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V.

of his equals. The here-geat, or heriot of the CHA P. king's thegn, that was nearest to him, was two horfes faddled, and two not faddled, two fwords, four fpears, fhields, helms, and mails, and fifty mancus of gold. But the here-geat of a common thegn was but one horfe, and his trapping and arms 47. By comparing these heriots, we may fee how greatly fuperior the rank of the king's thegn was esteemed.

THE inferior thegns appear to have been numerous. In every borough, fays a law, thirty-three thanes were chofen to witness. In fmall burghs, and to every hundred, twelve were to be felected 49.

THEGNS are twice mentioned in the laws as thegns born fo49. Perhaps the title was attached to their landed property, and defcended with it. In the Domesday furvey many lands are mentioned in feveral counties, which are called " Terra taino"rum;" the land of the thegns.

If a thegn had a church in his boclande, with a place of burial, he was to give to the church onethird of his own tenths; if he had not a burialplace, he was to give what he chofe out of the nine parts 5o.

50

THE king's-thegn was the thegn of office. No one was to have any focne or jurisdiction over him but the king

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THE thegn feems to have been a military noble. It is the Saxon word usually applied in those times to denote what the word miles fignified.

Wilk. Leg. 47.

47 Ib. 144.
so Ib. 130. 144.

49 lb. 125.27.

43 Ib. So.

si Ib. 118.

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We have learnt from Domesday-book that for the tenure of five hides of land the owner was liable to the fyrd or Saxon militia. We have alfo found that the tenure of five hides of land was effential to the dignity of thegn. To be king's thegn feems to have been a fort of feudal dignity, for which military fervice in the fyrd was impofed. The king's thegn is mentioned in the laws as attending in his expeditions, and as having a thegn. under him 52.

THE thegn was also a magiftrate, and might lose his dignity. The laws declared that if a judge decided unjustly, he should pay to the king one hundred and twenty fhillings, unless he could fwear that he knew no better, and he was to lose his thegn-fcipe, unless he could afterwards buy it of the king ".

THEY are thus mentioned by Edgar: "In every byrig and in every fcire I will have my kingly rights, as my father had, and my thegns fhall "have their thegn-ship in my time, as they had in my father's 54.

66

99

His were was two thoufand thrymfa . It is elsewhere stated as equal to that of fix ceorles, or twelve hundred fhillings "". If a thief took refuge with a thegn, he was

afylum 57.

56

allowed three days'

THE judicial magiftracy of the thegns appears from their affifting at the fhire-gemots. The Northmen had alfo a dignity of this fort, for thegns are mentioned in Snorre.

54 Ib. 8a.

52 Wilk. Leg. 71.

53 Ib. 77. 135.
56 lb. 64.

57 Ib. 63.

ss Ib. 71.

BOOK V.

The Hiftory of the Laws of the Anglo-
Saxons.

T

CHAP. I.

Homicide.

I.

O trace the principles on which the laws of C HAP. various nations have been formed, has been at all times an interefting object of intellectual exertion; and as the legislation of the more polifhed periods of ftates is much governed by its ancient institutions, it will be important to confider the principles on which our Anglo-Saxon forefathers framed their laws to punish public wrongs, and to redrefs civil injuries.

It will not be expected that we should give a complete commentary on the Saxon criminal law. in that narrow compafs within which we are obliged to confine each divifion of our prefent volume. But we will endeavour to trace the progrefs of the Saxon legiflation in fome of its more prominent features, and in the principal offences. Wé fhall felect for this purpose, homicide, perfonal injuries, theft, and adultery.

THE principle of pecuniary punishment pervades the laws of the Anglo-Saxons and of all the Ger

V.

BOOK man nations. Whether it arofe from the idea that the punishment of crime fhould be attended with fome benefit to the individual injured, or his family, or his lord; or whether, in their fierce dispofitions and warring habits, death was lefs dreaded as an evil than poverty; or whether the great were the authors of most of the crimes committed, and it was easier to make them refponfible in their property than in their lives, we cannot at this diftant æra decide: but we will endeavour to felect a few of the principles by which the pecuniary compenfations and forfeitures appear to have been regulated.

THE Saxons made many distinctions in HOMICIDES. The life of every man was protected, not by the penalty of his murderer's death, but by the pecuniary exactions which were to follow the homicide. All ranks of men were not, however, esteemed of equal value in the eye of the Saxon law, nor their lives equally worth protecting. The Saxons had therefore established many nice diftinctions in this refpect. Our prefent legiflation confiders the life of one man as facred as that of another, and will not admit the degree of the crime of murder to depend on the rank or property of the deceased. Hence a peasant is now as fecured from wilful homicide as a nobleman. It was otherwife among the Saxons.

THE protection which every man received was a curious exhibition of legislative arithmetic. Every man was valued at a certain fum, which was called his were, and whoever took his life was punished by having to pay this were.

I.

THE were was the compenfation allotted to the CHA P. family or relations of the deceased for the lofs of his life. But the Saxons had fo far advanced in legiflation as to confider homicide as a public as well as private wrong. Hence, befides the redress appointed to the family of the deceased, another pecuniary fine was impofed on the murderer, which was called the wite. This was the fatisfaction to be rendered to the community for the public wrong which had been committed. It was paid to the magiftrate prefiding over it, and varied according to the dignity of the person in whose jurisdiction the offence was committed; 12 fhillings was the payment to an eorle, if the homicide occurred in his town, and 50 were forfeited to the king if the district were under the regal jurisdiction'.

IN the firft Saxon laws which were committed to writing, or which have defcended to us, and which were established in the beginning of the 7th century, murder appears to have been only punishable by the were and the wite, provided the homicide was not in the fervile state. If an esne, a flave, killed a man, even "unfinningly," it was not, as with us, esteemed an excufable homicide; it was punished by the forfeiture of all that he was worth 2. A perfon so punished prefents us with the original idea of a felon; a feo-lun, or one divested of all property.

IN the laws of Ethelbert the were feems to have been uniform. Thefe laws ftate a meduman leodgelde, a general penalty for murder, which ap

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