Concerning Laws of the Mercians, probably 9th century

The anonymous tract known as Be Mircna Laga (‘Concerning Laws of the Mercians’), probably ninth-century¹.

Transcription

39v (select folio number to open facsimile)

Ceorles wergyld is on Mircna laga cc scillinga. Đegenes wergyld is syx swa micel, þæt byð xii hun-
scillinga. Đonne byð cyninges anfeald wergild
syx þegena wergyld be Mircna laga, þæt is xxx
þusend sceatta, þæt bið ealles cxx punda. Swa
micel is þæs wergyldes on.² And for þam cynedo-
me gebyrað oþer swilc to bote on cynegylde. Se wer³ gebyreð magum, ⁊ seo cynebot þam
leodum.

Translation

See Translation Notes

In the laws of the Mercians, a ceorl’s wergild is 200 shillings.⁴ A thegn’s wergild is six times as much,⁵ that is 12 hundred shillings. Then, according to Mercian laws, the single wergild of a king is the same as the wergild of six thegns, that is 30 thousand pennies,⁶ which is 120 pounds in total. It is the greatest of the wergilds in [the ‘folk-right’ of the people, according to Mercian laws].⁷ And for that kingdom there happens to be a further compensation within the king-payment. The wergild belongs to his family, and the king-bot to the people.⁸

Footnotes

1 Though this legal tract is associated with a compilation of texts made by Wulfstan of York, archbishop from 1002 to 1023, there is nothing to suggest Wulfstan composed it. On the contrary, the material deals with the kingdom of Mercia, and as Mercia ceased to have an independent kingdom after the 880s, the text likely dates to before that time: see Patrick Wormald, The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, vol. 1 (Blackwell, 1999), pp. 391–93. It has been suggested that Be Mircna Laga may derive from traditions of Mercian oral law: see Tom Lambert, Law and Order in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 74.

2 ‘Swa micel is þæs wergyldes on folces folcriht be Myrcna laga.’ The scribe accidentally omitted the second half of the sentence, which does however appear in two other manuscripts that contain a copy of this text.

3 Wer is here used as shorthand for wergild.

4 A ceorl is the lowest ranked freeman in Anglo-Saxon society. The wergild (literally ‘man-payment’) was the monetary value placed on a free person’s life in the context of compensation laws.

5 A thegn (or ‘thane’) is a higher ranked freeman, owing loyalty directly to his lord, or to the king.

6 Or ‘sceats’/‘sceattas’.

7 The bracketed text is missing in the Old English; see note.

8 Old English cynebot, meaning something like ‘king’s compensation’. I’ve preserved the Old English element -bot, here, in order to distinguish it from the -gild (also -gyld) element that appears in wergild and cynegild, and which essentially also has the meaning of ‘payment’ or ‘compensation’.

Concerning the Mercian Oath, early-11th-century

Several codes within Textus Roffensis provide information on the payment of wergild (the legal value set on a person’s life according to rank) within Mercian society.

The title is based on the rubric in the Cambridge manuscript, Corpus Christi College, MS 201, p. 102. This short legal tract is essentially an extract from a larger one composed, most likely, by Wulfstan, archbishop of York (r. 1002–23). However, Wulfstan added the clause comparing oaths of mass-priests and thegns and also the clause mentioning ‘the seven orders of the church’ to earlier Mercian material which forms the clause concerning the ‘twelfth-hundred man’, and which may date to as early as the ninth-century. See Patrick Wormald, The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, vol. 1 (Blackwell, 1999), pp. 392–94.

The text was copied by the principal scribe of Textus Roffensis, who completed his work around 1123.

Transcription

39v (select folio number to open facsimile)

_Mæssepreostes að, ⁊ woruldþegenes is on En-
gla lage geteald efendyre.⁊ for þam seofon
cyrichadan þe se mæssepreost þurh Godes
gife geþeah þæt he hæfde he bið þegenrihtes
wyrþe. _Twelfhyndes mannes að, forstent vi ceorla aþ,
for ðam gif man þone twelfhyndan >man< wrecan
sceolde, he bið full wrecen on syx ceorlan, ⁊ his
wergyld bið vi ceorla wergyld.

Translation

An oath of a mass-priest and of a worldly thegn is in English law reckoned as equally dear.

And because the mass-priest received what he had through God’s gift of the seven orders of the church, he will have the rights of a thegn.

An oath of a twelve-hundred man is equal to an oath of six ceorls,¹ because if one should avenge the twelve-hundred man, he will be fully avenged on six ceorls, and his wergild is the wergild of six ceorls.

Footnotes

1 A ceorl (or ‘churl’) was a freeman of the lowest order. This text refers to a king’s wergild and therefore can be seen as old-fashioned, as kings in Mercia had long ceased by the time Wulfstan either wrote or emended the law-code, the last king being Ceolwulf II who died in 879.