrols and parapets from which to shoot arrows or throw
things at besiegers. Each tenant of the demesne of the king where he had
a castle had to perform a certain amount of castle guard duty for its
continuing defense. These knights performing castle-guard duty slept at
their posts. Bathing was done in a wooden tub located in the garden in
the summer and indoors near the fire in winter. The great bed and tub
for bathing were taken on trips with the lord. The entire household was
of men, except for the lord's lady with a few lady companions. The
ladies rode pillion [on a cushion behind the saddle] or in litters
suspended between two horses.
Markets grew up outside castle walls. Any trade on a lord's land was
subject to "passage", a payment on goods passing through, "stallage", a
payment for setting up a stall or booth in a market, and "pontage", a
payment for taking goods across a bridge.
The Norman man was clean shaven on his face and around his ears and at
the nape of the neck. His hair was short. He wore a long- sleeved
under-tunic of linen or wool that reached to his ankles. Over this the
Norman noble wore a tunic without sleeves, open at the sides, and
fastened with a belt. Over one shoulder was his cloak, which was
fastened on the opposite shoulder by being drawn through a ring brooch
and knotted. He wore tight thick cloth stockings to protect him from the
mud and leather shoes. Common men wore durable, but drab, wool tunics to
the knee so as not to impede them in their work. They could roll up
their stockings when working in the fields. A lady wore a high-necked,
long- sleeved linen or wool tunic fitted at the waist and laced at the
side, but full in the skirt, which reached to her toes. She wore a
jeweled belt, passed twice around her waist and knotted in front. Her
hair was often in two long braids, and her head and ears covered with a
white round cloth held in place by a metal circlet like a small crown.
Its ends were wound around her neck. In winter, she wore over her tunic
a cloak edged or lined with fur and fastened at the front with a cord.
Clothes of both men and ladies were brightly colored by dyes or
embroidery. The Norman knight wore an over-tunic of leather or heavy
linen on which were sewn flat rings of iron and a conical iron helmet
with nose cover. He wore a sword at his waist and a metal shield on his
back, or he wore his sword and his accompanying retainers carried spear
and shield.
Norman customs were adopted by the nation. As a whole, Anglo-Saxon men
shaved their beards and whiskers from their faces, but they kept their
custom of long hair flowing from their heads. But a few kept their
whiskers and beards in protest of the Normans. Everyone had a permanent
surname indicating parentage, place of birth, or residence, such as
Field, Pitt, Lane, Bridge, Ford, Stone, Burn, Church, Hill, Brook,
Green. Other names came from occupations such as Shepherd, Carter,
Parker, Fowler, Hunter, Forester, Smith. Still other came from personal
characteristics such as Black, Brown, and White, Short, Round, and Long.
Some took their names from animals such as Wolf, Fox, Lamb, Bull, Hogg,
Sparrow, Crow, and Swan. Others were called after the men they served,
such as King, Bishop, Abbot, Prior, Knight. A man's surname was passed
on to his son.
Those few coerls whose land was not taken by a baron remained free and
held their land "in socage" and became known as sokemen. They were not
fighting men, and did not give homage, but might give fealty, i.e.
fidelity. Many free sokemen were caught up in the subjugation by baron
landlords and were reduced almost to the condition of the unfree
villein. The services they performed for their lords were often
indistinguishable. They might also hold their land by villein tenure,
although free as a person with the legal rights of a freeman. The
freeman still had a place in court proceedings which the unfree villein
did not.
Great stone cathedrals were built in fortified towns for the
Conquerer's Norman bishops, who replaced the English bishops. Most of
the existing and new monasteries functioned as training grounds for
scholars, bishops, and statesmen rather than as retreats from the
world's problems to the security of religious observance. The number of
monks grew as the best minds were recruited into the monasteries.
The Conquerer made the church subordinate to him. Bishops were elected
only subject to the King's consent. The bishops had to accept the status
of barons. Homage was exacted from them before they were consecrated,
and fealty and an oath afterward. The Conquerer imposed knight's service
on bishoprics, abbeys, and monasteries, which was usually commuted to a
monetary amount. Bishops had to attend the King's court. Bishops could
not leave the realm without the King's consent. No royal tenant or royal
servant could be excommunicated, nor his lands be placed under
interdict, without the King's consent. Interdict could demand, for
instance, that the church be closed and the dead buried in unconsecrated
ground. No church rules could be made without his agreement to their
terms. No letters from the pope could be received without the King's
permission. The Archbishop of Canterbury was still recognized as a
primary advisor to the king. Over the years, the selection for this
office frequently became a source of contention among king, pope, and
clergy.
Men continued to give land to the church for their souls, such as this
grant which started the town of Sandwich: "William, King of the English,
to Lanfranc the Archbishop and Hugoni de Montfort and Richard son of
Earl Gilbert and Haimo the sheriff and all the thegns of Kent, French
and English, greeting. Know ye that the Bishop of Bayeux my brother for
the love of God and for the salvation of my soul and his own, has given
to St. Trinity all houses with their appurtenances which he has at
Sandwich and that he has given what he has given by my license." Many
private owners of churches gave them to cathedrals or monastic
communities, partly to ensure their long term survival, and partly
because of church pressure.
When the land was all divided out, the barons had about 3/7 of it and
the church about 2/7. Most of the barons had been royal servants. The
king retained about 2/7, including forests for hunting, for himself and
his family and household, on which he built many royal castles and
hundreds of manor [large private estate headed by a lord] houses
throughout the nation. He built the massive White Tower in London. It
was tall with four turrets on top, and commanded a view of the river and
bridge, the city and the surrounding countryside. The only windows were
slits from which arrows could be shot. On the fourth and top floor was
the council chamber and the gallery of the chapel. On the third floor
was the banqueting hall, the sword room, and the chapel. The king and
his household slept in apartments on these upper floors. Stairs went up
to the gateway entrance on the second floor, which were hidden by a
wall. The garrison's barracks were on the first floor (ground floor).
Any prisoners were kept in cells at a level below the first floor. The
other castles were often built at the old fortification burhs of Alfred.
Each had a constable in charge, who was a baron. Barons and earls had
castle-guard duty in the king's castles. The Conquerer was constantly
moving about the land among his and his barons' castles, where he met
with his magnates and conducted public business, such as deciding
disputes about holding of land. Near his own castles and other of his
property, he designated many areas as royal hunting forests. Anyone who
killed a deer in these forests was mutilated, for instance by blinding.
People living within the boundaries of the designated forestland could
no longer go into nearby woods to get meat or honey, dead wood for
firing, or live wood for building. Swineherds could no longer drive pigs
into these woods to eat acorns they beat down from oak trees. Making
clearings and grazing livestock in the designated forestland were
prohibited. Most of the nation was either wooded or bog at this time.
London was a walled town of one and two story houses made of mud,
twigs, and straw, with thatched roofs. It included a bundle of
communities, townships, parishes, and lordships. There were churches, a
goods market, a fish market, quays on the river, and a bridge over the
river. Streets probably named by this time include Bread Street, Milk
Street, Honey Lane, Wood Street, and Ironmonger Lane. Fairs and games
were held outside the town walls in a field called "Smithfield". The
great citizens had the land qualifications of knights and ranked as
barons on the Conquerer's council. The freemen were a small percentage
of London's population. There was a butchers' guild, a pepperers' guild,
a goldsmiths' guild, the guild of St. Lazarus, which was probably a
leper charity (of which there were many in the 1000s and 1100s), the
Pilgrims' guild, which helped people going on pilgrimages, and four
bridge guilds, probably for keeping the wooden London Bridge in repair.
Men told the time by sundials, some of which were portable and could be
carried in one's pocket. London could defend itself, and a ringing of
the bell of St. Paul's Church could shut every shop and fill the streets
with armed horsemen and soldiers led by a soldier portreeve. Across the
Thames from London on its south side was Southwark, a small trading and
fishing settlement.
The Conquerer did not interfere with landholding in London, but
recognized its independence as a borough in this writ: "William the King
greets William, Bishop of London, and Gosfrith the portreeve, and all
the burgesses [citizens] of London friendly. Know that I will that you
be worthy of all the laws you were worthy of in the time of King Edward.
And I will that every child shall be his father's heir after his
father's day. And I will not suffer any man to do you wrong. God
preserve you." The Norman word "mayor" replaced "portreeve".
So London was not subjected to the Norman feudal system. It had neither
villeins nor slaves. Whenever Kings asserted authority over it, the
citizens reacted until the king "granted" a charter reaffirming the
freedoms of the city and its independence.
Under pressure from the ecclesiastical judges, the Conquerer replaced
the death penalty by that of the mutilation of blinding, chopping off
hands, and castrating offenders. Castration was the punishment for rape.
But these mutilations usually led to a slow death by gangrene.
The Normans used the Anglo-Saxon concepts of jurisdictional powers.
Thus when the Conquerer confirmed "customs" to the abbot of Ely, these
were understood to include the following: 1) sac and soke - the right to
hold a court of private jurisdiction and enjoy its profits, 2) toll - a
payment in towns, markets, and fairs for goods and chattel bought and
sold, 3) team - persons might be vouched to warranty in the court, the
grant of which made a court capable of hearing suits arising from the
transfer of land, 4) infangenthef - right of trying and executing
thieves on one's land, 4) hamsocne [jurisdiction over breach of the
right of security and privacy in a man's house, e.g. by forcible
entry],, 5) grithbrice - violation of the grantees' special peace, for
instance that of the sheriff, 6) fightwite - fine for a general breach
of the peace, 7) fyrdwite - fine for failure to appear in the fyrd.
Every shire, now called "county", had at least one burh, or defensible
town. Kings had appointed a royal moneyer in each burh to mint silver
coins such as pennies for local use. On one side was the King's head in
profile and on the other side was the name of the moneyer. When a new
coinage was issued, all moneyers had to go to London to get the new
dies. The Conquerer's head faced frontally on his dies, instead of the
usual profile used by former Kings.
The Conquerer held and presided over his council three times a year, as
was the custom, at Easter, Christmas, and Whitsuntide, which coincided
with the great Christian festivals. This was an advisory council and
consisted of the Conquerer's wife and sons, earls, barons, knights,
officers of the King's household, archbishops, and bishops. It replaced
the witan of wise men. It dealt with fundamental matters of law, state,
war, and church. Earldoms and knighthoods were conferred and homages to
the king were witnessed. Bishops were nominated. Attendance at the
council, like attendance at courts, was regarded as a burden rather than
a privilege. The Conquerer's will was the motive force which under lay
all the council's action. When it was administering royal justice, it
was called the Royal Court.
The Justiciar was the head of all legal matters and he or the
Conquerer's wife represented the King at the Royal Court in his absence
from the realm. The chamberlain was a financial officer of the
household; his work was rather that of auditor or accountant. The
Chancellor headed the Chancery and the chapel. Other household offices
were steward, butler, constable, and marshall. The Treasurer was
responsible for the collection and distribution of revenue and was the
keeper of the royal treasure at the palace at Winchester. He was also an
important member of the household and sat in the Exchequer at
Westminster, where he received the accounts of the sheriffs. The
Exchequer was composed of the justiciar as head, the chancellor, the
constable, two chamberlains, the marshall and other experienced
councilors. The word "Exchequer" came from the chequered cloth on the
table used to calculate in Roman numerals the amount due and the amount
paid. The word "calculate" derives from the word "calculi", meaning
pebbles. It was a kind of abacus. The Exchequer received yearly from the
sheriffs of the counties taxes, fines, treasure trove, goods from
wrecks, deodands, and movable property of felons, of persons executed,
of fugitives, and of outlaws due to the Crown. The Conqueror presided
yearly over feasts involving several thousand guests at Westminster
Hall, which was 250 feet by 70 feet with a high ceiling, the largest
hall in England.
The Conquerer's reign was a time of tentative expedients and simple
solutions. He administered by issuing writs with commands or
prohibitions. These were read aloud by the sheriffs in the county courts
and other locations. Administration was by the personal servants of his
royal household, such as the chancellor, chamberlain, constable,
marshals, steward, and butler. The language of government changed to
Latin. The chancellor was from the clergy and supervised the writers and
clerks, who were literate, and appended the great seal before witnesses
to documents. He also headed the staff of the royal chapel. The
chamberlain was a financial officer who audited and accounted. The
constable was responsible for supplies for the knights of the royal
household. He also supervised the care of horses, hounds, hawks, and
huntsmen, houndsmen, and foresters. The marshals came from less
important families than the constable and they preserved order in the
king's hall and recorded expenditures of the household officers on
tallies. The steward was a great baron whose duties were chiefly
ceremonial, such as placing the dishes before the king at banquets.
Sheriffs became powerful figures as the primary agents for enforcing
royal edicts. There was no longer supervision of them by earls nor
influence on them by bishops. They were customarily prominent barons.
They collected the royal taxes, executed royal justice, and presided
over and controlled the hundred and county courts. They were responsible
for remitting a certain sum annually. If a sheriff received more than
necessary, he retained the difference as his lawful profit of office. If
he received less than necessary, he had to make up the difference from
his own pocket. Before rendering this account, he paid the royal
benefactions to religious houses, provided for the maintenance of stock
on crown lands, paid for the costs of provisions supplied to the court,
and paid for traveling expenses of the king and his visitors. The
payments were initially paid in kind: e.g. grain, cattle, horses,
hounds, and hawks. Sheriffs also took part in the keeping of castles and
often managed the estates of the King. Most royal writs were addressed
to the sheriff and county courts. They also led the county militia in
time of war or rebellion. At times, a sheriff usurped royal rights, used
royal estates for his own purposes, encroached on private land and
rights, extorted money, and collected revenues only for his own pockets.
Over the centuries, there was much competition for the authority to
select the sheriff, e.g. by the king, the county court, the barons, and
the Exchequer. There was also much pressure to limit his term to one
year. Over time, the powers of the sheriffs slowly declined.
Royal income came from customary dues, profits of coinage and of
justice, and revenues from the King's own estates. For war, there was no
change in the custom that a man with five hides of land was required to
furnish one heavy armed horseman for forty days service in a year. The
fyrd was retained. A threat of a Viking invasion caused the Conquerer to
reinstate the danegeld tax at 6s. per hide, which was three times its
old rate. (The price of an ox was still about 30d.) To impose this tax
uniformly, he sent commissioners to conduct surveys by sworn verdicts of
appointed groups of local men. A detailed survey of land holdings and
the productive worth of each was made in 1086. The English called it the
"Doomsday Book" because there was no appeal from it.
The survey revealed, for instance, that one estate had "on the home
farm five plough teams: there are also 25 villeins and 6 cotters with 14
teams among them. There is a mill worth 2s. a year and one fishery, a
church and four acres of meadow, wood for 150 pigs and two stone
quarries, each worth 2s. a year, and two nests of hawks in the wood and
10 slaves." This estate was deemed to be worth 480s. a year.
Laxton "had 2 carucates of land [assessed] to the geld. [There is] land
for 6 ploughs. There Walter, a man of [the lord] Geoffrey Alselin's has
1 plough and 22 villeins and 7 bordars [a bordar had a cottage and a
small amount land in return for supplying small provisions to his lord]
having 5 ploughs and 5 serfs and 1 female serf and 40 acres of meadow.
Wood [land] for pannage [foraging by pigs] 1 league in length and half a
league in breadth. In King Edward's time it was worth 9 pounds; now [it
is worth] 6 pounds."
Ilbert de Laci has now this land, where he has twelve ploughs in the
demesne; and forty-eight villani, and twelve bordars with fifteen
ploughs, and three churches and three priests, and three mills of ten
shillings. Wood pastures two miles long, and one broad. The whole manor
five miles long and two broad. Value in King Edward's time sixteen
pounds, the same now.
That manor of the town of Coventry which was individually held was that
of the Countess of Coventry, who was the wife of the earl of Mercia.
"The Countess held in Coventry. There are 5 hides. The arable land
employs 20 ploughs. In the demesne lands there are 3 ploughs and 7
bondmen. There are 50 villeins and 12 bordars with 20 ploughs. The mill
there pay[s] 3 shillings. The woodlands are 2 miles long and the same
broad. In King Edward's time and afterwards, it was worth 22 pounds [440
s.], now only 11 pounds by weight. These lands of the Countess Godiva
Nicholas holds to farm of the King."
The survey shows a few manors and monasteries owned a salthouse or
saltpit in the local saltworks, from which they were entitled to obtain
salt.
In total there were about 110,000 villani [former coerls regarded as
customary, irremovable cultivator tenants]; 82,000 bordarii; 7,000
cotarii and cotseti [held land by service of labor or rent paid in
produce], and 25,000 servi [landless laborers]. There are no more
theows. This survey resulted in the first national tax system of about
6s. per hide of land.
The survey also provided the Conquerer with a summary of customs of
areas. For instance, in Oxfordshire, "Anyone breaking the King's peace
given under his hand and seal to the extent of committing homicide shall
be at the King's mercy in respect of his life and members. That is if he
be captured. And if he cannot be captured, he shall be considered as an
outlaw, and anyone who kills him shall have all his possessions. The
king shall take the possessions of any stranger who has elected to live
in Oxford and who dies in possession of a house in that town, and
without any kinfolk. The king shall be entitled to the body and the
possessions of any man who kills another within his own court or house
excepting always the dower of his wife, if he has a wife who has
received dower.
The courts of the king and barons became schools of chivalry wherein
seven year old noble boys became pages or valets, wore a dagger and
waited upon the ladies of the household. At age fourteen, they were
advanced to squires and admitted into more familiar association with the
knights and ladies of the court. They perfected their skills in dancing,
riding, fencing, hawking, hunting, jousting, and engaged in team sports
in which the goal was to put the other side to rout. They learned the
knightly art of war. Enemy fighters were to be taken and held for ransom
rather than killed. Those engaging in rebellion were to be pardoned and
restored to some or all of their lands and titles. Lords' sons could be
mutually exchanged with an enemy's as security for peace. After
achieving knighthood, a man usually selected a wife from the court at
which he grew up. Parents tried to send their daughters to a household
superior in social status not only to learn manners, but to make a good
marriage. A girl who did not marry was often sent to a nunnery; a dowry
was necessary before her acceptance.
The following incidents of land tenure began (but were not firmly
established until the reign of Henry II). Each tenant, whether baron or
subtenant, was to pay an "aid" in money for ransom if his lord was
captured in war, for the knighthood of his lord's eldest son, and for
the marriage of his lord's eldest daughter. The aid was theoretically
voluntary. Land could be held by an heir only if he could fight. The
eldest son began to succeed to the whole of the lands in all military
tenures. Younger sons of great houses became bishops. An heir of a
tenant had to pay a heavy "relief" on succession to his estate. The
relief replaced the heriot. If there was a delay in proving heirship or
paying relief, the lord would hold the land and receive its income in
the meantime, often a year. If an heir was still a minor or female, he
or she passed into his lord's wardship, in which the lord had
guardianship of the heir and possession of the estate, with all its
profits. The mother was not made a minor's guardian. No longer was the
estate protected by the minor's kin as his birthright. A female heir was
expected to marry a man acceptable to the lord. The estate of an heiress
and her land was generally sold to the highest bidder. If there were no
heirs, the land escheated to the lord. If a tenant committed felony, his
land escheated to his lord. The word "felony" came from the Latin word
meaning "to deceive" and referred to the feudal crime of betraying or
committing treachery against one's lord.
Astrologers resided with the families of the barons. People went to
fortune tellers' shops. There was horse racing, steeple races, and chess
for recreation. Girls had dolls; boys had toy soldiers, spinning tops,
toy horses, ships, and wooden models.
The state of medicine is indicated by this medical advice brought to
the nation by William's son after treatment on the continent:
"If thou would have health and vigor Shun cares and avoid anger. Be
temperate in eating And in the use of wine. After a heavy meal Rise and
take the air Sleep not with an overloaded stomach And above all thou
must Respond to Nature when she calls."
The Conquerer allowed Jewish traders to follow him from Normandy and
settle in separate sections of the main towns. Then engaged in long
distance trade, money changing, and money lending. They loaned money for
interest for the building of castles and cathedrals. Christians were not
allowed by the church to engage in this usury. The Jews could not become
citizens nor could they have standing in the local courts. Instead, a
royal justiciar secured justice for them. They could practice their own
religion.
William the Conquerer was succeeded as king by his son William II
(Rufus), who transgressed many of the customs of the nation to get more
money for himself. He was killed by an arrow of a fellow hunter while
they and William's younger brother Henry were hunting together in a
crown forest. Henry then became king.
- The Law -
The Norman conquerors brought no written law, but affirmed the laws of
the nation. Two they especially enforced were:
1. Anyone caught in the act of digging up the King's road, felling a
tree across it, or attacking someone so that his blood spilled on it
shall pay a fine to the King.
2. All freemen shall have a surety who would hand him over to justice
for his offenses or pay the damages or fines due. If an accused man
fled, his surety would have a year to find him to obtain reimbursement.
The Conquerer proclaimed that:
No cattle shall be sold except in towns and before three witnesses.
For the sale of ancient chattels, there must be a surety and a
warrantor.
No man shall be sold over the sea. (This ended the slave trade at the
port of Bristol.)
The death penalty for persons tried by court is abolished.
- Judicial Procedure -
"Ecclesiastical" courts were created for bishops to preside over cases
concerning the cure of souls and criminal cases, in which the ordeal was
used. When the Conquerer did not preside over this court, an appeal
could be made to him.
The hundred and county courts now sat without clergy and handled only
"civil" cases. They were conducted by the King's own appointed sheriff.
Only freemen and not bound villeins had standing in this court. They
continued to transact their business in the English language.
The local jurisdictions of thegns who had grants of sac and soke or who
exercised judicial functions among their free neighbors were now called
"manors" under their new owners, who conducted a manor court.
The Conquerer's Royal Court was called the "Curia Regis". When the
Conquerer wished to determine the national laws, he summoned twelve
elected representatives of each county to declare on oath the ancient
lawful customs and law as they existed in the time of the popular King
Edward the Confessor. The recording of this law was begun. A person
could spend months trying to catch up with the Royal Court to present a
case. Sometimes the Conquerer sent the justiciar or commissioners to
hold his Royal Court in the various districts. The commissioner
appointed groups of local men to give a collective verdict upon oath for
each trial he conducted. The Conquerer allowed, on an ad hoc basis,
certain high-level people such as bishops and abbots and those who made
a large payment, to have land disputes decided by an inquiry of
recognitors. Besides royal issues, the Curia Regis heard appeals from
lower court decisions. It used English, Norman, feudal, Roman, and canon
law legal principles to reach a decision, and was flexible and
expeditious.
A dispute between a Norman and an English man over land or a criminal
act could be decided by trial by combat [battle]. Each combatant first
swore to the truth of his cause and undertook to prove by his body the
truth of his cause by making the other surrender by crying "craven"
[craving forgiveness]. The combatants used weapons like pickaxes and
shields. Presumably the man in the wrong would not fight as well because
he was burdened with a guilty conscience. Although this trial was
thought to reflect God's will, it favored the physically fit and adept
person. After losing the trial by combat, the guilty person would be
punished appropriately.
London had its own traditions. All London citizens met at its folkmote,
which was held three times a year to determine its public officers, to
raise matters of public concern, and to make ordinances. Its criminal
court had the power of outlawry as did the county courts. Trade, land,
and other civil issues were dealt with by the Hustings Court, which met
every Monday in the Guildhall. The city was divided into wards, each of
which was under the charge of an elected alderman [elder man]. (The
election was by a small governing body and the most wealthy and
reputable men and not a popular election.) The aldermen had special
knowledge of the law and a duty to declare it at the Hustings Court.
Each alderman also conducted wardmotes in his ward and decided criminal
and civil issues between its residents. Within the wards were the guilds
of the city.
The Normans, as foreigners, were protected by the king's peace. The
entire hundred was the ultimate surety for murder and would have to pay
a "murdrum" fine of 31 pounds [46 marks] for the murder of any Norman,
if the murderer was not apprehended by his lord within a few days. The
reaction to this was that the murderer mutilated the corpse to make
identification of ethnicity impossible. So the Conquerer ordered that
every murder victim was assumed to be Norman unless proven English. This
began a court custom in murder cases of first proving the victim to be
English.
The Royal Court decided this case: "At length both parties were
summoned before the King's court, in which there sat many of the nobles
of the land of whom Geoffrey, bishop of Coutances, was delegated by the
King's authority as judge of the dispute, with Ranulf the Vicomte, Neel,
son of Neel, Robert de Usepont, and many other capable judges who
diligently and fully examined the origin of the dispute, and delivered
judgment that the mill ought to belong to St. Michael and his monks
forever. The most victorious King William approved and confirmed this
decision."
- - - Chapter 5 - - -
- The Times: 1100-1154 -
King Henry I, son of William the Conquerer, furthered peace between the
Normans and native English by his marriage to a niece of King Edward the
Confessor called Matilda. She married him on condition that he grant a
charter of rights undoing some practices of the past reigns of William I
and William II. Peace was also furthered by the fact that Henry I had
been born in England and English was his native tongue. The private wars
of lords were now replaced by less serious mock battles.
Henry was a shrewd judge of character and of the course of events,
cautious before taking action, but decisive in carrying out his plans.
He was faithful and generous to his friends. He showed a strong
practical element of calculation and foresight. Although illiterate, he
was intelligent and a good administrator. He had an efficient
intelligence gathering network and an uncanny knack of detecting hidden
plans before they became conspiratorial action. He made many able men of
inferior social position nobles, thus creating a class of career judges
and administrators in opposition to the extant hereditary aristocracy.
He loved books and built a palace at Oxford to which he invited scholars
for lively discussion. Euclid's "Elements" ", which deduced from axioms
the properties of lines, circles, and spheres, was introduced into
England.
Queen Matilda served as regent of the kingdom in Henry's absence, as
William's queen had for him. Both queens received special coronation
apart from their husbands; they held considerable estates which they
administered through their own officers, and were frequently composed of
escheated honors. Matilda was learned and a literary patron. She founded
an important literary and scholastic center. Her compassion was great
and her charities extensive. In London she founded several almshouses
and a caregiving infirmary for lepers. These were next to small monastic
communities. She also had new roads and bridges built.
Henry issued charters restoring customs which had been subordinated to
royal impositions by previous Kings, which set a precedent for later
Kings. His coronation charter describes certain property rights he
restored after the oppressive reign of his brother, William II.
"Henry, King of the English, to Samson the bishop, and Urse of Abbetot,
and to all his barons and faithful vassals, both French and English, in
Worcestershire, greeting.
[1.] Know that by the mercy of God and by the common counsel of the
barons of the whole kingdom of England I have been crowned king of this
realm. And because the kingdom has been oppressed by unjust
exactions, I now, being moved by reverence towards God and by the love I
bear you all, make free the Church of God; so that I will neither sell
nor lease its property; nor on the death of an archbishop or a bishop or
an abbot will I take anything from the demesne of the Church or from its
vassals during the period which elapses before a successor is installed.
I abolish all the evil customs by which the kingdom of England has
beunjustly oppressed. Some of those evil customs are here set forth.
[2.] If any of my barons or of my earls or of any other of my tenants
shall die his heir shall not redeem his land as he was wont to do in the
time of my brother, but he shall henceforth redeem it by means of a
just and lawful 'relief`. Similarly the men of my barons shall redeem
their lands from their lords by means of a just and lawful 'relief`.
[3.] If any of my barons or of my tenants shall wish to give in
marriage his daughter or his sister or his niece or his cousin, he shall
consult me about the matter; but I will neither seek payment for my
consent, nor will I refuse my permission, unless he wishes to give her
in marriage to one of my enemies. And if, on the death of one of my
barons or of one of my tenants, a daughter should be his heir, I will
dispose of her in marriage and of her lands according to the counsel
given me by my barons. And if the wife of one of my tenants shall
survive her husband and be without children, she shall have her dower
and her marriage portion [that given to her by her parents], and I will
not give her in marriage unless she herself consents.
[4.] If a widow survives with children under age, she shall have her
dower and
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