Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/92

78 aggressor be willing, during that time, to surrender himself and his arms, his adversary may detain him thirty days; but is afterwards obliged to restore him safe to his kindred and be content with the compensation. If the criminal fly to the church, that sanctuary must not be violated Where the assailant has not force sufficient to besiege the criminal in his house, he must apply to the alderman for assistance; and if the alderman refuse aid, the assailant must have recourse to the king; and he is not allowed to assault the house till after this supreme magistrate has refused assistance. If any one meet with his enemy, and be ignorant that he was resolved to keep within his own lands, he must before he attack him, require him to surrender himself prisoner and deliver up his arms, in which case he may detain him thirty days; but if he refuse to deliver up his arms, it is then lawful to fight him. A slave may fight in his masters quarrel, and a father in his son's, with any one except his master.

Ina enacted that no man should take revenge till he had first demanded compensation, and it had been refused him

King Edmund decreed that if a man committed a murder he may, within a year, pay the fine, with the assistance of his relatives and friends; but if they refuse to aid him he shall alone sustain the feud with the kindred of the murdered person.



There is indeed a law of Alfred, which makes wilful murder capital; but this seems only to have been an attempt of that great legislator towards establishing a better police in the kingdom, and probably it was not often carried into execution. By the laws of the same prince, a conspiracy against the life of the king might be redeemed by a fine.

The price of the kings's head or weregild—a word signifying the legal value of any one—was by law 30,000 thrismas, nearly 1,300 pounds of present money. The price of the prince's head was 15,000 thrismas; that of a bishop's, or alderman's 8,000; a sheriff's 4,000; a thane's,



or clergyman's 2,000; a ceorle's 266. These prices were fixed by the laws of the Angles. By the Mercian law, the price of a cerole's head was 200 shillings; that of a thane's, six times as much; that of a king's, six times