[1] Origin of Currency and Weight Standards, Camb. U. Press, 1892.

[2] For convenience I adhere throughout to reckoning in wheat-grains. Professor Ridgeway informs me that three barleycorns were equated with four wheat-grains, and that a passage in Theophrastus shows that in the fourth century B.C. 12 barleycorns = obol and 12 obols = the stater. The Greek diobol = therefore 24 barleycorns, i.e. 32 wheat-grains, and the stater = 144 barleycorns, i.e. 192 wheat-grains. The reader will understand that as Romans, Celts, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans reckoned in wheat-grains, there will be great convenience in adhering throughout to wheat-grains in this inquiry. And further the theoretic building up of weights in wheat-grains was preserved traditionally more easily than the actual standards of weight.

[3] The range of the variation in the actual weight of the stater as a coin (without necessarily implying variation in the theoretic weight in wheat-grains) is given by metrologists as follows:

[4] Kinship &c. in Arabia, p. 53.

[5] Ordinances of Manu, xi. pp. 128-131.

[6] Sections 8 and 11.

[7] Herod. v. c. 77 and vi. c. 79.

[8] The latest results of metrological research are most conveniently stated by Hultsch in his Die Gewichte des Alterthums nach ihrem Zusammenhange dargestellt, Leipzig, 1898. And Mr. F. G. Hill, of the British Museum, has recently issued an excellent hand-book of the Greek and Roman coins containing information on these points.

[9] The relation of the ancient Gallic gold currency to the subject of wergelds is interesting and important, but cannot be enlarged upon here.

[10] For the authorities for the following short statement see infra, Chap. VII. s. 1.

[11] Besides these silver tremisses some silver scripula were issued, but it is with the sceatts mainly that we have to do. In connection with the next section, however, the fact that the scripulum was current as a coin is worth notice.

[12] Metrologicorum Scriptorum Reliquiae (Lipsiae, 1866).

[13] Hultsch, Die Gewichte des Alterthums, pp. 53 and 203.

[14] Metr. Script. ii. 131-139.

[15] Hultsch, Metr. Script. i. pp. 66 and 87.

[16] Athelstan, vi. 6, s. 2 and vi. 3; and see Schmid’s Glossary under Geldrechnung.

[17] There can hardly have been at Tours at this moment any other Liutgarda than the queen under Alcuin’s spiritual charge.

[18] For this incident see Alcuini Epist. xxv.

[19] Metr. Script. ii. 31, 99, 114, &c.

[20] For the references to the Codes and Extents, and authorities for the statements in this summary, the reader must be referred to the former volume. But for additional statements full references will be given. Where not otherwise stated, the figures refer to the two volumes of Ancient Laws of Wales.

[21] Prof. Rhys informs me that da in Carnarvonshire local dialect still means ‘cattle,’ while in other parts of Wales it has the wider meaning of ‘goods.’

The allotment of cattle involved grazing rights, and often separate homesteads. Accordingly in the Denbigh Extent we find that so and so ‘habet domum’ or ‘non habet domum.’

This dependence for maintenance of the boy upon the higher chieftain is indirectly confirmed by the Extents, which mention among the chieftain’s rights the ‘fosterage of youths’ &c. See Tribal System in Wales, p. 169.

That the chieftain who gives the da was the ‘chief of kindred’ and not a mere territorial lord is shown by the fact that when a stranger family have lived in the land till they have formed a kindred by intermarriage with Cymraes, all the members of the family become ‘man and kin’ to the chief of kindred of the new kindred. Tribal System in Wales, p. 132.

[22] i. pp. 167-169.

[23] p. 543.

[24] p. 549, s. 19.

[25] i. 96 and 545.

[26] If the sister was married to an alltud and her son killed a person, ⅔ of the galanas fell on the mother’s kindred (i. p. 209), but there was no liability beyond the gwely or second cousins (ii. p. 657).

[27] ‘The galanas of every female shall always be to the kindred,’ i. p. 241.

[28] ‘Three cases wherein a wife is to answer without her husband. The first is for homicide,’ i. p. 463. But for accessories to murder she and her husband pay her camlwrw and derwy, i. p. 105; and she can claim spearpenny, i. pp. 103, 705; ii. p. 65.

[29] i. pp. 231-3, 409, 517, 747; ii. p. 695. On separation husband and wife divided the cattle and most other things equally.

[30] ii. pp. 281-2, 740.

[31] i. p. 765; ii. p. 269.

[32] ii. p. 693.

[33] ii. p. 531.

[34] i. p. 415.

[35] i. pp. 259, 447.

[36] Tribal System in Wales, App. p. 59, &c.

[37] The principal tref as contrasted with summer bothy on the mountains.

[38] ii. p. 563.

[39] i. p. 795.

[40] Fol. 280.

[41] i. pp. 283, 499.

[42] i. pp. 111, 459, 745; ii. p. 257.

[43] i. pp. 201, 535.

[44] ii. p. 493.

[45] i. p. 141.

[46] i. p. 229.

[47] For the following statements see Venedotian Code, i. p. 223, &c.; and Dimetian Code, i. p. 407, &c.

[48] Sisters paid for their possible children, and if these children were of age they paid instead of their mothers. After the age at which they could not have children, the sisters did not pay (i. p. 99). That the daughter after twelve was independent of her father with da of her own, see i. p. 205.

[49] i. p. 229.

[50] i. pp. 77, 103.

[51] ii. p. 693.

[52] i. p. 747.

[53] i. p. 231.

[54] i. p. 271.

[55] i. p. 565.

[56] English Village Community, c. ix.

[57] For details and references to the Codes I must refer the reader to Chap. V. of The Tribal System in Wales.

[58] See infra, p. 319.

[59] In the quotation of passages from Beowulf I have mostly followed Professor Earle’s translations.

[60] See Structure of Greek Tribal Society, by H. E. Seebohm, chap. ii.

[61] Nefan cannot mean son or grandson, for Hygelac was his father and his grandfather was Hrethel.

[62] The references in this chapter are to the four volumes of The Ancient Laws of Ireland. I regret very much not to have had the advantage of vol. v. edited by Dr. Atkinson and not yet published, but I am greatly indebted to him for his kind help and advice on many difficult points.

[63] iv. p. 259. This passage is abridged.

[64] iii. p. 69.

[65] Ibid. and iv. 245-248.

[66] Cours de Littérature Celtique, tome vii. Etude sur le Droit Celtique, tome i. p. 186.

[67] The view here taken, that the four fines in the geilfine division are classes or grades of relationship, makes more intelligible the rules laid down in the Book of Aicill (iii. 331-335), especially the one which determines that ‘if one person comes up into the “geilfine” so as to make it excessive, a man must go out of it into the “deirbhfine,” and a man is to pass from one division into the other up as far as the indfine, and a man is to pass from that into the community.’ Obviously, as a fresh generation comes into the nearest hearth, a generation at the top naturally moves out of the group. The great-grandfather becomes a great-great-grandfather, and so on.

[68] i. p. 263, and iv. p. 245.

[69] iv. p. 245.

[70] iii. p. 99.

[71] p. 101.

[72] ii. p. 195.

[73] iv. p. 283.

[74] Dr. Atkinson has kindly given me a reference to MS. H. 3-18, 237 and 485, the former of which ends its paragraph on ‘sencleithe’ thus:—‘If he serve from that onward, till the fifth man come and during the time (his time?), then he is a sencleithe and he cannot go from the heirs [comarba] for ever after.’

[75] See Senchus Mor, i. p. 76 and iii. p. 43.

[76] i. pp. 65-77.

[77] Round Towers of Ireland, p. 219.

[78] Fol. 181, b.b. This will be inserted in Dr. Atkinson’s vol. v. of the Brehon Laws.

[79] In one MS. ‘six score ounces.’

[80] Petrie, Round Towers of Ireland, p. 214.

[81] Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, ii. p. 372.

[82] Ibid. i. p. 212.

[83] Altilia, i.e. fattened heifers, Skeat, sub voce ‘heifer.’

[84] The samaisc heifer of the Brehon Laws being ½ oz., and the dairt heifer ⅙ oz., the fattened heifer would naturally take the middle place between them as ¼ oz.

[85] Wasserschleben refers these canons to the fifth century Synod under St. Patrick.

[86] ‘Si colirio indiguerit’ seems to be equivalent to the Irish ‘that requires a tent.’ But Dr. Atkinson informs me that the Irish word literally means ‘a plug of lint.’

[87] Compare this clause with the ‘Book of the Angel,’ Tripartite Life, ii. p. 355. ‘Item si non receperit prædictum præsulem in hospitium eundem et reclusserit suam habitationem contra illum, septem ancillas (cumala) sive septem annos pœnitentiæ similiter reddere cogatur.’

[88] See Senchus Mor, i. p. 43: ‘Equal dire-fine for a king and a bishop, i.e. equal honour-price to the “rig tuath” and the bishop, i.e. of the church of a “rig tuath.”’

[89] P. 141.

[90] i. p. 127.

[91] Pœnitentiale Vinnicii, s. 23; Wasserschleben, p. 113.

[92] Tripartite Life, p. 378 n.

[93] Questions Historiques, pp. 105-117.

[94] Pertz, Bluhme’s preface, p. 498.

[95] Bindung’s Das Burgundisch-Romanische Königreich von 443 bis 532 n. Chr. chap. i.

[96] Lib. vii. Tit. iii. s. 3.

[97] Lib. vi. Tit. v.

[98] Hessels and Kern, Codex x. Tit. lxi.

[99] Brunner (Sippe und Wergeld, p. 31) prefers the reading of the other codices, ‘on either side,’ but the principle is the same; the fisc gets whatever share lapses, whether it be ¼ or ½.

[100] Hessels and Kern, Tit. ci., p. 412. Pertz, Legg. 11, 5.

[101] This translation of the final clause does not materially vary in meaning from that of Brunner, Sippe und Wergeld, p. 34.

[102] Brunner, Sippe und Wergeld, p. 34.

[103] Sippe und Wergeld, p. 34.

[104] Sippe und Wergeld, p. 36. ‘Es dünkt mir sehr wahrscheinlich, dass auch in der Lex Salica unter den ‘tres proximiores’ Verwandte von drei verschiedenen Parentelen gemeint sind.’

Later examples of division of wergelds in other districts quoted by Brunner show that the division of the kindred into three similar grades or groups was prevalent also in Frisian and Saxon districts.

[105] Codices 3, 7, 8, 9 have ‘de quod non.’

[106] Tit. xxix.

[107] See his essay on this subject in his Problèmes d’Histoire, pp. 361 &c.

[108] Brunner, in his Sippe und Wergeld, shows this clearly, pp. 1-3.

[109] Blumenstock, i. 266.

[110] Tit. lvi.

[111] Tit. vi.

[112] The clause De reipus is very important in regard to some of these points. But the subject is too difficult a one to be discussed here.

[113] Guérard, on the other hand, says: ‘C’est l’alleu d’un Salien défunt que la loi divise en deux parts: dans l’une est la terre salique, et dans l’autre la terre non salique; mais ces deux terres sont également partie de la succession du défunt.’ Polyptique d’Irminon, i. p. 487. But he does not seem to have noted the use of ‘land’ unqualified in the saving clause of the first 4 codices.

[114] Erbenfolge, &c., pp. 12-14.

[115] Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben, i. p. 39.

[116] Polypt. d’Irminon, i. p. 495.

[117] English Historical Review, January 1893.

[118] Hessels and Kern, Tit. 78; Pertz, Leg. ii. p. 10.

[119] See note in Hessels and Kern, and Amira in his Erbenfolge, p. 16 (München, 1874).

[120] See supra, pp. 26, 27.

[121] This is repeated, ii. p. 391. ‘The argluyd takes him as a son, and if he die receives his da unless he leaves a son.’ Up to 14 his father was his ‘argluyd.’

[122] Sohm, in his preface to the Lex in Pertz (dated 1882), p. 188, concludes that this clause and clause 36 must be referred to the sixth century. There is a Formula in Marculf’s collection in which instructions are given to a newly appointed official, inter alia, to judge Franks, Romans, Burgundians, and those of other nations ‘secundum lege et consuetudine eorum’ (Marc. Form., Lib. i. 8.)

[123] In the Burgundian Law the wergeld is 150 solidi; in the Alamannic Law, 160 solidi; in the Bavarian law, 160 solidi. That this was also the wergeld of the Frisian and Saxon see infra.

[124] See Merkel’s preface to the laws in Pertz, p. 14.

[125] In the Burgundian laws the division is into ‘optimatus’ with a wergeld of 300 sol., ‘mediocris’ with 200 sol., and ‘minores ’ with 150 sol.

[126] Introduction, p. iv.

[127] Martini, Metrologia, sub ‘Roma.’ See also Traité de Numismatique du Moyen Age, par A. Engel, vol. i. p. 222.

[128] Pertz, p. 119.

[129] Pertz, p. 149.

[130] Hludowici et Hlotharii Capitularia, Pertz, p. 251.

[131] De Mirac. S. Martini, l. i. c. 31. Mention of the aureus occurs twenty-four times in the index to his works. Mention of trientes occurs twelve times, and of argentei five times.

[132] In some codices placed at the end of Lib. xii., Tit. ii. See edition of Walter (1824), p. 669.

[133] ‘Ex Isidori Etymologiarum Libris, c. De ponderibus.’ Hultsch, ii. 113.

[134] Twelve argentei (12 × 72 w.g.) = 864 w.g., or at 1:10 the Merovingian solidus of 86·4 w.g.

[135] Pertz, p. 18.

[136] Pertz, p. 31.

[137] Pertz, p. 39.

[138] In this Capitulare three grades of payments are stated, a pound, a half-pound, and five solidi. Five solidi in this scale should be ¼ lb., and in wheat-grains the scale would be 6912, 3456, and 1728. 1728 wheat-grains is 5 solidi of 12 denarii of 28·8.

[139] Capitulare Mantuanum, s. 9, ‘De moneta: ut nullus post Kalendas Augustas istos dinarios quos modo habere visi sumus dare audeat aut recipere: si quis hoc fecerit, vannum nostrum conponat.’

[140] Beiträge zur Geschichte des Geld- und Münzwesens in Deutschland.

[141] Forty argentei or drachmæ to the solidus would have meant a ratio of about 1:30.

[142] Polyptique d’Irminon, Introduction, i. 151. See also No. 82 of St. Gall Charters (Wastmann, i. p. 78), in which is an annual payment of ‘i bovem v solidos valentem’ sub anno A.D. 778.

[143] Pertz, p. 85.

[144] Pertz, p. 114.

[145] Pertz, p. 116.

[146] Pertz, p. 72. Refusing to receive the new denarii must have meant as 12 to the solidus, for the new denarii themselves were heavier than the old ones, 32 wheat-grains instead of 28·8.

[147] Pertz, p. 494. Karoli II. Edictum Pistense, A.D. 864: Ut in omni regno nostro non amplius vendatur libra auri purissime cocti, nisi duodecim libris argenti de novis et meris denariis.

Illud vero aurum quod coctum quidem fuerit, sed non tantum ut ex deauratura fieri possit eo libra una de auro vendatur decem libris argenti de novis et meris denariis.

[148] Traité de Numismatique du Moyen Age, par Arthur Engel (Paris, 1891), vol. i. pp. 329-332.

[149] Sohm, in his preface to the Ripuarian law in Pertz, against his own former opinion, concludes that clause xxxvi. did go back to the sixth century, and was originally a part of the Lex (p. 188).