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Anglo-Saxon law (Old English: ǣ, later lagu ' law '; dōm ' decree ', ' judgment ') was the legal system of Anglo-Saxon England from the 6th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. It was a form of Germanic law based on unwritten custom known as folk-right and on written laws enacted by kings with the advice of their witan or council.
The code is attributed to Æthelberht, and for this reason is dated to that king's reign (c. 590–616×618). [3] Æthelberht's code is thought to be both the earliest law code of any kind in any Germanic language and the earliest surviving document written down in the English language.
Pages in category "Anglo-Saxon law" The following 36 pages are in this category, out of 36 total. ... Law codes of Cnut; Law of Æthelberht; Wantage Code;
The weregild for women relative to that of men of equal rank varied: among the Saxons half that of men. In the Migration period, the standard weregild for a freeman appears to have been 200 solidi , an amount reflected as the basic fee due for the death of a churl (or ceorl) both in later Anglo-Saxon and continental law codes.
Christianisation resulted in the production of written law codes, the earliest being Kent's Law of Æthelberht. These early laws attempted to preserve the peace and prevent blood feuds (see Anglo-Saxon law). [31] The church itself operated according to canon law, a legal system based on Roman civil law. [32]
The Wantage Code, sometimes referred to as III Æthelred (abbreviated III Atr), is an early English legal text.Recorded in Old English, it is a record of laws that Æthelred the Unready (died 1016) and his councillors enacted at the royal manor of Wantage, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire).
Ine's laws survive only because Alfred the Great appended them to his own code of laws. [41] The oldest surviving manuscript, and only complete copy, is in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge MS 173, which contains both Alfred's and Ine's law codes and the oldest extant text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Two more partial texts survive.
The Law of Hlothhere and Eadric is an Anglo-Saxon legal text. It is attributed to the Kentish kings Hloþhere (died 685) and Eadric (died 686), and thus is believed to date to the second half of the 7th century. It is one of three extant early Kentish codes, along with the early 7th-century Law of Æthelberht and the early 8th-century Law of ...