History Crime and Punishment Section B

How was law and order maintained by the Saxons?

Saxon Crime Prevention and Policing:
1. Blood Feuds: If a person committed a crime against another then the victim’s family may have a blood feud with the criminal’s family. This meant that the victim’s family was allowed to take revenge on criminal’s family. However, the main issue with this method was if the victim’s family retaliated with something that was considered harsher than the original crime then the original criminal would feel the need to retaliate further to balance things out. This could go on for generations.

2. Wergild: This literally translates as blood money. Wergild was a bit like compensation for damage to a person. If you killed someone you owed a predetermined amount their family as Wergild, if you only took out their eye then you would still owe that person a Wergild but it would be of a smaller amount. There were set amounts for various parts of the body and these tariffs would be different from village to village

3. The Hue and Cry: If a member of the community saw a crime being committed they would cry out for others in the village to come to their aid and everyone was expected to help apprehend the criminal.

4. Tithing: Once a man reached 12 years old he was expected to join a tithing. A tithing was a group of 10 men who were all responsible for their behaviour. If one committed a crime the others were responsible for bringing him to justice, if they did not and he was caught anyway the punishment would be given to all members of the tithing.

5. Trial by Ordeals: The trial by ordeal system essentially passed the judgement of innocence or guilt over to God. In the Saxon period there were four main ordeals that a person could be put through to allow God to judge them:
a. Trial by Fire (or hot iron) in which the accused would hold a red hot iron bar and then have their wounds dressed. If after 3 days their wounds were healing it was considered that god had protected them and they were innocent, if their wounds were infected God had forsaken them.

b. Trial by Hot water in which the accused would retrieve an object from the bottom of a pot of boiling water. Their wounds were then bound and inspected 3 days later.

c. Trial by Cold water in which the accused was thrown into a local pond or lake. The water represented purity, therefore the guilty would be rejected and would float; unfortunately the innocent would be accepted into the pure water and could well drown.

d. Trial by sacrament (or blessed bread) was mainly used for the clergy and involved the accused praying that if they were guilty they would choke on a slice of bread, they would then eat the bread and if they survived they were innocent.

Argument that Saxon System is Fair:
System was same for everyone- within trial by ordeal, everyone had the same chance of being protected by God. Humiliation was used as a punishment so that losing a family member to execution didn’t disadvantage families.
Argument that Saxon System is Unfair:
Trial by ordeal was based on religious belief and not factual evidence. Ordeals for the clergy were not as harsh as other ordeals for the non-clergy.

Anglo Saxon Society (In order)

1. King (Most important person in Anglo-saxon England)

2. The Nobles (supported and advised the king, given land by the king)

3. The Church (had its own courts for clergy, offered place of sanctuary for people who were accused of committing a crime)

4. The peasants (spent some of the week farming the land for the local lord and the rest of the week working on their own land)

Anglo Saxon Crimes

Crimes against person:

-Murder

-Assault

-Insulting a Neighbour

-Public Disorder

Crimes against property:

-Petty theft

-Ploughing someone else’s land

-Poaching

-Counterfeiting coins

-Arson

Note: Poaching was seen as a social crime therefore villages didn’t punish people who did it.

Crimes against Authority:

-Betraying your lord

-Treason

Anglo Saxons Punishments

Treason = Capital punishment (hanging) - intended to deter other people from committing this crime.
Repeat offenders = corporal punishment (including mutilation such as cutting off someone’s hand) - deters repeat offenders from committing again.
Public humiliation, e.g. stocks and pillorys - aimed to humiliate convicted criminal.

Wergild:
type of compensation that was paid to the victims of crime or their families based on social status.
-Previously, the victim or victim’s family had had the right to kill the person accused of a serious crime. This was known as ‘blood feud’ and led to long-running feuds and violence.
Note: it was an unequal system because the fine for killing a prince was 1,500 shillings while the fine for killing a peasant was 40 shillings

Anglo Saxons Law Enforcements

Tithings and the hue and cry

The role of the tithing was to prevent crime. A tithing system was used and every male villager over the age of 12 would join the tithing. Each English shire was divided into hundreds and each hundred had ten tithings.

One member from each tithing within the hundred met with the shire reeve (later called the king’s sheriff) to prevent crime, particularly cattle theft. If one person from the group broke a law, the other members would be responsible for taking them to court or paying a fine.

When a crime was committed, the victim would raise the hue and cry, which means they shouted for help. The other villagers were expected to stop working when they heard this. They would help the victim and try to catch the criminal. If a villager did not join the hue and cry, they were expected to pay a fine.

Methods of trial by ordeal included:

• Trial by hot iron - The accused would hold a burning hot weight in their hand and then their hand would be bandaged. If after three days the wound had healed, it was believed that God had judged the person to be innocent.

• Trial by hot water - The accused would put their hand into boiling hot water to pick up an object. Their hand would then be bandaged. If after three days the wound had healed, it was believed that God had judged the person to be innocent .

• Trial by blessed bread - The accused would eat bread. If they ate the bread without choking, it was believed that God had judged the person to be innocent .

• Trial by cold water - The accused was tied to a rope and lowered into water. If the accused floated, it was believed that the water had rejected them and that God had therefore judged the person to be guilty.