Early Germanic Law - Principles

Principles

Further information: weregeld, trial by combat, and knésetja

The Germanic law codes are designed for a clearly stratified society fixated on kinship. Legal status, and therefore freedom, was based on a person's kinship, separating those who have a kindred, or freemen (OE freo man, OHG frīhals), and those who are kinless, or bondmen (ON þræll). Kinship was the basis for e.g. conveying and inheriting property, regulation of feuds, and weregeld, and so bondmen were ipso facto excluded from these things. At the head of the freemen was the king with the most rights and privileges. Under the king came the highborn nobility (OE æþelu, OS aðali, Germ Adel) and the warrior class (OE eorl, OS/OHG erl, ON jarl), below the nobility the ordinary freemen (OE ċeorl, Frankish baro, Burgundian leudis), and under the freemen the servant class: freedmen (OE læt, freolæta, MDu laet, vrilaet, ON leysíngr) and slaves (OE þēow, OHG dio, ON þýr, Goth þius). This system was augmented by incorporating a separate class of clergy, among whom the bishops were as a rule considered of equal status as a nobleman.

The Germanic law system is in principle based on compensation rather than revenge. Any injury must be compensated according to the damage done, regardless of motive or intent. Even for capital crimes like murder, the compensation is a weregeld, a fixed amount depending on the sex and social status of the victim. The practice of paying part of the damages to the king survives in the earliest Anglo-Saxon law code (Laws of Æthelberht of Kent), under the term drihtinbeah, but seems to have been discontinued after Christianisation. As thralls are considered the property of their lord, crimes committed by thralls must be compensated by their owner just like damage caused by animals.

The most extreme punishment for crimes considered irredeemable seems to be outlawry, i.e. the declaration of the guilty party as beyond the protection of the law.

In most instances this may have been equivalent to a death sentence in practice, but the actual death penalty seems to have been foreseen only for very rare cases, such as sexual crimes (incest or homosexuality), religious crimes or crimes against the king, and not necessarily even in such cases. Alamannic law also foresees the death penalty for plotting to assassinate the duke, and for military treason (assisting enemies or causing rebellion in the army), but in these cases the penalty may also be outlawry or a fine, depending on the judgement of the duke or the chieftains.

The weregeld was set at a basic amount of 200 shillings, which could be multiplied depending on the status of the victim. In Anglo-Saxon law, the regular freeman is known as a two-hynde man ("a man worth 200"), and noblemen are either six-hynde man (threefold weregeld) or twelve-hynde man (sixfold weregeld). In Alamannic law, the basic weregeld for a freeman is likewise 200 shillings. Alamannic tradition is particular in doubling the fee if the victim was a woman, so that the weregeld for a free woman is 400 shillings. The weregeld for a priest is threefold, i.e. 600 shillings. Alamannic law further introduces the concept of premeditated murder (as opposed to deaths by accident or in combat), which is fined by ninefold weregeld. The Anglo-Saxon Norðleoda laga ("North-people's law") is unique in setting an explicit amount for a king's weregeld, at 30,000 tremisses, explaining that 15,000 tremises is for the man (the same amount as for an atheling or an archbishop) and another 15,000 for the damage to the kingdom.

Unlike Roman law, Germanic law mentions cruentation as a means to prove guilt or innocence.