Ontario High School History of England . haps to make sure that each manshould have his fair average of good andof inferior land, the strips were reallottedat regular intervals. Liberty to cut fuelin the forest beyond the tilled land, andto pasture animals on the meadow land,also belonged to the villagers, and therights of each man were carefully limitedand defined. The first written laws of the English.—At their arrival, the English had nowritten laws. They were only slightlyinfluenced by what Rome had done inBritain; and we may doubt whether a kmma, wife of ethel-single Roman law-book was to
Ontario High School History of England . haps to make sure that each manshould have his fair average of good andof inferior land, the strips were reallottedat regular intervals. Liberty to cut fuelin the forest beyond the tilled land, andto pasture animals on the meadow land,also belonged to the villagers, and therights of each man were carefully limitedand defined. The first written laws of the English.—At their arrival, the English had nowritten laws. They were only slightlyinfluenced by what Rome had done inBritain; and we may doubt whether a kmma, wife of ethel-single Roman law-book was to be found rkd and Canute, and ., r ^ 1 1 1 fi MOTHER OF EDWARD v among them tor hve hundred years alter ^^^^ Confessor (d. -^ their coming. They held to their own i052)old tribal practices with great tenacity,and showed already the reverence for custom which hasplayed such a part in English political life. Ethelbert ofKent was the first to cause the simple laws of his people to becommitted to writing. They are contained in a few short. 34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND sentences and are mainly directed against deeds of violence;for striking another on the nose with the fist, the fine isthree shillings; for putting out an eye, it is fifty shillings,and so on. After Ethclbert, the chief legislators of earlyEngland are Ine, king of Wessex at the end of the seventhcentury, and his great descendant Alfred, at the end of theninth. Both added to the written body of laws, and thoseof England of the present day are the direct outcome of thework of these early ^\ The Wergeld.—English law, like other northern legalsystems, has the custom of the wergeld. In a rude society,before law and order are well established, a crime such asmurder is likely to be avenged by the family of the mur-dered man. This was the rule among the English in veryearly times. The custom led, of course, to bitter familyquarrels and to needless bloodshed. In order to check this,a money value was, in time, put upon the
Size: 1083px × 2309px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorwronggeo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1912
