Anglo Saxon Law and Order

• Blood feuds were particularly common earlier in the Saxon period
• By the 11th century, royal rule had increased somewhat and blood feuds were becoming less common
• Blood feud


  Legal framework for revenge where if a family member was murdered, the family was entitled to murder a member of the perpetrator's family in revenge, leading to a potentially long-lasting and devastating dispute
• Intended purpose of the blood feud

  As a form of deterrence to put people off murdering their neighbors altogether
• Wergild was a form of compensation for assaults and murders
• Wergild fines

  • For a king: 30,000 gold coins
  • For a thane: 1,200 shillings
  • For a prosperous churl: 200 shillings
  • For a Welshman: 70 shillings
• Wergild acted as a deterrent

  Even fines for richer people were crippling and acted as a deterrent
• Payment of compensation in wergild


  Less likely to lead to a blood feud of revenge
• Trial by ordeal


  Accused person undergoes a painful and injuring process, and the outcome is determined by the healing of the wound
• Outcome of trial by ordeal

  If the wound healed quickly and cleanly, the accused was judged innocent; if not, they were judged guilty
• Belief in trial by ordeal

  Religious Anglo-Saxons believed it was God's judgment
• People would probably accept god's judgment

  They might feel hard done by if they realized they were innocent but judged guilty in a trial by ordeal
• Execution after being wrongly convicted

  Thought to lead to ending up in heaven
• Community responsibility in catching criminals


  Expected to uphold the law and assist in catching criminals
• Hue and Cry

  Raise the hue and cry by shouting and alerting others, form a posse to chase criminals, deliver them to the shire reeve
• Punishments in Saxon England

  • Fines
  • Mutilation
  • Exile
  • Execution
• There was no police force at this time
• Communication with the shire reeve

  Would take so long that the miscreant would definitely get away
• Communities acted as a form of deterrence


  Communities themselves tried to act as a form of deterrence against breaking the law
• Whole community would benefit from enforcing the law

  It was judged that the whole community would benefit as a result
• Enforcement of the law in Anglo-Saxon hierarchy

  King, earls, shire reeves enforced the law
• Saxon England seemed violent and lawless compared to modern times
• Compensation could be paid for harming others such as the weregild fines
• Imprisonment was rare in Saxon England
• Prisons didn't really exist at all in Saxon England