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 yearly. Ecclesiastical benefices were to pay church-scot, a payment in lieu of first fruits of the land, to the pope.
The Law
There were several kings in this period. 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. 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).
Canute reigned from 1016 to 1035. The following are substantially all the laws of Canute with an * before ones of special interest.
Proclamations of Canute are:
All my reeves, under pain of forfeiting my friendship and all that they possess and their own lives, shall govern my people justly everywhere, and to pronounce just judgments with the cognizance of the bishops of the dioceses, and to inflict such mitigated penalties as the bishop may approve and the man himself may be able to bear.
I enjoin upon all the sheriffs and reeves throughout my kingdom that, as they desire to retain my friendship and their own sercurity, they employ no unjust force towards any man, either rich or poor, but that all, both nobles and commoners, rich and poor, shall have their right of just possession, which shall not be infringed upon in any way, either for the sake of obtaining the favour of the king or of gratifying any powerful person or of collecting money for me; and I have no need that monoey should be collected for me by any unust exactions.
Ecclesiastical laws of Canute are:
Above all else, love and honour one God, and uphold one Christian faith, and love King Canute with due fidlity.
*Maintain the security and sanctity of the churches of God, and frequently attend them for the salvation of our souls and our own benefit. He who violates the protection given by the church of God within its walls, or the protection granted by a Christian king in person shall lose both land and life, unless the king is willing to pardon him. Homicide within the church's walls shall not be atoned for by any payment of compensation, and everyone shall pursue the miscreant, unless it happen that he escapes from there and reaches so inviolable a sanctuary that the king, because of that, grants him his life, upon condition that he makes full amends both towards God and towards men. The first conditon is that he shall give his own wergeld to Christ and to the king and by that means obtain the legal right to offer compensation. And if the king allows compensation, amends for the violation of the protection of the church shall be made by the payment to the church of the full fine for breach of the king's mund, and the purification of the church shall be carried out as is fiting, and compensation both to the kin and to the lord of the slain man shall be fully psid, and supplication shall earnestly be made to God. If the protection of the church is broken by offenses such as fighting or robbery, without the taking of life, amends shall diligently be made in accordance with the nature of the offense. The penalty for violation of the protection of a principal church is 5 pounds, for a church of medium rank is 120s., for a church with a graveyard 60s., and for a country chapel where there is no graveyard, 30s.
Maintain the security and sanctity of holy things and priests according to their rank, for they drive away devils, baptize anyone, hallow the Eucharist, and intercede to Christ for the needs of the people. If an accusation of evil practices is made against a priest and he knows himself to be guiltless, he shall say Mass, if he dares, and thus clear himelf by the Holy Communion in the cases of a simple accusation, and by the Holy Communion with two supporters of the same ecclesiastical rank in the case of a triple accusation. If he has no supporters, he shall go to the ordeal of consecrated bread.
No monk who belongs to a monastery may demand or pay compensation incurred by vendetta because he leaves the law of his kindred behind when he accepts monastic rule.
If a priest is concerned in false witness or perjury or is the accessory and accomplice of thieves, he shall be cast out from the fellowship of those in holy orders and forfeit every privilege, unless he make amends both towards God and towards men, as the bishop shall prescribe, and find surtey for future behavior.
Servants of God shall call upon Christ to intercede for all Christian people and practice celibacy. Those who turn away from marriage and observe celibacy shall enjoy the privileges of a thegn.
*No Christian man shall marry among his own kin within six degress 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. No man shall marry his god-mother, a nun, or a divorced woman. He shall not commit adultery. He shall have no more wives that one, with whom he shall remain as long as she lives.
Ecclesiastical dues shall be paid yearly, namely, plough alms 15 days after Easter, the tithe [tenth] of young animals at Pentecost, and the tithe of the fruits of the earth at All Saints. Otherwise the king's reeve, the bishop's reeve, and the lord's reeve shall take what is due and assign him the next tenth, and the eight remaining parts shall go half to the lord and half to the bishop.
Peter's Pence shall be paid by St. Peter's Day or pay the bishop the penny and 30d. in addition and 120s. to the king.
Church dues shall be paid at Martinmas, or pay the biship eleven fold and 120s. to the king.
Any thegn with a church with attached graveyard on his land shall give a third part of his own tithes to his church. If he has a church without a graveyard, he shall give his priest whatever he desires from the nine remaining parts.
Light dues shall be paid a halfpenny worth of wax from every hide three times a year.
Payment for the souls of the dead should be rendered before the grave is closed.
*All festivals and fasts, such as Lent, shall be observed. The festival of every Sunday shall be observed from noon on Saturday till dawn on Monday. No trading, public gatherings, hunting, or secular occupations shall be done on Sunday. We forbid ordeals and oaths during festivals and fasts.
To avoid the torment of hell, let us turn away from sin and confess our misdeeds to out confessors and cease from evil and make amends.
Each of us shall treat others as we desire to be treated.
Every Christian man shall prepare himself for the sacrament at least three times a year. Every friend shall abide by his oath and pledge. Every injustice shall be cast out from this land.
Let us be faithful and true to our lord and promote his honour and carry out his will. And likewise, it is the duty of every lord to treat his men justly.
Men of every estate shall readily submit to the duty which befits them.
Every Christian man shall learn the Creed and the Pater Noster, the sacred prayer taught by Christ to his disciples which contains all the petitions necessary for this life and the life to come. He who does not learn it may not sponsor another man at baptism or at confirmation.
*Guard against grievous sins and devilish deeds and make amends according to one's confessor's advice.
Fear God, be in terror of sin, and dread the Day of Judgment.
The bishops shall give example of our duty towards God.
Secular laws of Canute are:
All men, both rich and poor, shall be entitled to the benefit of the law, and just decisions shall be pronounced on their behalf.
Those in authority to give judgment shall consider very earnestly "And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us." Christian people shall not be condemned to death for trivial offenses.
We forbid the all too prevalent practice of selling Christian people out of the country, especially into heathen lands. Care shall be taken that the souls which Christ bought with his own life be not destroyed.
*Any wizards or sorcerers, those who secretly compass death, prostitutes, thieves, and robbers shall be destroyed unless they cease and make amends.
We forbid heathen practices, namely the worship of idols, heathen gods, and the sun or moon, fire or water, springs or stones or any kind of forest trees, or indulgence in witchcraft or the compassing of death in any way, either by sacrifice or by divinations or by the practice of any such delusions.
*Murderers and perjurers, injurers of the clergy, and adulterers shall submit and make amends or depart with their sins from their native land.
*Hypocrites and liars, robbers and plunderers shall incur the wrath of
God, unless they desist and make amends.
*There shall be one currency free from all adulteration throughout the land and no one shall refuse it. He who coins false money shall forfeit the hand with which he made it, and he shall not redeem it in any way, either with gold or silver. If the reeve is accused of having granted his permission to the man who coined the false money, he shall clear himself by the triple oath of exculpation and, if it fails, he shall have the same sentence as the man who coined the false money.
*Measures and weights shall be diligently corrected and an end put to all unjust practices.
The repair of fortifications and bridges, and the preparation of ships and the equipment of military forces shall be diligently undertaken for the common need, whenever the occasion arises.
*In Wessex and Mercia, the king is entitled to payments for violation of his mund, attacks on people's houses, assault, and neglecting military service. In the Danelaw, he is entitled to payments for fighting, breach of the peace and attacks on people's houses, and neglect of military service.
*If anyone does the deed of an outlaw, the king alone shall have power to grant him security. He shall forfeit all his land to the king without regard to whose vassal he is. Whoever feeds or harbours the fugitive shall pay 5 pounds to the king, unless he clears himself by a declaration that he did not know that he was a fugitive.
*He who promotes injustice or pronounces unjust judgments, as a result of malice or bribery, shall forfeit 120s. to the king, in districts under English law, unless he declares on oath that he did not know how to give a more just verdict, and he shall lose forever his rank as a thegn, unless he redeem it from the king, provided the latter is willing to allow him to do so. In the Danelaw he shall forfeit his lahslit.
*He who refuses to observe just laws and judgments shall forfeit, in districts under English law, a fine to the party entitled thereto - either 120s. to the king, 60s. to the earl, or 30s. to the hundred, or to all of them if they were all concerned.
*If a man seeks to accuse another man falsely in such a way as to injure him in property or in reputation, and if the latter can refute the accusation brought against him, the first shall forfeit his tongue, unless he redeems himself with his wergeld.
No one shall appeal to the king, unless he fails to obtain justice within his hundred. Everyone shall attend the hundred court, under pain of fine, whenever he is required by law to attend it.
The borough court shall be held at least three times and the shire court at least twice, under pain of fine. The bishop of the diocese and the earldorman shall attend and they shall direct the administration of both ecclesiastical and secular law.
*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 either within the shire or outside it, until he has appealed for justice three times in the hundred court. If on the third occasion he does not obtain justice, he shall go on the fourth occasion to the shire court, and the shire court shall appoint a day when he shall issue his summons for the fourth time. And if this summons fails, he shall get leave from the one court or the other, to take his own measures for the recovery of his property.
*Every freeman over age 12 must be in a tithing if he desires to have the right of exculpation and of being atoned for by the payment of his wergeld, if he is slain, and to be entitled to the rights of a freeman, whether he has an establishment of his own or is in the service of another. Everyone shall be brought within a hundred and under surety, and his surety shall hold and bring him to the performance of every legal duty.
*Everyone over age 12 shall take an oath that he will not be a thief or a thief's accomplice.
Every trustworthy man, who has never earned a bad reputation and who has never failed either in oath or in ordeal, shall be entitled to clear himself within the hundred by the simple oath of exculpation. For an untrustworthy man compurgators for the simple oath shall be selected within three hundreds, and for the triple oath, throughout the district under the jurisdiction of the borough court; otherwise he shall go to the ordeal. When a simple oath of exculpation is involved, the case shall be begun with a simple oath of accusation; but where a triple oath of exculpation is involved, it shall be begun with a triple oath of accusation. A thegn may have a trustworthy man give his oath of accusation for him.
No man may vouch to warranty unless he has three trustworthy witnesses to declare whence he acquired the stock which is attached in his possession. The witnesses shall declare that, in bearing testimony on his behalf to the effect that he acquired it legally, they are speaking the truth, in accordance with what they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears.
*No one shall buy anything over 4d. in value, either livestock or other property, unless he has four men as trustworthy witnesses, whether the purchase be made within a town or in the open country. If, however, any property is attached, and he who is in possession of it has no such witnesses, no vouching to warranty shall be allowed, but the property shall be given up to its rightful owner and also the supplementary payment, and the fine to the party who is entitled thereto. And if he has witnesses in accordance with what we have declared above, vouching to warranty shall take place three times. On the fourth occasion he shall prove his claim to it or give it back to its rightful owner. No one shall claim ownership where fraud is involved.
*If anyone who is of bad reputation and unworthy of public confidence fails to attend the court meetings three times, men shall be chosen from the fourth meeting who shall ride to him, and he may then still find a surety, if he can. If he cannot, they shall seize him either alive or dead, and they shall take all that he has. And they shall pay to the accuser the value of his goods, and the lord shall take half of what remains and the hundred half. And if anyone, either kinsman or stranger, refuses to ride against him, he shall pay the king 120s.
*The proved thief and he who has been discovered in treason against his lord, whatever sanctuary he seeks, shall never be able to save his life.
He who in court tries to protect himself or one of his men by bringing a countercharge shall have wasted his words, and shall meet the charge brought by his opponent in such a way as the hundred court shall determine.
No one shall entertain any man for more than three days, unless he is committed to this charge by the man whom he has been serving. And no one shall dismiss one of his men from his service until he is quit of every accusation which has been brought against him.
*If anyone comes upon a thief and of his own accord lets him escape without raising the hue and cry, he shall make compensation by the payment of the thief's wergeld, or clear himself with the full oath, asserting that he did not know him to be guilty of any crime. And if anyone hears the hue and cry and neglects it, he shall pay the full fine for insubordination [120s] to the king, or clear himself by the full oath.
*Regarding thoroughly untrustworthy men, if anyone has forfeited the confidence of the hundred, and he has charges brought against him to such an extent that he is accused by three men at once, no other course shall be open to him but to go to the triple ordeal. If, however, his lord asserts that he has failed neither in oath nor in ordeal since the assembly was held at Winchester, the lord shall choose two trustworthy men within the hundred - unless he has a reeve who is qualified to discharge this duty - and they shall swear that he has never failed in oath or ordeal or been convicted of stealing. If the oath is forthcoming, the man who is accused there shall choose whichever he will - either the simple ordeal or an oath equivalent to a pound in value, supported by compurgators found within the three hundreds, in the case of an object over 30d. in value. If they dare not give the oath, the accused shall go to the triple ordeal, which shall be opened by five compurgators selected by the accuser and he himself shall make a sixth. If the accused is proved guilty, on the first occasion he shall pay double value to the accuser and his wergeld to the lord who is entitled to receive his fine, and he shall appoint trustworthy sureties, that hence forth he will desist from all wrong-doing. And on the second occasion, if he is proved guilty, there shall be no compensation but to have his hands or his feet cut off or both, according to the nature of the offense. And if has wrought still greater crime, he shall have his eyes put out and his nose and ears and upper lip cut off or his scalp removed, whichever of these penalties is determined by those with whom rests the decision of the case; and thus punishment shall be inflicted, while, at the same time, the soul is preserved from injury. If, however, he escapes and avoids the ordeal, his surety shall pay the value of his goods to the plaintiff and the wergeld of the accused to the king or to the man who is entitled to receive his wergeld. And if the lord is accused of advising the man who had done wrong to escape, he shall choose five trustworthy men, and shall himself make a sixth, and shall clear himself of the accusation. If he succeeds in clearing himself, he shall be entitled to the wergeld. And if he fails, the king shall take the wergeld, and the thief shall be treated as an outlaw by the whole nation.
Every lord shall be personally responsible as surety for the men of his own household. And if any accusation is brought against one of them, he shall answer if within the hundred in which he is accused. And if he is accused and escapes, the lord shall pay the man's wergeld to the king. And if the lord is accused of advising him to escape, he shall clear himself with the help of five thegns, himself making a sixth. And if he fails to clear himself, he shall pay his own wergeld to the king, and the man shall be an outlaw towards the king.
If a slave is found guilty at the ordeal, he shall be branded on the first occasion. And on the second occasion, he shall not be able to make any amends except by his head.
*Concerning untrustworthy men, if there is anyone who is regarded with suspicion by the general public, the king's reeve shall go and place him under surety so that he a may be brought to do justice to those who have made charges against him. If he has no surety, he shall be slain and buried in unconsecrated ground. And if anyone interposes in his defense, they shall both incur the same punishment. And he who ignores this and will not further what we have all determined upon shall pay 120s. to the king.
The various boroughs shall have one common law with regard to exculpation.
If a friendless man or one come from afar is so utterly destitute of friends as not to be able to produce a surety, on the first occasion that he is accused he shall go to prison, and wait there until he goes to God's ordeal where he shall experience whatever he can. Verily, he who pronounces a more severe judgment upon whom is friendless or come from afar than upon one of his own acquaintances injures himself.
*Concerning perjury, if anyone swears a false oath on the relics and is convicted, he shall lose his hand or half his wergeld which shall be divided between the lord and the bishop. And henceforth he shall not be entitled to swear an oath, unless he makes amends to the best of his ability before God, and finds surety that ever afterwards he will desist from such perjury.
*Concerning false witness, if anyone has given testimony which is manifestly false, and is convicted thereof, his testimony henceforth shall be valueless, and he shall pay to the king or to the lord of the manor a sum equivalent to his healsfang [payment due only to those very closely related to a killed man].
Special care must be taken to prevent lawlessness at sacred seasons and in sacred places. The greater a man is and the higher his rank, the more stringent shall be the amends which he shall be required to make to God and to men for lawless behavior. And ecclesiastical amends shall be diligently exacted in accordance with the directions contained in the canon law, and secular amends in accordance with secular law.
If anyone slays a priest of the altar, he shall be both excommunicated and outlawed, unless he make amends to the best of his ability by pilgrimage, and likewise by the payment of compensation to the kin of the slain man, or else he shall clear himself by an oath equal in value to his wergeld. He shall begin to make amends to God and men within 30 days, under pain of forfeiting all that he possesses.
If an attempt is made to deprive a man in orders or a stranger of his goods or his life, the king shall act as his kinsman and protector unless he has some other. And such compensation as is fitting shall be paid to the king, or he shall avenge the deed to the uttermost.
If a minister of the altar commits homicide or any other great crime, he shall be deprived of his ecclesiastical office and banished, and shall travel as a pilgrim as far as the Pope appoints for him and zealously make amends. If he seeks to clear himself, he shall do so by the triple mode of proof. If he does not begin to make amends both to God and men within 30 days, he shall be outlawed.
If anyone binds or beats or deeply insults a man in holy orders, he shall make amends towards him and shall pay the fine due to the bishop for sacrilege, in accordance with the rank of the injured man, and to his lord or to the king the full fine for breach of his mund, or he shall clear himself by the full process of exculpation.
If a man in holy orders commits a capital crime, he shall be arrested, and his cases shall be reserved for the bishop's decision.
If a condemned man desires confession, he shall never be refused him or pay the king 120s. or he shall clear himself by selecting five men and be himself the sixth.
*No condemned man shall be put to death during the Sunday festival, unless he flees or fights, but he shall be arrested and kept in custody until the festival is over. If a freeman works during a church festival, he shall make amends by payment of his healsfang and make amends to God according to the directions given him. If as slave works, he shall undergo the lash or pay the fine, according to the nature of the offense. If a lord compels his slave to work during a church festival, he shall lose the slave, who shall then obtain the rights of a freeman and the lord shall pay a fine or clear himself.
If a freeman breaks an ordained fast, he shall pay a fine. If a slave does so, he shall undergo the lash or pay the fine in accordance with the nature of the deed.
If anyone openly causes a breach of the fast of Lent by fighting or by intercourse with women or by robbery or by any great misdeed, he shall pay double compensation just as he must do during a high festival. If he denies the charge, he shall clear himself by the triple process of exculpation.
*If anyone refuses by force the payment of ecclesiastical dues, he shall pay the full fine or he shall clear himself: he shall select 11 men and himself make a twelfth. If he wounds anyone, he shall make amends and pay the full fine to the lord and redeem his hands from the bishop or lose them. If he kills a man, he shall be outlawed and pursued with hostility. If he so acts as to bring about his own death by setting himself against the law, no compensation shall be paid for him.
If anyone injures one of the clergy, he shall make amends according to the rank of the person injured, either by the payment of his wergeld or a fine or by the forfeiture of all his property.
*If anyone commits adultery, he shall make amends according to the nature of the offense. It is wicked adultery for a pious man to commit fornication with an unmarried woman, and much worse with the wife of another man or with any woman who has taken religious vows.
*If anyone commits incest, he shall make amends according to the degree of relationship between them, either by the payment of wergeld or of a fine, or by the forfeiture of all his possessions.
*If anyone does violence to a widow or maiden, he shall pay his wergeld.
*If a woman commits adultery, her husband shall have all she possesses and she shall lose her nose and her ears.
If a married man commits adultery with his own slave, he shall lose her and make amends to God and to men.
*If anyone has a lawful wife and also a concubine, no priest shall perform for him any of the offices which must be performed for a Christian man, until he desists and makes amends as the bishop shall direct.
Foreigners, if they will not regularize their unions, shall be driven from the land with their possessions, and shall depart in sin.
*Any murderer shall be given up to the kinsmen of the slain man. The bishop shall pronounce judgment.
*If anyone plots against the king or his own lord, he shall forfeit his life and all that he possesses, unless he proves himself innocent by the triple ordeal.
*If anyone violates the protection or a king, archbishop or bishop, he shall pay 5, 3, or 2 pounds respectively as compensation.
*Anyone who fights at the king's court shall lose his life, unless pardoned by the king.
*If a man unjustly disarms another, he shall compensate him by the payment of his healsfang. If he binds him, he shall compensate by the payment of half his wergeld.
If anyone is guilty of a capital deed of violence while serving in the army, he shall lose his life or his wergeld.
*If a man makes forcible entry into another man's house, he shall pay 5 pounds to the king. If he is slain in such a case, no compensation shall be paid for his death.
*Anyone guilty of robbery shall restore the stolen goods and pay the injured man as much again and forfeit his wergeld to the king.
*According to secular law, assaults upon houses, arson, theft which cannot be disproved, murder which cannot be denied, and treachery towards a man's lord are crimes for which no compensation can be paid.
If anyone neglects the repair of fortifications or bridges or military service, he shall pay 120s. to the king or he shall clear himself with the support of 11 compurgators out of 14 nominated by the court.
The whole nation shall assist in the repair of churches.
If anyone unlawfully maintains an excommunicated person, he shall deliver him up in accordance with the law, and pay compensation to him to whom it belongs, and to the king his wergeld. Anyone keeping and maintaining as excommunicated man or an outlaw shall risk losing his life and all his property.
Greater leniency shall be shown in passing judgment and in imposing penance on the weak than on the strong because they cannot bear an equally heavy burden. So we distinguish between age and youth, wealth and poverty, freemen and slaves, the sound and the weak.
*When a man is an involuntary agent in evil-doing or does something unintentionally, he is more entitled to clemency.
All my reeves shall provide for me from my own property and no man need give them anything as purveyance. If any of my reeves demands a fine, he shall forfeit his wergeld to me. The public has been so far too greatly oppressed by this.
*If a man dies intestate [without a will], whether through negligence or sudden death, his lord shall take no more than his legal heriot. The property shall be divided among his wife and children and near kinsmen according to the share which belongs to him.
Heriots shall be fixed with regard to the rank of the person for whom they are paid. The heriot of any earl is eight horses, four saddled and four unsaddled, four helmets, four coats of chainmail, eight spears, eight shields, four swords, and 200 mancuses of gold. The heriot of a king's thegn is four horses, two saddled and two unsaddled, two swords, four spears, four shields, four helmets, four coats of chain mail and 50 mancuses of gold, but among the Danes who possess rights of jurisdiction 4 pounds. The heriot of an ordinary thegn is a horse and its trappings and his weapons or his healsfang in Wessex, and in Mercia 2 pounds, and in East Anglia 2 pounds. The heriot of a man who stands in a more intimate relationship to the king shall be two horses, one saddled and one unsaddled, one sword, two spears, two shields, and 50 mancuses of gold. The heriot of a man who is inferior in wealth is 2 pounds.
When a householder has dwelt all his time free from claims and charges, his wife and children shall dwell there unmolested by litigation.
*Every widow who remains a year without a husband shall do what she herself desires. If within the space of a year, she chooses a husband, she shall lose her morning gift and all the property she had from her first husband, and his nearest relatives shall take the land and property which she had held. And the second husband shall forfeit his wergeld to the king or the lord to whom it has been granted. And although she has been married by force, she shall lose her possessions, unless she leaves the man and returns home. And no widow shall be too hastily consecrated as a nun. And every widow shall pay heriots within a year without incurring a fine, if it has not been convenient for her to pay earlier.
*No woman or maiden shall be forced to marry a man whom she dislikes, nor shall she be given for money, except the suitor desires of his own freewill to give something.
If anyone sets his spear at the door to another man's house, he himself having an errand inside, or if anyone carefully lays any other weapons where they might remain quietly, and another seizes the weapon and works mischief with it, he shall pay compensation for it. He who owns the weapon may clear himself by asserting that the mischief was done without his desire or authority or advice or cognizance.
*If anyone carries stolen goods home to his cottage and is detected, the owner shall have what he has tracked. The wife shall be clear of any charge of complicity unless the goods had been put under her lock and key or in her storeroom, her chest, or her cupboard. But no wife can forbid her husband from depositing anything in his cottage.
Until now it has been the custom for grasping persons to treat a child which lay in the cradle, even though it had never tasted food, as being guilty as though it were fully intelligent. I forbid this practice.
The man who, through cowardice, deserts his lord or his comrades in an expedition, either by sea or by land, shall lose all he possesses and his own life, and the lord shall take back the property and the land which he had given him. And if he has land held by title-deed it shall pass into the king's hands.
The heriots of the man who falls before his lord during a campaign, whether within the country or abroad, shall be remitted, and the heirs shall succeed to his land and property and make a very just division of the same.
He who, with the cognisance of the shire, has performed the services demanded from a landowner on expedition, either by sea or by land, shall hold his land unmolested by litigation during his life, and at his death shall have the right of disposing of it or giving it to whomsoever he pleases.
*Every man is entitled to hunt in the woods and fields on his own property. But everyone, under pain of incurring the full penalty, shall avoid hunting on my preserves.
There shall never be any interference with bargains successfully concluded or with the legal gifts made by a lord.
Every man shall be entitled to protection in going to and from assemblies, unless he is a notorious thief.
*He who violates the law shall forfeit his wergeld to the king. And he who violates it again, shall pay his wergeld twice over. And if he is so presumptuous as to break it a third time, shall lose all he possesses.
Love God and follow his law and obey our spiritual leaders, for it is their duty to lead us to the judgment of God according to our works wrought. Do what is right and good and guard against the hot fire of hell. God Almighty have mercy upon us all, as His Will may be. Amen.
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: shires, hundreds, and vills. The arrangement of the whole kingdom into shires was completed by 975 after being united under King Edgar.
A shire was a large 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 "shiremotes". 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 shire 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.
The sheriff, or a reeve in his place, presided over minor local criminal and peace and order issues. When the jurisdiction was in the hands of a sheriff, it was called the sheriff's tourn. All residents were expected to attend this court. When the jurisdiction was in private hands, it was called a leet court. Leet jurisdiction derived from sac and soke jurisdiction. Sac and soc jurisdiction was 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.
The sheriff usually held each hundred court, which heard civil cases. 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.
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."
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, punish, 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 [minor criminal jurisdiction] 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.
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. Especially 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 [compensation] be given; and be the wite of half value for theows.
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."
Chapter 4
The Times: 1066-1100
William came from Normandy, France, 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 folding 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 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 and pay a claim directed at one of them if that man escaped. 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 [household or messuage] 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. Bishops periodically inspected the parishes in their dioceses to maintain discipline aqnd settle any matters that were beyond the local priest's competence, for instance the sacrament of confirmation, in which was conferred upon a Christian soul a special strengthening grace after he confirmed his belief in the tenets of Christianity. 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.