by Jane Allyson

Created on: August 14, 2011   Last Updated: August 15, 2011

Historical facts about Anglo-Saxon law is limited and the records that have been preserved came as a result of the new legislature introduced by the Normans. What is known is that legal documents that are composed in the Anglo-Saxon tongue can be seen as being one of the most important sources for old Germanic law.

An ordinary person’s position in Anglo-Saxon society was bound up with the economic well being of their family. A freeman had an obligation to be a good citizen and acts of unlawful violence would have be heavily penalised, and resulted in having a negative effect on the finances of the perpetrators own family.

The wereld or wergild was a system of compensation paid to a family of a person who had been killed or injured by the offending party.

This system was enforced to bring down the number of blood feud systems and developed as a result from laws known as “dooms” issued by the Anglo Saxon kings to help bring peace to their kingdoms.  Wergilds were also a way of providing financial security for the victim of a violent deed.

King Alfred of Wessex was responsible for making a permanent record of the laws known as dooms that had been followed by his predecessors. It had the effect of enabling the court to follow a certain criteria in administering justice.

The dooms were adamant. If anyone raped the slave woman of a ceorl, he was ordered to pay five shillings compensation to the ceorl and a 60 shilling fine. If a slave raped a slave woman he was forced to pay for his deeds by being castrated.

If anyone lay with the wife of a man worth 1200 wergild he would have had to pay the husband 120 shillings, with the crime being graded according the victims social standing in the community.  A man of the ceorl class would have to be paid 100 shillings and so on.

A person stealing from the church would be made to pay compensation and a fine and have his hand struck off. The offender would only be allowed to redeem himself by paying an amount of money in proportion to his own wergild.

Wergeld was paid if someone was killed, and botgeld for someone who was injured. The terms of the wergild were administered according to the position of the injured party in society.

This meant that the system of wergild was directly proportional to the rank of that person in the community. This determination of social classes was not reflected in the amount of wealth that the family actually had, but was more an indication of how much they were worth

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