The Anglo-Saxons had a system of justice called the "hue and cry," where the community was responsible for pursuing and apprehending criminals.
the role of the community:
always the victim's responsibility to seek justice if a crime was committed against them
anyone who witnessed a crime or a victim would raise the 'hue and cry' as they would shout for help and being loyal is a duty in a community
structure of shire reeves
shires - england was divided into large areas called shires
hundreds- shires were divided into ' hundreds' and one man led this group as a ' hundredsman '
tithings - each hundred is divided into smaller group of 10 tithings and a tithing was a group of man big enough to enforce a law in the village
tithingmen - all men above the age of 12 had to be a tithing at one point and this would be rotated
king'sshirereeve - one man from each tithing had to meet a representative called this
3 main belief of how law should be enforced in the anglo saxon period
attitudes - collective responsibility
religion - God has the final judgement on innocence or guilt due to how religious people are
society - person's status or importance in society was important
role of religion - taking an oath
taking an oath meant that anyone accused of a crime had to be taken to a public place where they had to swear an oath to declare they are innocent . They can call on anyone to support their oath and they were called 'oath helpers' .
