OUR LEGAL HERITAGE

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Judicial Procedure

Cases were held at monthly meetings of the community [folk-moot].
The King or his representative in the community, called the
"reeve", conducted the trial by compurgation.

The one complaining, called the "plaintiff", and the one
defending, called the "defendant", each told their story and put
his hand on the Bible and swore "By God this oath is clean and
true". A slip or a stammer would mean he lost the case.
Otherwise, community members would stand up to swear on behalf of
the plaintiff or the defendant as to their reputation for
veracity. If these "compurgators" were too few, usually twelve
in number, or recited poorly, their party lost.

If this process was inconclusive, the defendant was told to go to
church and to take the sacrament only if he were innocent. If he
took the sacrament, he was tried by the process of "ordeal". In
the ordeal by cold water, he was bound hand and foot and then
thrown into water. If he floated, he was guilty. If he sank, he
was innocent. It was not necessary to drown to be deemed
innocent. In the ordeal by hot water, he had to pick up a stone
from inside a boiling cauldron. If his hand was healing in three
days, he was innocent. If it was festering, he was guilty. A
similar ordeal was that of hot iron, in which one had to carry in
his hands a hot iron for a certain distance. Although the results
of the ordeal were taken to indicate the will of God, the
official conducting the ordeal could adjust its parameters so
that a person with a guilty demeanor would be found guilty and a
person with an innocent demeanor found innocent. The ordeal seems
to favor the physically fit, because a person who was not fat
would tend to sink and a person who was in good health would
have prompt healing of burns. Presumably a person convicted of
murder, i.e. killing by stealth, or robbery [taking from a
person's robe, that is, his person or breaking into his home to
steal] would be hung and his possessions confiscated.

The issue of rights to herd pigs to feed in certain woodland was
heard in this lawsuit:

"In the year 825 which had passed since the birth of Christ, and
in the course of the second Indiction, and during the reign of
Beornwulf, King of Mercia, a council meeting was held in the
famous place called Clofesho, and there the said King Beornwulf
and his bishops and his earls and all the councilors of this
nation were assembled. Then there was a very noteworthy suit
about wood-pasture at Sinton, towards the west in Scirhylte. The
reeves in charge of the pigherds wished to extend the pasture
farther, and take in more of the wood than the ancient rights
permitted. Then the bishop and the advisors of the community said
that they would not admit liability for more than had been
appointed in AEthelbald's day, namely mast for 300 swine, and
that the bishop and the community should have two-thirds of the
wood and of the mast. They Archbishop Wulfred and all the
councilors determined that the bishop and the community might
declare on oath that it was so appointed in AEthelbald's time and
that they were not trying to obtain more, and the bishop
immediately gave security to Earl Eadwulf to furnish the oath
before all the councilors, and it was produced in 30 days at the
bishop's see at Worcester. At that time Hama was the reeve in
charge of the pigherds at Sinton, and he rode until he reached
Worcester, and watched and observed the oath, as Earl Eadwulf
bade him, but did not challenge it.

Here are the names and designations of those who were assembled
at the council meeting ..."

Chapter 3

The Times: 900-1066

There were many large landholders such as the King, earls [Danish
word for Saxon word "eorldormen"], and bishops. Earls were
noblemen by birth, and often relatives of the King. They were
his army commanders and the highest civil officials, each
responsible for a shire. A breach of the peace of an eorldorman
would occasion a fine. Lower in social status were freemen, then
sokemen, and then, in decreasing order, villani, bordarii,
cottarii, and servi (slaves).

There was a great expansion of arable land. Some land was common
land, held by communities. If a family came to pay the dues and
fines on it, it became personal to that family and was known as
heir land.

Kings typically granted land in exchange for services of military
duties, repairing of fortresses, and work on bridges. Less
common services required by landlords include equipping a guard
ship and guarding the coast, guarding the lord, military watch,
maintaining the deer fence at the King's residence, alms giving,
and church dues. Since this land was granted in return for
service, there were limitations on its heritability and often an
heir had to pay a heriot to the landlord to obtain the land. A
heriot was originally the armor of a man killed, which went to
the King.

There were several thousand thegns, rich and poor, who held land
directly of the King. Free farmers who had sought protection
from thegns in time of war now took them as their lords. A free
man could chose his lord, following him in war and working his
land in peace. In return, the lord would protect him against
encroaching neighbors, back him in the courts of law, and feed
him in times of famine. Often knights stayed with their lords at
their large houses, but later were given land with men on it.
The lords were the ruling class and the greatest of them sat in
the King's council along with bishops, abbots, and officers of
the King's household. The lesser lords were local magnates, who
officiated at the shire and hundred courts.

A free holder's house was wood, perhaps with a stone foundation,
and roofed with thatch or tiles. There was a main room or hall,
with bed chambers around it. Beyond was the kitchen, perhaps
outside under a lean-to. These buildings were surrounded by a
bank or stiff hedge.

Simple people lived in huts made from wood and mud, with one door
and no windows. They slept around a fire in the middle of the
earthen floor. They wore shapeless clothes of goat-hair and
unprocessed wool. They ate rough brown bread, vegetable broth,
small-ale from barley, bacon, beans, milk, cabbage, onion, and
honey for sweetening or mead. In the summer, they ate boiled or
raw veal and wild fowl and game snared in the forest. In the
fall, they slaughtered and salted their cattle for food during
the winter because there was no more pasture for them. However,
some cows and breed animals were kept through the winter.

Folk land was that land that was left over after allotments had
been made to the freemen and which was not common land. Book
land was called such because this holding was written down in
books. This land was usually land that had been given to the
church or monasteries because the church had personnel who could
write. So many thegns gave land to the church, usually a hide,
that the church had 1/3 of the land.

An example of a grant of hides of land is: "[God has endowed King
Edred with England], wherefore he enriches and honors men, both
ecclesiastic and lay, who can justly deserve it. The truth of
this can be acknowledged by the thegn AElfsige Hunlafing through
his acquisition of the estate of 5 hides at Alwalton for himself
and his heirs, free from every burden except the repair of
fortifications, the building of bridges and military service; a
prudent landowner church dues, burial fees and tithes. [This
land] is to be held for all time and granted along with the
things both great and small belonging to it."

A Bishop gave land to a faithful attendant for his life and two
other lives as follows: "In 904 A.D., I, Bishop Werfrith, with
the permission and leave of my honorable community in Worcester,
grant to Wulfsige, my reeve, for his loyal efficiency and humble
obedience, one hide of land at Aston as Herred held it, that is,
surrounded by a dyke, for three lives and then after three lives
the estate shall be given back without any controversy to
Worcester."

The lands of the large landholding lords were administered by
freemen. They had wheat, barley, oats, and rye fields, orchards,
vineyards, and bee-keeping areas for honey. Hand mills and/or
water mills were used for grinding grain. On this land lived not
only farm laborers, cattle herders, shepherds, goatherds, and
pigherds, but craftsmen such as goldsmiths, hawk-keepers,
dog-keepers, horse- keepers, huntsmen, foresters, builders,
weaponsmiths, embroiderers, bronze smiths, blacksmiths, water
mill wrights, wheelwrights, waggon wrights, iron nail makers,
potters, soap-makers, tailors, shoemakers, salters (made salt at
the "wyches"), bakers, cooks, and gardeners. Most men did
carpentry work. Master carpenters worked with ax, hammer, and
saw to make houses, doors, bridges, milk- buckets, wash-tubs, and
trunks. Blacksmiths made gates, huge door hinges, locks,
latches, bolts, and horseshoes. The lord loaned these people land
on which to live for their life, called a "life estate", in
return for their services. The loan could continue to their
children who took up the craft. Mills were usually powered by
water.

The land of some lords included fishing villages along the
coasts. Other lords had land with iron-mining industries.

Some smiths traveled for their work, for instance, stone-wrights
building arches and windows in churches, and lead-workers
putting lead roofs on churches.

Clothing for men and women was made from wool, silk, and linen
and was usually brown in color. Men also wore leather clothing,
such as neckpieces, breeches, ankle leathers, shoes, and boots;
and metal belts under which they carried knives or axes. They
could wear leather pouches for carrying items.

Water could be carried in leather bags. Leather working
preservative techniques improved so that tanning prevented
stretching or decaying.

For their meals, people had drinking cups and bottles made of
leather, and bowls, pans, and pitchers made by the potter's
wheel. Water could be boiled in pots made of iron, brass, lead,
or clay.

Some lords had markets on their land, for which they charged a
toll [like a sales tax] for participation. There were about
fifty markets in the nation. Cattle and slaves were the usual
medium of exchange. Shaking hands was symbolic of an agreement
for a sale, which was carried out in front of witnesses at the
market. People traveled to markets on roads and bridges kept in
repair by certain men who did this work as their service to the
King.

Salt was used throughout the nation to preserve meat over the
winter. Inland saltworks had an elaborate and specialized
organization. They formed little manufacturing enclaves in the
midst of agricultural land, and they were considered to be
neither manor nor appurtenant to manors. They belonged jointly
to the King and the local earl, who shared, at a proportion of
two to one, the proceeds of the tolls upon the sale of salt and
methods of carriage on the ancient salt ways according to
cartload, horse load, or man load. Horses now had horseshoes.
The sales of salt were mostly retail, but some bought to resell.
Peddlers carried salt to sell from village to village.

At seaports on the coast, goods were loaded onto vessels owned by
English merchants to be transported to other English seaports.
London was a market town on the north side of the Thames River
and the primary port and trading center for foreign merchants.
Wheat, meal, skins, hides, wool, beer, lead, cheese, salt, and
honey were exported. Wine (mostly for the church), fish, timber,
pitch, pepper, spices, copper, gems, gold, silk, dyes, oil,
brass, sulphur, glass, and elephant and walrus ivory were
imported. There was a royal levy on exports by foreigners
merchants. The other side of the river was called Southwark. It
contained sleazy docks, prisons, gaming houses, brothels, and
inns.

Guilds in London were first associations of neighbors for the
purposes of mutual assistance. They were fraternities of persons
by voluntary compact to assist each other in poverty, including
their widows or orphans and the portioning of poor maids, and to
protect each other from injury. Their essential features are and
continue to be in the future: 1) oath of initiation, 2) entrance
fee in money or in kind and a common fund, 3) annual feast and
mass, 4) meetings at least three times yearly for guild
business, 5), obligation to attend all funerals of members, to
bear the body if need be from a distance, and to provide masses
for the dead, 6) the duty of friendly help in cases of sickness,
imprisonment, house-burning, shipwreck, or robbery, 7) rules for
decent behavior at meetings, and 8) provisions for settling
disputes without recourse to the law. Both the masses and the
feast were attended by the women. Frequently the guilds also had
a religious ceremonial to affirm their bonds of fidelity. They
readily became connected with the exercise of trades and with
the training of apprentices. They promoted and took on public
purposes such as the repairing of roads and bridges, the relief
of pilgrims, the maintenance of schools and almshouses, and the
periodic performance of pageants and miracle-plays.

Many of these London guilds were known by the name of their
founding member. There were also Frith Guilds and a Knights'
Guild. The Frith Guild's main object was to put down theft.
Members contributed to a common fund, which paid a compensation
for items stolen. Members with horses were to track the thief.
Members without horses worked in the place of the absent
horseowners until their return. The Knights' Guild was composed
of thirteen military persons to whom King Edgar granted certain
waste land in the east of London, toward Aldgate, for prescribed
services performed. This concession was confirmed by Edward the
Confessor in a charter at the suit of certain burgesses of
London, the successors of these knights. But there was no
trading privilege, and the Prior of Holy Trinity, Aldgate,
became the sovereign of the Guild and the Aldermen ex officio of
Portsoken Ward. He rendered an account to the Crown of the shares
of tallage paid by the men of the Ward and presided over the
wardmoots. Every week in London there was a folkmoot. Majority
decision was a tradition. Every London merchant who had made
three long voyages on his own behalf ranked as a thegn.

Later in the towns, there were merchant guilds, which were
composed of prosperous traders, who later became landholders.
Merchant guilds grew out of charity associations whose members
were bound by oath to each other and got together for a
guild-feast every month. Many market places were dominated by a
merchant guild, which had a monopoly of the local trade. There
were also some craft guilds composed of handicraftsmen or
artisans. Escaped bonded agricultural workers, poor people, and
traders without land migrated to towns to live, but were not
citizens.

Towns were largely self-sufficient, but salt and iron came from a
distance. It was the kings' policy to establish in every shire
at least one town with a market place where purchases would be
witnessed and a mint where reliable money was coined. Almost
every village had a watermill.

Edward the Confessor, named such for his piety, was a King of 24
years who was widely respected for his intelligence,
resourcefulness, good judgment, and wisdom. His educated Queen
Edith, whom he relied on for advice and cheerful courage, was a
stabilizing influence on him. They were served by a number of
thegns, who had duties in the household, which was composed of
the hall, the courtyard, and the bedchamber. They were important
men, thegns by rank. They were landholders, often in several
areas, and held leading positions in the shires, although they
were not sheriffs. They were also priests and clerics, who
maintained the religious services and performed tasks for which
literacy was necessary.

The court was host to many of the greatest magnates and prelates
of the land at the time of great ecclesiastical festivals, when
the King held more solemn courts and feasted his vassals. These
included all the great earls, the majority of bishops, some
abbots, and a number of thegns and clerics. Edward had a witan
of wise men to advise him, but sometimes the King would speak in
the hall after dinner and listen to what comments were made from
the mead-benches. As the court moved about the country, many men
came to pay their respects and attend to local business.

The main governmental activities were: war, collection of
revenue, religious education, and administration of justice. For
war, the shires had to provide a certain number of men and the
ports quotas of ships with crews. The King was the patron of the
English church. He gave the church peace and protection. He
presided over church councils and appointed bishops. As for the
administration of justice, the public courts were almost all
under members of Edward's court, bishops, earls, and reeves.
Edward's mind was often troubled and disturbed by the threat
that law and justice would be overthrown, by the pervasiveness of
disputes and discord, by the raging of wicked presumption, by
money interfering with right and justice, and by avarice
kindling all of these. He saw it as his duty to courageously
oppose the wicked by taking good men as models, by enriching the
churches of God, by relieving those oppressed by wicked judges,
and by judging equitably between the powerful and the humble.

A King's grant of land entailed two documents: a charter giving
boundaries and conditions and a writ, usually addressed to the
shire court, listing the judicial and financial privileges
conveyed with the land. These were usually sac and soke [petty
jurisdiction over inhabitants of the estate], toll and team [a
share in the profits from trade conducted within the estate], and
infangenetheof [the authority to hang and take the chattels of a
thief caught on the property]. The writ was created by the
Chancery, which had been established by the King to draft
documents and keep records. The writ was a small piece of
parchment addressed to a royal official or dependent commanding
him to perform some task for the King. By the 1000s A.D., the
writ contained a seal: a lump of wax with the impress of the
Great Seal of England.

The town of Coventry consisted of a monastery manor and a private
manor. The monastery was granted by Edward the Confessor full
freedom and these jurisdictions: sac and soke, toll and team,
hamsocne [the authority to fine a person for breaking into and
making entry by force into the dwelling of another], forestall
[the authority to fine a person for robbing others on the road],
blodwite [the authority to impose a forfeiture for assault
involving bloodshed], fihtwite [the authority to fine for
fighting], weordwite [the authority to fine for manslaughter,
but not for willful murder], and mundbryce [the authority to
fine for any breach of the peace, such as trespass on lands].

Marriages were determined by men asking women to marry them. If a
woman said yes, he paid a sum to her kin for her "mund"
[jurisdiction or protection over her] and gave his oath to them
to maintain and support the woman and any children born. As
security for this oath, he gave a valuable object or "wed". The
couple were then betrothed. Marriage ceremonies were performed by
priests in churches. The marriage was written into church
records. Friends witnessed the wedding and afterwards ate the
great loaf, or first bread made by the bride. This was the
forerunner of the wedding cake. They drank special ale, the
"bride ale" (from hence the work "bridal"), to the health of the
couple.

This marriage agreement with an Archbishop's sister provides her
with land, money, and horsemen:

"Here in this document is stated the agreement which Wulfric and
the archbishop made when he obtained the archbishop's sister as
his wife, namely he promised her the estates at Orleton and
Ribbesford for her lifetime, and promised her that he would
obtain the estate at Knightwick for her for three lives from the
community at Winchcombe, and gave her the estate at Alton to
grant and bestow upon whomsoever she pleased during her lifetime
or at her death, as she preferred, and promised her 50 mancuses
of gold and 30 men and 30 horses.

The witnesses that this agreement was made as stated were
Archbishop Wulfstan and Earl Leofwine and Bishop AEthelstan and
Abbot AElfweard and the monk Brihtheah and many good men in
addition to them, both ecclesiastics and laymen. There are two
copies of this agreement, one in the possession of the
archbishop at Worcester and the other in the possession of
Bishop AEthelstan at Hereford."

This marriage agreement provided the wife with money, land, farm
animals and farm laborers; it also names sureties, the survivor
of whom would receive all this property:

"Here is declared in this document the agreement which Godwine
made with Brihtric when he wooed his daughter. In the first
place he gave her a pound's weight of gold, to induce her to
accept his suit, and he granted her the estate at Street with
all that belongs to it, and 150 acres at Burmarsh and in addition
30 oxen and 20 cows and 10 horses and 10 slaves.

This agreement was made at Kingston before King Cnut, with the
cognizance of Archbishop Lyfing and the community at
Christchurch, and Abbot AElfmaer and the community at St.
Augustine's, and the sheriff AEthelwine and Sired the old and
Godwine, Wulfheah's son, and AElfsige cild and Eadmaer of Burham
and Godwine, Wulfstan's son, and Carl, the king's cniht. And
when the maiden was brought from Brightling AElfgar, Sired's
son, and Frerth, the priest of Forlstone, and the priests
Leofwine and Wulfsige from Dover, and Edred, Eadhelm's son, and
Leofwine, Waerhelm's son, and Cenwold rust and Leofwine, son of
Godwine of Horton, and Leofwine the Red and Godwine, Eadgifu's
son, and Leofsunu his brother acted as security for all this.
And whichever of them lives the longer shall succeed to all the
property both in land and everything else which I have given
them. Every trustworthy man in Kent and Sussex, whether thegn or
commoner, is cognizant of these terms.

There are three of these documents; one is at Christchurch,
another at St. Augustine's, and Brihtric himself has the third."

Nuns and monks lived in nunneries and monasteries on church land
and grew their own food. The local bishop usually was also an
abbot of a monastery. The priests and nuns wore long robes with
loose belts and did not carry weapons. Their life was ordered by
the ringing of the bell to start certain activities, such as
prayer; meals; meetings; work in the fields, gardens, or
workshops; copying and illuminating books; taught justice,
piety, chastity, peace, and charity; and cared for the sick.
Caring for the sick entailed mostly praying to God as it was
thought that only God could cure. The large monasteries had
libraries, dormitories, guest-houses, kitchens, butteries to
store wine, bakehouses, breweries, dairies, granaries, barns,
fish-ponds, orchards, vineyards, gardens, workshops, laundries,
lavatories with long stone or marble washing-troughs, and
towels. Slavery was diminished by the church by excommunication
for the sale of a child over seven. The clergy taught that
manumission of slaves was good for the soul of the dead, so it
became frequent in wills. The clergy were to be celibate and not
marry, but in lax times this rule was not followed.

The Archbishop of Canterbury began anointing new Kings at the
time of coronation to emphasize that the King was ruler by the
grace of God.

Illness was thought to be caused by demons. People hung charms
around their neck for cure and treatments of magic and herbs
were given. For instance, the remedy for "mental vacancy and
folly" was a drink of "fennel, agrimony, cockle, and marche".
Leeches were used for healing wounds, such as those from snake
bites.

The Law

Every free man who did not hold land had to find a lord to answer
for him. The act of homage was symbolized by placing his hands
within those of his lord. Every lord shall be personally
responsible as surety for the men of his household.

Every free man who held land had to be in a local tithing,
usually about ten men, in which they served as personal sureties
for each other's peaceful behavior [frankpledge]. If one of them
were accused of an offense, the others had to produce him in
court or pay for the offense, unless they could prove that they
had no complicity in it.

"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 12 months, he shall deliver him up to justice, and
what he has paid shall be returned to him."

Only a priest could declare a marriage. The groom had to bring
friends to his wedding as sureties to guarantee his oath to
maintain and support his wife and children. Those who swore to
take care of the children were called their "godfathers".

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