Si Anglicus homo Dacum occidat, liber liberum, persolvat eum xxv lib. vel ipse malefactor reddatur, et tantundem reddat Dacus de Anglico si eum occidat.
(lxx. s. 6.) If an Englishman kill a Dane—a freeman a freeman—let him pay for him 25 lbs. or the criminal himself shall be delivered up. And let the Dane do the same if he kill an Englishman.
The English and Danish typical freeman of this clause with his 25 lb. wergeld is clearly recognised in these so-called laws as the twelve-hyndeman and not the twyhynde man, who, though free, is identified with the ‘villanus.’
In further sections of this clause regarding Wessex customs very important statements are made with regard to the position of the wife in case of homicide, showing (1) that if she committed homicide her own kindred were responsible for her crime and not her husband or his kindred; and (2) that in case of the murder of a wife the wergeld went to her kindred and not to the husband or his kindred. In s. 12 of this clause is the following statement:—
Similiter, si mulier homicidium faciat, in eam vel in progeniem vel parentes ejus vindicetur, vel inde componat: non in virum suum, seu clientelam innocentem.
Likewise if a woman commits homicide let it be avenged on her or on her children or parentes or paid for from that side, not on her husband, or innocent connections.
And in s. 13:—
Si mulier occidatur, sicut weregildum ejus est reddatur, ex parte patris, sicut observamus in aliis. (14) Si pregnans occidatur et puer in ea vivat, uterque plena wera reddatur. Si nondum vivus sit, dimidia wera solvatur parentibus ex parte patris.
If a woman be killed, whatever be her wergeld, let it be paid ex parte patris just as we have said in other cases. (14) If a pregnant woman be killed and her child be living let the full wergeld of both be paid. If not yet living let half a wergeld be paid [for it] to the parentes ex parte patris, [of the child].
The position of the wife under Wessex custom is further shown by the following:—
Si sponsa virum suum supervixerit, dotem et maritacionem suam, cartarum instrumentis vel testium exhibicionibus ei traditam, perpetualiter habeat, et morgangivam suam et terciam partem de omni collaboracione sua, preter vestes et lectum suum; et si quid ex eis in elemosinis vel communi necessitate consumpserit, nichil inde recipiat.
(ss. 22-23). If the wife survive her husband let her have permanently her dower and her ‘maritagium’ given to her by written instruments or production of witnesses, and her ‘morgengift’ and a third part of all joint acquisition, besides clothes and her bed, and let her receive nothing in respect of what has been consumed in charity or common necessity.
Si mulier absque liberis moriatur, parentes ejus cum marito suo partem suam dividant.
If a woman die without children her parentes divide her share with the husband.
These statements are valuable evidence that, in regard to the position of a wife, Anglo-Saxon custom was very nearly the same as Cymric custom and that of the Bretts and Scots. And they are the more important as stating in black and white what is only to be inferred from isolated statements in earlier laws.
We now pass to c. LXXVI., De precio cujuslibet, containing information as to the mode of procedure in the payment of wergeld.
After stating that if a man be slain he is to be paid for according to his birth, the clause proceeds thus:—
Et rectum est ut homicida, postquam weregildum vadiaverit inveniat wereplegios, sicut ad eam pertinebit, i. de thaino debent dari xii wereplegii, viii de parte patris, et iiii de cognacione matris; et cum hoc factum erit, elevetur inter eos pax regis in omni weregildo, et debet halsfang primo reddi, sicut were modus erit.
And it is right that the homicide after having given pledge for the wergeld should find the wer-pledges pertaining to it. From the thane: 12 were-pledges 8 exparte patris and 4 de cognatione matris, and this done shall be raised among them the peace of the king in every wergeld. And first the halsfang should be paid according to the nature of the wergeld.
Following the case of the twelve-hyndeman a little further we learn that:—
Twelf-hindus est homo plene nobilis, i. thainus cujus wera est duodecies c sol. qui faciunt libras xxv, cujus halsfang sunt cxx sol. qui faciunt hodie sol. l. Et non pertinet alii cognacioni pecunia ista, nisi illis qui sunt intra genu.
The twelve-hyndeman is the man plene nobilis, i.e. the thane whose wergeld is 1200 scillings which make 25l. His halsfang is 120s. which today equals 50s.[211] [Norman], and it belongs to no other relations than those who are intra genu.
This halsfang had to be paid on the 21st day from the giving of the pledge, and it seems to have been a token in recognition of guilt or earnest money to show that the wergeld would be paid.
On the next 21st night from the payment of the halsfang the manbot had to be paid, and on the 21st night after that the fightwite, and on the 21st night again the first payment of the wergeld.
Et sic omnibus parentibus dominisque emendacionibus iniciatis persolvantur reliquum were, intra terminum quem sapientes instituunt.
Thus for all the parentes and lords, amends being set agoing, the rest of the wergeld shall be paid during a term to be fixed by the wise men (sapientes).
Turning next to the case of persons twyhynde born—cyrlisci vel villani—more details are given:—
After stating their wergeld to be four pounds, the clause proceeds:—
Halsfange ejus sunt v marc. que faciunt xii sol. et vi den.: est autem verbum Anglicum quod Latine sonat ‘apprehensio colli.’
Their halsfang is v marks which = 12s. 6d.; and it is an English word which in Latin means ‘apprehensio colli.’
There is evidently here an error. ‘V marc’ ought to be read 5 mancuses. The mancus was 30d. or 2s. 6d. Norman money and the halsfang therefore 150d. or 12s. 6d. Norman money, as stated in the following clause.
Si quis ad iv lib. persolvendus occidatur, et ad id res veniat, ut precio natalis ejus componendus sit, primo debent reddi xii sol. et vi den. et in wera numerari: reddantur vero patri, vel filio, vel fratri, vel qui propinquior est de patre, si predictos parentes non habeat: si omnes istos habeat, et ipsi dividant inter se.
(6) If any one is killed to be paid for at 4l. and it comes to pass that the price of his birth has to be paid, first should be paid [the halsfang of] 12s. 6d. to be reckoned in the wergeld, and this is paid to the father or son, or brother, or, failing these, whoever is the nearest of kin to the father. If he has all these, they divide it between them.
A die qua wera vadiata est in xxi diem, sine omni excusacione et dilacione, debet halsfang reddi, sicut premisimus.…
On the 21st day from the giving of the pledge, without any excuse or delay the halsfang should be paid, as we have said.…
Inde ad xxi diem reddatur ipsius manbota: tunc ad xxi diem fuytwhita: inde ad xxi diem reddatur ipsius were frumgildum, i. vii sol. et vi den. ad explecionem xx sol.
On the 21st day after that, is to be paid the manbot, then on the 21st day the fightwite, and then on the 21st day must be paid the frumgeld of the wergeld, i.e. 7s. 6d., to the completion of 20s.
Thus we learn that in the case of the twy-hyndeman the halsfang of 12s. 6d. and the frumgeld of 7s. 6d. make up the first 20s. of the wergeld of four pounds. The clause proceeds:—
Inde componat qui weram solvit, terminum de xx sol.: inde ponant terminum suum parentes mortui de xl ovibus, que pro xx sol. computantur: sint autem oves videntes et cornute, nulla parte corporis diminute: ultimo termino reddatur equus, qui pro xx sol. numerandus est. Hoc secundum legem et nostram consuetudinem diximus: differentia tamen weregildi multa est in Cancia villanorum et baronum.
After that he who pays the wergeld pays at another term 20s. Then the parentes of the dead fix a term for 40 sheep which are reckoned as 20s., but they must be sheep seeing and horned and deficient in no part of the body. At the last term a horse is given reckoned at 20s. This we have said according to law and our custom. There is, however, great difference in the wergeld of both villani and barones in Kent.
Thus both in the case of the twelve-hynde and the twy-hyndeman the halsfang is the first beginning of the wergeld, and whatever may be the exact meaning of the word, it is pretty evident that it was regarded as an admission of the wrong done and as a kind of earnest money that the rest of the wergeld would be paid.
But between the halsfang or earnest money and the making up of the first full instalment of the wergeld were the two other payments, the manbot and the fightwite.
They have already been mentioned, but it is important to recognise what these two payments outside the wergeld mean.
We learn from c. LXXX. s. 6 what the fightwite was:—
In cujuscumque terra fiat homicidium, qui socam et sacam suam habeat, si homicida divadietur ibi vel cravetur, fihtwytam recipiat.… Si occisus et locus unius domini sint, qui socnam suam habeat manbotam et fihtwytam.
On whosesoever land the homicide may be committed, he who has soc and sac shall if the homicide there be pledged or remanded receive fightwite.… If the person killed and the place are of one lord, let him who has the soc have [both] manbot and fightwite.
It is clear from this that the fightwite was the payment due to the lord who had the ‘soc’ of the place where the homicide occurred and the wergeld was pledged. The manbot, on the other hand, was the payment to the lord whose man the person slain was. The lord of the soc might also be the lord of the man slain, in which case both fightwite and manbot were payable to him.
In c. LXIX. the manbot of the twy-hyndeman is stated to be 30s. (of 5d., i.e. 150d.), and that of the twelve-hyndeman 120s. (600d.) as in the Laws of Ine, s. 70.
In the so-called ‘Laws of Edward the Confessor’ c. XII. is the following:—
Qui scienter fregerit eam [pacem regis] … lege Anglorum suum were, i. precium suum, et manbote de occisis erga dominos quorum homines interfecti erant. Manbote in Danelaga, de vilano et de socheman, xii oras; de liberis hominibus iii marcas. Manbote in lege Anglorum, regi et archiepiscopo, iii marc̄ de hominibus suis; episcopo comitatus, comiti comitatus, et dapifero regis, xx soƚ; baronibus ceteris, x soliđ. Emendacionem faciat parentibus, aut guerram paciatur, unde Angli proverbium habebant: Biege spere of side oðer bere, quod est dicere, lanceam eme de latere aut fer eam.
He who knowingly breaks the king’s peace … by the law of the English pays his were, i.e. pretium suum, and manbot of persons killed to the lords whose men have been killed. Manbote in Danelaga of villanus and socheman xii ores, of liberi homines iii marks.[212] Manbot in English law to the king and archbishop iii marks for their men; to the bishop and earl of a county and dapifer of the king xxs.: other barons xs. Let him make amends to the parentes or suffer feud. Hence the English have a proverb, ‘Buy off the spear or bear it.’
This chapter relates chiefly to the breach of the king’s peace on the king’s highways &c., but it clearly confirms the meaning of the manbot as the payment to the lord for his man and as quite distinct from the wergeld to the parentes of the slain.
It may seem strange at first sight that according to this clause the manbot in the Danelaga of the villanus and the socheman should be alike, viz. 12 ores of silver, and further that the villanus and socheman should not be included as liberi homines, the manbot of the latter being double their manbot, viz. three marks or 24 ores.
The explanation of the equal manbot of villani and sochemen may partly be found in the tendency after the Conquest to class together all subordinate tenants rendering manual or agricultural services to the landlord as villani, and to ignore the differences in origin between the various classes of tenants of this kind. Still if at this point of our inquiry the relative positions of the sochmanni of the Danish districts and the villani of ordinary English manors were the question under discussion, it would be fair in explanation of the equality in manbot to point out how very nearly the services of the two classes seem to have corresponded so far as their value to the lord was concerned.[213]
The loss to the lord of the twelve-hyndeman was probably reckoned as of greater money value than that of the villanus or socheman, because of the higher grade or character of his military and judicial services as compared with the agricultural services of the villanus and socheman.
However this may be, these considerations confirm the importance of the distinction between the manbot which varies according to the value or loss to the lord of the person slain, and is therefore payable to him, and the wergeld payable to the parentes of the person slain which varied according to the grade in social rank in which he was born or to which he may have sometimes risen.
Further, this distinction between the wergeld and the manbot becomes all the clearer when we turn to the evidence given in the Laws of Henry I. regarding the custom of Wessex in respect of the homicide of slaves.
In c. LXX. the custom of Wessex is stated thus:—
Si servus servum occidat, domino reddantur xx sol. pro manbota, parentibus interfecti servi xl den.
(s. 2) If a slave (servus) kills a slave xxs. [? of 5d.] is paid to the lord for manbot, to the parentes of the dead slave xld.
Si dominus occisoris nec pro eo reddit, nec servus habet unde reddat, dimittere potest eum dominus, ut sibi caveat, nisi forte cravetur dum secum est; quod si eveniat, eum repetentibus reddat vel inde componat.
(s. 3) If the lord of the slayer pays nothing for him and the slave has nothing to pay with, the lord can dismiss him so that he [the lord] may protect himself from having the slave seized while with him. But if this happen he shall hand him over to the prosecutors or pay for him.
Si liber servum occidat, similiter reddat parentibus xl den. et duas mufflas, et unum pullum mutilatum, domini servi xx sol. pro manbota blodwitam vel fihtwitam sicut acciderit.
If a freeman kill a slave let him likewise pay to the parentes xl pence and two ‘muffles’ and a capon. To the lord of the slave xxs. [? of 5d.] for manbot, [also] bloodwite or fightwite as it happens.
Si servus Waliscus Anglicum hominem occidat, debet ille cujus servus est reddere eum domino et parentibus, vel dare xl sol. pro vita sua. Si hoc capitale nolit dare pro eo, dimittat eum liberum, solvant postea parentes ejus weram illam, si cognacionem habeat liberam. Si non habeat, observent eum inimici. Non cogitur liber cum servo meggildare, nisi velit ei satisfaccionem facere, nec servus cum libero.
If a slave Waliscus kills an Englishman he whose slave he is ought to give him up to the lord and the parentes or pay xls. [? of 5d.] for his life. If he does not choose to pay this for his head let him set him free; then afterwards let his parentes pay his wergeld if he has free relations. If not let them regard him as an enemy. No freeman is to be compelled to join in payment with a slave unless he wishes to make satisfaction for him nor a slave with a freeman.[214]
Thus while under the Danelaga the equal manbot of the villanus and of the socheman was 12 ores or 240d., we learn from these clauses that the manbot of the ordinary slave under Wessex custom was 20s. i.e. (if of 5d.) 100 pence, while that of the twy-hyndeman was, as we have seen, only 150 pence.
At first sight it may seem strange that the manbot or value to the lord of his villanus or socheman should be no greater, or even less, than that of his theow or slave. But a moment’s consideration will show that the value of the villanus and the socheman to the lord was mainly their week-work and services amounting to perhaps half their whole time, while that of the slave or theow was the value of his whole time and also that of a marketable chattel.
It may be noticed, too, how in the statements of Wessex custom some slight recognition is made of the kindred of the slave, but the amount (40 pence) is so very small that it hardly can be reckoned as any real approach to recognition of family rights or rights of kindred belonging to the relatives of the slave.
In the ‘Laws of William the Conqueror’ the manbot of the slave is stated (perhaps in error) to be twice that of the freeman, and in the case of freemen a concession is made of 10s. of the wergeld to the widow of the slain, who otherwise, not being of the same blood or kindred with her husband, would under tribal custom have received no part of the wergeld.
Si quis convictus vel confessus fuerit in jure, alium occidisse, dat were suum, et insuper domino occisi, manbote, scilicet, pro homine libero x sol. pro servo xx solid.
(s. vii.) If any one shall have been convicted of or have confessed the slaying of another, let him give his wergeld and over and above to the lord of the person slain, manbote: that is, for a freeman xs. [? of 5d. or 12d.] for a servus xx shillings.
Est autem were theni in Merchenelahe xx libr.; in Westsaxenelahe xxv libr.; rustici autem c solid. in Merchenelahe, et similiter in Westsaxenelahe.
(viii.) The wergeld, however, of the thane under Mercian law is xx lb. [i.e. 1200s. of 4d.], under West Saxon law xxv lb. [i.e. 1200s. of 5d.]; of the rustic cs. [? of 5d. or 12d.] in Mercia and the same in Wessex.
De were ergo pro occiso soluto, primo vidue x sol. dentur, et residuum liberi et consanguinei inter se dividant.
(ix) Of the wergeld thus paid for the slain person, first let x shillings be given to the widow, and the rest let the children and relations divide between them.
Finally, it is interesting to observe that according to the so-called ‘Laws of Henry I.’ tribal custom was still partly recognised in the method of dealing with the homicide of a kinsman.
In clause LXXV. is the following:—
Qui aliquem de parentibus suis occidet, dignis apud Deum penitencie fructibus emendet; et in modo penitencie sit, si sponte vel casu perpetravit; et excidat emendacio patrini sicut manbota domini: si non pertineat ei utrumque, et aliorum importunitate, quorum consanguineus est, cogatur eum reddere, sapientum hoc judicio, secundum genus, componatur.
He who shall slay any one of his parentes, let him make amends by fruits of penitence worthy before God. And let the measure of the penance be according to whether he did it willingly or by accident. And the correction of the sponsor falls just as the manbot of the lord. If there does not pertain to him either the one or the other and by the importunity of others whose kinsman he is he shall be compelled to pay, let it be compounded for by judgment of wise men whatever that may be.
The homicide of a kinsman was apparently still generally free from judicial interference or criminal law. The slayer is handed over to the Church and his punishment is spiritual penance. Even the manbot to the lord who has lost a man through his crime fails to be paid. But should there be a fear of trouble through the importunity of any of the kinsmen of the slain demanding compensation, then a compromise was to be effected by reference to the judgment of wise men. Tribal feeling is evidently not yet dead, although beginning in this matter to yield to the more modern view of individual responsibility for crime without regard to the question of kindred. There is at the same time recognition of the fact that the weakened tribal feeling is no longer always able to restrain the kinsmen from revenge in the case of wrong done within the kindred.
Having thus tried to obtain, from the so-called ‘Laws of Henry I.’ (whatever they may be), a Norman view of Anglo-Saxon custom, we recognise that on some points we may have learned more from this Norman view than could directly have been learned solely from the earlier Anglo-Saxon laws themselves.
The reason of this is obvious. Special laws issued at various times by Saxon kings do not profess to cover the whole ground of existing and well understood custom. Rather should special laws be regarded as modifications of custom made necessary at different periods by new circumstances. Thus no one of the sets of laws can be expected to give a general view of custom as a whole.
It is not strange, then, that we should owe some knowledge of early Anglo-Saxon custom to the Norman Conquest and the necessity after such an event to collect in a more connected and intelligible form what had formerly to some extent been matters of custom and tradition. And so it may be that our next chance of learning more may be found in the study of the documents and fragments belonging to the period of the Danish invasion of England, and especially the moment of transition from the English rule of Ethelred II. to the Danish rule of Cnut.
The founding of the Danish kingdom of Cnut was an epoch in English history, and indeed in the history of Europe. It was followed inter alia by the legalisation in England of Scandinavian monetary reckoning in marks and ores which had already for some time been in use side by side with the English reckoning in scillings and pounds. And this was typical of the general position of things. In full coincidence with the working of tribal feeling in other countries, into the idea of conquest the amalgamation of the two peoples into one did not enter. Danes continued to live under their laws and the English under theirs, as Franks and Gallo-Romans did under Frankish rule. Certain things were enjoined upon both, but with a difference. It often happens that in documents of this period the ‘law of the English’ is specially explained while the Danish law is referred to as already known, thus revealing a Danish point of view.
In the Laws of Ethelred II. (s. 37) it is enacted that if anyone should be charged with plotting against the king, he must ‘clear himself with the threefold ordeal by the law of the English, and by the law of the Danes according as their law may be.’ And so in the Laws of Cnut penalties are stated as so many scillings by English law and by Danish law ‘as it formerly stood.’[215]
So that, from the Danish point of view, it was sometimes a matter of inquiry and record what the English law had been, while knowledge of Danish law was mostly taken for granted.
With regard to the coinage this was only partly the case. Not that Anglo-Saxon reckoning in pounds and scillings was abolished or that Danish currency was thenceforth the only one allowed. But, Cnut having styled himself ‘King of all England and King of the Danes and Norwegians,’ London had become in one sense a Scandinavian port.
The large sums paid to ‘the army’ by Ethelred for respite and peace had flooded Scandinavia with English silver money of his coinage.
This was so to such an extent that while the British Museum is rich in the coins of Ethelred, still more of them are to be found in Scandinavian museums.[216] And one marked result of the increased intercourse with England was an increase also in the Scandinavian coinage, the type of which was chiefly taken from the coins of Ethelred II.[217]
London had become to some extent the commercial capital indirectly of what has been happily called the ‘Greater Scandinavia.’
In the words of Mr. Keary:[218] ‘The Greater Scandinavia, with older countries, included (counting from the East to the West) a large district in the North and West of Russia extending from Kiev to Lake Ladoga. It included Sweden, Norway, Denmark and a strip of land in North Germany (Mecklenburg), Northern England, Man, most of the Western Scottish Islands, the Orkneys and Shetlands … settlements in Ireland and colonies in the Faroes and Iceland—a stretch of territories inhabited by peoples closely allied in blood, in speech, and in customs.’
Was it likely, then, that Cnut in making London the commercial capital of his kingdom should adopt the English monetary system unchanged, without regard to that in use in the North?
Happily, in the document known as the ‘De Institutis Lundonie’ we have an interesting glimpse into the conditions of the port of London, and in its final clause definite reference to the legalisation of the Danish currency.
This document has hitherto been placed doubtfully under the reign of Ethelred II. with some others of about the same period, but there is no evidence to show that it should be so placed rather than under the reign of Cnut. It exists only in Latin and it contains no mention of Ethelred, while its final clause becomes intelligible only, I think, if regarded as enacted after the accession of Cnut.
We learn from the document that Aldersgate and Cripplegate were the two gates which had guards.
Billingsgate, being on the river, was treated as a port. Boats on arrival paid toll according to size, smaller ones a halfpenny, boats with sails one penny, ‘a ceol vel hulcus’ fourpence if it should lie there. Ships laden with wood paid ‘one timber’ from their cargo. Those coming with fish to the bridge also paid toll.
Men from Rouen, with wine or whale, paid six shillings per ship and the twentieth lump of the whale.
Men of Flanders, Normandy, and France declared their cargoes and paid toll. Goods overland through Holland and Belgium were also examined and paid toll. Men of the Emperor who came in their ships were to be held worthy of the same good laws as ‘our people (sicut nos).’
From this it would appear that a good deal of the trade from the Baltic was an overland trade and in Frankish hands. The ‘men of the Emperor’ who were treated on equal terms with ‘our people’ were probably the merchants whose successors ultimately established the Hanseatic towns and two or three centuries later the Hanseatic league.
The final clause is as follows:—
(9) Et ut monetarii pauciores sint, quam antea fuerint: in omni summo portu iii, et in omni alio portu sit unus monetarius:
And that there be fewer moneyers[219] than there formerly were, in every chief town iii and in every other town let there be one moneyer.
et illi habeant suboperarios suos in suo crimine, quod purum faciant et recti ponderis, per eandem witam, quam prediximus.
And let them have their sub-workers under their responsibility, so that they make pure [money] and of right weight, under the penalties aforesaid.
Et ipsi qui portus custodiant, efficiant per overhirnessam meam, ut omne pondus sit marcatum ad pondus, quo pecunia mea recipitur et eorum singulum signetur ita, quod xv oræ libram faciant. Et custodiant omnes monetam, sicut vos docere praecipio [? praecepto], et omnes elegimus.
And let those who have charge of the towns secure, under penalties, that every weight shall be marked at the weight by which my money is received, and that each of them is so signed that xv ores make a pound. And let all maintain the coinage in accordance with the orders we have chosen to enjoin upon you and all men.
This clause has already been alluded to in connection with the ‘Laws of the Bretts and Scots.’ The ore of sixteen pence in which the payments of those laws were to be made was the ore described in this clause, for the ore of one fifteenth of the pound was the ore of sixteen pence.
The wording of the clause is very distinct. There were to be monetarii (mintmen) at the several mercantile centres, one at each lesser town and at the chief towns three. And every weight used by them was to be marked to the weight at which ‘my money’ was received and every one of the weights was to be marked ‘so that fifteen ores make a pound.’
The pound was no doubt the Frankish and English pound which since the time of Charlemagne and Offa contained 7680 wheat-grains and was divided according to English reckoning into twelve ounces of 640 wheat-grains or twenty-pence of 32 wheat-grains. The Danish ore of one fifteenth part of the pound was therefore of 512 wheat-grains or sixteen pence.
And there is good reason to believe that this ore was the ore in general use in Scandinavian commerce. We have seen that the Scandinavian ore, like the Merovingian ounce, when reckoned in wheat-grains was the Roman ounce of 576 wheat-grains, but that in actual weight it had sunk below the Roman standard. The ‘ortug’ or stater had apparently in actual weight fallen back to the weight of the stater of the ancient Eastern or Merovingian standard, viz. 8·18 grammes, so that the ore or ounce of three ortugs of this weight would weigh 24·54 grammes. And this was almost exactly one fifteenth of the Anglo-Saxon pound.[220]
We may therefore with some confidence regard the ore legalised by Cnut for commercial use as practically identical in weight of silver with the ore of three ortugs in use in the Baltic and generally in Scandinavian trade.
Moreover, when we turn to the actual coinage of Cnut we find that by a sweeping change he reduced the weight of the silver penny from one twentieth of the Anglo-Saxon ounce to apparently one twentieth of this ore, intending, it would seem, to make his ore pass for payments as an ore of 20 pence instead of 16.[221]
When these facts are taken together, we can hardly, I think, be wrong in assigning the ‘De Institutis Lundonie’ to the time of the foundation of the Danish kingdom by Cnut and in considering its final clause as recording the legalisation of the Danish monetary system with its marks and ores for use in England and for purposes of international trade. The fact that the ‘ore of sixteen’ was in use not only in the ‘Laws of the Bretts and Scots’ but also in the Domesday survey, e.g. in the district between the Mersey and the Ribble, is a lasting proof of its use wherever Scandinavian conquest and commerce extended, possibly before and certainly long after it was legalised for English use by Cnut.
Having gained from the ‘De Institutis Lundonie’ some sense of the greatness of the change to England consequent upon the accession of Cnut and also of the importance of England to Cnut’s Scandinavian kingdom, we may now turn to the consideration of certain documents which seem to be attempts made during this period of change to realise and record what had been Anglo-Saxon custom.
The first clauses of Cnut’s Church laws refer to the maintenance of the rights of the Church as to ‘grith and frith.’[222] ‘Because God’s grith is of all griths the best, and next thereto the king’s, it is very right that God’s church-grith within walls and a Christian king’s hand-grith stand equally inviolate,’ so that anyone infringing either ‘shall forfeit land and life unless the king be merciful to him.’[223] A homicide within church walls was to be ‘botless,’ unless the king ‘granted life against full bot.’ In this case the homicide must pay his full wer to Christ or the king, as the case might be, and so ‘inlaw himself to bot.’ Then the bot was to be the same as the king’s ‘mund-bryce’ of five pounds.
These clauses seem to be taken from another document of this period,[224] headed ‘Of Church grith,’ which is printed by Thorpe among the Laws of Ethelred.
Again, the laws decreed by Ethelred and his witan at Wantage[225] respecting ‘frith-bot’ commence with the decree that ‘grith should stand henceforth as it originally stood in the days of his [the king’s] forefathers.’ So that again ancient custom is confirmed rather than new law enacted.
This decree of Wantage relates, not, like Cnut’s law, to the grith of the Church, but to the grith of various assemblies or courts. Crimes committed within the grith or peace given by the king’s own hand (that is, the king’s ‘hand-grith’ of the other documents) is again botless. The grith which the ealdorman and the king’s reeve give in the assembly of the ‘five-burgs’ if broken involves a bot of 1200 (scillings?), that given by a burh-assembly 600, that by a wapentake 100, that in an alehouse ‘for a dead man vi half-marks and for a living one xii ores.’
In a further clause (s. 12) it is stated that in a king’s suit the deposit or ‘wed’ was to be of vi half-marks, in an eorl’s and a bishop’s of xii ores, and in a thane’s of vi ores. Here both English and Danish currencies are used. The law is common to both peoples.
The principle of the ‘grith’ or ‘frith’ is alike for both English and Danes, and it does not seem that Cnut had any intention of altering what had been law in this respect under his English predecessor.
In s. 3 of Cnut’s Church laws, dealing with crimes less than homicide, he seems to treat the ‘grith’ of his new law and the ‘mund-bryce’ of old law as practically the same thing, and this clause according to the text of MS. G.[226] contains an interesting allusion to Kentish as well as other English law.
Heafod mynstres griðbryce is æt bot wyrþum þingū be cinges munde. ꝥ is mid · v · pundum on Engla lage ⁊ on cent lande æt þā mund bryce · v · pund þā cingce. ⁊ þreo þā arceƀ. ⁊ medemran mynstres mid · cxx · scill. ꝥæ is be cingres wite. ⁊ þonne gyt læssan þær lytel þeowdom sig ⁊ leger-stow þeah sig mid lx scill. and feald cyricean þær leger-scow ne sig mid xxx scyll.
The grith-bryce of the chief minster in cases entitled to bot is according to the King’s mund, that is v pounds by English law and in Kent for the mund-bryce v pounds to the King, and three to the archbishop, and of a minster of the middle class cxx scillings, that is according to the King’s wite, and of one yet less where there is little service, provided there be a burying place, lx scillings and of a field church thirty scillings.
Further, there is a separate document belonging to this period entitled ‘Of Grith and of Mund’[227] which seems to have been a careful statement of what ‘formerly’ had been law among the English, the Kentish people, the South Angles, and the North Angles respectively.
It is too long to be quoted at length. It states again that ‘God’s grith is of all griths’ of the first importance, and ‘next thereto the king’s.’ ‘Formerly among the English,’ when a man fled for his life to the king, the archbishop or the ætheling, he had nine days’ ‘grith.’ If he sought a bishop or ealdorman he had seven days’ ‘grith.’[228] Then it goes on to state that in the law of the Kentish people ‘the king and the archbishop had a like and equally dear mund-bryce,’ while the archbishop’s property according to Kentish law was compensated for elevenfold and the king’s ninefold, though ‘the mund-byrd of Christ’s Church was the same as the king’s.’[229]
Next the ‘grith-law’ of the South Angles is described. The king’s mund-bryce is stated again to be five pounds by the law of the English; an archbishop and an ætheling’s mund-bryce three pounds; other bishops’ and an ealdorman’s two pounds: and if any one fight in the presence of an ætheling or archbishop the bot was cl scillings, if in that of another bishop or ealdorman c scillings.
Lastly, the document records that in the North Angles’ law ‘it stands that he who slays any one within church walls shall be liable in his life, and he who wounds shall be liable in his hand: and let him who slays any one within church doors give to the church cxx scillings, according to the North-Angles’ law. And let a freeman who harms a living person in his “mund-byrd” pay xxx scillings.’