276
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
is paid, let the manbôt be paid; twenty-one days
later, the fight-fine ; in twenty-one days from this,
∖hefrumgyld or first instalment of the wergyld; and
so forth until the whole sum be discharged at such
fixed time as the Witan have agreed. After this
they may depart with love, if they desire to have
full friendship. And with respect to the wergyld
of a ceorl, all that belongs in his condition shall be
done in like manner as we have said respecting the
twelfhynde man.”
The law of Eadmund contains similar provisions1.
“The Witan shall appease feud. First, according
to folkright, the slayer shall give pledge to his ad-
vocate, and the advocate to the kindred of the slain,
that the slayer will make compensation to the kin.
Then it is necessary that security be given to the
slayer’s advocate, that the slayer may draw nigh in
peace, and himself give pledge for the wergyld.
When he has given his wed for this, let him further
find a werborh, or security for the payment of the
wer. When that is done let the king’s protection
be set up : within twenty-one days from that, let the
healsfang be paid ; within other twenty-one dasy,
the manbot ; and twenty-one days from that, the
first instalment of the wergyld.”
The wergyld then, or life-price, was the basis
upon which all peaceful settlement of feud was
established. A sum paid either in kind or in
money, where money existed, was placed upon the
life of every free man, according to his rank in the
ɪ E⅛dm. Sec. Leg. § 7. Thorpe, i. 260.
CS. X.]
FÆ'HDE. WERGYLD.
277
state, his birth or his office. A corresponding sum
was settled for every wound that could be inflicted
upon his person ; for nearly every injury that could
be done to his civil rights, his honour or his do-
mestic peace ; and further fines were appointed ac-
cording to the peculiar, adventitious circumstances
that might appear to aggravate or extenuate the
offence. From the operation of this principle no
one was exempt, and the king as well as the pea-
sant was protected by a wergyld, payable to his
kinsmen and his people. The difference of the wer-
gyld is the principal distinction between different
classes ; it defined the value of each man’s oath,
his mund or protection, and the amount of his fines
or his exactions : and, as we have already seen1, it
regulated the equivalent for his value. And as it
is obvious that the simple wergyld of the free man
is the original unit in the computation, we have a
strong argument, were any needed, that that class
formed the real basis and original foundation of all
Teutonic society.
Although this principle was common to all the
Germanic tribes, very great variety exists in the
amounts severally adopted to represent the value of
different ranks,—a variety easily understood when
we reflect upon the relative condition of those tribes
at the period when this portion of their law was
first settled. A slight account of them will be use-
ful, as an introduction to the consideration of our
Anglosaxon values. It will be seen throughout that
1 See above, p. 275.