King Alfred collected regulations from various church synods and commanded that many of them which English forefathers had observed to be written out - those which appealed to him; and many of those that did not appeal to him he rejected, with the consent of his Witan or commanded them to be observed in a different way. "These are the regulations which the Almighty God himself spoke to Moses and ordered him to observe and subsequently the only-born son of the Lord, our God, that is the Savior Christ confirmed …": 1. Do not love other strange gods before me. 2. Do not speak My name idly, for you will not be guiltless with Me if you idly speak My name. 3. Remember to hallow the rest-day. Work for yourselves six days, and on the seventh day rest yourselves. For in six days, God the Father made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all creatures that are in them, and rested himself on the seventh day, and therefore God has sanctified it. 4. Honour your father and your mother that God gave you so that you may be the longer living on earth. 5. Do not kill. 6. Do not lie in sexual union secretly. 7. Do not steal. 8. Do not speak false evidence. 9. Do not wish for your neighbour's property unrightfully. 10. Do not make yourselves golden or silver gods. 11. If anyone buy a Christian slave, let him serve for six years and on the seventh let him be free without payment. With such clothes as he entered into service, let him leave with. If he has a wife of his own providing, let her leave with him. If the master provided him with a wife, both she and her children shall belong to the master. If the slave then says `I do not want to leave my master or my wife or my child or my property', let his master bring him to the door of the Temple and perforate his ear with an awl as a sign that he shall ever afterwards be a slave. 12. Though someone sell his daughter into slavery do not let her be a slave entirely as are other maid servants. He has not the right to sell her abroad among foreign people. But if he who bought her does not care for her, let her be free among a foreign people. But if he i.e. the purchaser allows his son to cohabit with her, give her the morning gift and ensure that she has clothing and that she has the value of her maidenhood, that is the dowry - let him give her that. If he does none of those things for her, then she shall be free. 13. The person who slays another deliberately shall suffer death. He that has killed another in self defense or involuntarily or unintentionally, as God delivered him i.e. the victim into his hands and providing he i.e. the killer did not set a trap for him - in that case let him be worthy of his life, and of settling by customary compensation, if he should seek asylum. If however anyone deliberately and intentionally kills his neighbour treacherously, pluck him from my altar so that he should suffer death. 14. He that attacks his father or his mother shall suffer death. 15. He that abducts a freeman and sell him, and it is proved so that he cannot absolve himself, let him suffer death. He that curses his father or his mother, let him suffer death. 16. If someone attacks his neighbour with a stone or with his fist, but he i.e. the victim can still get about with the aid of a staff, let him i.e. the aggressor provide him with a doctor and do his i.e. the victim's work for him for as long as he i.e. the victim cannot himself. 17. He that attacks his own non-free servant or his maidservant, and they are not dead as a result of the attack but live two or three days, he i.e. the aggressor shall not be so entirely guilty, because it was his own property he damaged. But if the slave be dead the same day, then the guilt rests on him i.e. the aggressor. 18. If anyone in the course of a dispute injure a pregnant woman, let him make compensation for the hurt as judges decide in his case. If she be dead, let him give life for life. 19. If anyone put out another's eye, let him give his own for it. Tooth for tooth. Hand for hand. Foot for foot. Burn for burn. Wound for wound. Bruise for bruise. 20. If anyone strike the eye of his slave or maidservant out and so makes them one-eyed, let him free them for that. If he strike out a tooth, let him do the same. 21. If an ox gore a man or woman so that they are dead, it it be stoned to death and do not let the flesh be eaten. The owner shall not be liable if the ox was butting two days before that or even three and the owner did not know of it. But if he knew of it and would not shut it i.e. the animal in, and then it killed a man or woman, let it be stoned to death and let the master be killed or made to pay as the Witan consider proper. If it gore a son or daughter, let the same penalty apply. But if it gore a slave or serving-woman, let the owner give 30 shillings of silver and let the ox be stoned to death. 22. If anyone dig a well or open up a closed one and does not close it up again, let him pay for whatever cattle fall in; but let him have the dead animal for his own use. 23. If an ox wound another man's ox so it is dead, let them sell the live ox and share the proceeds, and also the flesh of the dead ox. But if the owner knew the ox was butting and would not restrain it, let him hand over the other i.e. live ox for it but let him have all the flesh of the dead ox for his own use. 24. If anyone steal another man's ox and kill or sell it, let him give two oxen in restitution. And four sheep for one stolen. If he i.e. the thief does not have anything to give in restitution, let him be sold himself to raise the money. 25. If a thief break into a man's house by night and is killed there, he i.e. the house-owner shall not be guilty of manslaughter. But if he i.e. the house-owner does this after sunrise, he is guilty of manslaughter, and shall himself perish, unless he acted in self-defence. If there is found in the possession of the living thief things he had already stolen, let him make restitution for it two-fold. 26. If anyone damage another man's vineyard or his crops or any part of his estate, let him pay compensation according to how it is assessed. 27. If a fire is lit in order to burn rubbish, let him who started the fire pay compensation for any consequent damage. 28. If anyone entrusts any possession to his friend and the friend appropriates it for himself, let him i.e. the friend clear himself and prove that he committed no fraud in the matter. If it was livestock, and he says that raiders took it, or it perished of itself, and if he has proof, he need not pay up. But if he has no proof, and the original owner does not believe him, let him make an oath to clear himself. 29. If anyone seduce an uncommitted woman and sleeps with her, let him pay for her and take her then as his wife. But if the woman's father is unwilling to let her go, then let the seducer hand over money in proportion to her dowry. 30. The women who are accustomed to harbour enchanters and wizards and witches - do not allow them to live. 31. And he that has intercourse with animals shall suffer death. 32. And he that sacrifices to idols, rather than to God alone, let him suffer death. 33. Do not harass visitors from abroad and foreigners, for you were formerly strangers on the land of the Egyptians. 34. Do not harm widows and step-children, neither do them any injury. If you do otherwise, they will call upon Me and I will listen to them, and then I will slay you with my sword and I will ensure that your wives shall be widows and your children orphans. 35. If you hand over money as a loan to your comrade who wishes to live with you, do not coerce him like an underling and do not oppress him with the interest. 36. If someone has only a single garment to cover and clothe himself with and he hands it over as a pledge, let it be returned before the sun sets. If you do not do so then he will call unto Me, and I will listen to him because I am very clement. 37. Do not reproach you Lord, nor curse the lord of the people. 38. Your tithe i.e. tenth-part of profit and your first-fruits of moving animals and growing crops, offer to God. 39. All the flesh that wild animals leave, do not eat it but give it to the dogs. 40. Do not bother to give credence to the word of a false man, and do not approve his opinions; do not repeat any of his assertions. 41. Do not join in the false judgment and evil aspirations of the many nor join in their rumours and outcry, against your own conscience, at the incitement of some ignorant person. Do not support them. 42. If the stray cattle of another man come into your possession, though it be the property of your enemy, let him know about it. 43. Judge equably, do not lay down one rule for the rich, another for the poor; do not decide one way for a friend, another for a foe. 44. Always shun falsehood. 45. Never slay a righteous and innocent man. 46. Never accept bribes, for they very often blind the minds of wise men and pervert their words. 47. Do not behave unkindly to foreigners and visitors from abroad; do not harass them with unjust acts. 48. Never swear an oath by heathen gods, nor in any circumstances call upon them. Alfred also issued a set of laws to cover the whole country that he derived from laws of various regional kings in England as follows: "1. First we insist that there is particular need that each person shall keep his oath and his pledge carefully. If anyone be compelled to give either of these wrongly, either to support treachery to his lord or to provide any unlawful aid, then it is better to forswear than to fulfil. But if he pledge himself to that which it is right for him to fulfil and fails, let him submissively hand over his weapons and his possessions to his friends to keep, and stay forty days in prison in a property of the king. Let him undergo there whatever the bishop prescribes as penance, and let his kinsmen feed him if he himself has no food. If he has no kin or has no food, let the king's officer feed him. If one has to compel him to this i.e. to surrender, and otherwise he is unwilling to co-operate - if they have to bind him he shall forfeit his weapons and his possessions. If he is slain while resisting, let him lie uncompensated. If he makes an escape before the time is up, and he is recaptured, let him stay forty days in prison as he would have previously. But if he gets away, let him be banished and excommunicated from all the churches of Christ. Further, if someone has provided surety for him, let him compensate for the breach of surety as custom require him, and atone for the breach of pledge as his confessor imposes in his case. 2. If anyone seek out as sanctuary for any offence any of the monastic houses to which the king's revenue applies, or any other exempt community that is worthy of respect he shall have a period of three days of immunity, unless he wants to negotiate before that. If someone harms him during that period, either by assault or by fettering him,, or by a penetrating wound, let the aggressor pay compensation for each of such attacks according to proper practice, both with wergeld and with a fine, and 120 shillings to that community, as compensation for breach of sanctuary, and let his own possessions be forfeit. 3. If anyone violate the king's surety, let him pay compensation for the original charge as customary law direct, and for the violation of surety with five pounds of the purer pennies. In the case of breach of an archbishop's surety or protection, let him compensate with three pounds. For violation of the surety or protection of another bishop or official [earldorman], let him make compensation with two pounds. 4. If anyone plot against the king's life, either directly or by harbouring outlaws or indirectly through the agency of his men, let him be liable with his life and with all that he owns. If he desire to prove himself loyal, let him do that by paying a king's wergeld. Similar protection we ordain for all ranks, both common and noble [earl]: whoever plots against his master's life shall be liable with his life and with all that he owns - or let him show his loyalty by paying his master's wergeld. 5. Also we appoint to every church that a bishop has consecrated this right of sanctuary: that if a party to a feud run or ride to the church, then no one may drag him forth for seven days. If however anyone does that, then let him be liable at the rate of breach of a king's protection and at the rate of breach of church sanctuary - more if he take more from the site. [And the sanctuary seeker shall be safe] if he can survive hunger, and unless he himself try to fight his way out. If the community have greater need of their church, let them keep him in another building, and let that not have the more doors than the church itself; Let the church official ensure that no one give the sanctuary-seeker food during that period. If he himself is willing to hand over his weapons to his foes, let them keep him for 30 days and inform his kin about him. Also it shall count as sanctuary if some man seek out a church about any offence that had not previously been revealed, and there confess himself in God's name - let the penalty be half remitted. He that steal on Sunday or at Yule or at Easter or on Holy Thursday or on the Rogation days - for each of those we intend that there should be a double-penalty, as during Lent. 6. If anyone steal something in a church, let him pay a plain compensation and the fine such as they consider appropriate to the plain compensation, and let them strike the hand off with which he did it i.e. the deed. If he wishes to redeem his hand, and they consent to that, let him pay in proportion to his wergeld. 7. If anyone fights in the king's hall or draw his weapon, and he is seized, let the penalty be at the king's judgement, either death or life, as he is willing to grant him. If he escapes and is captured later, let him pay in proportion to his wergeld, and atone for the offence with wergeld and fine, as he may deserve by his act. 8. If anyone abducts a nun of a nunnery without the king's or the bishop's leave, let him pay 120 shillings, half to the king, half to the bishop and the church patron who had charge of the nun. If she lives longer than he that abducted her, let her not have any of his estate. If she bears a child, let that not have any more of the estate than the mother. If anyone slay her child let him pay the king the maternal kindred's share; to the paternal kin let him pay their share. 9. If anyone slay a woman with child, while the child still be within her, let him pay full compensation for the woman and half compensation for the child according to the wergeld of the father's kin. Let the fine payable to the king always be 60 shillings, until the corresponding simple compensation rises to 30 shillings. When the simple compensation rises to that level, then let the fine be 120 shillings. Formerly there was a defined fine for a gold-thief, and a horse-thief and a bee-thief and many special fines greater than others. Now all are alike except for an illegal slayer and that is 120 shillings. 10. If a man has intercourse with the wife of a 1200 shilling wergeld man, let him pay in compensation 120 shillings to the husband. For a 600 shilling wergeld man i.e. husband, let him pay in compensation 100 shillings. For a common man [ceorl] i.e. husband, let him make compensation of 40 shillings. 11. If someone grabs the breast of a common woman, let him compensate with five shillings. If he throws her to the ground but does not have sexual intercourse with her, let him compensate with 60 shillings. If he has sexual intercourse with her let him compensate with sixty shillings. If some other man had previously lain with her, then let the compensation be half that. If someone accuse her of complicity, let her clear herself with an oath guaranteed by sixty hides of land, or forfeit half the compensation. If this happens to a nobly born woman, let the compensation increase in proportion to the wergeld. 12. If someone burns or cuts down another person's trees without permission, let him pay over 5 shillings for each substantial tree, and thereafter, no matter how many there are, five pence for each tree, and thirty shillings as a fine. 13. In the course of their joint work felling trees, if someone is killed by accident, let the tree involved be given to his kin, and let them remove it off the property within 30 days; otherwise let him possess it that owns the forest. 14. If someone is born dumb or deaf, so that he can neither deny or confess his sins, let the father make compensation for his misdeeds. 15. If someone fights or draws his weapon in the presence of an archbishop, let him make compensation with 150 shillings. If this occurs before another bishop or royal official [earldorman] let him make compensation with 100 shillings. 16. If someone steals a cow or mare and drives off a foal or calf, let him pay over one shilling as well as paying compensation for the adult animals according to their value. 17. If anyone entrust a child into the keeping of others, and he i.e. the offspring die while in that guardianship, let him that did the fostering prove his innocence of any crime if anyone accuse him of it. 18. If anyone grabs at a nun's clothing or breast with sexual intent, unless with her consent, let him pay double the rate of compensation we previously arranged for a lay-person. If she commit adultery and she is a betrothed woman, if she is a commoner, let 60 shillings be paid in compensation to the guarantor, and let that be in livestock or cattle, but let no one give any human as part of it. If she be of 600 shilling wergeld, let 100 shillings be paid in compensation to the guarantor. If she be of 1200 shilling wergeld, let compensation of 120 shillings be paid to the guarantor. 19. If anyone lends his weapon to another so that he may kill with it, they may combine, if they are willing, in the matter of paying the wergeld. If they are unwilling to co-operate, let him that proffered the weapon pay a third part of the wergeld and a third part of the fine. If he i.e. the loaner of the weapon prefer to clear himself and assert that he knew of no evil-intent in making the loan, he may do so. 20. If someone entrust cattle to another man's monk, without the approval of the patron if that monk, and it gets lost, let he that originally owned it suffer the loss. 21. If a priest slay another man, let all that he i.e. the priest brought into the monastic community be turned over to the possession of the victim's representatives, and let the bishop unfrock him; then he shall be removed from the monastery, unless the civil patron interceded for him. 22. If someone wishes in the local assembly to declare a claim for debt to the king's officer, and then wishes to cancel it, let him impute i.e. transfer it to a truer source if he can. If he cannot, let him forfeit the single value. 23. If a dog rends or bites someone, for the first misdeed let the owner hand over 6 shillings, if he is still giving it food. For as second occurrence, let him give 12 shillings, and for a third 30 shillings. If, upon any of these misdeeds, the dog escapes, nonetheless the penalty proceeds. If the dog commit more misdeeds and he i.e. the owner still keeps him, let him pay compensation at the level of a full wergeld as well as wound-compensation according to what he i.e. the dog has done. 24. If an ox wounds someone, let him i.e. the owner hand the animal over or come forward with some solution. 25. If someone forces a commoner's slave-woman to sexual intercourse, let him compensate the owner with 5 shillings and pay 60 shillings fine. If a male slave compel a female slave to sexual intercourse, let him atone with his testicles. 26. If someone force an underage woman into sexual intercourse, let the compensation be as that of an adult person. 27. If someone without kin on his father's side gets into a fight and kills someone, if he has maternal relatives, let them pay a third part of the wergeld; and a third part his guild-brethren; for a third part unpaid let him flee. If he has no maternal relatives, let the guild-brethren pay a half; for a half unpaid let him flee. 28. If someone kill a man so circumstanced and if he has no kinfolk, let them pay half the wergeld to the king, half to his guild-brethren. 29. If anyone in a group kills a 200 shilling wergeld man who is guiltless, let him that acknowledges the blow pay over wergeld and fine, and let every man who was of the party hand over 30 shillings in token of his complicity. 30. If it is a case of a 600 shilling wergeld man, let each of them pay 60 shillings as a token of their complicity, and let him that struck the fatal blow pay wergeld and fine. 31. If he that is killed is a 1200 shilling wergeld man, let each of them pay 120 shillings, and let the one who struck the fatal blow pay wergeld and fine. If a group commit this sort of killing, and later deny responsibility on oath, let them all be accused, and let them pay over the wergeld as a group, and together pay one fine such as corresponds to the wergeld. 32. If someone commits slander and it is proved against him, let him make atonement with no lighter penalty than having is tongue cut out. It i.e. the tongue must not be redeemed for any lesser value than would be reckoned in proportion to the wergeld. 33. If someone reproach another with breach of church-witnessed pledge and wishes to accuse him of not fulfilling any of those pledges that he gave him, let the accuser make his preliminary oath in four churches, and the other i.e. the accused, if he wishes to assert his good faith - let him do that in twelve churches. 34. Also it is laid down for traders that they should produce before the king's officer at the local assembly those people that they are taking inland with them, and let it be established how many of them there are. And let them take only such men as they can afterward be accountable for at the local assembly. An if they have need of more men along with them on their journey, let it always be declared, as often as is necessary, to the king's officer before the assembly. 35. If someone restrains a free man who is innocent, let him pay compensation of ten shillings. If he flogs him, compensation of twenty shillings. If he put him to torture compensation of thirty shillings. If as a humiliation he shave his head like a homolan, let him pay compensation of ten shillings. If he shaves him i.e. his head like a priest's, without binding him let him pay compensation of thirty shillings. If he shaves off his beard, let him pay compensation of twenty shillings. If he ties him up and then shaves his head like a priest's, let him pay compensation of sixty shillings. 36. It is established that if someone has a spear over his shoulder and someone else impales himself upon it, he i.e. the spear-carrier shall pay the wergeld without any fine. If he is impaled from in front, let him i.e. the spear-carrier pay the wergeld. If someone accuses him i.e. the spear-carrier of deliberately doing it, let him assert his innocence at a rate corresponding to the fine, and by that finish with the fine. And this applies if the point is above the rest of the shaft; if they are both level, point and shaft, let it count as no risk. 37. If someone wants to seek a new lord, transferring from one district to another district, let him do it with the knowledge of the chief officer to whom he was originally responsible in his shire. If he does it without his i.e. the officer's knowledge, let him who harbours him as his follower pay over 120 shillings as a fine. But let him divide it, paying the king half in the shire where the man was originally answerable, and half in that he has moved to. If he i.e. the man who moves had done anything wrong where he came from, let him who receives him as his follower pay the compensation and a fine of 120 shillings to the king. 38. If someone starts a fight in front of the king's officer at an assembly, let him pay compensation of wergeld and a fine, as it is customary; and as a priority a fine of 120 shillings to the officer [earldorman] concerned. If he disturb the assembly by drawing a weapon, let him pay 120 shillings to the officer by way of fine. If something of this sort occurs before the king's officer's deputy or a royal priest, let him pay 30 shillings by way of fine. 39. If someone starts a fight on the floor of a free man's house, let him pay compensation of six shillings to the freeman. If he draws his weapon but does not fight, let the compensation be half that. If either of these offences takes place in the house of a 600 shilling wergeld man, let the rate rise to triple the compensation due the freeman. In the case of a 1200 shilling wergeld man, a rate twice that of the compensation of the 600 shilling wergeld man. 40. For breaking into a royal residence the penalty shall be 120 shillings. Into an archbishop's, ninety shillings. Into another bishop's or a royal officer's, 60 shillings. Into a 1200 shilling werwgeld man's, thirty shillings. Into a 600 shilling wergeld man's fifteen shillings. For breaking into a freeman's property the penalty shall be five shillings. If something of this kind takes place while the levy [fyrd] is on duty elsewhere, or during Lent, let it be a double compensation. If someone sets aside holy custom publicly in Lent without an exemption, let him pay a compensation of 120 shillings. 41. The man who has charter land [bocland] which his kin left him, is not allowed, we enact, to part with it outside his kin-group, if there is written evidence or spoken witness that it was forbidden to be done by those people who originally acquired it or by those who passed it to him. Let him i.e. the one who opposes the alienation process declare any such stipulation in the presence of the king and the bishop, with his own kin attending. 42. Also we command that the man who knows his enemy is quiescent at home should not start a fight before he has asked him for justice. If he has the strength to surround his enemy and besiege him, let him contain him for 7 days within and not attack him if he i.e. the enemy is willing to abide within. After seven days if he is willing to surrender and hand over his weapons, let him i.e. the avenger keep him unharmed for thirty days and inform his kinsmen and his friends about him. But if he i.e. the enemy flee to a church, let the matter be resolved according to the privilege of the church, as we detailed above. But if he i.e. the avenger does not have the resources to besiege him i.e. the enemy, let him ride to the royal officer and ask him for help. If he i.e. the officer is unwilling to assist, let him ride and ask the king, before he mounts an attack. Further, if someone happen upon his enemy and did not know beforehand that he was quiescent at home, if he i.e. the enemy is willing to hand over his weapons, let him be held for thirty days and inform his friends about him; if he is not willing to hand over his weapons then he i.e. the avenger may attack him. If he i.e. the enemy is willing to surrender and hand over his weapons and yet someone still attacks him, let the aggressor pay over wergeld and wound compensation, according to what he has done, and pay a fine, and lose his kin-status. We also declare someone may fight in support of his lord without blame, if anyone has attacked the lord; so too the lord may fight in support of his follower. In the same way, someone may fight on behalf of his blood relative if someone attack him wrongfully, but not take the side of a kinsman against his lord - that we do not permit. Someone may fight blamelessly if he discovers another with his lawful wife behind closed doors or under the one cover, or with his legitimate daughter, or with his legitimate sister or with his mother if she was given lawfully to his father. 43. To all free people let these following days be granted as holidays but not to slaves and servile workers; twelve days at Christmas and the day that Christ overcame the Devil, and St. Gregory's commemoration day, and seven days before Easter and seven after, and one day at the celebration of St. Peter and St. Paul and the full week in harvest before St. Mary's Mass, and one day for the celebration of All Hallows. The four Wednesdays in the Ember weeks shall be granted to all slaves to sell to anyone that pleases them to anything either that any man will give them in God's name or what they in any spare time can manage." 44.-77. The compensations for wounds is as follows: head if both bones of the head be pierced 30s., head if the outer bone only be pierced 15s.; an inch long wound in the area of the hair 1s., an inch long wound in the front of the hair 2s.; striking off the other ear 30s., if the hearing be affected so that he cannot hear 60s.; putting out an eye 60s. 6 1/3 d., if the eye stay in the head but he can see nothing with it 1/3 of the compensation be remitted; striking off a nose 60s.; striking a front tooth 8s., a back tooth 4s., a canine tooth 15s.; severing cheeks 15s., breaking a chin bone 12s.; perforating a windpipe 12s.; removing a tongue the same compensatin for any eye; wounding in the shoulder so that the muscle fluid flows out 30s.; shattering the arm above the elbow 15s.; shattering both arm bones 30s.; striking off the thumb 30s., if the nail is struck off 5s.; striking off the forefinger 15s., for the nail 4s.; striking off the middle finger 12s., for the nail 2s.; striking off the ring finger 17s., for the nail 4s.; striking off the little finger 9s., for the nail 1s.; wounding in the belly 30s., if the wound go through the body 20s. for each opening; perforating the thigh or hip 30s., if it be disabled 30s.; piercing the leg below the knee 12s., if he is disabled below the knee 30s.; striking off the great toe 20s., the second toe 15s., the middle toe 9s., the fourth toe 6s., the little toe 5s.; wounding in the testicles so that he cannot bear children 80s.; cutting off the arm below the elbow with the hand cut off 80s., wounding before the hair-line and below the sleeve and below the knee twice the value; permanently damaging the loins 60s., it they are stabbed 15s., if they are pierced through 30s.; wounding in the shoulder if the victim be alive 80s.; maiming a hand outwardly, providing it can be treated effectively 20s., if half the hand be lost 40s.; breaking a rib without breaking the skin 10s., if the skin be broken and the bone be extruded 15s.; cutting away an eye hand or foot 66s.6 1/3 d.; cutting off the leg at the knee 80s.; breaking a shoulder 20s.; hacking into a shoulder so that the bone extrudes 15s.; severing the tendon of the foot and if it can be treated so that will be sound again 12s., but if he is lame on account of the wound and he cannot be cured 30s.; severing the lesser tendon 6s.; severing the muscles up by the neck and damage them so severely that he has no control over them and however lives on thus maimed 100s., unless the Witan appoint him a juster and greater sum.
Judicial Procedure
Cases were held at monthly meetings of the hundred court. The king or one of his reeves, conducted the trial by compurgation, which was an appeal to the supernatural.
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. The number of compurgators varied according to the nature of the case and the rank of the persons concerned. If there were too few "compurgators", 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 compurgation failed, the defendant was told to go to church and to take the sacrament only if he was innocent. If he took the sacrament, he 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 beccause the holy water had rejected him. 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. In the ordeal of the consecrated morsel, one would swallow a morsel; if he choked on it, he was guilty. The results of the ordeal were taken to indicate the will of God.
An archbishop's or bishop's oath was incontrovertible. If they were accused, they could clear themselves with an oath that they were guiltless. Lesser ranks could clear themselves with the oaths of at least three compurgators of their rank or, for more serious offenses, undergo the ordeal.
The shire and hundred courts were held for free tenants of a lord and the judges were the tenants themselves. The feudal courts were held for unfree tenants and the lord or his steward was the judge.
The earl presided over the shire court. He received one-third of the profits of justice. The judges were the owners of certain pieces of land. The shire court was held twice a year. There was little distinction between secular and spiritual jurisdiction. A bishop sat on the shire court. The shire court fulfilled all three functions of government: judicial, legislative, and executive.
The courts had no efficient mode of compelling attendance or enforcing their orders, except by outlawing the offender, that is, putting him outside the protection of the law, so that anyone might kill him with impunity. In grave cases, a special expedition could be called against an offender.
The individual wronged had his choice of payment in money or engaging in a blood feud. The sums of money of the system of bot, wer, and wite were enormous, and often could not be paid. Then a man could be declared outlaw or sold as a slave. If a person was outlawed, he also forfeited all his goods to the king.
Cases of general importance concerned mayslaying, wounding, and cattle-stealing.
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] could be hung and his possessions confiscated.
A man had a self-help right to arrest a thief hand-habbende [a thief found with the stolen goods in his hands] and a thief back-berend [a thief found with the stolen goods on his back or about his person].
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 weapons and 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. "Seisin" is rightful possession. A man in possession of land is presumed to have "seisin", unless and until someone else can establish a better title by legal process. 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 sake and soke, the right to hold a court for the offender and to receive the profits of 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 its sheriff and its 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", who was the first great officer of state. 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 second great office was that of Treasurer, who headed the Exchequer. 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 [jurisdiction of a lord to hold court and to impose fines and amercements] and soke [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 one's own estate] and team [a privilege granted by royal charter to the lord of a manor for the having, restraining, and judging of villeins with their children, goods, and chattels], and infangenetheof [the authority to hang and take the chattels of a thief caught on his estate].
The town of Coventry consisted of a large monastery estate, headed by an abbot, 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 a fealty oath such as: "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. When the oath of fealty was sworn, the man usually did homage to this lord symbolized by holding his hands together between those of his lord.
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. Jesus Christ, his mother the Virgin Mary and saints were also 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. Sin resulted in misfortune. When someone was said to have the devil in him, people took it quite literally. Omens fortold events. 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. Prayer was often a charm to conjure up friendly spirits rather than an act of supplication. Sorcerers controlled the forces of nature with the aid of spirits. Since natural causes of events were unknown, people attributed events to wills like their own. Illness and disease were thought to be caused by demons and witches. To cure illness, people hung charms around their neck and went to good witches for treatments of magic and herbs. For instance, the remedy for "mental vacancy and folly" was a drink of "fennel, agrimony, cockle, and marche".Some herbs had hallucinogenic effects, which were probably useful for pain. 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.