Law enforcement 1A

• The powerful king and nobility made the laws, but village communities and family ties helped to enforce them at a local level.
• King Ethelred II ruled England from 978-1016. By making alliances with Normandy and defending England from Viking attacks, he gained more control over the kingdom.
• Anglo Saxons believed in the ‘king’s peace’: the duty of the King to maintain law and order so people could go about their everyday lives.
• Anglo Saxon kings formally issued codes of laws which laid out the law.
• Local communities were expected to take collective responsibility for maintain law and order.
• Each area had a local official called a reeve to carry out decisions made by local courts.
• England was divided into hundreds, and each hundred was divided into ten tithings. One man from each hundred, and one man from each tithing, had to meet regularly with the king’s shire reeve.
• Anyone who witnessed a crime in the community could raise a ‘hue and cry’, and everyone who heard it was expected to help chase the suspects.
• Sometimes people were given the option of swearing an oath to prove their innocence.
• Alternatively, they might be subject to trial by ordeal. These included hot iron (an accused’s hand was burned, and if it healed, this was a sign God had judged the to be innocent), or cold water (they were thrown into water with their hands tied; if they floated they were judged guilty, if they sank, they were innocent).