Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the new edition, AD 2000
- Introduction to the 1975 edition of The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism
- PART I THE SEARCH FOR ANGLO-SAXON PAGANISM
- PART II ANGLO-SAXON TRIAL BY JURY
- 1 Jury: this palladium of our liberties, sacred and inviolate
- 2 Delivering the truth not the same as judging
- 3 Guilt and innocence a matter of conscience
- 4 ‘England's great and glorious Revolution’ (1688), its debt to Henry II's revival of ancient institutions fostering liberty
- 5 Trial by jury not a Proto-Germanic nor perhaps an Anglo-Saxon institution; but what of the twelve leading thegns of the wapentake?
- 6 Why promulgated at Wantage?
- 7 The twelve of the wapentake probably an institution for the Danelaw only
- 8 Conclusion
- I. Index of sources
- II. Index of scholars, critics, and authors
- III. General Index
7 - The twelve of the wapentake probably an institution for the Danelaw only
from PART II - ANGLO-SAXON TRIAL BY JURY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the new edition, AD 2000
- Introduction to the 1975 edition of The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism
- PART I THE SEARCH FOR ANGLO-SAXON PAGANISM
- PART II ANGLO-SAXON TRIAL BY JURY
- 1 Jury: this palladium of our liberties, sacred and inviolate
- 2 Delivering the truth not the same as judging
- 3 Guilt and innocence a matter of conscience
- 4 ‘England's great and glorious Revolution’ (1688), its debt to Henry II's revival of ancient institutions fostering liberty
- 5 Trial by jury not a Proto-Germanic nor perhaps an Anglo-Saxon institution; but what of the twelve leading thegns of the wapentake?
- 6 Why promulgated at Wantage?
- 7 The twelve of the wapentake probably an institution for the Danelaw only
- 8 Conclusion
- I. Index of sources
- II. Index of scholars, critics, and authors
- III. General Index
Summary
Liebermann is good on the Scandinavianisms in this part of this code of Æthelred II, which is designed for the Danelaw or a part of it, namely the Five Boroughs:
The region where III Æthelred is effective is the Danelaw (or part of the Danelaw), at any rate the district of the Five Boroughs and perhaps that only. The currency is Anglo-Scandinavian, in hundreds of silver (= 8 pounds), 76 the healfm(e)arc and ora; the lowest court is called wæpentac, the reeve at one point eorl; the vocabulary sounds strongly Norse: grið, lagu, bicgean lage, lahcop, landcop, sammæle, þrinna XII, costas, uncwydd & uncrafod, sac, sacleas, botleas … The institution of jurors to support the accuser, and much else, is Norse.
Consideration of III Æthelred 3, 1 is very relevant for the history of trial by jury:
& þæt man habbe gemot on ælcum wæpentake, 7 gan ut þa yldestan XII þegnas & se gerefa mid, 7 swerian on þam haligdom, þe heom man on hand sylle, þæt hig nellan sacleasan man forsecgean ne nænne sacne forhelan.
(And that one shall hold a meeting in each wapentake, and that the most prominent twelve thegns and the reeve with them are to come forward and swear on the holy relic, which is to be given into their hands, that they will not wrongly accuse anyone innocent nor wrongly conceal anyone guilty.)
Those who write on medieval Scandinavian law are, of course, aware of the fact that there is no Scandinavian manuscript evidence for a period as early as the late tenth century.
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- Information
- Imagining the Anglo-Saxon PastThe Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism and Anglo-Saxon Trial by Jury, pp. 142 - 145Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2000