194
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
serfs casu or natura, and the serfs casu comprise
serfs by the fortune of war, by marriage, by settle-
ment, by voluntary surrender, by crime, by superior
legal power, and by illegal power or injustice. The
remaining class are serfs natura, or by birth.
The serfs by fortune of war were those who were
not left under the public law to enjoy a portion of
their ancient freedom and possessions, but were
actually reduced to a state of prædial or menial
servitude by their captors, and either reserved for
household drudgery or sold, at their arbitrary will.
The Cassandra and Andromache of Grecian story
stand here side by side with our own German
Gudrun. This part of the subject has received suffi-
cient illustration from the tale of the thane Imma,
already quoted from Beda.
The serf by marriage was the free man or free
woman who contracted that bond with a slave : in
this case the free party sank to the condition of the
unfree, among some at least of the German races.
The Salic law is explicit upon this point both with
respect to man and woman1 : among the Ripuarian
Franks it was enacted thus2 : “ If a free Ripuarian
woman hath followed a Ripuarian serf, let the king
or the count offer unto her a sword and a spindle :
if she accept the sword, let her therewith slay the
serf; if the spindle, let her abide with him in ser-
ɪ “ Si quis ingenuus ancillam alienanɪ sibi in coniugium sociaverit,
ipse cum ea in servitutem inclinetur.” Lex Sal. xiv. 11. “ Si ingenua
femina aliquemcunque deillis (i. e. raptoribus non ingenuis) sua volun-
tate βecuta fuerit, ingenuitatem suam perdat.” Lex Sal. xiv. 7.
a Lex Rip. Iviii. 18.
CH. VIII.]
THE UNFREE. THE SERF.
196
vitude.” In this case the Burgundian law1 com-
manded both parties to be slain ; but if the rela-
tives of the woman would not put her to death, she
became a serf of the king. Saxo Grammaticus cites
a similar law for Denmark2. There is no evidence
of the Anglosaxon practice in this respect, but it
appears unlikely that the case should be of com-
mon occurrence. Probably purchase and emanci-
pation always preceded such marriages, and the
law of Henry the First makes no mention of this
among the grounds of slavery3.
The serf by settlement is he who has taken up
his abode in a district exclusively inhabited by the
unfree ; and to this refers the German expression
“ Die Iuft macht eigen,” i. e. the air makes the serf.
There is no distinct Anglosaxon provision on the
subject, but perhaps we may include in this class
some at least of those who taking refuge on a lord’s
land, and among his socmen, without any absolute
and formal surrender of their freedom, did actu-
ally become his serfs and liable to the services due
to him from all their neighbours4. The generality
1 Lex Burg, xxxv. 2, 3. a Hist. Dan. lib. v. p. 86.
3 The following proverbs are founded upon this legal custom :—
“ Trittst du meine henne, so wirst du mein hahn.”
“ Die unfreie hand zieht die freie nach sich.”
“ En formariage le pire emporte le bon.”
4 Such may also have been malefactors, who sought an asylum in
church or other privileged lands, and who sometimes formed a very
considerable number of dependants or retainers: thus, “Contraxit
Universam iuventutem Houlandiae [Holland in Lincolnshire] strenu-
ɪssimus comes Algarus,.. . unà cum cohorte Croylandiae monasterii,
videlicet CC bellatoribus robustissimiβ, eo quod maxima pars illorum
de fugitivis fuerat.” Hist. Ingulf, p. 865.