The Laws of King Edward the Elder,901-924 A.D.

Of doom and suit.

King Edward commands all the reeves: that you judge such just dooms as you know to be most righteous, and as in the doom-book stands. Fear not on any account to pronounce folkright; and that every suit have a term when it shall be brought forward, that you then may pronounce.

Of buying.

1. And I will that every man have his warrantor; and that no man buy out of port, but have the port-reeve's witness, or that of other unlying men whom one may believe. And if any one buy out of port then let him incur the king's oferhyrnes, and let the warranty nevertheless go forward, until it be known where it shall stop. Also we have ordained: that he who should vouch to warranty should have unlying witness to the effect that he rightfully vouched it; or should bring forward an oath which he might believe who made the claim. So we have ordained the same respecting ownership; that he should adduce unlying witness thereof, or bring forward the oath, if he could, of persons unchosen, by which the claimant should be bound. But if he could not, then should be named to him six men of the same neighbourhood wherein he was resident, and of the six let him get one for one ox, or for that cattle which may be the worth of this, and afterward let it increase, according to the value of the property, if there ought to be more. Also we have ordained: if there were any evil-minded man who would put another's property in borh for wither-tihtle, that he should then declare on oath that he did not Afrom any knavery, but with full right, without fraud and guile," and that he then should there do as he durst with whom it is attached: "like as he it owned, so be it vouched to warranty."

Of him who denies justice to another.

2. Also we have ordained of what he were worthy who denied justice to another, either in boc-land or in folc-land, and that he should give him a term respecting the folc-land when he should do him justice before the reeve. But if he had no right either to the boc-land or to the folc-land, that he who denied the right should be liable in thirty shillings to the king; and for the second offense, the like: for the third offense, the king's oferhyrnes, that is, 120 shillings, unless he previously desist.

Of perjurers.

3. Also we have ordained concerning those men who were perjurers; if that were made evident, or an oath failed to them, or were out-proved, that they afterwards should not be oath-worthy, but ordeal-worthy.

Of frith.

4. King Edward exhorted his witan when they were at Exeter, that they should all search out how their frith might be better than it had previously been: for it seemed to him that it was more indifferently observed than it should be, what he had formerly commanded. He then asked them, who would apply to its amendment, and be in that fellowship that he was, and love that which he loved, and shun that which he shunned, both on sea and land? That is, then, that no man deny justice to another: if any one do so, let him make bot as it before is written; for the first offence, with thirty shillings; and for the second offense, the like; and for the third, with 120 shillings to the king.

Of the reeve who does not lawfully exact.

5. And if the reeve do not lawfully exact it, with the witness of those men who are assigned him to bear witness, then let him make bot of my oferhyrnes, with 120 shillings.

Of those accused of theft.

6. If any one be accused of theft, then let those take him in borh who before commended him to his lord, that he may justify himself thereof; or let other friends, if they have any, do the same. If he knows not who will take him in borh, then let those on whom it is incumbent take an in borh on his property. If he have neither property nor other borh, then let him be held to judgment.

Of those who will not seek their own.

7. Also I will that every man have constantly those men ready on his land, who may lead those men who desire to seek their own, and for no meed-monies prevent them, nor anywhere protect or harbour a convicted offender, willfully nor violently.

Of those who protect a convicted offender.

8. If any one disregard this, and break his oath and his wed, which all the nation has given, let him make bot as the doom-book may teach: but if he will not, let him forfeit the friendship of us all, and all that he has. If any one harbour him after that, let him make bot as the doom-book may say, and as he ought who harbours a fugutive, if it be here within. If it be within the east-country, let him make bot according as the frith-gewritu say.

Of him who forfeits his freedom.

9. If any one, through a charge of theft, forfeit his freedom, and deliver himself up, and his kindred forsake him, and he know not who shall make bot for him; let him then be worthy of the theow-work which thereto belongs, and let the wer abate for the kindred.

Of him who receives another man's man without leave.

10. Let no man receive another man's man without his leave whom he before followed, and until he be blameless towards every hand. If any one do so, let him make bot of my oferhyrnes.

Of gemot-terms.

11. I will that each reeve have a gemot always once in fourweeks; and so do that every man be worthy of folk-right: and that every suit have an end and a term when it shall be brought forward. If that any one disregard, let him make bot as we before ordained.

The Laws of Alfred, Guthrum, and Edward the Elder

These are the dooms which King Alfred and King Guthrum chose. And this is the ordinance also which King Alfred and King Guthrum, and afterwards King Edward and King Guthrum, chose and ordained, when the English and Danes fully took to peace and to friendship; and the witan also, who were afterwards, oft and unseldom that same renewed and increased with good.

This is the first which they ordained: that they would love one God, and zealously renounce every kind of heathendom. And they established worldly rules also for these reasons, that they knew that else they might not many control, nor would many men else submit to divine bot as they should: and the worldly bot they established in common to Christ and the king, wheresoever a man would not lawfully submit to divine bot, by direction of the bishops.

1. And this then is the first which they ordained: that church-grith within the walls, and the king's hand-grith, stand equally inviolate.

2. If any one violate Christianity, or reverence heathenism, by word or by work, let him pay as well wer, as wite or lah-slit, according as the deed may be.

3. And if a man in orders steal, or fight, or forswear, or fornicate, let him make bot for it according as the deed may be, as well by wer, as by wite or by lah-slit; and, above all things, make bot before God as the canon teaches, and find borh thereof, or yield to prison. And if a mass-priest misdirect the people about a festival or about a fast, let him pay thirty shillings among the English, and among the Danes three half-marks. If a priest fetch not the chrism at the right term, or refuse baptism to him who has need thereof, let him pay wite among the English, and among the Danes lah-slit; that is, twelve ores.

Of incestuous persons.

4. And concerning incestuous persons, the witan have ordained that the king shall have the upper, and the bishop the nether, unless bot be made before God and before the world, according as the deed may be; so as the bishop may teach. If two brothers or near kinsmen commit fornication with the same woman, let them make bot very strictly, in such wise as it may be allowed, as well by wer, as by wite or by lah-slit, according as the deed may be. If a man in orders fordo himself with capital crime, let him be seized and held to the bishop's doom.

5. If a man guilty of death desire confession, let it never be denied him. And all God's dues let every one zealously further, by God's mercy, and by the wites which the witan have annexed thereto.

6. If any one withhold tithes, let him pay lah-slit among the Danes, wite among the English. If any one withhold Rom-feoh, let him pay lah-slit among the Danes, wite among the English. If any one discharge not light-scot, let him pay lah-slit among the Danes, wite among the English. If any one give not plough-alms, let him pay lah-slit among the Danes, wite among the English. If any one deny any divine dues, let him pay lah-slit among the Danes, wite among the English. As if he fight and wound any one, let him be liable in his wer. If he fell a man to death, let him then be an outlaw, and let every one of those seize him with hearm who desire right. And if he so do that any one kill him, for that he resisted God's law or the kings, if that be proved true, let him lie uncompensated.

Of workings on a festival-day.

7. If any one engage in Sunday marketing, let him forfeit the chattel, and twelve ores among the Danes, and thirty shillings among the English. If a freeman work on a festival-day, let him forfeit his freedom, or pay wite or lah-slit. Let a theow-man suffer in his hide or hide-gild. If a lord oblige his theow to work on a festival-day, let him pay lah-slit within the Danish law, and wite among the English.

Of feasts.

8. If a freeman break a lawful feast, let him pay wite or lahslit. If a theowman do so, let him suffer in his hide or hide-gild.

Of ordeals and oaths.

9. Ordeal and oaths are forbidden on festival-days and lawful fast-days; and he who shall break that, let him pay lah-slit among the Danes, and wite among the English. If it can be so ordered, no one condemned should ever be executed on the Sunday festival, but be secured and held till the festival be gone by.

10. If a limb-maimed man who has been condemned or forsaken, and he after that live three days then any one who is willing to take care of sore and soul may help him, with the bishop's leave.

Of witches, diviners, perjurers, etc.

11. If witches or diviners, perjurers or morth-workers, or foul, defiled, notorious adulteresses, be found anywhere within the land; let them be driven from the country, and the people cleansed, or let them totally perish within the country, unless they desist, and the more deeply make bot.

Of ecclesiastics and foreigners.

12. If any one wrong an ecclesiastic or a foreigner, through any means, as to money or as to life, then shall the king or the eorl there in the land, and the bishop of the people, be unto him in the place of a kinsman and of a protector, unless he have another; and let bot be strictly made, according as the deed may be, to Christ and to the king, as it is fitting; or let him avenge the deeds very deeply who is king among the people.

How a twelve-hynde man shall be paid for.

13. A twelve-hynde man's wer is twelve hundred shillings. A two-hynde man's wer is two hundred shillings. If any one be slain, let him be paid for according to his birth. And it is right that the slayer, after he has given wed for the wer, find, in addition, wer-borh according as shall thereto belong; that is, to a twelve-hynde's wer-borh, eight of the paternal kins and four of the maternal kin. When that is done, then let the king's mund be established, that is, that they all of either kindred, with their hands in common upon one weapon, engage to the mediator that the king's mund shall stand. In twenty-one days from that day let 120 shillings be paid as heals-fang at a twelve-hynde's wer. Heals-fang belongs to no kinsman, except to those who are within the degrees of blood. In twenty-one days from that day that the heals-fang is paid, let the manbot be paid; in twenty-one days from this, the fight-wite; in twenty-one days from this, the frum-gyld of the wer; and so forth, till it be fully paid, within the time that the witan have appointed. After this they must depart with love, if they desire to have full friendship. All men shall do with regard to the wer of a ceorl that which belongs to his condition, like as we have said about a twelve-hynde man.

Of Oaths.

Thus shall a man swear fealty oaths.

1. By the Lord, before whom this relic is holy, I will be to ____ faithful and true, and love all that he loves, and shun all that he shuns, according to God's law, and according to the world s principles, and never, by will nor by force, by word nor by work, do ought of what is loathful to him; on condition that he keep me as I am willing to deserve, and all that fulfil that our agreement was, when I to him submitted and chose his will.

Thus shall a man swear when he has discovered his property and brings it in process.

2. By the Lord, before whom this relic is holy, so I my suit prosecute with full folk-right, without fraud and without deceit, and without any guile, as was stolen from me the cattle ____ that I claim, and that I have attached with ____.

The other's oath with whom a man discovers his cattle.

3. By the Lord, I was not at rede nor at deed, neither counsellor nor doer, where were unlawfully led away _____'s cattle. But as I cattle have, so did I lawfully obtain it. And: as I vouch it to warranty, so did he sell it to me into whose hand I now set it. And: as I cattle have, so did it come to my own property and so it by folk-right my own possession is, and my rearing.

The oath of him who discovers his property that he does it not either for hatred or for envy.

4. By the Lord, I accuse not ____ either for hatred or for envy, or for unlawful lust of gain; nor know I anything soother; but as my informant to me said, and I myself in sooth believe, that he was the thief of my property.

The other's oath that he is guiltless.

5. By the Lord, I am guiltless, both in deed and counsel, and of the charge of which ____ accuses me.

His companion's oath who stands with him.

6. By the Lord, the oath is clean and unperjured which ____ has sworn.

Oath if a man finds his property unsound after he has bought it.

7. In the name of Almighty God, you did engage to me sound and clean that which you sold to me, and full security against afterclaim, on the witness of ____, who then was with us two.

How he shall swear who stands with another in witness.

8. In the name of Almighty God, as I here for ____ in true witness stand, unbidden and unbought, so I with my eyes over-saw, and with my ears over-heard, that which I with him say.

Oath that he knew not of foulness or fraud.

9. In the name of Almighty God, I knew not, in the things about which you sued, foulness or fraud, or infirmity or blemish, up to that day's-tide that I sold it to you: but it was both sound and clean, without any kind of fraud.

10. In the name of the living God, as I money demand, so have I lack of that which ____ promised me when I mine to him sold.

Denial.

11. In the name of the living God, I owe not to ____ sceatt or shilling, or penny or penny's worth; but I have discharged to him all that I owe him, so far as our verbal contracts were at first.

Of the oath and degree-bot of men in orders.

12. A mass-priest's oath, and a secular thane's, are in English law reckoned of equal value; and by reason of the seven church-degrees that the mass-priest, through the grace of God, has acquired, he is worthy of thane-right.

Of the Mercian oath.

13. A twelve-hynde man's oath stands for six ceorls oaths: because, if a man should avenge a twelve-hynde man, he will be fully avenged on six ceorls, and his wer-gild will be six ceorls' wer-gilds. Bequeathed it and died, he who it owned, with full folk-right, so as it his elders, with money and with life, lawfully got, and let and left, in power of him, whom they well gifted. And so it have, as he it gave, who had it to give, without fraud and unforbidden; and I will possess it, as my own property, that that I have; and ne'er for thee design, nor plot nor ploughland, nor turf nor toft, nor furrow nor foot-mark, nor land nor leasowe, nor fresh nor marsh, nor rough nor plain, by wood nor field, by land nor by strand, by weald nor by water, but that will maintain, the while that I live; for there is no man alive, who ever heard that any one made plaint against, or summoned him at the hundred, or anywhere at gemot, in market-place, or among church-folk, the while that he lived. Sackless he was in life, be he in the grave, so as he may. Do as I teach: be you with yours, and leave me with mine: I covet not yours, nor laeth nor land, nor sac nor socn: nor need you mine; nor design I to you anything.